Retrospacing

Armageddon Auckland October 28-31st 2011

2011-10-17T13:52:00.000-07:00

Well its that time of year again, we always start the planning just after the last, and before you know it, its here again!! This year should be interesting, four days this time, its the weekend after Labour weekend due the the Rugby World Cup (I'm a Sci Fi Geek, so I really should say Rugby World what??!). The Friday and the Monday are normal working days, so it may be less busy, but who knows, if I didn't run Retrospace, I would have been pulling a sick day to go see it anyway he he! We have a big booth this year, it is in hall 2, which is the same as the signing guests and its stand 88, which is in the centre of the hall, look for the Star Wars people all in costume in the middle and we are right opposite. We have two eftpos machines this year, so no need to worry about stock piling your cash, we also have the internet on our stand too, so if you want to check the availibilty on anything on our site you can, or even pay deposits for any upcoming release!
Four Dr Who guests as well this year, and we have the fully functioning life size Dalek back again! What a great job, we get to play with toys all day, and talk to great fans like yourselves, so do swing by and say hello!!

Armageddon Auckland October 28-31st 2011

Hours of entry are

Friday Oct 28th – 11am to 6pm

Saturday Oct 29th – 9am to 6pm

Sunday Oct 30th – 9am to 6pm (then open again at 7pm for the masquerade ball and burning man)

Monday Oct 31st – 10am to 5pm

Guests are:

Adrian Paul Highlander
Morgan Sheppard Star Trek, Doctor Who, Babylon 5
Alaina Huffman Smallville, Stargate SGU
Nicholas Brendon Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Kelly Donovan With Nicholas Brendon
Sandeep Parikh The Guild
Jeff Lewis The Guild
Louise Jameson Dr Who
Amanda Tapping Stargate SG1, Atlantis, Sanctuary
Mark Sheppard Battlestar Galatica, Supernatural, Doctor Who
Mark Ryan Transformers 1 & 2
Sylvester McCoy 7th Doctor Who

for more information check out:
http://www.armageddonexpo.com/nz/

Model X Queens Birthday Weekend 2011

2011-06-12T20:32:00.000-07:00

Model X was held over Queens Birthday weekend and we had a blast with Mark and his full sized Dalek, the Dr Who Fan Club and Retrospace! The Dalek did its job and scared the next generation of Dalek enthusiasts, poor Mark was much in demand for his next roll out performance!! Thanks to all the fellow fans we hung out with over the weekend too!

Armageddon Wellington April 9th 10th 2011

2011-04-12T19:55:00.000-07:00

The biggest crowd we had ever seen at the Wellington show, at one point they had to stop people coming in due to the over crowding! Many thanks to Chris, Wade and Kim for helping out, you guys thought we were going to have a cruisey weekend boo ha ha! Late Sun afternoon when it quietened down, I managed to sneek out to see John Leeson (K9 from Dr Who) highlight was when he broke into his K9 voice ohh the thrill he he :o)

Battlecry 2011

2011-02-22T16:30:00.001-08:00

We had lots of fun over the weekend at the Battlecry gaming convention in Auckland. The weekend consisted of Wargaming, Magic tournaments and all sorts! Next one will be Feb again next year :o)

Battlecry 2011

2011-02-22T16:21:00.000-08:00

Retrospace order form

2011-02-09T15:30:00.000-08:00

I've put together an order form of top Doctor Who items on Retrospace. I often have people asking for a wish list, so if you are hinting for presents, it could be a good way to tell people what you are after!

http://www.pdf-archive.com/2011/02/10/retrospace-doctor-who-order-form/retrospace-doctor-who-order-form.pdf

All the best
Rochelle

I love you, my dalek

2011-02-09T13:28:00.000-08:00

I love you, my dalek

LIZ WILLIS

Last updated 05:00 10/02/2011

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Ben Watson

TOP FANS: Doctor Who researcher and New Zealand fan club president Paul Scoones with his wife and fellow fan Rochelle

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Doctor Who fan Paul Scoones met his wife through his obsession with the world's longest-running sci-fi series – and now makes a living from it.

