This is a sight to bring a joyful tear to any gamer's eye; the dealer's room. I don't have the con experience to know what a lot or a little is, but it did seem there wasn't much room left in the dealer's room to squeeze much else into. There was a good-sized back corner that was relatively vacant, but otherwise booth to booth, stall to stall, this place was heaven.
Not only do you get to see all your favorite manufacturers in the flesh, but you get to see all of their beautifully painted samples too. Here you see some of the fantastic cavemen from Acheson Creations as well as some of their mammoths and mastodons. More on this below.
Eureka Miniatures' Jurrassic Reich figs...simply delicious
More Eureka goodness; Frog-riding, err, Frog Warriors!
Eureka's Turtle Tank!
Brilliant zombie diorama at the Miniature Building Authority booth
More MBA diorama goodness, what a great way to show off!
We're going to switch gears a little bit here and head over to the "flea market" area. Not a place for dealers and vendors, but for the regular gamers like us to show up and put their used stuff on sale. As you can see from the awesome Alien apparel above, anything and everything goes. I personally didn't see anything that grabbed me and I "just had to have", but many did. Sure the Sulaco hat and jacket would be cool, but I don't see myself actually wearing it any time soon. Other than that, lots of used minis, armies, and the like could be found.
Everyone loves free stuff, and that's what I got here! Toys for Tots was present, selling raffle tickets for loot gleaned from vendors at the show. I had my pick of the table when my ticket was drawn and among some very good prizes I had to opt for Wargames Factory new Greatcoat Troopers that are "so hot right now". Besides, I fondled this box off and on in the dealer's room over the course of two days.
So here's my loot haul, frankly an incredibly modest loot haul. It's no secret I was on a budget going up there, so I had to restrain myself as much as possible. Top right you'll note an old box of Star Frontiers miniatures. I'll have to do a separate post just for this purchase since it's kind of dear to me. Below that you'll see I snagged the Hell's Highway sourcebook for Flames of War to accompany all of my British armor, or I should say armour.
Scattered around are various dice I got, some pretty normal, others with things like a d10 that's labeled in Hebrew or Spanish. I even found some cool d8's that told compass directions and a d12 that was labeled with body parts. You already saw the box of Greatcoats, so that leaves us with the big pile of figs up top. I went cheerily to the Acheson Creations booth and picked up Neanderthals, giant Irish Elk, a huge Mammoth, and a Woolly Rhino. The last critter wasn't in stock, but they were cool enough to offer to ship it to me for free post-con.
So that's about it. I didn't have a ton of pics, but I felt there were enough to 'subcategorize' them here. If you're attending a con you always want to set aside a little bit for just such an occasion, at least put back more than I did! I was a tad disappointed there weren't any more incentives at the booths to buy there at the con as opposed to online, but I guess if nothing else you don't have to pay for shipping. Having said that, some kind of "con deal" would've been nice!
A fine score of loot if I must say so. Let me know what convention you plan on hitting next year. I am hoping to score a major weekend with the other WWPD:NFTF gang .... we could team up again !
ReplyDeleteThat's a tidy pile of loot. Well done. Thanks for sharing those great photos!
ReplyDeleteGreat to see Eureka Miniatures getting a great rap there! I live 10 mins from the store down here in Aus, Nic is a real pleasure to do business with.
ReplyDeleteI am so jealous. After talking with Richard, the sculptor of those cool prehistorics, and through him Craig at Acheson, it'd be nice to get a chance to run into them at a con.
ReplyDeleteThe dealer's room in the pic is a lot bigger than anythign we get in these parts. Bigger than GameStorm, though I'm not sure what Enfilade has to offer as I've never been.
I've never encountered con deals in dealer rooms unless you are willing to haggle or on the last day of the dealer's room. The dealer's are usually paying a tidy sum for their space and need to make that money back, however, after a long weekend they are often willing to cut a few deals if it means all that less stock they have to try to pack into the vehicle and schlep home.
-Eli
The dealer room at Fall In! will be much bigger than the one at Enfilade (which is a great regional show you should catch sometime).
ReplyDeleteThe pictures don't really capture the full 3D magnificence of the dealer area. I refer to it as CandyLand for Gamers. And the Dealer's area for Historicon is even better - not only is that little back corner Mik mentioned filled up, but the walkway above (where Wargames Factory was set up) will be filled to the end and some dealers will even spill over into the lower floor of the golf course pro shop next door.
You can find a few deals if you know where to look. There are sometimes show specials, but these are typically package deals on certain items rather than blanket price cuts. MBA terrain often has lots of show specials and closeouts - I scooped up a big barn from these guys for only $50. Some dealers will run discounts though. Miniatures of Chesapeake was running a blanket 20% off of Battlefront stuff through the whole con.
The HMGS cons though are mainly a place where historical gamers can actually see and touch the products they want to buy. The range of options available means that unlike Warhammer or the other few popular SF/Fantasy lines, few LGS will carry a lot of historical miniatures on the shelves (other than a few ranges like BF). Even if getting things from the FLGS, you are often ordering based on pictures from the web - if you are lucky. But at the HMGS cons lots of the companies are there and you can actually look at the minis - and once that "Oooo Shiny" feeling takes over, there is no need to offer a discount. Plus a lot of companies roll out there new products at the HMGS shows, so it's even shinier.
PS Congratulations Mik on scoring a prize from the Toys for Tots raffle. I'm 100% sure you can find a good use for those cool Shock Troopers. I didn't win any prizes, but it was a good cause and I did get the pair of Toys for Tots d6's for buying 5 tickets.
ReplyDelete@Joe: It might be some time before the next con, I think I'll be taking 2011 off due to the baby, but look for me at Historicon or the like in '12!
ReplyDelete@Black Bob: Yeah, their booth was one of my favorites, they really are a good company.
@Eli: I'll have a post with Acheson's stuff in it later this weekend, I picked up some Neanders and various mega-fauna critters.
@Brian: Man, it was good to see you, we should've coordinated better (and I needed to have been feeling better too). Your comments, as always, are right on the money and ooze with wisdom. They ooze so much wisdom you should get a salve!