Link: http://www.collectormania.com

Whoa, sorry that this is so late, but hey I still cannot really get on the forums! Well, we set out Friday afternoon to get to Milton Keynes for our 2nd Collectormania; a cult television and film convention, spanning 3 days (the mayday weekend) with loads of scifi/cult/memorabilia stalls filling the Middleton hall of the mk:centre, as well as a plethora of guests from the likes of Brandon Routh and Terry Jones.

For some this may seem as geeky as geeky can get -meeting actors/resses, people dressing up, getting autographs, and generally seeing people that you watched on TV from a couple of weeks to decades ago- but, its great fun, and the overall vibe is amazing, everyone is having fun, and most of the guests always seem to be in fairly high spirits. This is of course not to mention the amazing crew that help keep the event running.

So, I must say this years guests were a lot more prolific than last, still nothing touches LFCC, but some of the guests were pretty damn amazing, I’ve already mentioned Brandon Routh (the new superman), Terry Jones (the best –writer!- of the pythons), James Marsters (of Buffy’s Spike fame), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia from Buffy and Angel), Grace Park (from BSG), Anthony Stewart Head (GILES!!), George Hertzberg (the cool Adam from Buffy) not to mention the re-appearance of Mark Lutz (the Groosulug)

With almost three whole days to talk about it makes me wonder how I may condense it without making an entry that will overshadow Catherine’s when she gets the time to write it.

So, I’ll begin with some of my personal favourites; the UK Browncoats stall!

Who were so amazingly awesome, and friendly (and many other kind compliments) I must admit I did pass some money to them; but I did get this amazingly awesome bag, and these very, very pretty coasters, and these pretty German lobby card/photo type things, and not only that, but it went to a good cause they even posed with moo, so if you want anything firefly/serenity related, buy it from them! (Although my bag is strangely not native to the website.. which is a tad odd)

Next up is the crew fantastico!! So, ok it’s not like the crew were any different from C10, but the showmasters crew are always completely amazingly friendly and helpful (ok, so there were quite a few no posed photo signs, but it’s not like they put them up to spite people, I just wish I had mentioned it in the Anthony queue :( ), they were absolutely fantastic! Because not only are they really cool, funny, helpful and occasionally a good chat, but many of them allowed a photo of them (and the guests!) with moo, so thank you crew!

Props to Shabs for being cool, and talking to us (not being very good with talking, it’s nice to meet people that can ably talk :) )

Onto the main event of the convention: (or it more-or-less was for me) James Marsters, complete with a hilarious talk, an amazing photoshoot, and as usual a handshake and polite thank you (unable to muster anything else). Either way he was so very cool (not Nathan Fillion cool but he’s up there) and it was amazing to meet such a big actor from the Buffyverse, even if his whole ethos went against the codes of Buffy (that it’s all about people that are not considered cool). His talk was great, and although we were seated somewhat in the middle near the back the planning was pretty good, everything was heard suitably, just the unfortunate seats were the hassle. He went over his hour by about 15 mins, and I’m a little surprised why his talk isn’t up on youtube or anything, regardless I wish that we were able to make it to the party and see Anthony play, but we couldn’t squeeze eating into the scenario. Let’s hope they both do another Showmasters event in the future! I really want to ask Anthony something if he does, just because he has a really amazing accent, and has a great laugh; he’s real cool.

Now of course James and Anthony were not the only amazing guests we went to see, Brandon was very nice about Catherine’s picture and is very tall and I really did wanna tell him that I liked his Clark Kent… but I suck.
The duo (George and Mark) were great together, entertaining people every day that they were there with their random remarks, and strange ideas (map and wall). Mark recognised us with much regret from C10 and dutifully posed with moo again.

Terry Jones was also present, who is such a cool guy, still with a good sense of humour, not all bitter like some people can sometimes be, I did manage to string some words together for Terry and congratulated him on his history programmes, for actually making a history programme enjoyable (because I do so like history).

Charisma seemed very happy, I did want to say something to her also, but I can never find the right time to say things, perhaps at the next convention I will try, after having the horrible time with Amber (which I really wanted to talk about) I should try and strive to talk…

Grace Park, was perhaps one of my favourite guests of the show, (it may be because she is infinitely cute) not only was she smiley and cute, she let us have her photo with moo, despite that she was no posed photos, and I managed to ask her (second time round mind you) if it was difficult filming C&C3. Aww I love Grace now, she’s awesome! I think that’s it for guests.

I’ll try to make this quick, because this is getting very long… but I only have one topic left to mention; cosplay! (or as guys like to put it; dressing up)
C11 was surprising full of cosplayers (being in a very crowded shopping mall) and some of them were very amazing, and rather unique, you know what, I’ll do this in a picture, that way it’s quicker

Everyone; your costumes are awesome; Peacekeeper guy gets props for having a unique costume, along with an awesome beard and scary eyes! And the Johnny Depp dude for having some amazing costumes!

Alongside these awesome cosplayers, there were also two very special people.

Headcrab hat!! How awesome is that, wish I had one to go with my Vortigaunt

Awesome Camberwick Green Life on Mars t-shirt woman! How awesome is her t-shirt? Not only that, but she makes them too (or Brian makes them not sure :P either way, if you want one, email Brian at birode@yahoo.com)

Now, as always, being in a different town means that we get to sample the food all around Milton Keynes (simply because otherwise the experience is wasted) in the three days that we were there we ate in numerous establishments (well apart from two evenings, where Wagamama was the only option!) for our breakfast/lunch, and one particular place that stood out was Monday’s ‘brunch’ at Brunches, who were absolutely amazing, to put pretty much the contents of a club sandwich into a tortilla wrap, and it was absolutely gorgeous!!! Best lunch I’ve had in years! I recommend them to all; they’re a tad like Subway and make them in front of you, with numerous fillings.

Now to Wagamama for a REALLY affordable night, whereas most restaurants will give you a main course for around a tenner that you may get full on, at Wagamama you can buy most courses around £6 and there is no way about it that you WILL be full by the time you get about 2/3 through the meal. Not only that but Japanese cuisine is very very yummy. Unlike greasy (my experience anyway) Chinese food, Japanese is all very colourful and green, not to mention free tea! So don’t be put off by the label of Japanese, they don’t sell sushi. Their menu caters for vegetarians (some of the dishes just as good as the meat ones) very well, and serve a lovely mix of noodle and rice dishes, my words are not enough, the place is amazing, and maybe just maybe with Catherine having bought me a Wagamama cookbook in Guildford I may just be able to make some of it myself!

Oh yeah! This is what everyone was signing... cept Terry Jones

But don’t forget how you have been privy to my private experience of C11, so don’t forget to comment, or I’ll set Rene on you, he knows what’s going on!

Now as you may be able to tell, I haven't put every single photo taken on here, these are just a taste.. wanna see anything, drop me a line.