COLLECTORMANIA CMK 2008!
Friday AM to Saturday PM

So I'm back guys! And as last year I completely failed to post, I'm making sure I do this time!



Under the cut: Lea Thompson, James Marsters, Santiago Cabrera & ... Darth Vader?

Friday
We got up at 5am, which was an hour before the taxi was due to take us to the coach station. It feels sooo long ago when it was only a couple days ago haha. As far as I remember the coach came on time (maybe a couple mins late...). This coach took us all the way to Heathrow Airport with no stops. The journey was around 4 hours (or more). I listened to my music and looked out of the window a lot. We had over an hour's wait at Heathrow, so had lunch and I started my next book - Mort, by Terry Pratchett (I'm reading all of his books in order he made them xD). Our next coach was only an hour and half journey, to Milton Keynes.
During one of the coach trips, I saw a young deer on a bank at the side of the road, grazing. SO CUTE! For my HP/Snape fans, you might be interested to know I was listening to Leave Out All The Rest (a song that I relate to Snape in a big way). You know him and deers, right? xD I thought that was pretty cool hah.

Anyhoo we got to Milton Keynes around 1.30, and into CMK at 2.15 (because we walked from the coachstation in Campbell Park, and it's a bit of a trek). Thankfully we entered the side CM was on, so not too much walking was to be done when inside, just around the stalls.

First thing I did was go look at the pictures. I always buy 4 pics for £10 (they're £4 each, so the 4 for £10 is a cool deal). I found my Shelli a Pippin (ran out of Sirius last year ;_; lol) and for me a Merry, Charlie and Mr Bennet xD



After that we decided we needed to sit down, because hauling all our luggage around was tiring. We sat on a bench near some of the Guests (none of whom I was interested in meeting). Mum wanted me to take some pics of the guy who played Darth Vader (to show my brother), so I did. Not great ones, but I felt awkward going all paparazzi on some guy I didn't even know. Also it wasn't that busy so I was a bit obvious standing there xD he was being interviewed by a couple people, with a microphone and stuff. Pretty cool.





I left my mum with all the heavy stuff at the bench to get a photoshoot for Santiago and to wander around the stalls. I bought myself a toy Dakin Garfield, an old Graduation one xD so cute:



We looked around the stalls some more together. I saw that all the Heroes comics from S1 had been made into a book (for £15). I couldn't afford to buy it, but I loved browsing it ^_^ mum got me a Sawyer LOST figure (I already have Charlie ♥). I would've got Locke but he kinda looked scary lol. I haven't set him up properly yet, but Sawyer comes with an amazing replica of his letter:



At the same table I found the coin in PotC for just £5, so I bought that ^_^ Here's all the stuff I got on Saturday:



I think by this point we could go to the Travel Lodge and book in, and since we were both running on 2 hours sleep (we got up at 5, but didn't get to bed til around 2 and it took me a while to drop off cos of my stupid messed up hours lol) we wanted to go take a rest before going out again later for dinner. I had an hour and a half nap (it's hard for me to wind down it seems lol) and then went to Wetherspoons for dinner. After we got back, we watched Jonthan Ross, and he had Robert Downey jr on. So squee! ^_^

To finish the Friday...



Mr Bun was of course with me xD

Saturday
We got up at 7.30 Saturday morning. I had a shower and did my hair (curled it a bit, but the walk to CMK made it fall out a bit :P) and actually put make up on :O I found some eyeliner in boots that doesn't make my eyes hurt, so yay! I had a lot of stuff to do on Saturday. James's photoshoot was first, then Santiago's and lastly Lea's. I also wanted to get Lea's and Santiago's autograph (I got James's last year).



Santiago was only just announced so he didn't have a ticket like these, just a slip of blue paper lol

We got to Collectormania around 10am (after getting eyeliner and breakfast lol) and I went to get VTs for Lea and Santiago. Santiago was open queue though, so I went straight in ^_^ he was quite shy (but omg gorgeous lol) and so we didn't have a conv or anything. My autograph is personalised and mum got a pic of us together (I felt silly seeing as I had a photoshoot with him coming up xD)



haha I look so weird in this xD



I haven't a clue what the second line's word is... "best!"? But then... wouldn't that be best wishes or something? Hmmmmmm. :P

I went straight around to Lea's and picked up a VT - I was number 217 and they were allowing people up to 150 into the queue at that point. So we set off to the photoshoot area to see about queuing. My ticket had a green end which meant I had to come back at 11.35 (which was cool cos I had an hour to do stuff before coming back). We sat down and ate some more because breakfast wasn't very filling, then I checked back a couple times on Lea's queue, until I was able to go in.

She's sooo sweet and pretty :D When I came over we said hello and she asked how I was! xD



She's signing my pic there (personalised yay!) but she wasn't doing any posed pics with people (which was cool cos I didn't need one).



