So here is my review of the day.
Start out at 7.30am. Arrived at just after 9.30am to find that the parking was £3.50, where in previous years it had been free. Though not an unreasonable sum for an entire day, it was a surprise, as its been free in previous years.
Then got to the ticket desk, and joined the queue. Not a long wait, but got grunted at, and asked for a fiver, but a chap who didn't even look up, or smile or even in fact appear to care anyone was there.
Yep, a fiver! Ok, I know other shows charge more, but I didn't even get any form of event booklet or guide. I had to go back and ask for a trader list, which was poorly printed at that.
The three folks on the desk, taking the money, looked completely diss-interested, didn't even look at you when they asked for your money, just literally grunted! What a way to make an impression folks!
So being the third year or so in the venue, the layout was pretty familiar. The numbers through the doors looked ok at first, but by 12pm, it was thinning out, and noticeably already. As we only went for the Saturday, I can only take the word of traders I know about what Sunday was like and I was told it was no better.
Not sure why the numbers seemed low. In one way it is a good thing. Less argy-bargy to get to the tables/traders and room to breath, and to get away from the less bodily hygienic attendees who seem wholly adverse to deodorant or body spray of any kind. But the least said about them the better.
So.. all the negatives out the way.. well not quite. The food court is small and runs at max capacity when the show is on. If you time your lunch, to coincide with the tournament breaks, well you are in for a wait. The prices are high and the food quality is average at best. But that is not the show organisers issue, it comes with the venue.
Anyhow, as for the show.. ummm what to say..!
Lots of nice games to look at. Lots of tables with lovely figures. Info boards were mixed. Some brilliant, some useless and a waist of space.
Some games were looking for players, others seemed to be the "demo" games. Where the only demonstration seemed to be how to sit in a huddle and natter about your mates. Anyhow.. enough of the negatives!
Positives.. ummm.. hmmm.. ok.. this is going to take some thinking. Which might give some people the impression the show was bad. It wasn't. It was just not great.
The venue is nice. The space is good. I like it. Its light and bright and you can see stuff clearly.
There seemed a lack of "new" out there. I mean, I didn't see anything that wanted to grab my attention and make me shell out my gaming tokens, though there were a few things I hadn't seen before.
The bring and buy was pretty average and consistent with many of late, in seeing an awful lot of tat, and I mean tat for sale. The days of finding some bargains on there or the odd surprise etc seem to have faded away, though that is probably due more to the economic times than anything else sadly.
I did find a bargain, a rule book for £5 in mint condition.So that was nice.
So enough of my dark dingy waffle and depressing folks, here are the pretty pictures you really clicked on my link to my blog to see..
Note: If I got the details wrong, leave a comment and I will correct them. I am going on memory for much of it, as I lost that "guide" I had to go and ask for.
Now, to be fair to the organisers, I know the costs etc are linked with table hire, venue, insurances etc etc, but at £5 to get in, £3.50 for parking, then adding petrol etc, it is now getting quite a pricy day out, just to get there and get in. So next year it may be a show I don't bother with.
For those closer to it, then it is probably a more reasonable prospect. The same old debate over two day v one day shows, is still going on and Triples is one of the few remaining two day shows.
So over all I would give it a 5 out of 10 as show experiences go for me. Will it be on th diary for next year? That is definitely uncertain for me.
There were some lovely games on display. Some demo, some participation. And it was nice to see an increase in the number of "mondern" period games. which just happen to be more in my area.
So hope you enjoyed the photos. I haven't been able to lable them all, frankly it took over two hours to upload the sods to start with and my memory and event guide have gone missing.
