November 2, 2001

Hopefully everyone arrived home safe and sound last weekend!!! My first CHILLER was back in October 1999, and with each trip down to 'Soprano Country' the show gets better and better and BETTER!!!

My son & I left at 8 am, Friday morn and had smooth sailing all the way down to Route 3!! For once, folks, this old bone-head didn't make ANY mistakes!! No missed exits, no backtracking for 15 minutes here & there... we pulled into the Sheraton Hotel parking lot in just under two hours! Was a wonderful thing!!!!

(Coming back up was another story!! The second I came off the Garden State onto Rt 287, it was stop and go up over the Tappan Zee Bridge all the way up to the 87/287 split!! But once pass there, it was again smooth sailing!)

The highlight of the show, for me personally, was the friction everyone was waiting to see when it came to me and Ivie!! Sorry to disappoint everyone, but the sky didn't fall, & the universe didn't shatter when me and Ivie occupied the same space during the weekend!! By late Friday evening everyone was informing me Ivie was asking them questions about last weeks Sprue, so I looked forward to seeing if he would have the guts to ask me... to my face. Waited...and waited... but alas, it was not to be!! That boy needs to grow a set of balls!!

I do hope he thanked Tom 'Bwain' Parker and Henry for watching his stuff, becuz I was at their table pretty frequently Friday and Sunday and I only saw Ivie there once!! (In front of the table, no less!!) Never did see Anthony Taylor there at all!! Tom! You should get a 70% split from any profits Ivie made this weekend!!!!

...and speaking of the one person everyone wanted blood from, it wasn't me nor Ivie... It was Anthony Taylor!!! If you want to know why Paul of Amok Time got slapped with C&D's on the Green Lantern, Green Arrow & Adam West figures, you can thank good ol' A.T.!!! Paul was just itching to see the boy so he could insert those C&D's where the sun don't shine. Seems the styrene scene is so dry that Anthony has to delve into the Garage Kit scene for his Toy Shop magazine articles. Problem is, his reporting leaves alot to be desired and he seems to have forgotten the golden rules on this side of the hobby fence!! 'Who will see these articles!!?' and 'What details you don't say about certain kits!'

It wouldn't have been too bad, but after seeing the GL and GA piece, Paul told Anthony to knock it off... only to see the Adam West piece in the next issue!! With all the articles stating they were made by Amok Time!! Ouch!!! Didn't take WB long to rip into Adam West demanding to know who gave him the rights to say it was okay to back these kits, and when he didn't know what they were talking about, he got his lawyers on it! Needless to say they all came down on Paul pretty damn hard!! The ripple of this action made a lot of GK producers pretty pissed!! And it's a damn good thing the stairways were secured this weekend or I'm sure I would have run across AT's body between floors!!

No wonder I never saw the big guy at Tom's table!!!

Made it a point, this time around, to circle the dealer rooms LOOKING for recast problems... made about 4 tours Friday, and a bunch more on Sunday. The Collectibles Unlimited table, located at the very end of the hallway had me wondering, but talked to the guy about certain kits and everything seemed to be okay. (Took photo's anyway, incase anyone out there see's something I didn't!) Also noticed the Lightsaber Limited table (is that the correct name) and all they had was hardware on their tables this time around. So I'm pretty confident that the figures he had at the last show which caused him so much problems later on and his justification as to why they were there, were on the up and up. P-Rat's table was A-Ok!!

Now there was a table located right next to Bwain's, called K&L! It featured about 6 kits on the table, one being the Hakaider kit. When I saw their business cards on the table I asked if they were a new company, and was told, "We sell kits from Hong Kong!". Tuesday I got an e-mail from Frank Winspur of Doll & Hobby Shoppe stating the following...

"...except for the Hakaider which is my exclusive in the US. Only dealers that have got it from me are Sassy's, MIM, and Village."

