MCKENNA77
Staff Sergeant
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2005
- Messages
- 913
THE TOY SOLDIER TRAVELER
Home Base – San Jose, CA
Destination – The West Coaster – Irvine CA
Miles Traveled Round Trip – 762
Method of Travel – Car
Hey dudes:
This little bit of information is nothing more then a diary log of my travels to toy soldier shows across the world this year. This year’s itinerary includes:
The West Coaster
NY Symposium
San Antonio Show
London Show – June
The Big Show – Chicago
Saturday March 1st 2008
Woke up super early and loaded up the grocery getter(Hybrid Highlander) and headed down I-5 to Orange County. It was a hazy day out and the drive to LA takes about 6 hours from where I live. My wife Sara(also known as Sara KGB – Rounders reference) decided to come along which worked out great because she did most of the driving. I was a little freaked out on the ride down as I was bringing my K&C Swordfish Warbird along in order to have Gordon perform a minor repair on it. Those of you who have traveled the California Interstate system know that it’s in about as good as shape as a Soviet highway. Things on the trip worked out great as we didn’t get into any bad traffic on the drive down and the Warbird made it one piece.
We arrived at the Marriott around noon and I immediately had to check out the room trading. There were some interesting things from a lot of dealers and I also learned of some dealers from in/around the Bay Area that I never even knew existed. Here is who I discovered:
Edmunds Traditional Toy Soldiers, San Francisco CA – great gloss figures, with really good flags
Northcost Miniatures, Santa Rosa CA – they had a huge mule train display pulling two mining cars that was exceptional. Additionally, Bob and Judiann O’connell are about the two nicest people you ever met.
WM Hocker, Berkeley CA – great gloss figures from unique and not usually covered time periods
Then of course I had to check out the K&C dioramas. They were as usual an incredible work of art. I can’t even begin to fathom how many man hours it takes to complete just one. The German train diorama was incredible and very unique but my personal favorite was the steel truss bridge. The water looked so real and the diorama was so versatile for any setting WWI and later. I asked Andy if he keeps Gordon locked in solitary confinement until he finishes the dioramas. He replied that they just leave him ball and chained to a table and put a slot in the door to pass food. After mentioning that I had the Warbird down in my car for repair, Andy realized who I was. He gave me this funny look like I should be at a Greyhound bus station and said “Ohhhh you’re McKenna?” My first instinct was that Tony Neville had told Andy that I was some sort closet serial killer. Then Andy and I both had a good laugh at Tony Neville’s expense and I went down to the car to bring up the Warbird. I left the Warbird with Gordon and as it was getting super crowded in their room went down to eat some lunch.
After lunch, Gordon had repaired the Warbird like new and I was feeling pretty pumped up about how great the K&C customer service was(they stopped everything they were doing at the time and worked on it). By that time, my brother who lives in San Diego had arrived in Irvine. Now for those of you who don’t know me, I’m a very competitive person. I’m even more competitive when it comes to competing with my brother. The sibling rivalry was on, like a Kenny versus Spenny episode. The three of us traveled about two exits down the interstate to a place called Boomers. We all agreed to play mini-golf and after about 10 minutes of trash talking the game was on. The mini-golf game almost topped checking out toy soldiers for the weekend, it was that good. My club was on fire as I nailed four hole in ones on a 18 hole course. My new self prescribed nickname became Jesus Christ putting star(Who in the world do you think you are?). I finished the day shooting a 35 and I totally trashed my brother by 15 strokes. Needless to say he didn’t have much to say on the ride back. When I still picture the disgruntled look on his face it still makes me crack up. I think I’m going to laminate the score card and mail it to him.
Sara KGB and I checked into the Hyatt hotel as we got a sweet rate on Hotwire and its only a mile away from the Marriott. The only bummer about the entire area around the John Wayne Airport is that you have to pay to park every where, its worse then San Francisco. After checking in, I headed back to the Marriott for the K&C talk hosted by Sierra Toy Soldiers. It was a fun and informative session. I would recommend this for any collector as you get direct access into some of the thinking and strategy of King and Country. The majority of the session was question and answer and it was a great relaxed atmosphere. At the end of the session, Sierra Toy Soldiers passed out a sweet K&C Afrika Corps promotional figure. I wish I could have stayed around and met more people from the forum but I had a planned dinner engagement with my brother and his wife so I was in a hurry to get out of there. So any forum members that I spoke with there if you’re reading this and you think I blew you off please accept my full apologies.
