Expo & Cons Collectormania 2013 by DJ Forrest

By DJ Forrest

The day started early, boarding the train at half 8, and waiting till nearly 9am before whatever fault with a back carriage was fixed before we could head off on our two hour journey to Glasgow.  We were already behind in schedule.  The next fun moment was discovering I really had no clue where I was going in Glasgow and all streets looked the same.  But we found the bus stop and grateful that the two people we recognised from the train were going to the same place, we boarded the X7 bus to Braehead Arena!

We arrived about 20 mins later only to find a queue that stretched a good way into the building, so after the initial worry of being late seeing any attractions, I had nothing to worry about after all. 

The floor show while we waited was fantastic.  Star Wars had come to Braehead Arena and all my favourites were there, even if I couldn’t remember all of their names.  Their costumes were fantastic and I was in absolute awe of them. 

I didn’t have a Press Pass and was initially told that as Eve Myles wasn’t due till 3pm, she’d be a bit pressed for time. Accepting this, I focused on the Arena, the stalls and the celebrities visiting. 

It was mobbed.

Wall to wall toys, collectibles, signed and unsigned photos and at a bargain price of a quid each for 8x10’s and £2 for larger it was an Aladdin’s cave, so obviously I bought a few, and the only remaining Torchwood photo.  There was no escaping 1 Direction either, signed photos in frames adorned one of the aisles and a canvas for £7 adorned another. 

My son pleased me no end by locating a box of Torchwood trading cards for £2.50, a guy at a stall was trying to sell him a box.  I obviously went back and bought 2 boxes.  He had a whole box load under the table, I just didn’t have enough money by this point, we still had to get the bus back to the station.

There were any amount of Doctor Who figures, and after speaking with Antje recently regarding a certain figure, I located an unmarked one, for £3.  I couldn’t find the stall with Dr Constantine that I’d passed earlier in the day.  There were tons of Star Wars figures, even a Death Star, Millennium Falcon and the many fighter ships.  Some really gruesome figurines and masks, and busts of the undead, zombies and the devil, and a Muppet dressed as Doctor Who with an asking price of £899.  Didn’t see any takers!

We wandered out of the Arena for some lunch despite having the Molly Weasley bag of tuna rolls made up, which had been scoffed by the kids before they had stepped from the train. 

The Arena is huge, the shopping centre not so much despite being on two maybe three floors.  All shops pretty much the same in any centre you visit.  Aside that is from the Build-A-Bear workshop!

With the kids content, well one with what they’d purchased, we returned to the arena to wait for Eve.  We collected our virtual queue ticket No 36 and waited.  It wasn’t long before Eve arrived and we formed a semi orderly queue.  I saw Molly ‘Evelet’ and introduced myself. 

By the time we were due to see Eve my hands were trembling and I was very nervous.  I was so excited.  It was fantastic meeting Eve and although my initial attempt at speech was crumbling before me, I managed to name drop Natalie Vanstone and then myself, then Project: Torchwood which I was thankful that Eve had heard of.  I think the constant tweeting and badgering for an interview may have been the cause, that and both John Bond-Winstone and Natalie Vanstone putting in a good word on my behalf to her at the last signing – Thanks guys!

During the signing I asked if it were possible for an interview, offering if it weren’t, for a questionnaire to be sent through to her agent.  That wasn’t going to happen; Eve said she wouldn’t have time to fill it in.  So Eve asked me to wait for a lull in the crowd and she would do an interview here at the Arena.  I thanked her for the signing, shook hands with her.  I was so excited now!

We sat up in the stalls for a bit, the seats overlooking the arena and cooled off.  Packed in like sardines, the heat of the lights, the heat of people close up, my rucksack pressing against my back, I was a bit on the sweaty side, but I was glad of a sit down.

Down below us and to the left, at the free talk was the guy from Red Dwarf who I’m sure also did Scrapheap Challenge!  He definitely had the crowd focused on his talk. 

As the crowd lessened around Eve’s table we made our way back down.  I’d added an extra question to the interview that had come to mind on the train journey. 

Eve answered the questions in between chatting to her fans and signing photos.  Beside her stall was Harry Melling, Dudley from Harry Potter, and I have to say he looked a total contrast to how he was in the film, such a slim figure of a man. 

Jeremy Bulloch was next to him, then Dave Prowse. 

I thanked Eve for the interview (which you can read on our Interviews Page) and she thanked me too, and we shook hands.  It was ten minutes before the photo shoot, so time to get ourselves over there before the queue began to grow

It was out of the entrance, to the left and past the comic illustrators stands and the alien and marines stall.  Those costumes are awesome, and the weapons they’d made.  WOW!

I met one of the fans of Project: Torchwood @huffle_poof and her Mum who is a big Gareth Thomas fan.  So we were discussing Blake’s 7, Children of the Stones, and Morgan’s Boy till we neared the shoot.

We stood in line and Lumineers played which was met with Eve getting into the mood, stamping her heels on the concrete floor, dancing with the public awaiting a snapshot with her, and just larking about that made the whole moment even more enjoyable. 

It was the second highlight of the day and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

As a newbie to Conventions I’d say you need to plan your day, have enough funds and don’t wear anything that will make you sweat too much.  The space between the stalls isn’t very wide and given that people flood left, right and centre when they enter the arena, you have the early bird ticket holders already there, and then the new entrants coming in including a good many in wheelchairs and with buggies, it’s like herding blind cattle. Everyone wants to get somewhere and unless you find a gap in the crowd you’re pretty much stuck in a queue of people who aren’t moving because two people are viewing a stall.  But towards the end of the afternoon the stalls thin out and you could view all the things you couldn’t view in the first couple of hours.  So don’t panic that you don’t make it at the start of the Convention, especially if you’re only going to view stalls and meeting the stars is secondary.

Food is over priced in the Arena but then the cost of the pitch could be high so it probably justifies their price. But when you come out of the Arena (you’re hand stamped so you can return) one side of the shopping centre is full of food stalls from Subway, Costa Coffee and a bunch of others, there’s seating there too and the tables are cleaned by a fairly large group of people.  It’s very clean and reasonably priced.

Braehead Arena is clean, that’s the first thing I noticed, and there’s an abundance of stairs, elevators and escalators so there’s no difficulty in getting from floor to floor. 

I would come back again, but probably only if I had a car and then only if I wasn’t driving.  The train ride up was ok, bar the delay to start, and we got back to the station in good time to get an earlier train home.  Although the bus service was a little confusing, so many buses, so thank you to the guy who helped us out and got us back to the train station. It restored my faith in humanity!

On the whole it was an enjoyable day and I got to achieve my objective.  I met Eve Myles and I got the interview.  I’m still smiling now as I write this.  I’ve played back the tape and I will treasure this forever. 

Diolch yn fawr Eve!