MCKENNA77
Staff Sergeant
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2005
- Messages
- 913
Friday, March 7, 2014
So I had planned to check out of work early and head to the show around noon. Due to this, I got to work early on Friday around 5am to pound out as much crap as possible. By 6am it was as if someone had dropped a hand grenade on all my projects.(insert expletive here ending in “ing”) great. Looks like my plans are going to have to be altered. You know when you get pissed off and you can feel your blood pressure spiking. Yeah, it was on that sort of level. Didn’t get out of work till 6pm and headed straight to the boxing gym to keep my sanity. Put in four rounds of sparring with some poor sap who didn’t realize that he was getting into the ring with a disgruntled hobbyist. This was followed by 25 minutes on the jump rope to make sure I don’t think about work on the weekend. Left the gym with some heal pain in my left leg but didn’t think anything of it. By the time I got home I was considering not going to Orange County at all. KGB altered that as she wasn’t going to miss out on some clothes shopping adventure. We booked the hotel at 9pm that night via Expedia and decided to get up early to hit the road. Good travel tip, the Wyndham hotel is a brief walk from the Marriott and usually runs about $50 less a night on the rate. But if you take a car anywhere near the John Wayne Airport, which the show resides next to, expect to pay $15 a day in parking which is bullcrap.
Saturday March 8, 2014
We were up by 5am and on the road in KGB’s Prius by 6am. That vehicle is nothing but a roller skate with a lawn mower engine. Yet it only costs $35 to fill the tank. So the car is pretty much a parity of life in that there is good and bad. Yeah just keep the Magilla Gorilla and Bob Parr( The Incredibles) jokes to yourself.
The journey was roughly 400 miles and it took the route of the dreaded Interstate 5. So you are aware, that part of California is referred to as the Central Valley and is the main agriculture area of the state. Numerous orange and almond trees made up the scenery. The almond trees were in bloom as it is now becoming spring here. If you’ve ever spent time in the Central Valley you know that no one says almond. Any farmer uses the term amond instead. I was never sure of this goofy dialect custom so a while back I asked a random farmer about it. He told me that’s because they shake the L out of them. Just in case you didn’t gain enough useless information by reading this, the honey collected by the bees pollinating the almond tree fields is too bitter to sell. Maybe that fact can win you some Samsonite luggage someday. Don’t say I never did anything for you. Along the drive I did see a female mountain lion with her cub very near the fence line of I-5 by Coalinga. I knew there were mountain lions in that area but have never seen one outside of living in Colorado. I thought it could be a strange omen of things to come. I could not have been more correct. By the way, I am talking about the animal and not some random “cougar” by the side of the highway. I know you overseas guys probably think that’s like every mile here in California but trust me it’s not really like that.
We got checked into the hotel around 1pm and I was quickly walking over to the show. Well that heal pain that I was talking about earlier decides to rear its head at me and I started to wonder why suddenly I have a whole other heart beat in my shoe. I discovered, much to my chagrin, that I pulled a Homer and pushed it too much at the gym. My body picks the best times to break down. Thus I had to invoke the March or Die principal in order to make it to the show. (insert expletive here ending in “ing”) great.
So this particular Westcoaster was maybe my 6th or 7th Westcoaster event. It was by far the strangest and most entertaining show to date. So the show itself is on Sunday but I believe they start room trading on Thursday. Be careful with that term room trading as no one is actually trading anything. That just means whatever dealer is selling their wares inside their hotel room. I’ve always found it a bit strange and somewhat evasive but the thing it is the most is disorientating. You’ll walk into a room and instantly be enthralled by what is being sold. By the time you walk out of the room you have no idea where you are or what direction you just came from. I must have wandered in the main hallway like a lost puppy for at least an hour.
The room trading takes place on floors 7 and 8. It was good to see a whole variety of dealers there. Additionally, there was UK representation in both Frontline and Sarum Soldiers. I found this to be awesome as the more the merrier. Besides bumping into Steve Weston at previous shows I had never personally seen UK companies at the Westcoaster. King and Country had some excellent diorama pieces there as usual. I really shouldn’t use that term usual because their dio’s are just outstanding. The WWII German hospital diorama was off the chain. Andy must keep Godon locked up there in Hong Kong all year long. I can’t imagine how long it took to complete the airfield diorama they were showing. Another benefit of the Westcoaster is that they have a fair amount of glossy toy soldier dealers. Edmunds Toy Soldiers as well as Hocker had some really good pieces to show. The best “new thing” category goes to this dude named Rick Dobbins. He was selling museum quality diorama boards and man were they freaking cool. They were circle shaped boards, roughly 24 inches in diameter and they were casted in resin. The best part though was that the boards rested on a kitchen accessory called a lazy susan. I had never seen this technique used before but I thought it was creative as all get out. I have seen a whole pile of different diorama boards in my toy soldier career and have in fact made my own before but Dobbins boards were out of this world man.
Due to: limited collection space, limited funds, etc, I am now very picky with what I purchase. I’m sure the majority of collectors have this identical issue. So of course you have to check out everything before you buy anything. That should be the first rule of any collector at a show. So I ended up settling on two Frontline sets that were FFL. Real shocking news there folks. Additionally, I managed to pick up a Aeroart feudal japan warrior. One of which I didn’t even know they made by the way.