He's the New Zealand fan club president of the series and is paid to write information subtitles for Dr Who DVDs.

Mr Scoones came to the attention of the BBC through his club magazine.

Watching old Doctor Who episodes and researching them now helps pay the bills.

He has also been commissioned to write two books on the long-running Doctor Who comic.

Daleks and Doctors entered the Takapuna resident's life when he was six.

"Though terrified, I always wanted to watch it," Mr Scoones says.

"Most kids had a thing of daring themselves to watch," he says.

He'd started collecting memorabilia by 11 and the only Doctor Who-free zone in his house is the lounge.

Marrying a fellow Doctor Who fan didn't help.

Wife Rochelle's collection and sci-fi collectibles business competes for space.

The popularity of Doctor Who with a new generation helps them make a living.

Mr Scoones says the show is unique because you can change the entire cast, and people will still watch it. Peter Davison is his favourite out of the 11 Doctors for his understated nature and sly sense of humour.

The show kicked off in 1963 but skipped a generation when it went off air for about 15 years from 1989. It was initially loved for its creative, low-budget special effects but the Doctor's travels are now very high tech.

"Like any fans there is disagreement about whether it's good or bad. The majority of them have embraced it."

The doctor also became a sex symbol with the arrival of David Tennant attracting many female fans.

Rochelle Scoones was only one of two female fans when she joined the New Zealand club. Now the majority of fans are women.

Most fans were either single men or men whose partners couldn't stand the show in the club's early days.

Mr Scoones is delighted at the broader popularity of the series and says his young nephews enjoy old episodes right back to the beginning.

But for ardent fans like Mr Scoones there is sadness that there will forever be gaps in their Doctor Who collection. That's because the BBC destroyed many earlier episodes because the recordings posed a fire risk.

A number have been returned to the BBC, including a New Zealand print Mr Scoones tracked down.

Go to www.doctorwho.org.nz to join the New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club.

DR WHO GIVEAWAY

The North Shore Times has a tardis cookie jar to give away thanks to Retrospace Sci-Fi Collectibles.

Put your name and address on the back of an envelope and sent it to: Dr Who giveaway, North Shore Times, PO Box 33-235, Takapuna. One entry per person.

