Sadly I don't think there was as many folks attend the day as in previous years, but those that did attend looked be having a good time, there were one or two big sales made (nope - not by me lol) and there were a couple of very keen new younger collectors who came and talked to us for a long time, took loads of information home and are wanting more ... which is great :-)
A couple of the parents were pleased to speak to us too as they now know their kids are not 'mad' and it's a perfectly 'normal' hobby to be involved in - they said it made a change for their children to be able to talk to someone who knew what they were talking about, and could answer the questions they asked! lol
One parent was very interested about the CMing side of the hobby as he's a collector of model of Pickford lorries (250+ at the last count), he also paints remote controlled cars and makes lots of kit models so we had a long conversation about paint, milliput and super glueing fingers together ... lol
Sadly there was not a huge range of Breyers for sale, with some of the newer ones not available, which was a disappointment.
I had the honour of being asked to judge the SM Painting Competition this year, which was a hard job as there were some lovely entries, especially from those under 5's ... we have some wonderful young artists out there :-)
I also had a nice long chat with one of the Reps from TT (sorry I've forgotten her name) - she is very keen to learn more about the hobby, and was sorry that TT don't know as much about Breyer as we collectors do ... she did think it was funny that I knew more about the new upcoming Models than she did, and I had got my JAH before TT had ... so they all had a good look at it to find out what was going on! lol
There is news on the Breyer UK website. It turns out TT had/has no imput or control on the British Breyer site ... it was/is all done from Breyer USA ... and they are/were as annoyed as the rest of us that it was so out of date!
However when the new Breyer USA website is launched, later this month, there *should* be a British section ... and British collectors will AT LAST be able to order from the Breyer USA website which will include the SR and Ltd Ed models. The Breyer UK website is currently a 'homepage' only while the change over happens ...
I also found out that that day a new shipment of Breyers were landing in Felixstowe (I think it was) ... they come into the county via ship, sometimes from the USA or straight from China, and they only ship in full containers, so that is why sometimes items are late in as they have to wait to get a full container before it is shipped.
TT have been invited to and will be attending the Utterly Horses Hullabaloo next year ... and are very excited to meet members of the hobby and to see what we do ... more details about this nearer the time ;-)
We've been invited back to Equishop again next year ... hope to see you there? :-)
Jackie
BECF CO
