Behind the Madness

After much talk about always being too busy, I have finally bowed to the pressure and started this blog to share some of the behind the scenes goings-on and share with you all my enjoyment of being able to do a job I that really love!

I'll start a little on how Retrospace came about. It was always there somewhere in the back of my mind. I was heavily into Sci-Fi as a kid, I was one of the few girls growing up who considered Doctor Who was a role model, not just a galactic gypsy roaming around Time and Space, or just plain uncool! I was lucky enough to grow up in a house that had movie posters as wallpaper in the garage. My Father had at one point been a movie projectionist. In fact his family had owned the only cinema on Herald Island in the 1960s, so I was constantly fascinated as a kid by all these wonderful images on the wall, notably movies like This Island Earth, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman - posters I know that would now be worth a fortune!

I found my passion for hunting for collectibles from three sources. First off, born in the early 1970s I was the perfect age for the first release of the Star Wars figures. Being an only child, I had perfected the skillful art of the tantrum to get what I wanted. I remember them being priced rather high at about $5.99 (NZ) which was top dollar back then. Now you can get a coffee for that. The turning point was being faced with one lot of pocket money, and two figures to choose from: Princess Leia or Yak Face. Sigh, I wish I could time travel back and change my mind. To this day I still can't afford a Yak Face!

Secondly, just after that I discovered in book shops the Doctor Who Target novels. Just like the Star Wars toys, there were tempting clues on the back as what there was to collect. The thing with the novels back then, with no internet, just relying on the occasional magazine, there was no idea how many there were, and I do love a challenge!

The third vice that hooked me when I was young was the release of the Smurfs. Another collectible series related to what I had seen on seen on TV or the movies. That cemented it.
From then on I was part of the 'collect-it' generation.

Being an only child as I mentioned before, I had no siblings to compete with, and my parents were suckers (I mean very generous), so even though I was a girl, I had no trouble embracing everything that came along: Masters of the Universe (at one point I turned my bedroom into Eternia!), Thundercats, G-Force, Battle of the Planets, Transformers, Ghostbusters, Superman - you name it! Being a girl was no handicap, the toys had engaged my imagination, they were way cooler than Barbie in my backyard!

I'm not quite sure where I got the idea to keep stuff well looked after. I never really got rid of too much until I started to release that some of it was worth $.

In the 1980s my Dad had a stand at antiques fairs. I was the hired help, so early on I started to get a feel for marketing and selling. I started to bring along the occasional toy that I had spare to sell for a bit of money. It was at the Alexandra Park fair in Auckland that I met a good friend, David Boston, whom I still hang with to this day. David was also starting to deal in Star Wars figures. I quickly released that the more I sold, the more I could buy off him! It became a highlight each month, to bring show and tell items, and talk Star Wars and collecting. We then met other people who became regulars, so we slowly built up a little network.

In the late 1980s I joined the New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club, when it was being run out of Christchurch. They held chapter meetings and video days... yes, ye gads, videos!!
When it moved to Auckland, they were after volunteers to help staple and put together their magazine called TSV, so off I went and discovered more people just like me, with a love for Doctor Who and proud to admit it!

I won't go into too much detail, but let's just say, after making a Kandy Man costume (a Doctor Who baddie), I managed to snag the head of the Doctor Who Fan Club. We've been happily married since 1999! (If you are keen to read more here is the link to the magazine article in the Womens Weekly)

Wooh, so I now have a life that is constantly centred around Doctor Who every day! With being in the Fan Club for over 20 years now (OMG!), I would get stuff in for myself. This led to, fan friends saying to me, "well if you are getting one for yourself, can you get me one too?" and it went from there. I worked for Whitcoulls for six years and then got head-hunted for a mapping company who I was with for nine years and built up relationships with lots of suppliers in the book trade, then toy suppliers as well over those years.

I realised at the end of 2008 that I was doing really two jobs at once. So after helping launch a website for the map company, I used the same developers, Cactus Lab, to create Retrospace! I tell people that the 'Ro' in Retrospace is my name! I went on a small business course, and launched my company last year. Took the training wheels off the bike, quit the full-time paying job and here we are!

A year on (the first anniversary was in February 2010), I can mark off what I was doing this time last year, and see how much I have improved. As I keep building the business, I am meeting lots more new friends, even though working behind the computer all day. It is fantastic when we do the Armageddon shows in Wellington and Auckland to get to meet people face to face!

So there you go, I have started the blog. I hope my ramblings are interesting! :o)