Sunday March 2nd 2008
Nothing was on the itinerary for me this day except for the great West Coaster Show. We arrived at the show around 10AM. To my surprise there were a large amount of people dressed up in time period costumes. I saw a lot of Civil War Zouaves and American Revolutionary British soldiers. Additionally, some dude was in full out German Afrika Corp get up. All those costumes certainly added a lot of ambiance to the show. I did the typical collector thing and walked around for about two hours looking at everything before I decided to buy anything. I was very close to purchasing the T-street intersection diorama by Gordon. One icy cold look from KGB ended that dream. I have a Kriegsmarine group set up that would have looked perfect on it.
Toy Soldier Pick Ups:
K&C Afrika Corp promo figure
Build a Rama watchtower
Britains Civil War Confederate wounded and drummer
Other Items Purchased : (I’m always amazed about how much other “stuff” I buy when I travel. Hopefully putting all this in writing will make me curb my spending here.)
The novel Oil by Upton Sinclair
Fodor’s guide to Great Britain
See’s Candy Jelly Beans( I love these things)
7 New Pez Dispensers(what a find, I never find ones I don’t have in a candy shop)
Although I didn’t pick up a lot of new toy soldiers I felt that I made good finds. With all the traveling that I’ll be doing this year I’ve got a pretty limited budget. The Britains Civil War set was one that I had been searching for some time for. The Build a Rama watchtower fits perfect into my dresser top K&C German airfield diorama.
West Coaster Travel Advice: If you come to the West Coaster and you’re from out of town, I would highly suggest flying directly into the John Wayne Airport. The traffic in the Los Angeles area is crowded like a Turkish Highway. On the return trip home it took me and KGB two hours just to get out of LA. Most of this was due to the LA marathon going on at the time but there was also a really bad bender on the I-5. The other thing to expect is to pay for parking, even if you’re a guest of the hotel. This is all the more reason not to be using a car in Orange County.
Next stop: New York City – the place so nice they named it twice.
More pictures to come as I had to borrow my brother’s camera(flipping forgot mine) and he has yet to email me the pics.
Home Base – San Jose, CA
Destination – The West Coaster – Irvine CA
Miles Traveled Round Trip – 762
Method of Travel – Car
Hey dudes:
This little bit of information is nothing more then a diary log of my travels to toy soldier shows across the world this year. This year’s itinerary includes:
The West Coaster
NY Symposium
San Antonio Show
London Show – June
The Big Show – Chicago
Saturday March 1st 2008
Woke up super early and loaded up the grocery getter(Hybrid Highlander) and headed down I-5 to Orange County. It was a hazy day out and the drive to LA takes about 6 hours from where I live. My wife Sara(also known as Sara KGB – Rounders reference) decided to come along which worked out great because she did most of the driving. I was a little freaked out on the ride down as I was bringing my K&C Swordfish Warbird along in order to have Gordon perform a minor repair on it. Those of you who have traveled the California Interstate system know that it’s in about as good as shape as a Soviet highway. Things on the trip worked out great as we didn’t get into any bad traffic on the drive down and the Warbird made it one piece.
We arrived at the Marriott around noon and I immediately had to check out the room trading. There were some interesting things from a lot of dealers and I also learned of some dealers from in/around the Bay Area that I never even knew existed. Here is who I discovered:
Edmunds Traditional Toy Soldiers, San Francisco CA – great gloss figures, with really good flags
Northcost Miniatures, Santa Rosa CA – they had a huge mule train display pulling two mining cars that was exceptional. Additionally, Bob and Judiann O’connell are about the two nicest people you ever met.
WM Hocker, Berkeley CA – great gloss figures from unique and not usually covered time periods
Then of course I had to check out the K&C dioramas. They were as usual an incredible work of art. I can’t even begin to fathom how many man hours it takes to complete just one. The German train diorama was incredible and very unique but my personal favorite was the steel truss bridge. The water looked so real and the diorama was so versatile for any setting WWI and later. I asked Andy if he keeps Gordon locked in solitary confinement until he finishes the dioramas. He replied that they just leave him ball and chained to a table and put a slot in the door to pass food. After mentioning that I had the Warbird down in my car for repair, Andy realized who I was. He gave me this funny look like I should be at a Greyhound bus station and said “Ohhhh you’re McKenna?” My first instinct was that Tony Neville had told Andy that I was some sort closet serial killer. Then Andy and I both had a good laugh at Tony Neville’s expense and I went down to the car to bring up the Warbird. I left the Warbird with Gordon and as it was getting super crowded in their room went down to eat some lunch.
