EVENT: Sheffield Film & Comic Con

On 15^th & 16^th August, Sheffield’s Motorpoint Arena held their Showmasters fronted Film & Comic Con featuring an array of stars from the silver and small screen – and the slight peppering of sports stars. I knew I was in for a good convention when I walked in, saw ‘Hacksaw’ Jim Duggan and said, “Alright” and he replied “Alright” too.

First order of the day was to see the various stalls and sellers which had everything from replica swords to those Funko POP! Vinyls I love so much. There were cosplayers everywhere and some cool photo opportunities.

The celebrities were out in the gangway at various points and the stalls were in the stadium itself. To the back of the room there were photo opportunities with props and to the sides were two discussion areas – one for the cosplayers and one for the celebrities. The first order of the day was a caht with the wrestlers – WWE Hall of Famers “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase and “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan took to the stage along with a TNA Tag Team Champion duo to talk about their experiences in the wrestling worlds. DiBiase was very candid about the goings on and said it was a very competitive market and is a very lonely life as you are always on the road. Duggan added that working with an inexperienced wrestler could be very painful. DiBiase said that a lot of the matches are predetermined – but the actual match (although they know the winner) was all improvised as it happened which made it more exciting. The tag team contributed through their eyes of more modern wrestling but it was quite interesting finding out about the classic wrestling I grew up with – and all of them seemed really nice people.

After the Wrestlers Talk the next guy up for a chat was none other than Michael Biehn, who discussed about Aliens, Hicks, Terminator and Kyle Reese. He said that and Aliens sequel had been greenlighted but he has not been asked to reprise his role yet – but he would be up for it if he was asked. He also said that although he hated what happened to his character in the sequels, this new movie will be a sequel to Aliens and will forget the Alien 3 and the really poor Alien Resurrection. Hopefully it will forget the AVP movies too.

I got to meet “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan and he was a lovely person and really friendly. We “Hoooooo”’d together and he signed my Wrestlemania Box Set DVD collection. I was tussling with the idea of getting a signed photo, but I have it in my head that I’d like a set of DVD’s signed by different wrestlers. I’m considering doing this with my Star Wars collection too. What do you guys think? Put a comment and let me know.

There was the opportunity to pose with some props and those of you regular readers to my blog will know I had my photo taken with the clockface from Back to the Future when I went to Newcastle Comic Con back in March. Here was even better – you could pose with Doc Brown’s tombstone or sit on the throne from Game Of Thrones. Best of all though – you could get a photo sat in the DeLorean from Back To The Future. I, of course, jumped at the chance and to get a photo for £5 in such an iconic car, it will be a picture I will treasure for a long time to come.

After the Delorean and Duggan I wanted to see Robert Englund, arguable the most popular guy at the event this time. I took a ticket to see him – number 297 no less. Even by 3pm he was nowhere near that. He was spending a lot of time talking to the fans and taking pictures so I never got to meet him – but he will be on my list next time. We did however get to see his talk which involved a skit about Freddy vs Jason and Freddy Vs Chucky (which of course Freddy would win). He was very entertaining and really enjoyed the talk and this rounded off my day.

I had early bird tickets and they cost £15 but you could have got standard ones for a bit cheaper, £8 I think. It was a well organised and enjoyable day with some great celebrities and all of us had fun. Well done Showmasters – I’ll have to come to Sheffield next year.   

EVENT: Newcastle Film & Comic Con 2015

The day is Saturday 28th March 2015

The time... is now!

 

A year ago, the first Newcastle Film and Comic Con ran by experienced Conventionites, Showmasters proved to be very popular indeed. Back then, my friend Mal and I waited nearly four hours to get into the venue and missed most of it. It was badly organised and felt the brunt of an unhappy public. In their defence it was the first one in Newcastle and they underestimated demand - especially those on the door purchases. On the other hand, sales for tickets stopped 2 weeks before so surely they would have had an idea of interest and capacity?

 

Fast forward later in the year when I attended the London & Film Comic Con in July 2015. This was much more organised and, in the main, I got to do what I set out to do - meet the Generalissimo himself, Stan Lee. An added bonus was meeting the legend Glenn Morshower but I was gutted I  missed my favourite cosplayer Ivy Doomkitty.  Such is the draw of these events.

 

The question was - had Showmasters learned their lesson and, more importantly, had we? This time we bought early bird tickets in advance (as opposed to last years buying on the door at the event). This proved beneficial as, when the door was opened, it only took about 20 mins to let us in from our queue position (which was a considerable way around the arena).

Busy day at Newcastle - and that was just the Early Bird tickets!

There were a lot of stars here today, but there were some cancelations - Red Dwarf's Robert Lewellyn and Craig Charles didn't appear as promised and Claudia Christian from Babylon 5 cancelled too. I was sad to find that there was only the sepia Back To The Future pic available at Newcastle (see my effort, right) and no DeLorean as anticipated. I couldn't complain though as KITT from Knightrider was there to waffle on at you.  

 

Eve Myles signs a photo for me

When you go to a convention such as this everyone has their favourite person to see or go for. Each person charges a significant amount for a photo or a signed autograph so even to get a couple of items signed by a few celebrities would cost nearly £100. So unfortunately you have to prioritise (unless you have a lot of money and/or amazing time skills). The most popular person by far today was James Marsters who was charming and lovely apparently. Sadly I didn't get to meet him myself but he was very popular with the public. James Cosmo and Jeremey Bulloch (two people I've met over the last month or so) were also there.

 

My celebrity priorities were two lovely and very beautiful women I got to meet and to see on their relevant panels. The first was Terminator 3's Kristanna Loken. In her panel she discussed the training regime of becoming the Terminator and what it was like working with Arnold Schwarzenegger. She said the role of being in such a successful franchise had changed her life. She also said she was working on some new projects and mentioned some of her recent works. These included a movie called Fighting for Freedom which was a movie made from a screenplay written by her father and the upcoming erotic thriller Maid For You. Later I got a photo with her and got to meet her and she was lovely.

 

 

The second panel I sat in on was absolutely mental and I enjoyed every minute of it! Eve Myles, Gwen from Torchwood (among other shows), came onto the stage and had everyone spellbound from the start. She was taking questions and her familiar, laid back, giggly persona shone through and was both endearing and enchanting at the same time. She spoke of her best friend John Barrowman and the fun they had on set in Torchwood, about how she "didn't" take any props from the set of Torchwood, working with David Tennant and how gorgeous she thought James Marsters is. She spoke of motherhood, of her child and her love of the Geordie accent and had one lad repeating the word "theatre" over again as she loved the pronunciation of the word in that accent. Later, after the rapturous applause, I got to meet her and got a signed photo.

 

While I was there, I mentioned to her the first ever convention I went to. Back in 2012, she was at the SFX Weeekender 3 in Wales. I've been going to conventions ever since then. "It's all your fault I come to these!" I said to her jokingly after explaining about my Wales adventure in 2012. "I get that a lot..." she said, and added, "They kinda addictive aren't they?" And do you know what? She's right.

 

I'm getting quite fond of visiting these conventions and this was much the same of what I'd expect from a Showmasters con. There were a few minor disappointments - the lack of a DeLorean (especially since they are making a fuss of the 30th Anniversary of Back to the Future) and some of the guests pulled out. But these things happen. However there were some great guests today, entertaining panels, excellent cosplay and... we didn't have to wait half a day to get started.

A great comic con going from strength to strength - can't wait for next year.

You can also get your picture taken with some of the stars - here's me with the
very beautiful Kristanna Loken - and you get to take a picture home too.