I told her I loved her in Back to the Future and she grinned and said thank you. Her voice is so soft. ♥



She had a few pics to choose from, even one with Michael in BttF, but she was looking at him so you couldn't see her face properly, so I went for this one :D

So when it was time we went off to the queue for James's pic. Mum stalked me with the camera xD



I heard some people behind me saying they should say something naughty to him just before the pic was taken so they'd get an interesting pic lols.

James was on a tall stool (which made sense cos his photoshoot goes on for over an hour). I heard a girl behind me complain cos she wanted him to be standing up, but really it didn't matter, in my pic you can't tell where his legs are haha. The girl who's pic was taken just before me had to have it taken again because James's smile was lagging lols. Poor thing had been smiling for nearly an hour xD

When I went over, he turned around to face me in his chair and told me his mouth was numb, then he started to vigorously rub his face O_O LOL. I nearly burst out laughing, cos he was just inches away from my face doing that, and it was so cute cos he was distorting his face and everything xD then he laughed and put his arm around me and and I put my arm around him and he pulled my head as close to his as he could xDD



I just LOVE this picture so much, even more than last years one even though in that one I was one of the first in, so his face wasn't in pain then lol ^______^
You can see his face is a bit red, which isn't much of a surprise LOL
When it was done, I said thank you and he said "Good to see you" ^_^

The next photoshoot was with Santiago. He was still a bit shy in that too LOL. I dunno, he smiled more in the posed pic at his table then he did in this one :3 and I look like a total dorkus too xD but his arm is around me, we're just not as close as I was to James xDD



When I said thank you he said "you're very welcome" in his lovely voice hehe.

Finally there was Lea's photoshoot. Queuing for it was fun, because I had a conv with the woman next to me. She's a MAJOR BttF fan, and has basically collected everything you can. She's also met MJF - she helped with his offical fan club and got to see him in one of his final Spin City episodes in 2000, and when he came over to meet her and the others from the fan club staff, he hugged them all! O_O she's SO lucky. Omg.

Anyway, I was near the front of the queue and the first girl to go in for a pic. Three men were in front of me, the first was a deaf guy who had a BttF jacket and cap on, so awesome xD So I had no clue how to pose with her cos this is the first time I have met a femal celeb! and I didn't have anyone else (female) to see how they stood with her. So I stood next to her, she did put her arm around me slightly ^__^



I said thank you and was about to leave when she took my hand in a handshake and was like "thank you very much"! I was so surprised because, well, she was thanking me personally for being a fan! xD She's sooo sweet haha. I think she must've remembered me from earlier when I got her autograph =]

After all this it was around 1pm, and I'd done everything I'd wanted to do with 3 hours til we had to go to the coachstation :D so all we had to do now was wait for the pics. James's came out first and I snagged mine quickly. He had soooo many, filling up like three tables LOL.



Mum stalked me again whilst I went around the tables looking.

Mum went off to get me a plastic box/folder thingy from WHSmiths and I sat at a bench opposite the table, watching people look at/get their pics. One woman moved away from the table, causing a pic on the edge to fall to the ground. She turned round and stopped for a second, looking right at it, before WALKING AWAY. WTF. This is someones pic they spent £20 on, you don't just walk away from it when you've put it in danger of being trod on >.<' I couldn't leave my seat because all the luggage was left with me, but thankfully a man who had been next to her noticed and picked it up. Whilst mum was away three people spoke to me about my pic (which I had on my lap) saying how lovely it was :D:D:D:D hehe

When mum came back we stayed for a while, eating some more of our food and watching people get their pics, waiting for Santiago and Lea's to arrive. One of the crew was holding a pile that she'd not got room to lay out yet cos James was still taking over xD I went up and asked if it was Santiago, and it was! I got mine and then asked how long it would be for Lea. Thankfully it wasn't as long as she stated, in fact it was only half an hour later. During that half hour we looked around again. The organisers booth had a lot of Heroes stuff, including two big posters of Nathan Petrelli saying "Vote Petrelli for Congress!" etc. like the official ones xD I really wanted one, but it would've got destroyed on the coach -_-; so instead I picked up a bumper sticker saying "Vote Nathan Petrelli" xDDDD I just need to get me a car now :3

I went back to the pics at 3.00 and was great timing as they were just being laid out. I found myself next to the woman I spoke to in the queue earlier, which was cool. We looked out for each other on the tables xD in her pic she was actually hugging Lea, so sweet :D

Once this was done, we could officially leave CM :O we went off to McDonalds which was next to the taxi rank, and after eating got a taxi to the coach station =] I was soooo exhausted, omg haha. On the way home I saw four more deer and one fox xD we got home at 11.00pm ^_^

So I totally need to post about last years collectormania, cos there's a LOT of Tony Head and James pics lol