If I remember correctly, Hillestad holds his open house on the Thursday before our show. And for the East Coast show in Hackensack, he holds it on the Saturday before the show.
Prost!
Brad
When Larry Lo, Hans Hedrich, Mark Hoffman and I organized the first New York Symposium, 14 years ago, it was to get collectors together, and encourage the hobby by bringing manufacturers, dealers, and collectors together to eat, drink and talk about the hobby. The first 3 Symposia had events at Classic Toys, a wonderful brick and mortar toy soldier shop in New York City, alas, long gone. Additionally, my fellow sponsors and I held events at my old club, Larry's wonderful restaurant, Tse Yang, my house and Mark Hoffman's offices.
Manufacturers, including Andy and Gordon Neilson from K&C, John Jenkins, Rick Wang and his father of Figarti, Richard Walker, and Ken and Erika Osen of Britains acted as guests of honor, and the events lasted from Friday to Sunday evening, with what was then a good sized Toy Soldier Show on Sunday morning, regularly drawing attendees from as far away as mainland China, Hong Kong, Australia and Great Britain. As hosts, we chauffeured people to and from the airports, provided all of the food and drink at no cost to attendees, arranged for hotels, and made ourselves available both before and after the Symposia to take attendees who wished to stay on tours of NYC and the surrounding points of interest. The tragic passing of Larry, and the busy schedules of Mark and Hans have left me trying to keep the Symposium going on my own.
I am trying to rekindle interest in the Symposium by moving the event to the same weekend as the MFCA, the biggest show on the East Coast.
Jim Hillestad no longer holds an open house that weekend, leaving an opening for this kind of event. I wonder where the closest brick and mortar toy soldier shop is located? If there is one between my house and the show in Philly, maybe I can arrange to hold an event there. If my back permits it, I will be attending the OTSN Chicago Show in September. If any manufacturers, dealers or collectors are interested in helping resurrect what was once a wonderful event for collectors, maybe we can brainstorm in Chicago.