Historicon 2003
Convention Recap

Dealer Area

by Russ Lockwood


In November, at Fall In 2002, the dealer area was a ghost town. At Cold Wars 2003, it was much better. At Historicon 2003, it was a feeding frenzy.

Bert Floyd (left, in checked shirt) of Historical Miniatures Unlimited shares a joke with MagWeb.com CEO Russ Lockwood (right, yellow shirt) while an unidentified young lad surfs some of the illustrations. Allen Campbell (background, gray shirt) of Rampant Lion is ready for action.

I mentioned to Jeff Valent of Piquet, "As wargaming goes, so goes the economy...because of all the things people have to spend money on -- mortgage, rent, car payments, food, kids' clothes, and so on -- wargaming is pretty near the bottom of the food chain, even when it comes to discretionary spending."

The reasoning, for me anyway, is that if you're like me, you have plenty of projects with tons of lead sitting in the closet. You don't exactly need more lead, but you want more lead...and terrain...and rules...and accessories...and...

Jeff agreed with that and noted that some of the new Piquet modules had already sold out by Friday afternoon!

I stopped by Bert's booth and looked over his glass-encased dioramas. He's quite the talented fellow. I always look at his work and wish I had a proper office building with a lobby...I'd put several of his creations there, along with works from other folks, too.

I also stopped and talked with the Norm and his next door neighbors, the Sash and Sabre folks. Both do excellent work in their respective trades. I later ran into Chris of S&S in the hallway--he was in the booth next to me at Borodino back in 2002. Dropped by to see Brian at Goblintooth. He was pretty happy his entry into the painting contest won a silver place.

I spoke with Baxter and John of FAA USA, and they seem to be doing well. Next door was John Hutt of Precision Products, one of the best kept secrets of the hobby. He sells sheets of glue-on terrain that really look marvelous. Many of the award winners at the show use his products--fast and relatively inexpensive. Sadly, I didn't make it to dinner with him as in years past, but we had the booth next to his at Origins about three weeks past.

Bob Hagerty of Imperialist Enterprises was another stop--he has a new line of 25mm Swedish troops for the early 1700s. He also graciously allowed me to borrow some of Featherstone's old Wargamer's Newsletter for scanning and posting on MagWeb.com.

Next stop was Keith and Annie at ATAK Miniatures, and their WWII line was doing well from the look of the line of purchasers. I spent some time at That's The Way It Was...aka...Brom's booth for a talk with Lori and Larry. Larry would enter into the picture later, but like all the folks I stop and see, are just plain knowledgeable and pleasant to chat with.

In any case, I stopped by The Last Square and picked up some goodies there. I must say I'm becoming enamoured with WWII for a very specific project. I picked up some 10mm Perrin miniatures, thanks to the good efforts of Don Perrin. Most folks I game with have tons of 6mm GHQ (1/285) and a considerable amount of 15mm. I know some folks with 25mm, but they do skirmish, so don't need a lot. I have some 2mm as well that I toyed with. It'll take a while, but we'll see how it turns out.

I stopped by George Nafziger's booth and picked up Book Three of the US Army series of WWII TO&Es that he produced. Like a dolt, I had previously picked up Books 1, 2, and 4, and I have enjoyed poking around them all--they are full of meticulous detail just for the wargaming community. Boy, did I miss Book 3. Fortunately, George had it at Historicon. As a customer, let me plug George's efforts. I bought the two hardbound German TO&Es (Panzers/Artillery and Infantry)--I think they were about $50 apiece. I know bits and pieces of this sort of information are in MagWeb.com, but for single source, er...sources as a basis of what unit had what when, these two volumes are exceptionally worth it. With that in mind, let me also plug the 4-book US Army set ($80). I'm sure you can research this information yourself, but let me tell you, I've been to the National Archives for research, and I don't know how much you value your time, but $80 is exceptional value to me. They are not fancy or glossy, but they got the information in nice big type (another plus as I age). I also picked up from George some OOB info printed out right there on the floor for you. I see him print out a lot of OOB. It's inexpensive and quick. Count me a very satisfied customer.

I stopped at GHQ's booth to pick up John Fernandes' new modern rules, but sadly, they were not out yet--looks like around the end of the year, probably in time for the holidays. If it's like his WWII rules, the rules are relatively short and sweet (GHQ was giving away "quick-play" versions at the show), but the TO&E information for every country takes up 3/4 of the book.

I picked up some other odds and ends at various booths, but those were my main purchases. I did notice the pile of purchases grew behind the MagWeb.com counter because Tibor and Bill and the three kids they brought were picking up goodies as well. I saw the raw pile of lead grow, although I can't remember of what, some books, a board game (I believe it was from Clash of Arms game), some bases from Renaissance Ink, and some flea market items.

I know I talked with other folks throughout te show, both in the dealer area and in the various gaming venues. It's a big convention.

MagWeb.com and WMD

Yes, I have to admit it, MagWeb.com gave away not one, not two, but three WMDs.

