Jim is off to the Dragon Expo to meet up with Vinnie, Vendors and... you! So you''re going right? Check this space as we will be doing updates from the show daily.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Have a safe trip.

Godspeed, have a great trip, good times, and please, lots of pictures for those of us (like myself ) that can't make this one!
~Gunny

Gimmie my over-sized Black Shirt Dude! Aww damn it doesnt work through the forums.

Enjoy yourself and will be looking forward to your updates with lots of photos hopefully.

Have a safe and fruitful trip to both you and Vinnie. Enjoy

So how did it go? I see you made it back in one piece Jim but i fear the worst for Vinnie who may have in true english fashion, gone on a Pub crawl and potentially missed his flight? :-)

Nah honestly, any photos to share cause im dead keen on checking them out.

Cheers!

Missing his flight? After a 'pub crawl'? Remember, Vinnie is from Northern England, where they drink their beer warm and undiluted... I don't think a few Miller Lite will cause Vinnie to miss his flight.. :-) :-) :-)

I don't think many of us realized that Vinnie is an international celebrity. When he arrives back home and is settled in maybe he will tell all on his celebrity status ....it's a great story.
Oh, I did mumble out the secret code phase and Jim Starkweather, gentleman that he is, provided an XL Armorama Tee!
Wish I could say it was over-sized but I will need serious dieting to get into anything smaller.

Wonderful show-great folks-spectatular models. I would guess that Jim took several hundred photographs which hopefully he will have time to post soon.

I leave you with a visual of Vinnie arriving at LAX for a 07:30 a.m. flight home with model kits, Lion Roar PE packages, more model kits protruding from every available space. Cyber Hobbies is going to re-name a warehouse in Hong Kong after him.

Thanks Jim and Vinnie for being so hospitible.
Cheers,
Charles

Based on the online store, i hadnt realised they were body fitting tees. :-)

Do you have any photos of the event though? Reason for my desperate pleas for these photos is that i briefly mentioned to SWMBO about going to one of these next year or the one after that and she was surprisingly keen. More so that we have never been to the states so going to such an expo would be an added bonus.

A small chunk of my next pay packet will be straight into the piggy bank for this event.

I have tons of photos as does Jim and Vinnie.
I think Jim is posting his as a feature pretty quickly. I will try to sneak a couple in soon.
Your wife will love this show because directly across the street from the venue is Disneyland. If you stay at one of the hotels in the same block as the Convention Center you really don't need a car for several days unless you decide to sight see in a different area of L..A.



From Left to Right:
Marcus Nicholls (Tamiya Magazine) Vinnie Brannigan (Armorama)
Jim Starkweather (Armorama) Loic Anthian (Great Models WebStore)

Ah thanks for that. Am looking forward to the models on display at this expo. Someone here mentioned that they are at different venues every year so its a damn shame that i missed out on this one as Disneyland is one of the motivation for heading up North.

I don't know anything about a venue shift. It seems like the perfect spot for the So. California show. I know they had one coinside with a IPMS show back east (Georga maybe?) But I was left with the distinct impression that this would be a yearly event in So. Cal. Maybe I'm wishful thinking?? As far as plastic models are concerned, this wasn't the biggest show as far as participation that I have attended but the level of build and finish was par-de-excellence.
Keep in mind that the plastic models and manufacturors share the show with the Battle Barbie's (or Action Figures if you prefer.) That apparently is a big portion of the show (most of the plastic folks didn't pay much attention to the Action Figure events and viseversa)
If you are looking for a purely Plastic show in California I would suggest TamiyaCon or if California doesn't matter there is MasterCon or AMPS or the IPMS Nationals

A couple of the models:

No but he might havesuffered mightily from all the bubbles/gas that seems to be in US beers...........maybe that helped the plane get home faster

Regards from the Swamp

Hawkeye

No I dont think that American beer will cause any difficulty to a brit, I think it is more that British beer makes Americans miss their flight.

John

Doh! You had to post THAT photo. I am in a daze and my hair is a fright. Hey that sounds very British... I think Vinnie/Marcus-speak is wearing off on me.

Yes there are lots more photos to come. Vinnie is working on a show report for tomorrow and I will upload more photos tonight.

Sorry for the lack of actual daily show reports. We were having too much fun I think (read we were too exhausted at the end of the day to do it).

Cheers,
Jim

Gald the two of you and the rest of the members had fun. I look forward to seeing the pics from the show. Will they be up in a feature or in the gallery soon? Cheers Kevin

Vinnie

Boy I feel dumb, I must have been paying more attention to the pics Thanks for clearing that up. Cheers Kevin

I thought we were going to find out the super secret Dragon release at the show. Did we? PLease don't tell me it was another Hanomag, Tiger, or Panzer IV variant

Steve, since the contest runs until June 30th, it would have been remiss of Dragon to announce it at the show? :-)

Vinnie

I don't even DARE ask for further explanation of this:



Rumor has it that security at LAX is still showing some loopholes.... :-)

Vinnie... looking very snazzy, dude!

Jim... sorry, boss, but I've can't resist... you definitely need a tan! :-)

Looks like you guys had a great time! Hmmm, maybe I'll make it there in a few years time...

How about we start up a competition to have the best caption for this photo? :-) Let me start off....

"So you reckon its best that i shoot Jim on the back do ya?" :-)

I can honestly say you all look good in those shirts.
Vinnie, as a man with the same hair cut, I need to ask:
electric or blade? :-)

au naturel?



-running to shelter-
:-)