Entries close at 10am on February 18

Armageddoning

2010-10-27T13:21:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how fast these shows come up on us, I'm sure we just finished the Wellington one, but that was 6 months ago now, tempus Fugit ("time flies"), its like an old friend these shows, you like to catch up once in a while! I like to stress coming up to them, but once I'm in my zone, I'm away! This year was a first for us, I like to try new things each show, run it up the flagpost so to speak to see if it works, being an Auckland show, and our homebase, I decided to split us into three booths, not necessarily to divide and conquer, but to test how the product ranges work. That said you are also reliant on the guest mix too, this year off course we were lucky enough to have three Dr Who media guests, Paul McGann (Dr #8) Slyvester McCoy (Dr #7) and his companion Sophie Aldred (Dr #7s Companion), so being located right next door to them, we had purely Dr Who. It worked a treat, by far the mostly populated stand! Lots of Dr Who fans out there and it was great meeting people who had come from all over the country, and even to put some faces to names who are regular Retrospacers! The usual gamble with these shows is that the guest you have counted on coming for the show actually turns up, Armageddon had a total of 11 guests drop out this year, due to various comitments etc. The Twilight/ X Men guest dropped out at last minute, so I now have a surplus of Colouss bobble heads, but thats the nature of these things! I had the most fantastic team of helpers this year, David, Louise, Chris, Teagan, Rose, Mark, Andrew, Paul, Nicky, Taj, Rowan and off course my Paul. They worked their little socks off, these shows can be very demanding (I'm only getting the feeling back in my sore feet and my ears are slowly stopping ringing!), so many many thanks to you all!
The show is a full day set up for us on the Friday, so we trucked in three van loads of stock, and one car load of fixtures easily a 9-6 set up, and then straight into it on the Sat, the crowd hit us like a wall, they always have the 5 minute warning announcement that the doors will open, and you feel the adreline rush!! The first day was come and gone before I knew it. I missed all Dr Who talks and events, thats how flat out we were! Although, I could see the Dr Who stars from where we were, so I wasn't too disapointed! One of the highlights that day was the remote controlled life sized (or should I say Robot sized) R2D2, hanging out with the full sized and incredibly detailed home built Dalek made by Mark Hardgrave (who was actually inside it manouring it around), ones imagination could have swowen those two were real, I loved watching some kids go up to R2 chatting away to him!
Day two, before the doors opened to the public I needed to restock from Weta was is one of our suppliers, so commented how I'd ony seen the inside of our booth, so David Tremont who is a legend in himself (one of Wetas model makers) said have a look at this, and he produced out the Sonic Screwdriver that has been created by Weta for the 8th Drs Character, and was allowed to hold it, so I am going to have to admit, that was my most favourite fangirl moment of the show. Its a really nice job, created with descriptions out of the 8th Dr Novels, based on steam punk and Victoriana, and it so suits the character! It has a crystal in the end, held in place by a brass cradle and what one would describe as old fashioned wooden boat decking as strips down its barrel, truley inkeeping.
Day two was quiter than the Sat, but we still did pretty good! By this time, I was running between stands with eftpos terminals and re merchandising left right and centre, so much Star Wars stuff went it was spectular! I also managed to get out and see Annabel Grahams Whovian stand, a very talented lady who has taken her passion of Dr Who and created some lovely pieces of Who inspired jewellery.
Day three was when all the will to live had gone, they want to extend it to four days next year, holy smokes that will have to take some thinking about. Day three is always the slash and burn bargin day, so sales were higher than the Sun, but less than the Sat, its more fun as you are haggling more and you can feel the end of the show looming! Since it was the last day, I made a point of my autograph hunting, and managed to get John DiMaggios, Bender from Futurama autograph (he wrote ass on it... so awesome he he!) And yes finally I managed to get all three Dr Who actors, what a treat, I managed to get a few minutes with each chatting. I even got Sophie to call Paul the Fanboy of the weekend relating the story where Paul had trecked for ages to find the wall in Perivale for one of the filming scenes! Paul McGann is soooo nice, although the least screen time, he is definately up there as one of my favourite Doctors with his audio plays and lets just face it, hes not bad to look at!
So that was Armageddon for another year, as the show came to a close, we did some running around, setting up some new accounts with some new suppliers, so we will be loading some new goodies shortly. At this stage you always hope you can get the show packed up in less than what it took to come over, we managed to have it all packed down by 9pm that night, and went home happy and exhausted! But no rest.... next show is Freemans bay this Sat Oct 30th then Mt Eden Hall the following Sat.... who says we don't have a physical retail store!!!

International children's author Steve Cole comes to town

2010-09-10T11:44:00.000-07:00

Doctor Who writer Steve Cole visits Auckland today, and Retrospace will go and talk to him, to give you the inside scoop! A copy of the interview will appear on the blog in a couple of days!
Stephen Coles Doctor Who books include: Sting of The Zygons, Art of Destruction, The Vampire of Paris plus many others.

Steve Cole, is also the author of the Cows in Action, Astrosaurs and now Slime Squad series.

Steve will also be at:
Date: Saturday 11 September
Time: 2 – 3.30pm
Venue: Remuera Community Library, 429 Remuera Road, Auckland

Star Wars fan film - this is really impressive!

