Last Saturday my friend Welby and I visited the Memorabilia event at the NEC in Birmingham, England. It was something of a trip down memory lane for us as we used to attend Memorabilia once a year for around 8 years till 2008. We always enjoyed the event immensely and after a four year hiatus we decided to go back. Some things had changed but many of its most endearing features were still evident. As we walked in we were greeted by a squadron of familiar Star wars Stormtroopers, who checked our tickets! And to add that contemporary touch we were handed a bag of goodies on arrival including a Prometheus poster and Snow White and the Huntsman pack of cards. Neat! Here's some footage of a similar motley crew of troopers from last year courtesy of YouTube. Can you spot Stig and Lara Croft?
The newer elements for us this time round were all the sports signings, the WWF wrestling and tons and tons of Manga and Anime art, artists and voice artists [who had the biggest queues by far!] but for us the old stuff like vintage toys, comics, DVD's and props kept us entertained. Long-standing traders were still on hand like Jim 'Star Wars' Stevenson, whose stall is always packed with amazing mint goodies like the jaw dropping HG Toys Alien Target Chase Set [with a jaw dropping price too!][an example pictured below], a full set of Fairylite Thunderbirds Dolls and a complete fleet of mint boxed Lincoln Thunderbirds vehicles to name just a few.
Memorabilia isn't really a toy fair but it is a great event for film merchandise, both old and new: lobby cards, quad posters. film cells, autographs, press packs, DVD's, books, signings and of course toys. My friend Welby invested in a coffee-table book called the ALIEN Vault, together with some bargain priced film cells. For my part I snagged a half-price book on the history of VHS for a tenner. However, what I was really after were on the shopping list I took with me shown below. The mission: to track down TV21's with SWORD stories. what else!
TV21’s I HAVE: March 2012 [NB. The SWORD Text stories run from 168 to 217: 50 Comics]I WANT THE OTHER NUMBERS NOT SHOWN HERE – BETWEEN 168 and 217.
72 [SpaceX Cruiser art]
79
142 [SWORD Toys ad]
159 [SWORD Toys ad]
168 [SWORD starts]
169
175
209
211
212
209
211
212
Eagle 2nd July 1966 [Spacex NASA Lifting Body]
Lady Penelope Comic 42 5th November 1966 [Moon Bus]
Tv21 20 [Apollo Saturn Ad]
Tv21 41 [Spacex Moon Base] Oct 30th 1965
Tv21 71 [Spacex P3 origin]
Tv21 87 [Spacex Tractor]
TV21 92 [Spacex Space Patrol 1] 22 Oct 1966 Ron Turner
TV21 97 [Spacex Forklift]
TV21 105 [Scout 1]
TV21 108 [Spacex Crash Tender] Frank Bellamy
ALSO WANT Plastic Toys by T
The mission went well and I bagged five of the SWORD TV21's for £30 all in. They're not mint but they are complete, very bloggable and move my collection forward substantially. Just 39 to go! The other thing I wanted to do at the NEC was to see the first appearances of Spacex vehicles [and one SWORD] in Tv21's. These were all discovered by various eagle-eyed readers [Toad, Mike B, Paul V, Wotan] on the blog back in 2009 when we were excitedly researching a SWORD/ Spacex timeline. With my trusty list in hand [second section: Other Comics] I set to work leafing through a huge stack of TV21's. Of the 8 'origins' I wanted to see I managed to find 6 of them, which I have listed below in case you get the same opportunity. It was a great thrill to see the art in the flesh and I was especially bowled over by Frank Bellamy's F1 Crash Tender painted in his typically brilliant deep shadowed style. Roll on the next Memorabilia!
Congrats, Mr Woods!
ReplyDeleteNow that's a show I'd've loved to go to too. Glad you had such a good day out.
Best
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Paul
It's great to read enthusiasm in any subject Woodsy and I loved this attention to detail. Well done
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