It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine…fine…

R.E.M.

Armageddon is THE convention to attend if you’re interested in meeting stars from TV and movies, the focus is on fantasy and science fiction. There’s several different dimensions to the weekend. You’ve got shops both online and bricks and mortar setting up stalls so you can buy. There are artists and authors, some of the more well-known will hold signing sessions while the others will be trying to flog their works. There’s the fan clubs who wander around in cosplay trying to induce others to join them. The cosplayers themselves who either buy costumes or make their own – these people gather together to show each other how they look and to get very excited together, they will even get together for photo shoots. Then you’ve got panels with the various stars, fan clubs and the Cosplay Parade and Contest and finally, you can pay to have your photo taken with the star of your choice or get their autograph.

Armageddon is a lot of fun. This is was the first year I went for me, previous years I’ve attended as part of a committee, to sit on a table and entice people to join or to wander around and look conspicuous so it was an interesting experience to attend just as me and this year I went in mufti…I stood out. So, so many people cosplay at these kind of events, it seems to be a place where if you’re interested in dressing up then you can do so with impunity and have so many people enjoy your work. You’ve got the people who want to blend in and just do some makeup and then you’ve got others who go all the way and all you can see is costume. This lovely lady was somewhere in between and caused much photo taking and excitement I stopped her to ask for a photo and someone else took one as well.

This lady made sushi out of felt for her hair. I was blown away by the inventiveness but she assured me she’d pinched the idea from someone on Etsy.

I attended three panels this year, three more than normal and thoroughly enjoyed each one.

Norman Lovett

He was interesting as he came on and started doing silly stuff immediately, this is him making rabbit ears with the  projector. Lovett was the original Holly, the computer on the first two series of Red Dwarf and also in series 8. The first thing he did after doing rabbit ears was to ask for questions, he did do some talking before the questions but he asked for our input first. I thought that was interesting for someone who’s a stand up comic. He was very funny and I’m glad I was there, he’s a legend.

Dwight Schultz

Dwight Schultz played ‘Howling Mad’ Murdock from The A-Team from 1983 to 1987. His talk alone was worth the money for the entrance ticket and everything else was a bonus. Schultz was very entertaining and apologised at one stage for talking too much but I don’t think anyone minded. He answered every question as fully as he could often dropping into many accents in order to do so. I learned a lot about working in the movie business from him.

Barry Bostwick

Brad Majors from Rocky Horror Picture Show! He was different, much more relaxed than the other two and didn’t even go up on stage but stayed down on our level even coming down the centre aisle to listen and answer questions a couple of times. I was  sitting in the centre aisle and was so close at one stage I could have reached out to touch him without leaving my seat! One lady was dressed as Columbia so at the end he got people up in front of the stage to do The Time Warp, one bystander got the video from Youtube onto the monitor so there was something to dance to, during Columbia’s tap dance solo she was pushed up on stage to do this solo and then got a cuddle from Bostwick!

I will write more in due course about a couple of different aspects and include more photos in due course.