2010-09-09T23:25:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVnMxAZjMsI

New Doctor Who

2010-08-29T19:13:00.001-07:00

Next series of Doctor Who to be split transmission

From the BBC Press office…

The BBC and Steven Moffat have announced today that the transmission of the next series of Doctor Who, in 2011, will be split into two blocks, transmitting in spring and autumn.

The split transmission is the result of a request from Steven Moffat to write a new Doctor Who story arc which involves a big plot twist in the middle of the series. By splitting the series Moffat plans to give viewers one of the most exciting Doctor Who cliffhangers and plot twists ever, leaving them waiting, on the edge of their seats, until the autumn to find out what happens.

Steven Moffat said: “The split series is hugely exciting because viewers will be treated to two premieres, two finales and more event episodes. For the kids it will never be more than a few months to the next Doctor Who! Easter, Autumn, Christmas!!”

Toys Toys Toys

2010-08-16T22:17:00.000-07:00

Woo, I found some time to sit down and chat! As usual its been a interesting last couple of months with a few toy fairs we participated in, and the usual mountain of toys coming and going! Its definately been Dr Who month, with the first wave of the new Matt Smith figures hitting. As usual they weighted the boxes with ones of some and multiple of others! It was 12 in a case, one of Dalek Ironside, one of Amy, so they flew out the door. Our cases were
- Amy Pond x 1
- 11th Doctor x 3
- Army Dalek Ironside x 1
- Peter Winder x 2
- Hawthorne (Chief Winder) x 1
- Regenerating Angel) x 1
- Professor Bracewell x 1
- Regenerated Angel x 1
- Dalek Red Drone x 1

I was super lucky enough to have a friend attending the San Diego comic con, so for my own collection managed to get the Dalek Scientist (the orange one), the new two pack Planet of Fire (the Master and Peter Davison), which was great timing as Paul (my Partner) had just recieved his copy of the DVD, in which he had written the pop up sub titles for! And the Fifth Dr in regeneration outfit. I must say, where were all these toys back in the day! Not that I'm knocking the Dapol, as you took what you could get!

I was watching the San Diego Comic Con with interest, as we are in the last throws of organising our stands at this years Armageddon Expo in Auckland. I love seeing the production side of how shows roll out! We have managed to get near the Doctor Who stars attending, Slyvester McCoy, Paul McGann and Sophie Aldred, so its been order as many Sonic Screwdrivers as we can!! We should be up to about 6 staff this year, I'm pulling in all favours I know, although I think I just lost one, as he said he'd be where ever Kristanna Loken will be! (Terminatrix from Terminator 3).

Toy Fair Shopping

2010-05-03T20:16:00.000-07:00

I had been counting down to this weekend for quite some time. A three-day Retailers Toy Fair is held in Hamilton over the first weekend in May every year. This fair has displays by toy wholesalers and is an opportunity to view the upcoming season's tends or 'in-things', catch up with reps or just generally be a kid at look at lots of toys. This year's fair was no exception, crammed with about 50 of the leading toy suppliers. There was certainly lots to look at.
Particular highlight was The A Team toys, coming up in June in time for the movie release. There was the classic van, 4" collectors figures to the right scale to actually fit in the van and 12" collector figures, very cool! Corgi were well represented, and I went on a buying spree for the new release 1:36 scale diecasts and the smaller sizes as well, very nice new packaging.
It is often the case, that if the retailers don't pick up the lines, then they just don't get stocked. These fairs are always a good indication of what will fly, and what will just never hit the shelves. Although smaller than some international counterparts, the fair still enabled me to m ake reasonable number of purchases, so expect to see some goodies coming through on our website!

When I returned to the office I had quite a few overseas orders waiting for me to unpack. Here's the newly-arrived Seventh Doctor and Imperial Dalek - out of one box, and straight out in the mail again!

The Eleventh Doctor's Crash Set, a two-pack of the Matt Smith Doctor as both the 'raggedy Doctor' and in his smart new costume, also made it here in time for the new series debut on Prime TV this weekend just gone.

Behind the Madness

2010-04-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

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)