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Published: November 13th 2010
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Jude2D2
Me and the lovely R2D2 Last year's Auckland Armageddon expo was my first ever 'geek convetion' experience. I had such a good time that I couldn't wait to go back again for this year's event. The expo takes place over 3 days and we opted to go on the middle day, when it's traditionally a little quieter than on opening day. It was scheduled to begin at 10am and I'm glad we got there early as the doors were already open at 9am!
Glynn was super-keen to check out the graphic novel stands as usual and I was excited to meet some more TV and movie celebrities to add some autographs to my collection. Three stars from the Dr Who tv show were doing photos and signing autographs early on in the day so I headed there first of all, leaving Glynn to his comic hunting.
Sylvester McCoy (the eighth Dr Who) and Sophie Aldred (his assitant, Ace) appeared first up on stage, closely followed by Irish actor Paul McGann (Dr Who in the movie). I opted not to pay to have photos with them as it would have been $30 per celeb and I'm not quite a big enough Dr Who fan to
Stick em Up
Obviously red is a kick-ass colour! justify the cost. I was more keen to meet them and get their autographs, especially as each celeb would sign one small photo free of charge (usually another $30 per celeb).
I waited my turn in the autograph queue and got chatting to a couple from Taupo. The husband was a mad keen Dr Who fan and they had bought special Dr Who passes that entitled them to photos, autographs and a special brunch with the 3 actors. They mentioned they didn't know where to go for the photo session so I directed them to the stage where I had just been. Just as they headed around the corner, the 3 Dr Who stars arrived from another direction. I grabbed one of the staff and mentioned that this couple were heading to the stage for their package deal photos and the 3 stars were quickly whisked off again.
About 15 minutes later, the Dr Who stars reappeared along with the couple from Taupo. They rejoined me in the queue and to thank me for helping them, they donated one of their $30 autographs to me! Bonus!! I chatted to all 3 Dr Who actors and was particularly pleased
The Harrises
Hello there, Glynn & Jude. to meet Sylevester McCoy. I had met him before in London when I was aged 8 or 9 after seeing him in a stage play about the Pied Piper of Hamlin. He seemed thrilled to have something other than Dr Who to talk about!
After all the Dr Who fun, I met up with Glynn again and we headed to the car for some lunch. Glynn's colleague had managed to score us free tickets to Armageddon as her son, John, is the venue's Event Manager. We arranged to meet him at lunchtime and thanked him in person for the tickets. He was a very cool bloke to chat to and we were stoked when he offered to get us free tickets to any other events at the venue - including concerts! How awesome is that?
Later on, we were joined by our friends, Alex and Sharon, and roamed around the various arenas. I bought a cute Hello Kitty hat and some cool movie posters for our new house (yes, we're buying a house!). Glynn found himself a stack of new graphic novels to read and we generally just lapped up the atmosphere. At 1pm I had a date
Dr Who trilogy
Paul McGann, Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred. with my very own celeb, Michael Biehn who played Kyle Reese in the first Terminator movie. The Terminator movies are my favourites of all time, so I was totally stoked to jump up on stage for my photo with him. I returned a couple of hours later for the official autograph signing along with Alex who was going to meet Michael Shanks from the Stargate TV show. The queue was massive so we re-joined Glynn and Sharon and sat outside in the sunshine for a while watching the cute little animals in the travelling petting zoo and a tiny toddler in a Batman outfit practising his climbing skills.
When Alex and I went back for our autographs, I was horrified to see Michael Biehn leaving! Apparently no-one had requested his autograph for a while so he was packing up for the day! The staff managed to catch him and he made his way back just for me. I picked out a photo for him to sign and was a little disappointed to see he had written 'come with me if you want to live' which hadn't been the line I wanted him to pen. When I mentioned this to
Dr Who trilogy
Paul McGann, Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred. him, he pulled out another photo and signed it with the line from the movie I was hoping for ' there is no fate but what we make'. I had only paid for one autograph but got two!! When I rejoined the others, Sharon told me that Mr Biehn's hands had been all over me during the autograph signing! I hadn't noticed but both Glynn and Alex confirmed it too. I should have been appalled but I was secretly quite pleased!!
All in all it was a far mopre exciting day than I had expected given that many of the TV and movies stars I was hoping to meet had pulled out at the last minute. In fact, it was so much fun that there's talk of us going to the Wellington Armageddon in April and even to the world's biggest Sci-fi and comic event in the world - the San Diego Comic Con. Watch this space for more!
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