Only two months ago I wrote about Covcon’s smaller show Covcon Junior and on May 7th we finally saw the return of their main event. Like Covcon Junior, the event was run in aid of ‘Maggie’s’ – a cancer support charity nominated by Bond girl Caroline Munro.

Covcon events take place the Sports Connexion leisure centre in Ryton-on-Dunsmore on the outskirts of Coventry. This time the show was spread over both main sports halls at the venue with guests and merchandise stalls in one hall, and photoshoots and talks in the other hall. This worked quite well and the autograph hall rarely felt over-crowded.

Originally planned for 2020 the event had to be rescheduled several times due to the pandemic and over this time the guestlist understandably changed significantly. Covcon’s events often have a James Bond focus and this show was no exception. However, there was a large guestlist announced and there was room for guests from various properties including Star Wars, Space 1999, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, Gladiators, and British/Irish sitcoms.

Star Wars guests announced for the show encompassed names from the whole history of the franchise and included both convention regulars along with newer names. As with most conventions there were some cancellations in the week before the event but luckily for Star Wars fans, none of the Star Wars guests were affected.

Covcon is a convention that is known for it’s relaxed atmosphere so there weren’t any issues or stress with the ticketing and entry process. All tickets previously bought for the cancelled dates over the last 2 years of the pandemic were carried over to this show. Queuing was in the outdoors but luckily the spring weather was kind to everyone. Most of the signers were there ready to start signing as the event opened up at 10 AM with all the guests located around the sides of the main hall. Like previous events there were no autograph queue systems to speak of but attendees seemed to be able to organise themselves pretty well. 

On to the autographs and, as ever, I did meet a number of the Star Wars guests at the show.

First was Peter Roy who has been a regular face on the signing scene and has appeared in almost every franchise that you can think of; reportedly amassing over 1000 movie and TV appearances throughout his career. He was appearing at Covcon primarily as a James Bond guest but is know to Star Wars fans as an X-wing and rebel tech from A New Hope and Major Olander Brit from Return of the Jedi. I got two images signed by him from both Star Wars and James Bond: Thunderball where he played 006.

C. Andrew Nelson was one of the only guests who remained on the roster from the original planned show date from 2020. He has the distinction of being the only actor who has played both Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. The latter being 1993 computer game Star Wars: X-wing. I had planned to just get him on an image of him from his inserted scene from The Empire Strikes Back Special Edition but I also decided to pick him up on an image from this game that he had on his table. Andrew was great interacting with fans and appeared really happy to finally be attending the show.

Isaac Singleton Jr. is a new guest to the UK signing scene and appeared to be a popular guest at the show. He appeared in The Mandalorian as a Twi’lek Doorman but also has credits in Deadpool, Pirates of the Caribbean, and as the voice of Thanos in Marvel animation. I suspect we will see Isaac in future Star Wars projects although obviously he could neither confirm or deny any involvement at this point. With new Star Wars content coming all the time now, it’s great to see new faces on the signing scene. Many people commented afterwards how much they enjoyed meeting Isaac so hopefully we will see him doing more conventions in future.

We often talk about cancelled guests at conventions these days but we rarely see is guest being un-cancelled! Jerome Blake was originally announced for Covcon Jnr, was then cancelled rearranged for this show. He was then cancelled again, and finally uncancelled. It was great to see him at the show as I had a number of Phantom Menace items for him to sign. We also had time to chat for a while reminiscing about shows from the past with guests like Jeremy Bulloch and Michael Sheard who are sadly no longer with us.

The final guest for me was AT-AT driver Paul Jerricho. I already have Paul on a generic AT-AT driver shot but as the quality of screengrabs has improved, I have tried to get guests to sign images showing the actual scenes where they appeared.

Also appearing from the original trilogy Jabba puppeteers John Coppinger and Toby Philpott, and Julian Glover who played General Veers. Despite now being 87 years of age, Julian seems to have had convention appearances booked for almost every weekend this year, including appearances in the US. He was as popular as ever with both fans, and the other guests at the show, who apparently enjoyed hearing stories from his long career.

A couple of rare Star Wars signers Terry Madden and Anthony Waye were relatively late announcements for the show but were a popular addition to the lineup. Both have numerous credits from the James Bond franchise but were also assistant directors on A New Hope. With the exception of the London Film Fair, it is quite unusual to see these behind the scenes guests at conventions. Hopefully it is something that we will see more of as it’s these guests who often have the best, potentially untold, stories from the production of the movies we love.

Although I didn’t see any announcement about cancellation, unfortunately Gloria Garcia didn’t attend the show.

I usually list the autograph prices but, like Covcon Jnr, this show had voucher schemes that meant pricing varied depending on how many autographs you bought. Most guests are priced at 10 for a single autograph and the voucher scheme meant you could buy 5 autographs for £40, 10 autographs for £70 or 20 autographs for £100. There was also a separate ‘Bond pass’ which allowed a single autograph from each Bond guest – this pass had various tiers starting at £100.

Autograph prices for Star Wars guests not on the scheme were as follows….

John Coppinger – £10

Toby Philpott – £10

Julian Glover – £20

Most guests were also charging £5 for table selfies.

One aspect of Covcon that I really enjoyed were some of the guests signing in costume. Sit-coms ‘Allo! ‘Allo! and Father Ted both had mini-reunions at the convention and many of the guests from these shows attended in costume. It may not be practical for a lot of the Star Wars guests but it definitely added and extra something to the occasion.

Also in the autograph hall, there were a small number of merchandise stalls and also some comic artists signing and doing commissioned sketches.

Away from the main autograph hall there was another large hall where the guest talks and photo shoots were taking place. There was no extra charge for any of the guest talks. Photoshoots generally charged at £15 for individual guests. There were also group shoot opportunities charged at higher prices. Also in this hall were a number of sets and backdrops for photo opportunities. This included a large Hoth set with a rideable Taun Taun.

Like Covcon Jr. this show was a great way to pick meet lots of guests and pick up autographs at a very reasonable price. The atmosphere was always relaxed and many people have commented that the show had the ‘old-school’ feel of conventions from 20 or more years ago. This obviously rubbed-off on signing guests as everyone I met seemed to be enjoying the show. One minor criticism was the slight confusion of having two autograph voucher schemes running at once; but you certainly can’t complain about the value for money.

Covcon recently posted on their social media channels that £15,000 was raised for charity during the event. They also announced that, in future, they plan to combine elements of both of their conventions into a single event. The date for this show is set for October 1^st 2022.

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