mom@sfmag.UUCP (M.Modig) (02/21/86)
> > > Does anybody out there know of any good upcoming cons in the New York > > > City or Philadelphia areas? > > > > February 22nd and 23rd - Creation Conventions Sci Fi Con in NYC, > > Roosevelt Hotel 45th and Madison, special guest is Mark Strickson > > > > Tickets $9/day > > After seeing a pitch for a "Dr. Who convention" on TV last year, I > went to a Creations Con (about September?). They had one rather > small huckster room and two lecture halls. The huckster room was about > 75% comic book vendors. Most of the scheduled speakers were comic > book industry personnel. There was a costume contest, but the average > age of the entrants was about 14, quality comensurate with age. > > They showed a PT Dr. Who in its (3.5 hour!!!) entirety, no intermission. > The sound went bad several times, and I had to find a technician to > fix it... each time. > > The auction was fun; some interesting posters and scripts were sold. Also, > many comic books. To their credit, the auctioneers halt the bidding when > the market value of an item is reached. > > I would be delighted if someone would post to the effect that Creations > has improved its act recently, but based on my one experience, for a > Dr. Who fan it is not worth nine dollars. > > -Steve Miller ihnp4!bambi!steve There are definitely things that could be improved, such as the fact that the Dr. Who guest is usually only on for about forty minutes each day, plus the time it takes to sign autographs. Plus the videos are usually not taken care of very well and there is little variety-- they must have shown the Krotons just about every time they've had a con here in the past two years. And yes, there is a lot of comic book stuff around. But, at least at the New York conventions, there has been a huge dealer's area, and there has been more Who stuff available at these shows than at either of the last two exclusively Dr. Who cons held in King of Prussia; I expected there would be a lot of stuff for sale at those two big cons, but there wasn't. I've found most of the Dr. Who stuff I have from browsing around the dealer's room at Creation's New York cons. The Philly cons are another story entirely, there is hardly ever enough room. Also, while I dislike the short guest appearances, at least we get to see someone. Creation has been responsible for bringing in a lot of people connected with the show who would not otherwise have appeared here-- not only the lesser known, but big draws like Peter Davison. Granted, $9 is a bit steep. But compared to the ticket prices for other cons, such as either of the King of Prussia cons or Tardis 22, etc., it's rather cheap. These cons are strictly Doctor Who, they have better videos, more guests, bigger panels, etc., but they cost considerably more. You get what you pay for, and lots of people can't really afford the time and money to get out to a huge Who-only con. Personally, I had a lot of fun the first couple of times I went to Creation cons and saw people like Peter Davison and Louise Jameson, plus had a great time browsing. After that, when I had gotten a lot of stuff and wasn't really seeing much new stuff, or didn't really think much of the guest, it was definitely not worth it. So I would say that if you haven't been to one, you might like to go to one of the cons in New York (they're held several times a year) particularly if there is a guest featured you would specially like to see. Once you've been a couple of times, you're probably better off saving your money for a bit. Mark Modig ihnp4!sfmag!mom