"Egads," you cry. What madness is this? There are women and children here."

The crowd on Saturday afternoon. Bob Coggins (black shirt and hat) draws tickets from the basket held by MagWeb.com CEO Russ Lockwood (standing on chair in yellow shirt).

Ah, but WMD stood for "Weapons of MagWeb Delight." In keeping with our "Knights of the Web" theme, we had a contest to give away three reproduction medieval weapons: broadsword, battleax, and hand flail (or morningstar). We had a standing display with a large Welsh flag as a backdrop and the usual "Show Specials" board.

We'd draw a winner on Friday afternoon, Saturday afternoon, and Sunday noon. The key was that you had to be 18 years old or older and had present to win.

One lad came up to ask for a free ticket. He looked on the young side, so I asked him how old he was. "17" came the reply. "Ah," I said with a sigh, "if you had only thought a little quicker. I'm sorry, but you have to be 18." He appeared a bit sad, but I quickly added, "But you were honest." So in recognition, I gave him a MagWeb ruler.

Another lad of about 11 or so came up to ask for a free ticket, but alas, I could not give him one either. "Dad..." said he, and Dad ambled up, so I gave a ticket to him.

And I'd like to recognize the tireless work performed by George and Linda Wisz. Not only do they coordinate everything in the dealer hall, they are unfailingly cheerful, and Linda really worked the microphone to help draw attention to our drawings and gather the folks who had tickets. Susan presented each with the MagWeb "Knights of the Web" collectible mug for their efforts.

Celebrity Drawer I: Jay Hadley (Friday)

Now, I could have pulled the tickets from the basket, but that wouldn't have been half as fun as having a celebrity drawer. Jay Hadley, the Scruby Award winner for 2003, and HMGS "lots of all behind the scenes work and little public praise positions for years" (I think you'll find that's every HMGS position in the bylaws) was gracious enough to accept another honor--drawing the ticket from the basket for the Friday 5pm time. I'm sure Jay has some other comments about this "honor."

Eric, the proud winner of a broadsword!

So, a group of 20 or so hopefuls gathered around the MagWeb.com booth and the drawing began. Hadley drew the first number...and nothing. The winner was not there. The crowd started to dissipate. "Wait!" I cried out. "You have to be present to win. Unless ticket number xxx is here, we keep drawing until we get a winner!"

The crowd realized--hey, they were still in it! And so another ticket was drawn by Jay. And another, and another. The crowd waited with anticipation. No one stepped up. They were still in it...5,6,7 tickets go by...Jay's making noises about being held against his will...9,10,11 tickets are pulled and not a winner...Jay's commenting that all I did was throw tickets into the basket for no reason...14, 15,16 tickets get drawn...No plan survives contact with the enemy...17,18,19 tickets roll by...I could swear I saw torches being lit and a few furtive looks at the "MagWeb cutlery"...finally, on the 20th ticket, a winner!

Whew! I can tell you that Eric was a happy guy, but that the really happy guy (besides Jay), was the son. I could see visions of knightly battles flashing in his head. He selected the sword and I put it in the box with its scabbard and taped the box up. The yound lad will have to wait until Monday to swing a four-foot sword.

Celebrity Drawer II: Bob Coggins (Saturday)

I have no doubt word of the MagWeb.com drawing spread far and wide that night. By the time you read this, it'll probably be recorded that hours rolled by and three attendees keeled over during the number reading. I can assure you it was only 10 minutes tops and that only two attendees keeled over--they weren't waiting on the drawing, they were just passing by and couldn't get through the knot of people waiting for me to call out numbers.

Chris, the proud winner of a battleaxe!

In any case, Bob Coggins agreed to be the celebrity drawer for Saturday. Evidently, I got to him before Jay did...

I saw some familiar faces in the crowd of 20-25 people, their faces set in grim determination to weather the storm of tickets that would be pulled. You see, in addition to the tickets from Thursday and Friday, which were placed back into the basket (hey, just because they couldn't make one drawing doesn't mean they couldn't make the others), there were the ones from Saturday as well.

Bob reached in and plucked the first ticket from the basket. He handed it to me and...the winner was not there. He reached in and pulled a second ticket, and voila! A winner! It was over too quickly. The crowd stood in stunned silence. Chris was a happy fellow and selected the axe.

Celebrity Drawer III: Larry Brom (Sunday)

The show ends at noon, so I thought it would be a good idea to have an end of show drawing. Hmmm. Maybe I should have held it at 11am. Well, grognards deserve the chance at a prize.

Patrick, the proud winner of a hand flail!

Only half as many as usual showed up for the drawing, which boded ill for pulling a winning ticket quickly, but well for the odds were definitely in the remaining folks' favor.

Larry arrived and drew and drew and drew. At the 11th ticket, a winner! The hand flail went to Patrick.

I'd like to publicly thank Jay Hadley, Bob Coggins, and Larry Brom for being the celebrity ticket pullers! And I'd like to congratulate the winners.

More Historicon 2003

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