Collectormania Manchester

A group of fellow Bad Taste Bears collectors (also good friends) came to Manchester at the weekend for the Collectormania Event. The main reason was to meet Pete, the creator of the bears and a quick catch up with each other.

Since last year, Bad Taste Bears have had a stall at these events, and Pete comes along and signs a load of stuff. Basically it’s like the next generation of store signing he used to do a couple of years back. Except instead of releasing a print for each event, a promotion of some sort is available.

This years promotion was a Lucky Dip, where everyone was guaranteed a prize whether it be rare bears, prototypes or variations. I decided to have 2 gos on the lucky dip, and to my surprise I won:

Silver Jason – 1 of 50 produced

Glow in the Dark Roswell – Variation

Thinking I had done relatively well, I walked away a happy person. But when I decided I wanted to purchase Wayne to have Pete sign for me, I was tempted to have another go on the Lucky Dip. Glad I did aswell, because I won:

Dark Vibe (Pink Dildo) – 1 of 50 produced

I was so pleased with what I had won, I just got straight into the queue without even looking at Wayne. However I soon realised, there was people behind me, so to help speed up the queue, I let them push in front of me, while I unpacked Wayne to be signed.

For those who don’t know, Wayne is on a buy-back promotion. Within the standard stock of Waynes, there are two other variations of Wayne (Metallic Blue and Gunmetal) which the Company will buy back at a price (£100 & £250 respectively). So you can imagine the pure shock that appeared on my face when I opened Wayne to find:

Metallic Blue Wayne

As this was also the first metallic blue Wayne that Pete has seen he also put a #1 on it, to show it was the first of the kind signed. So all in all I had a very lucky day when it came to prizes.

I was also able to have a read of Pete’s new book that is due to be released early July 2008. It’s called ‘The Boy With An Axe In His Head’. It’s a children’s book, but the drawings and story are really good. I know this is something that Pete wants to build on, so I definitely wish him all the best on that.

I shall be honest, I didn’t really understand the popularity of these Collectormania events. I used the think the majority of the actors who went to do the signings were has-beens who are no longer getting work. The majority I would say are, however I have noted just recently that a lot of events also have a few current stars signing as well…that’s if they don’t cancel due to work commitments!!!

I would definitely go again, but it would depend on the people and who was there. I had a great laugh and no doubt when we get back together at the end of the month, we will have a great laugh again. Gawd help Blackpool!!!