Model Citizen

Had a great time at Memro on the weekend. What is Memro? It's a science fiction/fantasy convention that takes place a few times every year at the NEC in Birmingham. Website: Here

Waiting at the gates

Right from the word go it's fun. There are two types of tickets. The main ticket let's you in when the gates open at 11, but you can also buy an early bird ticket that get's you access at 9, 2 hours before the horde decends. The advantages of this are you get to see the opening procession, as Darth Vader along with about 20 Stormtroopers, Boba Fett, Tusken raiders, Alien Marines, Super Heroes, Matrix characters arrive to take up position at the barriers. It's these guys who make sure you got your ticket!

Also, getting in early means you miss the clamour to get autographs. There's a wide variety of stars every time, I usually look beforehand at who I'd like to see and then get the autographs first. this time round I wanted to meet Lou Ferringo, I was a great fan of The Hulk when I was a kid, and Lou still has that crazy Hulk look!!!!
This is Lou with my son Nathan.



I also wanted to see little Kenny Baker. Meeting anyone from the original Star Wars trilogy is like brushing up against a genuine slice of history. He was great fun, but took a real shine to my sister....it was hard seperating them, the more they talked the more squiggles and beep-beep's he was drawing on my autograph LOL.
This is Kenny with my daughter Elionwy.



My sister Alison got all excited when she saw Kiran Shah, she'd seen something recently with him in which had scared her husband, so of course she got an autograph for him.



Also spotted there was Flash Gordon, pictured seated alongside Dale and Prince Vultan. Some of these guys look nothing like how they used too. So, when you've collected all your autographs, it's time to do some serious shopping!



Here are the kids in front of a typical stall, you can pretty much find anything here, but a plan before helps as there is so much gear here you could easily spend all your cash in the first 5 mins.



Also, as you walk around, you'll find familiar faces (and masks) walking around with you. it's great to stop them and have a picture with them. Here's Spiderman, I also saw Trinity, Batman, a Dalek and various bad Jedi.



These guys were making a lot of noise, Red Dwarf still has a huge following. There was also a big Bond presence with 3 Miss Moneypenny's amongst others.



An absolutely great day out, I should have taken more pictures, but it's all a bit overwhelming and I forgot LOL. But there were some great modelling stalls I should have photographed as well as more of the stars. Still, there's always next time, which for me will probably be next year when my wallets recovered.