Another year has flown by and I found myself driving the family up the A34 towards the Hilton Birmingham Metropole so that they can indulge my ridiculous robot habit. It has also been a year since my last post, which also happened to be about attending TFNation 2022.
I spent the day travelling up on Friday, a mistake I have rectified already for next year. Now more and more people are making a full 3-day weekend of it, and TFN are putting panels and activities on for Fridays, some of which I was gutted at missing. Oh well, we live and learn!
To be perfectly honest, I didn’t make it to even one panel this year, which is unusual, but with needing to keep a 9 year old entertained and not just spending my money in the trader hall, I had to spend a bit of time outside. I also had to feed the family, which is a lot more economical to do outside of the hotel.
I also managed to spend a not unreasonable amount of time socialising this year, I feel like I found my people a bit with some of the members of the Triple Takeover Discord, joining them felt like reconnecting with old and familiar friends, rather than people I’ve only communicated with at a distance via the internet. I’m not the most sociable person, especially in the post-covid world, so this was very welcome.
The time felt like it flew by at the con this year, never a dull moment even when most of it was spent in the trader hall. Lot’s on offer again this year including a lot of G1/2 and old merchandise, the stuff that really ticks my boxes. Good, minty G1 especially is getting harder and harder to come by in the UK, so when people start liquidating collections like this there is a lot of competition for the best bits. Unfortunately some disappeared to dealers on the friday before trading opened to the public, but, this always happens and you know it will pop up for sale somewhere else soon after the con and a potentially inflated price.
In summary, for all the parts of the experience that were directly TFNation related, it’s a 10 out of 10 for me. It’s a shame that the Hilton itself is becoming a money pit, but that doesn’t take away from the convention experience.
Now, most importantly, the haul!
Toy-wise I picked up:
Ratchet, G1 MB boxed
Bumblebee, G1, carded, red variant
Cliffjumper, G1, carded, yellow variant
Sparkstalker, G1, sealed carded
Off Road Patrol, G1, loose
Hurricane, G1, sealed carded
Combaticon set, G2, sealed carded
Eagle Eyes, G2, loose
Skram, G2, sealed, GIGI carded
Turbofire, G2, sealed
Meanstreak, G2, sealed GIGI carded
Staxx, G2, sealed, GIGI carded
Optimus Prime, Machine Wars, sealed
Sideways, Armada, sealed
Art haul:
G1 Thrust commission from Nick Roche
G1 Misfire commission from Jack Lawrence (still in progress)
Prints from David Cousens
Prints from Nick Roche
Prints from Steve White
Many many random things from the wonderful folk of The Forge!
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