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Post by shaggydave76 on May 16, 2024 18:57:23 GMT
Another local (well, local enough for me to get to) toy fair this weekend at Sandown Park, Esher.
Kempton Park's 'Big Brother' toy fair and not one I've been to before, but from the information I've seen on it, they have a good 500 tables making it definitely one of the larger toy fairs, and only 100 or so tables less than the NEC, so I'm expecting good things from this one.
From the videos I've seen of previous fairs there, it does look like a biggie, with plenty of sellers of Transformers and it's local enough to London that some of the bigger Transformers retailers like 'The Space Bridge' often attend.
Anyone else going there this Saturday 18th May?
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Post by shaggydave76 on May 18, 2024 19:41:15 GMT
Quick review.
Actually, really good, but with a caveat.
LOTS of sellers and on a par with the NEC but a bit more spread out throughout the building, so you really had to take a good couple of hours to walk round and really cover everything.
Disappointing on the Transformers side of things, though. I spoke to one Youtuber, and he did mention that the regular sellers couldn't make it this time. Quite a lot of G1 stuff though. I was tripping over G1 Optimus Primes, Metroplex's, Skorpinok's and Fortress Maximus's...mostly big box figures.
Someone had a stall full of 3rd Party stuff too, but 3rd party isn't my thing.
I think I'm done for Generic Toy Fairs for this year, even though it's been fun.
I'd rather save the money up and try to get to TFNation or a proper Transformers Exclusive toy fair next year.
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Post by The Doctor on May 18, 2024 20:58:24 GMT
Those of us at Toy-Fu would glady sell you toys at TF Nation!
-Ralph
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Post by shaggydave76 on May 19, 2024 8:18:58 GMT
Those of us at Toy-Fu would gladly sell you toys at TF Nation! -Ralph I'm sure you would,,lol!!  Serious question, though. How come guys like yourselves tend to Only sell stuff at the more expensive Conventions like TF Nation? I'm assuming it's seriously expensive to hire a stall/table for the event (Not to mention seriously expensive just to get in!), whereas you could part with just £65 and have a table at Kempton, Sandown, or the NEC, where they literally have thousands of potential customers through the doors all day long. It's also usual a tenner or even less to get in. Sandown yesterday was £7.50 entry, and the queues outside were comparable to the NEC! |
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Post by The Doctor on May 19, 2024 8:30:30 GMT
We are all unpaid volunteers doing this in our spare time for fun/raising money for Mary's Meals. It's not practical to do any more.
-Ralph
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Post by legios on May 19, 2024 11:33:20 GMT
There are also the costs of actually getting to be considered, as well as the available time for an all-volunteer contingent - Kempton or Sandown would involve train travel going through the Greater London area, which gets quite pricey and only increases the further one comes. For a lot of the volunteers the need to be there early enough to get set up would also mean at least one nights accommodation near the location would be needed - possibly two if travelling a longer distance. In practical terms this means that volunteers may not be able to afford to commit to something because of the costs incurred - especially in more economically restricted times.
There are also demographic considerations - there may be a larger potential audience at a general toyfair, but what proportion of that is interested in Transformers. How does that compare to the potential customer base at a more focused event where the vast majority of folk in the dealer hall are likely to be interested in Transformers? (I don't know the answer to this, and I'm not the one who makes those sort of decisions - I'm just a minion, at best perhaps a named henchman. But I would have thought that this factors into the decision as well.
Both the logistics of doing something, and the tradeoff in terms of potential audience size for what we offer are almost certainly a factor in these sorts of decisions.
Karl
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Post by shaggydave76 on May 19, 2024 16:03:07 GMT
Ahhh, Sorry Ralph and Karl.
I do apologise. I thought you were an online shop, or a physical vintage toy shop, something like The Space Bridge.
I had no idea it was a charity/fund raiser/for fun sort of thing.
Well done for being unpaid volunteers, though.
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Post by The Doctor on May 19, 2024 16:14:11 GMT
Yeah it's 100% for charity. None of have literally made a penny from it.
If any of us want stuff from the stock, we pay the same rate as a regular customer.
It's just enjoyable to do.
-Ralph
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Post by legios on May 19, 2024 18:36:57 GMT
Ahhh, Sorry Ralph and Karl. I do apologise. I thought you were an online shop, or a physical vintage toy shop, something like The Space Bridge. I had no idea it was a charity/fund raiser/for fun sort of thing. Well done for being unpaid volunteers, though. No worries. And you've nothing to apologise for. No reason that you should have know after all. And like Ralph says, it is something that is a good thing to so - for a few hectic days a year I get to do some good in the world, hang out with folk and soak up the convention atmosphere. It's fun, and achieves something useful - two things that are so rarely combined into the same thing in my life.  Karl |
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