Memorabilia Spring Show 2011

This Saturday the DH and I went to Memorabilia at Birmingham NEC. Memorabilia is definitely my favourite of all the conventions we attend each year because it's close to home (less than two hours), easy to get to and less crowded than the others.

But Memorabilia isn't as great as it use to be. Since MCM Expo have taken over, some things have changed - for the worse. The calibur of the the media guests, for one. They tend to be mostly B list, British stars now, as opposed to the Hollywood stars they were getting before. And since the cost of renting a vendor table keeps going up and up, the stalls have become smaller and less interesting.

One of our favourite vendors, Monkeyboy Toys, was there. They're my (LDD) dealers. ;) I had a wee trade to make since I had an extra NoHell exclusive that needed a home and came away with the Red Hiding Hood and Big Bad Wolf set. (Plus exclusive.) Win.

The decrease in vendors didn't stop us from spending way too much money, of course! We just couldn't resist the candy stall (Nerds and Jolly Ranchers - yum!) and bought ourselves each a great big Mountain Dew from Japan which, by the way, tastes very strange. It's like the American one but with less sugar.

Plus a couple of DVDs (of course) and a couple of cuddley toys for the mister. (The dog is called Sweep - he's the puppet our dog is named after - and, well, if you know Mr. Vanian, you know the why the Captain Caveman is funny.)

Actually, we spent more on goodies this time than we did on autographs. That's unusual for us. Part of the reason for that is the meidocre guest list but it's also partly to do with the fact that we've already met most of the people there! (Like the 'Allo 'Allo cast.)

Speaking of 'Allo 'Allo... There was just one member of the cast that we hadn't met and that's Francesca Gonshaw (Maria). I don't think she cared for me much, if I'm honest. When I selected the photo that I wanted her to sign (One that was a bit on the nude side), her words were "Oh. That's interesting." Interesting?

Christopher Ryan (Mike from The Young Ones) was only slightly chattier. We were talking about the next convention that he's due to appear at - one that we've been to many, many times - and I said, "It's good fun!" His reply was "Oh. Is it?"

Maybe it's because my job is to talk to people... Or maybe it's because THEIR jobs are to ACT... But I always think that a celebrity at an event like this should make an effort to pretend to be interested in what you have to say. It's only five minutes out of their lives, after all, and they're being paid well for it.

But that's just me being bitchy.

Anyway... We also met Lana Wood who was Plenty O'Toole from Diamonds are Forever. SHE was chatty. I had the feeling she would have spent the whole afternoon chatting if we'd wanted to.

There was also Mary Collinson who was one of the twins from The Twins of Evil and Linda Hayden from Taste the Blood of Dracula. I love the old horror actresses, I really do. (Even though I sometimes wouldn't recognise them without an old photo. Lol.)

I could ramble all night about it but it's well past my bed time so I'll try to sum it up quickly: We took our time going to Birmingham, had a blast and took our time coming back then finished off the day with Chinese take-away. Fabulous times.