|
|
SHOW REVIEW: SALVO 1999By Gary LyonOn Sunday 17th October many intrepid members once again braved the wild world outside of Norfolk and went on a journey of many moons to deepest (and darkest) Essex. Their mission: to seek new figures and boldly purchase them! The show at Colchester has been running for some years now and is currently held at a large sports complex (which allows the more discerning of the members to ogle the bikini clad girls in the pool). It has a large (and free) car park outside and a McDonalds on the same site for those of us that needed loads of brownie points and so had brought their sons with them (no mention of names, but a certain Mr. AC of Lowestoft was a marked man after "accidentally" taking the wife's car keys on a business trip with him). Plus a very nice bar with a good range of food. The show is on a smaller scale than the likes of Colours, Triples or Salute, but larger than NOW and compares favourably with Newark. The bring-and-buy seemed a little thin on the ground this year (no better than NOW's) and had such marvellous bargains as a £50 DBA army (painted adequately only) and a £750 25mm ancient army which had some figures with broken spears and bows! Not surprisingly, neither sold. With items such on these on the bring-and-buy its not surprising that none of us bought much off it. The games were of a good standard (we put on the Doctor Who game) with Coltishall winning an award for their 25mm ACW display as featured at NOW ( I can't really call this a game, because I never saw any figures move). Next to us was balloon wars which won several awards and is the basis for our club's Christmas game. The stalls seemed to attract good business but 25mm seemed better represented than 15mm with only Tabletop (good to see their very reasonably priced figures back on sale at shows again) and Gladiator selling the smaller scale. It is a shame that, once again, Essex cannot support their local show. We had a very enjoyable day out and I am sure that we will be back again next year. |