![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() by Roger Harkavy Photo Help from Ted Terranova
FRIDAY NIGHT: While discussing the next day's events with Ted Terranova, I watch the telephone pole down the street EXPLODE in a tremendous shower or green and blue sparks. After a full minute of astonished screaming peppered liberally with copious profanity (Ted listens without flinching, he's from Long Island), I hang up with him and investigate the situation outside. A tree has fallen across the road and whacked a transformer (the electrical type, not the Takara type). Looking at the wires strewn about, I realize that there's a good chance we will not have power for the Summit tomorrow. A bad omen? Feh. We don't need no stinkin' electricity for chogokin stuff.
In the interest of getting to a toy show early the next day, we sack out before midnight. Despite the sounds of chainsaws running down the street, I manage to get to sleep. 8-Chan visits me in my dreams. He talks to me, a feature I wasn't aware the toy had. "I like this place. I want to stay here. No matter what I need you to do, I will just ask and you'll happily take on the task! That's right - you'd do well to follow Matt's example! Clear a spot for me next to your VOTOMS kite." At 5:00, I wake up as a few of the lights come on. I check the thermostat. It's 53 degrees.
SATURDAY MORNING: Show time! Matt and I have no problem finding where it's being held. Each aisle there has literally tons of toy trains, dolls, and new Star Wars figures available at twice the retail price for stupid eager beavers. It's pretty dry for chogokin stuff, but we do see a couple of 24" Shogun Warriors and some of the smaller die-cast versions. Nothing too hardcore. There are grumblings among a few of the dealers about the Beanie Baby market collapsing... One thing this show is lacking: funnel cake. Being the stupid eager beaver I am, I pick up a new Star Wars Darktrooper figure. It's kick-ASS. I also snag a bootleg die-cast X-Wing (with the engines on backwards) and a Jumbo Machinder version of the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile.
![]() ![]() Summit time! Once again, Matt and I have no problem finding where it's being held. Ted, Marc, and Alex all show up in about five minutes, which makes for a really hectic round of first introductions. Pizza is consumed, the Harkavy Collection gets it's introduction in broad daylight, and I distribute the "convention exclusives". The guys seem really happy with these, and that makes me happy. If no one traded anything today, I didn't want people to come all this way and go back home empty handed.
Things calm down, we start talking about chogokin, the hobby, collecting in general. Time passes.
![]() ![]() The sun is set and folks are starting to disperse. Ted and Alex follow me over to Outer Limits, where we schmooze with Steve and talk about the kind of stuff that comes through there. Ted nearly gives himself a hernia hauling out three bags of really neat Spawn figures. Alex and Ted live relatively nearby, so I let them know that I can meet them the next time they hit Outer Limits. By this time, I am tired and hungry, but there is a definite sense of contentment that today's events constituted A Good Thing. The Summit was a success. People got to meet face-to-face, trade, but best of all, truly commune and commiserate about this hobby that Matt says "has our soul in a vice-like grip". I wouldn't have it any other way.
![]() ![]() Stay tuned for details on Northeast-Tristate Chogokin Summit 98 1/2!
-- Roger
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