Collectormania7

Anna and I decided some time ago that we simply had to go to Collectormania7 at Milton Keynes over the 4-day set up on 30th April to 2nd May. We decide after some perusing that we’ll go on 1st May as the very lovely James Marsters (Spike in Buffy & Angel) will be there.

We leave quite early as the event starts at 10am and we know it is bound to be popular. We go to the park and ride, bus to the shopping centre, and find that it is in fact, extremely popular and heaving with people! We enter through one side of the shopping centre and see billboards posted high above the stands so people can identify who is there. We see signs for Star Wars actors Dave Prowse (Darth Vader), Kenny Baker (R2-D2) and Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and start to get very excited. We push our way through the crowds and see more stands of celebrities, mainly from Andromeda and Stargate SG-1.

We finally see the James Marsters stand, only to find he is on a break and all the Virtual Queuing tickets have gone. Later, we found out that the tickets had been given out up to an hour before the event had even started, which we thought was rather unfair, but it was apparently for health and safety reasons as there were so many people queuing from ridiculous times in the morning (one group of people claimed to be there from 3am).

As we pushed through the throng of fans waiting for James, we saw Alexis Denisof (Wesley in Buffy & Angel) sitting quietly at a table next to James’, pre-signing some photos and basically keeping a low profile. Anna and I looked at each other and made a dash for the table while there was no queue. £20 later we are standing in front of him and I have to say now he is way more gorgeous in the flesh! His wife, Alyson Hannigan, is one helluva lucky woman!

Actual transcript:
Alexis: Hello, what’s your name?
Anna: (grinning like crazy) Anna
Alexis: Anna… (starts signing the photo) Are you enjoying today?
Anna: Yeah its very cool
Alexis: Oh good. (Hands her the photo) Well, see ya!
Us: Bye!

We were very jazzed at meeting him. We held the photo by our fingertips at the edge and bought an envelope to keep it in so it wouldn’t get crumpled. Sure he didn’t say much but at least he looked at us and made the effort. One girl walked out behind us and told us how she had queued for David Boreanaz (Angel in Buffy & Angel) for hours. She finally got to the front and his manager took the poster from her, David signed it, and then it was handed back. He didn’t say a word and didn’t even look up at her!

So we were standing there admiring the newly-signed photo and about three metres away, James just walked past! It was incredibly exciting but Anna was very disappointed at not being able to get the chance to meet him. It really did break my heart as she had been going on about it for ages and was really looking forward to it.

We wandered around the stalls of merchandise, buying a few items as we took it all in, and doing some more celebrity spotting. We saw Craig Charles and Danny John-Jules (Lister and Cat in Red Dwarf), Christian Coulson (Tom Riddle in Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets), Ray Park (Darth Maul in Star Wars 1), and Kali Rocha (Cecily/Halfrek in Buffy). While Anna was taking photos of Kali Rocha, Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler in X-Men 2) walked right past me and I mean, right past me! He was a foot away from me! I was very excited!! He was with a minder but was shaking hands with fans as he walked along and was generally very friendly.

We followed him to his seat and saw him sit near Anthony Stewart Head (Giles in Buffy), Sean Astin and John Rhys-Davis (Sam and Gimli in Lord of the Rings). They were very popular and had crowds of people vying for their photos and craning to catch a glimpse of them.

On the last ‘leg’ of the exhibition was the Doctor Who cast. Two of the Doctors were there, Slyvester McCoy and Colin Baker, both of whom had a small crowd of fans around their table and were talking to all of them together quite animatedly. A couple of female assistants were there (I think one was Peri) and they slotted in Nichelle Nichols (Lt Uhura in Star Trek) in there too. There was also Noel Clarke, who plays Rose’s boyfriend in the new series, but I can’t remember his character’s name for the moment. There also had a replica TARDIS police box, a Dalek (see here) and a cabinet of memorabilia. There was also someone inside a Dalek going around the shopping centre saying “Exterminate!” and “Move out of the way!” Never have I seen so many worried-looking grown men! Some of them look genuinely unnerved at the sight of an actual Dalek going past them!! It was funny when the Dalek went up to a woman in a wheelchair and said “Mummy!” It was all pretty cool.

I think the main problem was that you couldn’t just meet people. You couldn’t walk up to the desk, shake their hand, and tell them that you admire them/ love their work/ enjoy the show, etc. You had to pay between £10-20 to pass the tables in the middle of the queue gangway and this fee was for the star’s autograph. For someone big like Sean Astin or John Rhys-Davis, okay, but for a minor Doctor Who assistant or the stand-in for the hobbits? Erm, I don’t think so!!

But we had fun. I mean, my feet are hurting so much they are ready to fall off, but it was well worth it! Just disappointed I didn’t get to meet James…