27th April 2009.

Hello & welcome to my latest movie junk blog, where talking rubbish is allowed, and geek is chic.So Saturday & Sunday the 27th & 28th saw the spring memorabilia show at the NEC Birmingham.

http://www.memorabilia.co.uk/

And I was kindly invited along by a couple of FrightFest buddies, to have a look browse, recon and make some business contacts & to see how other stall holders are set up for tradin., So of we went travelling to Nottingham and embarking onwards towards Birmingham.

The morning was glorious with sunshine even though I had lost an hour in bed, I was looking forward to my 1st time at the NEC show, a slight detour through the sights of Solihull, left us in no doubt that the road to Hollywood starts there, when we caught sight of a barber shop called Blade yes and the logo was used too, maybe that’s where Wesley is hiding out these days fighting the forces of evil haircuts in Solihull?.

Finally arriving to the NEC where once in the door only to be greeted by storm troopers, a Neo look alike and a rather chubby Richard Gere, decked out in an officers uniform, this is memorabilia, the collectors Mecca, stalls after stalls selling all manner of film goodies, figures, posters, DVD’s , T-shirts, props costumes, comics infact everything you can think off, and guest appearances for signings, Linda Blair was there and Robert Vaughn, maybe if I had paid more attention and watched Heroes I would have known who Jack Coleman was!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0171059/

This was my 1st time at this sort of show, and seeing people dressed as their favourite anime, manga characters, is really eye opening, the effort put into the costumes is superb, I walked past a final fantasy character complete with huge sword and just looked great, its at that point I wished I had brought my camera, but its bulky & heavy, (cosplay is quite popular among anime fans) and later spotting an alien and predator even if they were rather shorter than the usual height in the films.

And while doing the rounds I happened upon a mask maker, who had some amazing looking masks reminiscent of the Don Post studios work which is used in Halloween 3 season of the witch, check them out here www.rubbergorilla.co.uk.

It seems up Whitby way there’s a film festival going on; details can be found here www.bramstokerfilmfestival.com

While wandering around I spotted the Joker & Batman from the Dark Knight, who looked great and if you ever wanted a horde of storm troopers to attend an event or ever felt like being one, then this is for you

http://www.ukgarrison.co.uk/main.php

But along with the stall holders who were there, a lot of regular stalls weren’t, the credit crunch has hit dealers hard, and that’s evident when trying to negotiate prices on import DVDs, the profit margins are so slim that a pound off was often the case or nothing at all, until the exchange rate picks up in the buyers favour its going to be tough for all dealers.

I was there to maybe pick up a few items of Godzilla if possible, an iconic monster if there ever was one, so going back to stall after stall picking up devil dog on DVD, one of the most surreal moments of the day, a dalek approached, with the usual banter exterminate, I am a dalek,then the conversation turned normal, and its quite bizarre talking to a dalek about what I have purchased,” well I bought a book the conversation went, is that all said the dalek,well it is the credit crunch in a brummie accent It was most amusing,so I walked off, next thing the dalek is following me hitting on me, I don’t think he had exterminate on his mind?

So that’s pretty much it for the NEC, a snooze in the car on the way back

And a helping of devil dog on DVD that evening, and my buddies happy with the day.

But I entered a competition a few weeks back, and my prizes arrived this morning a Friday the 13th blood pillow and mouse mat and mouse, I am easily pleased.

So that’s all for this junk instalment, till next time

Nicola.