Film & Comic Con Birmingham / Collectormania 27 is the rather unwieldy title of Showmasters’ latest event which took place over the first weekend of September. The title reflects the coming together of two of Showmasters’ established brands – the more traditional ‘Film & Comic Con’, and ‘Collectormania’. Collectomania events have previously incorporated more of a variety of guests outside of genre film and television – notably including sports guests.
Showmasters haven’t previously had much of a presence in the Midlands of the UK with only smaller niche events such as Autographica, and the occasional running of hotel-based shows like Collectormania Midlands. This seems to be changing with this event, which was originally planned to take place in 2020 but like many shows, was severely delayed by the pandemic.
As usual for these large-scale events, there was a good selection of guests from various properties including Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, Vikings, Game of Thrones, Red Dwarf and, recent flavour of the month – Stranger Things. Headliner for the event was Jodie Whittaker – the current incarnation of the ‘The Doctor’ from Doctor Who. As I mentioned, this show is somewhat unusual in that it also incorporates a large number of guests from the sporting world – with most guests on this occasion coming from football (soccer) and boxing. There was some crossover of entertainment and sport however, with footballer turned actor Vinny Jones appearing.
Sadly, there were a number of high-profile guest cancellations in the few weeks before the event. This is an ongoing issue that seems to have been worse since conventions returned following the pandemic. Star Wars fans got off fairly lightly on this occasion with only Julian Glover cancelling prior to the event.
A little information for those thinking of attending future events…The show took place at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) Birmingham, which is possibly the easiest to get to large venue in the UK. It is centrally placed in the country can be directly accessed from the motorway network, has its own mainline train station and is adjacent to Birmingham International airport. There is ample parking available, although this is extremely expensive at £16.95 ($19.45 USD) per day! This can be reduced slightly to £12.85 ($14.75 USD) if booked in advance online. There are also a number of hotels locally. The hotels on the NEC campus tend to be at the higher end of the price scale, so those on a budget may want to look for the cheaper chain hotels closer to the airport.
On to the show itself and my day started with problems due to the motorway being closed following an accident, and a short diversion required to get to the venue. Luckily, I was very early but I suspect the motorway closure may have caused greater problems as traffic increased later in the day. The entry queues inside the venue were slightly smaller than I expected although maybe it just seemed that way in comparison to much larger events I have attended recently like London Film & Comic Con. Everything was generally well managed with one queue for general entry, and one queue for gold passes and extra help passes. This mixing did cause the gold pass attendees to get overlooked slightly and we did have to remind the organisers to give out the gold pass wristbands as it got close to opening time. The event took place in Hall 2, which is one of the smaller halls at the NEC. However, everything in the hall was well spread-out and there was plenty of space to move around the hall even at the busiest times.
On to the signers and, although this show had less of a focus on Star Wars than some of Showmasters’ other events, there was still plenty on interest for Star Wars autograph collectors. Queueing was a lot easier than many events with few of the guests requiring virtual queue (VQ) tickets. First up for me was Mike Edmonds. I have met Mike on a number of occasions and he is always very upbeat and interacts well with fans – and this was no exception. I already have his autograph on images of his roles as Ewok shaman Logray, and as part of the Jabba puppeteer team. So, on this occasion I had him sign an image of the Ugnaught group from Empire Strikes Back. We also discussed some of his other roles including the movie Time Bandits where he noted that he is now the last surviving Time Bandit! The ever-decreasing ranks of original trilogy guests is something that has been talked about on the podcast before and is a reminder that it is often best to take opportunities to meet these guests whenever you have the chance.
Next up was puppeteer Dave Barclay. Dave remains active in the movie industry and is US-based, so is only an occasional signer at UK conventions. He was the chief puppeteer for Jabba the Hutt and also worked on Yoda in some scenes where Frank Oz wasn’t available. I had him sign images from both of these roles and also Sir Didymus from Labyrinth. As the queues were fairly short, I was able to chat to Dave for a few minutes about his work on Star Wars and also his later work – most recently a Wile. E Coyote live action movie which is due to be released next year.
Next guest was Mike Mungarven who played a Stormtrooper in the original Star Wars. Mike is believed to have played KE-829 who was one of the two Stormtroopers distracted by Obi-Wan near the tractor beam controls. Recently I have been trying to have guests sign images of their actual character on screen rather than generic images so I went with a screen-grabbed shot of this scene. Mike admitted that his memories of filming the scene are a little sketchy so he couldn’t be 100% certain it was him. But he was happy to sign the image and I think it gives more in the collection than a standard Stormtrooper image.
