After ridiculing Craig appropriately for thinking Doncaster was in Peterborough and York in Selby amongst other geographical anomolies (he doesn't get out of Hartlepool often, bless), and mishearing the call of the snack laden trolley girl on the train (don't ask), the journey was fairly dull and we arrived at King's Cross. Craig wanted to try to find platform 12A and go to Hogwarts but we managed to talk him out of that and just went to the underground instead, another new experience for our young sidekick. A quick journey down the Northern Line and a hop onto the DLR and we found ourselves outside the ExCel Exhibition Centre around 9.00 am, WOW is that a big place! I have to say that Salute06 was fabulously organised and I was very impressed at how easy it was to find the place we were allocated. I soon left my companions to wait in the QBuster queue (hmmmmm, it didn't totally bust it then) whilst I went to find Wizkids and set up the Heroclix demo table I was alloted to run for the day. This was really easy to find and I was soon mooching through the boxes to find some popular characters and building up the 3D buildings that were supplied for the day. Horrifically there was a purple ring KC Green Lantern (don't have him at all) that cried out to me all day to take him home, but I too have Willpower my friend, so he was returned to Jules with all the other figures at the end of the day.

Highlights of the morning were seeing Drew in his zombie make up (either that or he had a really bad night) and then as I went out to retrieve the spare QBuster pass I had stupidly bought before finding out we got an Exhibitor's Pass, I spotted Darth Vader and some Stormtroopers (and a Scout Trooper to be accurate) and was in awe. I tried to get a photo but the light in the foyer area was bad and it didn't turn out so I was a bit gutted and I quickly ran back to finish setting up my demo table. There was also a darn good looking Black Hawk Down game set up just near us but I was so busy all day (mostly) I didn't get time to get a piccie or a real look at it, I also didn't get to go round the rest of the Con so missed the obligitory Clout Demo (throwing things is always fun) or the skanking of any other daft and pointless freebies. Such is the lot of a volunteer, but I had a great day so ask me if I'm bothered (do I look bothered, am I bothered though? Go on ask me if I'm bothered!).

A really awful picture of the stormtroopers and I didn't have time for a better one so I was sad ...very sad some would say (and they would probably be right)

I am hoping that Drew knew he was demo'ing Horrorclix and decided to dress up for the occassion, as if not then he really isn't a very good morning person

As far as the Heroclix demos went it was pretty good, plenty of interest in trying the game and a couple of the people who tried went over and bought some stuff too. Marvel proved the most popular, so Spider-Man, Captain America and Wolverine saw plenty of use throughout the day. The 3D buildings we had for the day seemed to draw some attention too as a few people came over specifically to look at that and ask questions about it. It does look great, but in terms of actually adding to the game play experience it needs some tweaks before I am totally convinced.

After completing one particular demo (five players at once as it was in the busiest period of the early afternoon) I noticed that the gentleman who was playing in the demo had a black T-shirt with an embroidered stormtrooper helmet and TK 1307 below. Being a sad addicted Star Wars fan I put two and two together and guessed he was one of the stormtroopers I saw earlier (apparantly they are all part of the UK Garrison). I had a brief chat about stormtroopers (one of the greatest loves of my life) with him and he said that most of the guys had needed to rush off, but he was dressing up again later on and if he got time he would come over so I could get a piccie. Round about this time I also got a quick look at the Horroclix demo figures that Drew had been using and these look pretty sweet, cant wait to get my hands on some of those myself later in the year to plug the game, Cthulhu is another pet love I have (obviously I don't have a pet Cthulhu, your just being silly now ... although I do have some groovy Cthulhu slippers).

The Heroclix Tournament Event (with a Full Factory Set of Collateral Damage as the prize as well as some neat participation prizes) was the main event for Ste and Craig and you can read about how they faired here (assuming Ste ever gets round to doing this one ... I am still waiting for the last two). It did seem to finish quicker than I was expecting, which was good for them as it gave them some extra time to have a browse round the rest of the Con and see what was what. Of course the bad thing about having time on your hands at a Con such as this is that it tends to burn a rather large hole in your wallet, and so it was that between the two of them they managed to spend over £100 and claim a whole host of Wizkids Con Exclusives including Battlestar Galactica cards and tins, the Boachaun Pirate Ship (which Mr. Hunt very kindly donated to Gareth who I hear won the Fellowship Award in the Heroclix, WELL DONE Gareth, deserved as ever I imagine), MechWarrior Atlas and Mr. Hunt even came away with the most prized possession of a Heroclix Parallax too. Ste had bought a Drop Ship amongst other things at the Wizkids stall so there was plenty of air support to ensure Parallax had a safe journey home.

