OTSN 2007
OVERVIEW
We had not planned to go to OTSN, but after the loss of our friend and mascot Jasmine, we needed to get away. Laurie's boss had two tickets that we could use for Chicago so we decided to go to OTSN. Since we did not know whether or not we could get it together, we did not tell anybody that we were going to be there because I had to get the time off from work. I was able to get a couple of days off but not Sunday. We decided to go anyway and not say anything to anyone and surprise everyone.
We arrived on Thursday afternoon and checked into our hotel. After relaxing from the flight, we headed over to the show. The first room we stopped at was Ron Barzso's room. We complemented him on his fine new playset Robin and its Castle. Ron had placed a large display in the lobby, approximately eight feet by eight feet. After that we walked over to TSSD's room and saw Nick's and Deanna's new mounted Civil War figures. After a pleasant talk we went around the building and saw other rooms making a few purchases. In our wanderings we ran into our old friend Freddy the Clown. After getting tired we headed back to our hotel.
Friday after having breakfast we went back to the show. We walked the other floors seeing more people and the various rooms full of figures. The Hyatt at Woodfield has one of the strangest floor plans of hotels we have ever been in. If you don't know how the floor plan works you can easily get confused and lost. We stopped in various rooms seeing more old friends we had not seen in years, in addition to various people we see at east coast shows such as Alan Ford and his lovely wife. I bought some old items and a few new items from Steve Weston including his Mexican peasants. These are nice figures which we will be reviewing soon. Our last stop before taking a break was to stop in Conte Collectibles on the first floor. We were able to take pictures of the many new items of Conte Collectibles including the new plastic articulated Spartan figures. These figures have ball joints in the figures so you have movable arms, wrists and also some figures the forearms will move as well. The heads come off so you can switch them between figures. With this new system you can make many different poses. The room was overwhelming with the various items on display.
After several hours of walking around the show we took a break and did the Woodfield Mall which is right across the street. I had to get a gift for a friend and I always follow my parents philosophy of sharing the trip by making sure that part of the day was Laurie's . I sat as she checked out various clothing stores to see if see could find anything. After a pleasant walk around the mall we returned to our hotel for a rest.
Before heading back for the evening show we went to Houlihan's for dinner. We had always enjoyed this chain restaurant and were surprised how the good the food was. The salads with the meals were not the typical tossed you usually find and our main courses were nice and tender. Going back to the show, we did another circuit looking for any bargains, which I am sure we missed some. The rooms were not as hot as the previous night. One person had come into the hotel with a car load of playsets the night before which he wanted to sell for $3000.00. In the load were Untouchable and Ben Hur playsets. We did not hear whether anyone bought it. The room trading seem off. Many old faces were not there. Rooms we went into before had the same items we had seen the night before. We did get a few foreign items from Rick Braccamontes including three Hong Kong copies of Lafredo figures. We also found Gary Linden's room. Gary did not have much in plastic as he had not gotten out to the flea markets. We walked around until we got tired and then went back to our hotel.
The next morning after having breakfast we did one final round of the show before heading to the airport. I had stopped buying as we had no more room and I had spent my budget for the show. We said our goodbyes to various people and went to the airport.
As to how the show was on Sunday we will have to wait for reports from other sources. I did read in one report that a dealer thought the line waiting to get in was shorter than at previous OTSN shows. The people who attended on Sunday had a chance to see Ron's castle display in the lobby and the displays from Conte as he did not move out of his first floor room which was across from the show entrance. This year the dealers did not have to contend with other affairs going on at the same time as the show. On the other hand many of the people attending the show had to deal with problems with their rooms. People did not get their room they had booked a year in advance or they were supposed to have three adjoining rooms and had someone in the middle of their rooms. Part of the problem was the hotel had recently been sold prior to this year's show. The new owners have an attitude of filling rooms and not caring about the needs of the customers. Laurie will tell you this is prevalent in the hotel business and let the promoter know this.
Because of the problem we had years ago at the Hyatt we will not stay there. The hotel we had for the show this year was not far away and we got free breakfast and drinks at night. We paid about the same for the room, if not cheaper than the Hyatt and didn't have any hassles.
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