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From the monthly archives:
Nothing else to add, but another reminder to us fans of Bond that nothing lasts forever, the original Miss Moneypenny (who flirted with Connery’s Bond oh so many years ago) has died. Here’s the BBC obit.
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Keep in mind as you read this that I only did general admission on Saturdayy (along with three sons to manage) so I attended no panels and could not go to any of the exclusive General package events (such as awards night, casino night, preview night, etc.).
My sons and I did the con on Saturday, stayed the night and went to World of Coke this morning (we are less than an hour
away from downtown but decided to give the wife a break and to do a hotel package deal – free breakfast, free parking and world of coke tickets included with the room for $250 total).
LOTS of complaints heard in person and on-line about the location. The hotel room rate was cheap, but the hotel was in downtown Atlanta, with several events occuring on Saturday hindering people’s ability to get to the venue. The cost of parking was a minimum $10 a day, and parking at the hotel was $24 a day – quite a bit of change if you stayed there. Adding insult to injury was the most convenient fast-food was closed after 6 on Saturday and not open at all on Sunday (the hotel is in the middle of a business district).
I still wonder if the club considered the Marriott conference center at Stone Mountain, just east of Atlanta. It’s got a huge number of hotel rooms (AND a spill-over hotel if they sell out is nearby), free parking, TONS of conference space, more convenient to lots more people, and you’ve got, well, the Stone Mountain Park… Buddy, if you’e reading this, consider this for next year’s Joelanta venue. TRUST ME, it’ll work… And, of course, I have the luxury of not only hindsight, but not having to do any real WORK on the convention (and it is incredibly easy to be critical).
The show seemed to – well – peter out on Saturday afternoon. Huge general admission line at the opening and then most of the people were gone after lunch. I did not see anyone lined up this morning, but Joelanta last year was the same way (and I had a table there). I bought a couple of items from the club to help out but I really think the location (and a parade that shut down large chunks of downtown on Saturday) hurt turnout…
Did the collectors club do alright in the end? I hope (and think) so. But I was really surprised at the amount of time we ended spending in the pool or the hotel room rather than the sales floor. May be just me, but the selection on the show floor was not the best i’ve ever seen… Lots of the same items at multiple tables and lots of stuff you would see at ANY toy show. What made the Joe con special in the past has been the fact that dealers brought their A+list items to sell, and it was a blast to see some extremely rare items there. Saw ONE rare figure this time I’ve coveted, and LOTS of small Joes (3 3/4″ size) and their vehicles. Lots of folks on the Joe newsgroup aren’t too happy (that group skews older and are more focused on the 12″ line).
Looking forward to getting some info from Lanny on how things went from the club’s perspective… More (possibly) to come, but here’s some pics:
AND lots more photos from my flickr feed at my tumblr site.
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Full reports on the two Hasbro panels at the G.I.Joe Convention here. If you were looking forward to any news on new 12″ Joes (or even new 8″ figures) you’ll be disappointed. The 8″ line (Sigma Six) is going on “hiatus” which is… well, let me just ask you: How many TV shows come back from “hiatus?” Short answer: nearly none.
More scuttlebutt is here. The small Joe fans are happy at least…
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K, we’re done. Thoughts?
Well, I love the fact that there are lots of dealers that sell loose small joe vehicles and figures really cheap – my sons have always liked the small figures more than the 12 inch figs ( the ones I love). We spent the bulk of our cash on a small regiment that they have been enjoying all day.
Unfortunately, because my boys had a pretty full week at school we ended up spending lots of time playing in the hotel room and much less time at the con than I hoped . Oh well.
I may post more opinions when I get home, but in general I think the joe club has done a great job pulling things together. Too bad I could not afford the full package (well, I could have charged it but financial responsibility won out in the end).
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Well the good news was that we were able to get a room at 9 am this morning when we arrived. The bad news is (and they did give me fair warning) is that there is construction going on in the room Right Next To Ours.
Since the boys don’t gave the stamina to walk the sale floor all day and we already hit the pool we’ll just have to deal with it.
Oh and pics, sent via the old iPhone are here.
More to come…
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Could not afford the full package so my three sons and I are in line to do the whole general admission thing. Unfortunately we got to the line late and there are tons of people in front of us…
There is a football parade here in downtown Atlanta so hopefully that will not put a damper on the turnout… More later.
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Wow, I’m glad I got there early.
Bythe time the doors were opened there was over 500 people in line, and the line stretched serpantine all around that side of the mall. A former Apple store employee sitting next to me said, “I had no idea that there’d be this many people here.”
I’d say a good three hundred or so did not get IN the store until after the first hour had passed, because the first hundred or so came in and, well, shopped. They fondled, mostly. Oh, I’m not judging, I was “stroking the Apple chrome” along with the rest of ‘em.
Even though I have an iPhone the Ipod Touch is a pretty little thing (first time I’ve seen one in person, and I can’t wait to play with the online music store UI more when it is availablle for my iPhone). The new nanos are really cute too. Not “sexy” like the mini or the last nano was, just cute. It’s the Betty to the previous version’s Veronica.
It’ll still sell by the truckload.
The real key to me is ebay. With an event like this, with 1000 free t-shirts given away, you’d expect some to show up on ebay almost immediately. Just checked – not a one posted, hours later. These folks are hardcore.
Anyway, if your too lazy to go to the pics I uploaded on flickr in near-real time via my iPhone (love ya open source guys! Keep the apps coming!) Here’s some of them:
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Joseph Dickerson is a User Experience Architect focused on improving the usability of on-line and mobile applications. With over a decade of experience in software design and user research, Dickerson has made it his mission to make technology easier for people to use.
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