COLLECTORMANIA  4 3 - 6 OCTOBER 2003

Held at Middleton Hall, Milton Keynes 3rd to 6th October

The event was free to get in and you only had to pay to meet the individual star of your choice.

I arrived at the hall around 10.15am Saturday to find Hundreds of people walking or standing around the merchandise stalls.

All the stalls were in the middle of the big hall then on the outside of the stalls were the stars sitting in lines in front of big back drops which had at the top, boards with pictures of the person sitting underneath.

I immediately looked for the star I wanted to meet, Anthony Head; Giles from Buffy.

I made my way through the crowds of people.

When I got to the short queue the steward gave me a raffle ticket, this ticket would be my number of when I got to meet Anthony and to get his autograph. My number was 316.

The numbers so far were up to number 80, I had to wait a while, I didn’t care as I new then I was going to meet him, I was happy.

This gave me plenty of time to stroll around and have a good look at everything.

I started by going to the ladies room as I was so excited. On the way out I literally bumped into a familiar face, it was Corey Feldman a big film star of the eighties (one of the many stars that were doing signings that day), who I have to say is as short as I am 5ft 2. I thought that was a good start to the day.

I then started walking around the event looking at all the stars signing autographs and I took some photos. The stars weren’t that close and there were stewards standing in front so you couldn’t get near unless you had a ticket, but if you were lucky enough you could get a good view in places to take photos.

I then walked around the stalls, and of course spent a lot of money buying Buffy and Angel merchandise. There were lots of stalls there with some fantastic stuff to buy from comics to original paintings.

I kept going back to the queue for Anthony, to see what number they had got up to, around 1.15pm the number was 300 so it was nearly my turn to meet him, I paid £15.00 and that included a photo of your choice of about 6 different pictures.

I took lots of photos of him while the person in front of me was meeting him, but unfortunately, because he was one of the big stars there that day I couldn’t take my photo with him.

My turn :  I said hi to him and he said hi back he signed his name and I asked him if he could put my name on it, which he kindly agreed, (I have to say he is a very nice looking man in the flesh) I told him that he was the best looking man out of all the Buffy and Angel cast and that David Boreanaz had nothing on him, well he couldn’t stop laughing , he said thank you and I left, what a lovely man he was.

I took as many photo’s of the stars I could get close enough to, but I knew I was coming back there on the Sunday so I wasn’t that bothered if I hadn’t of got everybody’s.

SUNDAY

I arrived at the hall around 11.45am and It was horrendously busy then Saturday the reason for this was there were Two big movie stars there Sun/Mon.

ELIJAH WOOD and SEAN AUSTIN     -   Frodo and Sam from Lord of the Rings, you can imagine how busy it was.

I was lucky enough to bump into a few actors as they were popping to the loo or getting there lunch.

Peter Weller - Robocop

Andy Serkis the voice of Gollam - Lord of the Rings,

He also starred in a lot of other movies including last years film  Deathwatch.

He was coming out of the gent’s toilets and I asked him if I could have a photo with him he kindly agreed, what a nice man.

I had another trip around the stalls and tried to take as many  photos of all the stars as I could get but it was so busy I left shortly after that.

Overall it was great, hopefully I’ve got some good photos and I did get Anthony Head's autograph (the reason why I went), everything other than that was a bonus.

The Collectormania 5 event is on Friday 30th April to Mon 3rd May 2004 at the same venue Middleton Hall, Milton Keynes.

Pauline Manley - 06/10/03