MCM London Winter Comic Con - part 2, eventually

......so after a weekend at a wedding and hassle from Ali, I'm finally finishing the story from MCM, why did I split it into 2?  Mainly as I was told my last coupla posts were "wordy" but anything longer than a tweet is wordy for ali!

So The Saturday at Comic con, after a much needed Bacon Sarnie we got to Canning town and had to walk to the Excel with our suitcase (Ali still contends he's got a bad hand from playing netball).  So we got set up, ali bitched about there only being one chair and we were off.

The morning started slowly but soon picked up, at one point whilst ali was peeing I was serving 3 people at once, I am one fine salesman!  Originally we were going out with a friend drinking but by the end of the day we ended up crashing as soon as we got back to his and doing Ali's homework - watching Arrow season 1 (The poor boy is good with computers, but lacks all popular culture references what so ever, sometimes I wonder what he did as a kid when he couldn't even name Donkey Kong......)

So Sunday Morning I woke up bright and early and was surprised that I was awake before Ali, so I did my morning ablutions and Ali was still asleep.  It was only then that I had the glass shattering realisation that I'd forgotten to change the time on my phone so was up an hour early, Sunday was gonna be a long day!

It only got longer when we got to the Excel and found it opened at 10am, so we were an hour early, and I was so tempted to climb on top of our table and sleep.  Sunday was also a lot busier than expected, but i was good and didn't look round as I'd of brought too much stuff but did see some awesome cosplay, including a real life space marine.  He was so big he had to have a guide to tell him when to stop and when to go!

So at the end of the day we managed to put all our remaining stock into my 2 suitcases and managed to squeeze onto a bus to Canning town so I could get the train home.  I wasn't that lucky.  Due to the weather my train took 2 hours instead of 1 and was rammed full of people.  By the time I got through my front door all I wanted was a cuppa tea and my bed!

Next up we've got Collectomania in Milton Keynes with a new comer to con life, our friend Myf....

MCM London Winter Comic Con - part 1

So our latest adventure was the crazyness that makes up the MCM London at the Excel centre.  I was stressed before I even got there as the 7 day print guarantee for our business cards didn't turn up in 7 days and one of our suppliers shipped the t-shirts to me AM delivery, and were a no show when I left with my 2 suitcases full of goodies at 11am!

So after a train trip and the underground I got to the Excel centre for about 12.30 for a 2pm start, not bad, thinking I only had to find my table then put out the shirts, how wrong could I be.  After queueing up I was told I had to go to the organiser's office, who then told me I had to go to the other office to get my weekend pass, where I was finally told I had to go to the back gate to get it. Whilst pulling 2 suitcases.  Fun.

So I got my pass and then had to find my table, well I now realise security aren't the sharpest knife in the drawer as they didn't know how to get to the hall, after being sent to 3 different places I finally found the entrance and my table and started to set up.  It was at this point I got the call telling me the remainder of my shirts had turned up in Aldershot.  Nice.

So I set up my table, and proceeded to not sell many shirts.  At 7 I quickly put my shirts away and took my empty suitcase and rushed to the DLR so I could get back to Aldershot to pick up my shirts.  So I got back to Aldershot at 8.50 and rushed home, packed as many t-shirts into my suitcase as I could and then had to pull it back up the hill to the train station.  38 minute round trip and I was so proud!  

On the train I met a Spanish Au Pair called Laura (pronounced La-Or-Ra) and chatted in spanglish to Surbiton.  She was just my type, pretty, foreign and doesn't speak very much English!  So I eventually made it to Ali's for 11pm and basically passed out.  And the weekend had barely begun for geek is chic..........

London Film and Comic con, Kensington olympia

So after Cardiff Comic con I was kinda pumped about the business, but unbelievably disappointed that the website wasn’t up and running.  The weekend after my birthday I came up to London to see Ali and we ended up finishing the website as well as watching the entire 6^th series of Big Bang theory (of which a t-shirt is available here. 

As we were doing this I’d set up an account with a new supplier who sells some awesome transformers t-shirts and ordered 100 of these and topped up the stock of our other shirts and was prepped for the London Film and Comic con at Kensington Olympia.

The Friday before the con I came up to London to set up the stall so got to the venue, dumped all my tee’s on the table, covered them with a sheet and took my empty suitcase with me to Caledonian road to pick up our oh so sweet transformers tee’s.  The guy at the factory was really nice if not more than a little surprised that I was taking all the shirts in my suitcase, but I signed the form and I was off back to Olympia where I dumped the suitcase before going home.  Just as I was falling asleep I got a call from Ali’s wife telling me he was over excited as although he’d never been to a comic con he’d found out Brian Blessed was going to be there!

Now getting to Olympia is actually pretty easy for me, 1 change at Clapham and I’m there, for all Ali claims at living in London it takes him a bit longer to get there than it does for me (it involves 2 buses a tube and a walk).  I was there bright and early, waiting on Ali who had half our shirts which I’d brought up the previous weekend and winding me up that he hadn’t bothered to bring any.

So the Con was pretty quiet, overall we sold less shirts than Cardiff.  Our stall was opposite one of the photo booth’s which was pretty awesome as for about a hour we could hear “GORDON’S ALIVE!” being shouted by the legend that is Brian Blessed.  We also saw Michael Shanks (better known as Danial Jackson to Stargate fans and Victor to Burn Notice fans – what do you mean you’ve never heard of Burn Notice?  It’s awesome.  I mean, Bruce Campbell – nuff said).

My Highlights of Cardiff Comic con included:

• Hearing Brian Blessed from our stall.
• Too many cosplay of the Doctor.
• Cosplay power ranger couple who shouldn’t have been wearing lycra.
• Slutty Captain America crossplay (In case you were curious, crossplay is cosplay as the opposite sex, so yes, it was a very attractive female Captain America)
• Lots of Stargate teams.
• Lots of slutty Harley Quinn cosplay.
• Transformer family Cosplay – my favourite cosplay EVER! (they're in the below video, honest)
• Being able to pee.

 

So now I’m going back to packing for tommorro’s trip to London for the start of MCM London Comic Con at the excel centre (and by packing I mean baking cookies) but we’ll update you after the weekend with our stories...........