Here we see three eager youngsters enjoying a demo of Heroclix. There was a good amount of traffic through the demo table and hopefully some new recruits for the great game of Superhero Smackdowns, some even came back for seconds!

Colin did a great job in promoting MechWarrior with his Keep What You Kill 'Rumble In The Jungle' games, I'm just sorry I didn't get to have a go myself

Another highlight was to follow for Ste and myself as both of our names were called out as winners in the Spectre draw, HOORAH for us! So we both travelled home £50 lighter, but the Spirit of Vengeance richer. As the day drew to a close, there was just time to squeeze in some more Heroclix demos and as he had finished mooching Ste even did a couple himself so we could get more in, what a star! At 5pm the tannoy announced the Con was closing, after a sizable discount from one or two of the sellers which I again have no idea about as I was rather preocupied. Ste and Craig helped to tidy a bit and then left me to it so they went outside for some food and a drink whilst they waited for me to finish up. With Ste carrying a Double Drop Ship box (I bought the demo one at the end of the Con so added mine to his box) and a Sectre on top of his other goodies he looked like a fully laden pack mule as he marched out of the Con and went to face the underground looking like a maniac, at least he had two other maniacs with him though.

I finished packing up the Heroclix demo stuff and helped the other guys move stuff ready to load onto the van. At about 5.45pm we got a call from Jules saying he was a bit stuck with moving the van up so anyone needing a train would be best to get away and so I received his thanks, said farewll to my fellow Envoy Volunteers and set of to meet back up with Craig and Ste. They were waiting outside by a sandwich bar so I grabbed a coke, sandwich and crisps and joined them.

Once I was half way through eating my sandwich the others decided it was best we leave so we had planty of time to make the train, so I quickly scoffed the rest and stood to join them. It was round about this time that I realised the excuciating calf pain that had set in about 2pm from leaning over tables all day hadn't actually gone away at all, I had just learned to tolerate it as I sat down to eat and I really struggled to stand up again. Ouch! Oh well, no pain no gain as they say. So we set off back to the tube and, thanks to a couple of slight miscalculations on the route I managed to get a glorious picture of Taskmaster basking outside the Tower of London which will be available to see at Taskmaster's Travels very soon.

Here is a six story construction of the 3D buildings I had at my disposal on the demo table. It's available soon and there will be other types of buildings to follow as well

Finally hunted down for crimes against fashion on over 30 planets, Judge Crimson Duck is arrested and sentenced to a humiliating photo at the hands of TK 1307 and his partner. These suits were awesome, they even had the voice units ... I WANT ONE!

A quick trip into the twilight zone of managing to get on the wrong line entirely despite us all checking the signs was realised after a few stops (probably about a 100 yards in London distance) at exactly the same instant by myself and Ste. Craig claimed Monkey-hanger ignorance and a lack of travelling experience for still not realising we were on the wrong line. After correcting ourselves we arrived at King's Cross and thanks to earlier distractions (ok cock-up's then) we didn't have too long to wait for the train to arrive. It was pretty busy this time and had two very strange Mackems (Sunderland fans for you Southerners) who had travelled all the way to Portsmouth and then left early and missed the winning goal ... odd to say the least, but then it was Portsmouth who scored it so they didn't miss much.

The journey back North gave Craig the opportunity to catch up on lost sleep and dream about his real life in World of Warcraft that he would soon be returning to. It was an uneventful trip in the most part as we guarded our haul of goodies in the overhead storage and chatted about what a great time we'd had and listened to Craig's intermitent nonsense between his catching z's.

Ste Hunt's proclamation of the yellow line that "It's a circle" is steeped in fact, but was less than profound as the line is named the 'Circle' line. He won't be living that one down!

So I got back to Hartlepool and dropped Craig of before I finally arrived home at 2 am, just a 22 hour shift and nothing compared to the efforts of 'Hoomin' who travelled to and from Scotland on what was about a four day journey!

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Click the Spectre logo here to see why we were so excited to be winners in the draw and amongst the first people in the UK to own this lovely Convention Exclusive.

A grand day out that we all enjoyed and we were all pleased with our booty. I would definately recommend Salute 07 to anyone who was unsure if it would be worth attending, it's very well organised and there looks to be loads to see and do (and get free or for cash).

WELL DONE to Jules for co-ordinating us all and to all us envoys for the hard work we put in! I am off to play with my Spectre now, see you at the Nationals.

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