After lunch, Gordon had repaired the Warbird like new and I was feeling pretty pumped up about how great the K&C customer service was(they stopped everything they were doing at the time and worked on it). By that time, my brother who lives in San Diego had arrived in Irvine. Now for those of you who don’t know me, I’m a very competitive person. I’m even more competitive when it comes to competing with my brother. The sibling rivalry was on, like a Kenny versus Spenny episode. The three of us traveled about two exits down the interstate to a place called Boomers. We all agreed to play mini-golf and after about 10 minutes of trash talking the game was on. The mini-golf game almost topped checking out toy soldiers for the weekend, it was that good. My club was on fire as I nailed four hole in ones on a 18 hole course. My new self prescribed nickname became Jesus Christ putting star(Who in the world do you think you are?). I finished the day shooting a 35 and I totally trashed my brother by 15 strokes. Needless to say he didn’t have much to say on the ride back. When I still picture the disgruntled look on his face it still makes me crack up. I think I’m going to laminate the score card and mail it to him.
Sara KGB and I checked into the Hyatt hotel as we got a sweet rate on Hotwire and its only a mile away from the Marriott. The only bummer about the entire area around the John Wayne Airport is that you have to pay to park every where, its worse then San Francisco. After checking in, I headed back to the Marriott for the K&C talk hosted by Sierra Toy Soldiers. It was a fun and informative session. I would recommend this for any collector as you get direct access into some of the thinking and strategy of King and Country. The majority of the session was question and answer and it was a great relaxed atmosphere. At the end of the session, Sierra Toy Soldiers passed out a sweet K&C Afrika Corps promotional figure. I wish I could have stayed around and met more people from the forum but I had a planned dinner engagement with my brother and his wife so I was in a hurry to get out of there. So any forum members that I spoke with there if you’re reading this and you think I blew you off please accept my full apologies.
Sunday March 2nd 2008
Nothing was on the itinerary for me this day except for the great West Coaster Show. We arrived at the show around 10AM. To my surprise there were a large amount of people dressed up in time period costumes. I saw a lot of Civil War Zouaves and American Revolutionary British soldiers. Additionally, some dude was in full out German Afrika Corp get up. All those costumes certainly added a lot of ambiance to the show. I did the typical collector thing and walked around for about two hours looking at everything before I decided to buy anything. I was very close to purchasing the T-street intersection diorama by Gordon. One icy cold look from KGB ended that dream. I have a Kriegsmarine group set up that would have looked perfect on it.
Toy Soldier Pick Ups:
K&C Afrika Corp promo figure
Build a Rama watchtower
Britains Civil War Confederate wounded and drummer
Other Items Purchased : (I’m always amazed about how much other “stuff” I buy when I travel. Hopefully putting all this in writing will make me curb my spending here.)
The novel Oil by Upton Sinclair
Fodor’s guide to Great Britain
See’s Candy Jelly Beans( I love these things)
7 New Pez Dispensers(what a find, I never find ones I don’t have in a candy shop)
Although I didn’t pick up a lot of new toy soldiers I felt that I made good finds. With all the traveling that I’ll be doing this year I’ve got a pretty limited budget. The Britains Civil War set was one that I had been searching for some time for. The Build a Rama watchtower fits perfect into my dresser top K&C German airfield diorama.
West Coaster Travel Advice: If you come to the West Coaster and you’re from out of town, I would highly suggest flying directly into the John Wayne Airport. The traffic in the Los Angeles area is crowded like a Turkish Highway. On the return trip home it took me and KGB two hours just to get out of LA. Most of this was due to the LA marathon going on at the time but there was also a really bad bender on the I-5. The other thing to expect is to pay for parking, even if you’re a guest of the hotel. This is all the more reason not to be using a car in Orange County.
Next stop: New York City – the place so nice they named it twice.
More pictures to come as I had to borrow my brother’s camera(flipping forgot mine) and he has yet to email me the pics.
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