So I had planned to check out of work early and head to the show around noon. Due to this, I got to work early on Friday around 5am to pound out as much crap as possible. By 6am it was as if someone had dropped a hand grenade on all my projects.(insert expletive here ending in “ing”) great. Looks like my plans are going to have to be altered. You know when you get pissed off and you can feel your blood pressure spiking. Yeah, it was on that sort of level. Didn’t get out of work till 6pm and headed straight to the boxing gym to keep my sanity. Put in four rounds of sparring with some poor sap who didn’t realize that he was getting into the ring with a disgruntled hobbyist. This was followed by 25 minutes on the jump rope to make sure I don’t think about work on the weekend. Left the gym with some heal pain in my left leg but didn’t think anything of it. By the time I got home I was considering not going to Orange County at all. KGB altered that as she wasn’t going to miss out on some clothes shopping adventure. We booked the hotel at 9pm that night via Expedia and decided to get up early to hit the road. Good travel tip, the Wyndham hotel is a brief walk from the Marriott and usually runs about $50 less a night on the rate. But if you take a car anywhere near the John Wayne Airport, which the show resides next to, expect to pay $15 a day in parking which is bullcrap.
Saturday March 8, 2014
We were up by 5am and on the road in KGB’s Prius by 6am. That vehicle is nothing but a roller skate with a lawn mower engine. Yet it only costs $35 to fill the tank. So the car is pretty much a parity of life in that there is good and bad. Yeah just keep the Magilla Gorilla and Bob Parr( The Incredibles) jokes to yourself.
The journey was roughly 400 miles and it took the route of the dreaded Interstate 5. So you are aware, that part of California is referred to as the Central Valley and is the main agriculture area of the state. Numerous orange and almond trees made up the scenery. The almond trees were in bloom as it is now becoming spring here. If you’ve ever spent time in the Central Valley you know that no one says almond. Any farmer uses the term amond instead. I was never sure of this goofy dialect custom so a while back I asked a random farmer about it. He told me that’s because they shake the L out of them. Just in case you didn’t gain enough useless information by reading this, the honey collected by the bees pollinating the almond tree fields is too bitter to sell. Maybe that fact can win you some Samsonite luggage someday. Don’t say I never did anything for you. Along the drive I did see a female mountain lion with her cub very near the fence line of I-5 by Coalinga. I knew there were mountain lions in that area but have never seen one outside of living in Colorado. I thought it could be a strange omen of things to come. I could not have been more correct. By the way, I am talking about the animal and not some random “cougar” by the side of the highway. I know you overseas guys probably think that’s like every mile here in California but trust me it’s not really like that.
We got checked into the hotel around 1pm and I was quickly walking over to the show. Well that heal pain that I was talking about earlier decides to rear its head at me and I started to wonder why suddenly I have a whole other heart beat in my shoe. I discovered, much to my chagrin, that I pulled a Homer and pushed it too much at the gym. My body picks the best times to break down. Thus I had to invoke the March or Die principal in order to make it to the show. (insert expletive here ending in “ing”) great.
So this particular Westcoaster was maybe my 6th or 7th Westcoaster event. It was by far the strangest and most entertaining show to date. So the show itself is on Sunday but I believe they start room trading on Thursday. Be careful with that term room trading as no one is actually trading anything. That just means whatever dealer is selling their wares inside their hotel room. I’ve always found it a bit strange and somewhat evasive but the thing it is the most is disorientating. You’ll walk into a room and instantly be enthralled by what is being sold. By the time you walk out of the room you have no idea where you are or what direction you just came from. I must have wandered in the main hallway like a lost puppy for at least an hour.
The room trading takes place on floors 7 and 8. It was good to see a whole variety of dealers there. Additionally, there was UK representation in both Frontline and Sarum Soldiers. I found this to be awesome as the more the merrier. Besides bumping into Steve Weston at previous shows I had never personally seen UK companies at the Westcoaster. King and Country had some excellent diorama pieces there as usual. I really shouldn’t use that term usual because their dio’s are just outstanding. The WWII German hospital diorama was off the chain. Andy must keep Godon locked up there in Hong Kong all year long. I can’t imagine how long it took to complete the airfield diorama they were showing. Another benefit of the Westcoaster is that they have a fair amount of glossy toy soldier dealers. Edmunds Toy Soldiers as well as Hocker had some really good pieces to show. The best “new thing” category goes to this dude named Rick Dobbins. He was selling museum quality diorama boards and man were they freaking cool. They were circle shaped boards, roughly 24 inches in diameter and they were casted in resin. The best part though was that the boards rested on a kitchen accessory called a lazy susan. I had never seen this technique used before but I thought it was creative as all get out. I have seen a whole pile of different diorama boards in my toy soldier career and have in fact made my own before but Dobbins boards were out of this world man.
Due to: limited collection space, limited funds, etc, I am now very picky with what I purchase. I’m sure the majority of collectors have this identical issue. So of course you have to check out everything before you buy anything. That should be the first rule of any collector at a show. So I ended up settling on two Frontline sets that were FFL. Real shocking news there folks. Additionally, I managed to pick up a Aeroart feudal japan warrior. One of which I didn’t even know they made by the way.
...Sammy