Collectormania 7

[Sithspawn]

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www.collectormania.com/

[Sithspawn]

It was Collectormania 7 in Milton Keynes this weekend. With loads of Star Wars, Doctor Who and Buffy stars in attendance some mates and I decided to make the trip.

Okay, I was warned beforehand, but paid no heed. The organisation was terrible! Total shambles! It wasn't even in a hall. All the stalls were just in the middle of one of Milton Keynes busiest shopping malls (on a Sunday that is busy with shoppers), with the autographees set up at the end. You had to queue for a ticket, then hang around for your number to be called, to queue for an autograph. Stuff that!

Fortunately I was there mainly for the Doctor Who stars who had no queues. Neither, surpriseingly, did the Star Wars actors. So it was far from a wasted trip with me getting to meet William Russell, Wendy Padbury, Lalla Ward, John Leeson, Sarah Sutton, Orli Shoshan (Shak Ti), Temuera Morrison, Mike Kingma (Tarful) and Peter Mayhew. I would have liked other autographs, as is a hobby of mine, but I didn't have the money. I did feel a bit sorry for Matthew Waterhouse (Adric in Dr Who), who didn't seem to sign a single autograph.

I was a bit disappointed by a no show by Chris Barrie, but the only star who seemed a bit full of himself was Temuera Morrison (who surprisingly had no Shortland Street photos to sign). My friends were the really disappointed ones though with being unable to get close to Anthony Head or James Marsters, and I couldn't find Craig Charles, but was told he was there.

On the merchandise front, well, I don't really know what was there because I couldn't get close to any of the stalls to really have a good look! The whole place was clogged up with Sunday shoppers just having a nose, and the whole mall was murder to walk around. The only ones who seemed capable of carving a path through the crowd with ease were the DALEKs!

Overall: 4/10
I got most of the sigs I went for, but my friends didn't. And I've got a phobia of crowds which really didn't help.

Memorabilia was much better. And as for that ten pound Memorabilia entrance fee, well I'd much rather pay that to keep out the nosey so-and-so's who are not really fans, just browsing with no intention of buying anything and just getting in the way.