Now I'm keeping their photo's up on the CHILLER Photo page so you can become familiar with them. The other kits on the table are possible recasts as well. And I urge everyone to steer clear of these guys and only buy the authorized kit from one of the above sources!! In other words, people, we are and CAN make a dent in the recasting arena!!! I'm still pissed that I missed seeing Frank on Saturday and not getting the opportunity to talk to him about that table, or at least going down there and resolving it there and then, but more importantly the number of tables with a possible recast problem is getting smaller!!! We just need ya to let us know if you see something not kosher DURING the show, okay!!?!!

And delighted to see there hasn't been any email bitching about this or that at the show!! Hallelujah!!!!

The Crowds! Let me tell ya about the Crowds!! There was some uneasiness after the Sept. 11th events where no one knew what the attendance might be this October. Sure, early ticket sales were good, & the hotels were all booked solid, but would they travel to the show?! Happily, there was nothing to worry about... not only did they come... but the atmosphere in the air was peak excitement!!! Add to that, the number of Model Contest entries blew the doors off every other year since I've been involved in the event!!

Ed & I commented, during the judging phase, that we should have either a video recorder or a tape recorder so we could get the antics of the judging down for prosperity!!!! It was TOUGH!!!! ...but it was also funny as all hell!!! You haven't witnessed a difference of opinion until you see Tony Aranjo and Robb Rotondi not agree!!! I know their mother's ears were BURNING!!!! There was no easy table this time around!! Every category demanded lengthy discussion, revised considerations, and just when you thought they had the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place kits figured out, they'd go into another heated discussion and go through it all over again!! The 'Hole In The Wall' gang just sat back and laughed our collective asses off watching the whole thing!!!

It was fucking precious!!!

The Seminars, that went on all afternoon Saturday, went over good as well!! A slight hiccup with a pesky projector, with some insightful help from the audience all telling me, "Buc, you got it pointing the wrong way!!" ...like turning it around would make it magically work!! But Calli discovered it was a stickly LOAD button that was the culprit and once unstuck, the show went on!! (And yes, we turned the bloody thing around!!)

Let's see, I came away from the show with a few kits. Alternative Images' new, vinyl Kong & Snake (no, I ain't gonna look up the damn proper name, cuz it's too hard to spell and I'm too lazy to cut and paste), sculpted by Mark VanTine!! Comes in two easy pieces... the main figures, the snakes head, and resin teeth for Kong's mouth! That's it!! And for only $79.00, you can't beat this deal!!!

Calli gave me a Space Ghost kit that's been sitting in his closet for too long. Since I'm a big SG fan, he kindly let it go to a good home! From Diceman Creations I got a free Buddy Christ in return for painting one up for his display table, and bought his life size Boris Karloff Franky head to add to my Franky collection! While at Terry Webb's AFM table, bought up one of his King Kong Xacto Holder kits!

But the majority of the show, when I wasn't working my ass off, was spent joking and laughing with friends. From Sue's 'Where's the fucking disk!!' stories, to hearing about Calli & Robb's drunk-ex Saturday night... and did you know that Robert Picardo has been in more movies than Kevin Bacon?!!?! Bowkley will sit there for an hour telling you so!!! (When he's not being a rock star on stage, that is!!) ...and it doesn't matter a rat's ass if you want to listen or not! He's gonna tell ya anyways, so it's better if you just let him ramble on!!!

BTW, did anyone take photo's of Mike Parks' table!?! I forgot to get back there and know he had two new plaques for sale and I need photo's of um!!! One was a Vampirella plaque & the other was painted a dark silver color!

Questions I still need answers to, are:

1. Who actually saw the swimming Creech kit at AI's table, cuz I sure don't remember seeing it!?!??
2. Why do fat girls wear skimpy costumes???!!!!
3. Will Lisa be at Ivie's table at WF???!!
4. Does Sue actually know how to operate a computer??!
5. Will the grass ever grow back where Rotondi's truck was parked??!
6. What's the real story behind those fucking replacement heads??!
and
7. Did Taylor arrive back home, safe and sound??!

Til next week...

Happy Modeling - Buc       Email   Archives