Chiller Spring 2009 Overview
Chiller Show is a different from most shows as it has two main aspects. The first is a dealers area which we see at all shows. The second is the appearance of various movie and television stars. In the old days the stars would show up answer some questions and then sign autographs. Now the stars come to sign an autographs for a price. I don't blame them as people having been buying and selling their autographs for years and they should get a share of the money. For some of the actors and actresses it is a way to make money off the show they were in. Most of these stars did not share in royalties from merchandising of their shows.
Chiller is the largest of this type of show on the East Coast. Laurie and I have been going to Chiller off and on for years. We have gotten some nice memories from meeting the stars. With my new schedule we could attend this year's spring show. With my new schedule we were able to attend on Sunday.
Chiller Spring 2009 was a different show than we had been at before. The show had moved to the Hilton Parsippany last year. A party that went last year told us he had a great time on Sunday. As we got into the show I could feel something different than previous shows. The crowd was off. You only had to wait maybe 10 minutes to get a star's autograph. I was told that Saturday was busy and there was a long line Edward Olmos. Also because this was his first time on the circuit he could charge higher than other stars. I was told Olmos was charging $40.00 where most stars were around $25.00.
The stars were divided into two areas one in hotel and the other area was in tent at the back of the hotel. The stars were from a wide range of television, movies and even wrestling. some of the stars looked good such Dwayne Hickman while others such as Tony Curtis it was the opposite. Some of the stars I would not had recognize if they had not had a sign in front of their table. A couple you could see that they had made this a business as they had various items to sell and get autographed. We did not get any autograph as there was no star that we really had to get their autograph. I took a bunch of photos to share with you of the stars.
The other part of the show was the dealers room. I had a pick up for a friend and I was able to get some items for resale. I noticed right away the dealer's room was off. The dealers were offering deals. Part of it could be the last day but the other part was I could feel sales had been slow. Laurie had seen a McFarlane Hanna Barbera figure she wanted. The one figure was available for $10.00. The dealer offer two figures for $15.00. This was one of the example we were offered at the show. I notice there was a lot more adult material for sale. In the videos one of the title was Bat Babe The Dark Nightie. The number of model dealers was down from previous years. What was there was impressive. For figure collectors, there were some Marx six inch but nothing unusual.
While the show was not as exciting as last one we attend, we will go back depending on who they have at the show.
I have set up two pages of the stars.