Joe Gibson had various roles in the original trilogy including a Stormtrooper, Snowtrooper, Hoth Rebel/X-wing Tech and a Gamorrean Guard. He was also a stand-in for Mark Hamill in wetsuit scenes on Dagobah and the prosthetic hand fitting scene from the end of Empire Strikes Back. Having met Joe back in November at London film & Comic Con Winter, I already had images of many of these roles signed, but was able to complete the set with autographs on images of a Snowtrooper and also a Gamorrean guard.
Outside of Star Wars guests I also picked up autographs from Vinny Jones on an image of his role as Juggernaut in X-men: The Last Stand, and also Dean-Charles Chapman who played Tommen Baratheon in Game of Thrones.
On to day two and with the headline guests only attending on Saturday, the Sunday was quieter in the convention hall. Having met most of my guests on Saturday I was left with David Church, Len Bond and Grant Hall who variously played Rebels, Imperial officers, and Stormtroopers in Return of the Jedi. These were mostly from the massed ranks seen in the Death Star hanger, and Grant Hall brought along some of his behind the scenes images from the shooting of these scenes showing him and some of the other extras between shots.
The gold pass package for this show included a set of autographs from a movie or show of your choice. Obviously I chose the star wars pack and this included autographs from Beau Gadsdon (Young Jyn from Rogue One), Paul Jerricho (AT-ST Driver from Empire Strikes Back), Jack McKenzie (Cal Alder from Empire Strikes Back), Daniel Naprous (Darth Vader from Rogue One) and Rochenda Sandall (Captain Chesille Sabrond from The Rise of Skywalker).
Although I didn’t pick up any autographs on this occasion; John Coppinger (Jabba Sculptor/Puppeteer), Toby Philpott (Jabba Puppeteer) and Jimmy Vee (sequel trilogy R2-D2) were also in attendance.
Unfortunately, Richard Padbury (Jabba smoke effects) and John Maloney (Jabba Henchman) didn’t appear to be in attendance on either day.
For those tracking prices, the price list for Star Wars guests was as follows…
Dave Barclay – Autograph £25, Photoshoot £25
David Church – Autograph £10
Grant Hall – Autograph £10
Jimmy Vee – Autograph £25, Photoshoot £25
Joe Gibson – Autograph £15
John Coppinger – Autograph £10, Photoshoot £10
John Maloney – Autograph £10 DID NOT ATTEND
Julian Glover – Autograph £20, Photoshoot £20 CANCELLED PRE-EVENT
Len Bond – Autograph £10
Mike Edmonds – Autograph £15, Photoshoot £15
Mike Mungarven – Autograph £10
Richard Padbury – Autograph £10, Photoshoot £10 DID NOT ATTEND
Toby Philpott – Autograph £10, Photoshoot £10
Outside of signing there were the usual talks and photoshoots. Stage talks at this event were all free and the stage was in an open area of the hall so anyone could come and go. There were several aisles of traders at the event but many people commented that there weren’t as many as expected and that the ubiquitous Funko-Pops seemed to dominate. I was able to pick up a few comics and vintage pieces however.
Aside from the talks and photoshoots the hall did appear to be somewhat sparse with only a DeLorean time machine photoshoot attraction and a LEGO display. Unusually there was not much of a presence from any of established costume groups like the Rebel Legion or the Imperial Garrison/501st. The number of attendees in cosplay also seemed lower than usual – to the point where some cosplayers reported that they felt slightly self-conscious. I wonder if this is a sign of a split developing between different shows organised by the main show organisers. With show companies like MCM/Reed targeting a younger cosplay/anime crowd and Showmasters appealing to a slightly older demographic who are more interested autographs and photoshoots. For those who did attend in cosplay, the NEC’s forested/lakeside grounds lend themselves well to cosplay photography and I did see some people taking this opportunity during the show.
My overall impression of the show was that, after only a couple of Collectormania Birmingham shows, and being delayed by the pandemic, this was an event still finding its stride. Both the size of the show and the numbers attending were smaller than I had expected. This may have been due to the number of cancellations but I suppose there is only so much that can be done about this. I also wonder if the effects of the cost of living crisis are starting to take hold. However it’s early days, and hopefully this is a show that will continue to grow year by year, and Britain’s ‘second city’ can have a show to get really excited about.
Film & Comic Con Birmingham/Collectormania is set to return next year and will take place on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th September 2023 back at the NEC in Birmingham.
