Well, Vapnartak was , in my humble opinion (and you foaming at the mouthed fan-boys can bite me, if you disagree) was at the best bland. I heard more than just I saying this. My wife didn't even bother going to see her many friends in the hobby, which is saying a lot. Of course, if people come through the door and pay their £5 (cash only please) it's 'a great success'. I remember another great and now no more Northern show having a similar take on things whilst their Rome burnd and the bring and buy got fiddled... But that could never happen here could it? I confess that I looked at the list of traders and thought 'How bland...' and went twice around the tabletop sale, where, an entire section of tables were manned by dealers, who really should - if they were not already, and if so, I apologise - be in the main hall paying as traders, and incidentally filling some of the yawning chasm which I photographet just after 12:00 as we decided to call it an expensiv...

It's January, a time when I used to begin another 'campaign season' in the hobby by planning what I would like to buy at Triples in March. Alas, Triples no longer exists, but I do still plan a January to October 'campaign season' every year, for what it's worth, and I often begin with reflecting on how it was when I had £3 per week spending money and a head full of white metal dreams and printed paper aspirations. I had some excellent times in the early 80s, along with some awful times, but the latter took place in the  real world , so I wasn't really that bothered, because when life got shitty, I simply grabbed my denim jacket, hairbrush and whatever money I could scrape together, and went on a rampage in the world imaginary. Now, when I refer to Games Workshop in an 80s context, if you don't know what it looked like or that Warhammer was but a glint in a Nottingham accountant's beady eye back then, then go out an get a hold of 'The Dice Men...