Merlin

In a land of myth, and a time of magic, the destiny of a great kingdom rests on the shoulders of a young boy. His name... Merlin.

As spoken by The Great Dragon Kilgharrah at the start of every episode of the BBC TV series Merlin.

Now you can get a poseable action figure of Kilgharrah, as produced by scificollector, together with characters from the series, Arthur, Gaius and Morgana.  Unfortunately Merlin himself has sold out, good warlocks are difficult to come by.  Gwen and Uther are due for release shortly.
 
These figures are of course available at Time Was... in the Buttermarket in Newark On Trent, Notts or online at http://www.timewasshop.co.uk/

Anne Stokes

Anne Stokes is a reknowned artist who has produced a lot of artwork for clients in the games industry, including illustrations for Wizards of the Coast's Dungeon and Dragons rule books and miniatures. Her artworks have been licensed on a wide range of merchandise including T-shirts, posters, book covers, calendars, jigsaws, tarot cards, sculptures, CCG sleeves, mugs, jewellery and greetings cards.

We have a large selection of her work on Mugs, Tile Trinket Boxes and Greeting Cards and Pictures available online.

http://timewasshop.co.uk/Anne%20Stokes%20Mugs.htm

http://timewasshop.co.uk/Prints.htm

http://timewasshop.co.uk/Greeting%20Cards.htm

These will make ideal gifts for Christmas, but hurry they are going fast from our shop in The Buttermarket, Newark On Trent, Notts and at toyfairs around the country.

Just in at Time Was...

Why not treat yourself to a Gothic Pendant from our ranges of Alchemy, Children Of The Night and Lost Treasures of Albion.

They can be found at www.timewasshop.co.uk/Pendants.htm These are high quality and highly detailed gothic pendants, go on Grab yourself a Bargain, you know you want to!!

Busy times

It's been a while since the last blog because at Time Was... we've been busy. Together with the shop we've also been up and down the country at various events. Some a lot more successful than others. But we've also been to the Autumn Fair at the NEC to find new products and these will soon be on the website, many are already in the shop.

New fantasy figures by Nemesis Now, new Beatles die-casts from The Factory, new Doctor Who Character Build from Character Options and many more. It's been so busy that we've not been able to get them on the website yet. These will be coming shortly and we'll keep you upto date.

We may be a bit slow, but delivery was only last week and it's better to be busy than not.

See you soon at Time Was... or if you are out and about why not try the Old Glory Wargaming show at Derby University this weekend, we'll be there Saturday and Sunday, but not at the shop.

Alchemy Pendants

The new Alchemy pendants are now in stock. Our prices at Time Was... are amongst the lowest, if not the lowest, on the internet.

Alchemy was founded in Leicester, England in 1977 by two self-taught artist/model maker/designers from Manchester: Geoff Kayson and Trevor Phillipson.
Their imaginative, high quality work and products soon earned them the attention of some influential and high profile clients. This established them in the, ‘promotional products’ business, designing and producing items as diverse as bronze statues, album covers, collectable giftware and Rock ‘n’ Roll merchandise.

Their jewellery pendants are much sought after and Time Was... bring you the best at http://www.timewasshop.co.uk/Pendants.htm

It's been a while

It's been a while since our last blog, but it's been a busy time although we did manage to sneak in a holiday to Rhodes. Hot or what!!

Look out for our new lines.

McFarlane Toy's - very rare set of figures, including the much sought after Red Riding Hood.

http://www.timewasshop.co.uk/McFarlane

New Alchemy pendants are on their way.

New Doctor Who items are on their way.

New Boardgames are here.

http://www.timewasshop.co.uk/Board%20Games.htm

Always lot's to get from Time Was... at excellent prices, but now even more.

Why not come to the Buttermarket In Newark and see.

On manoeuvres

Last weekend Time Was... was on manoeuvres with Battlegroup North at the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington just outside of York.

The Battlegroup had marched into town with their bands playing and tanks thundering along. This living history event happens every year and together with a wargaming event in the Canadian Memorial hanger it makes for an enjoyable weekend.

The weather on the whole was very good, alot warmer this year and it really only rained during Saturday night. As we returned on the Sunday morning many of the troops were coming out of wet tents and dodging the puddles on the ground, but were they bothered? It didn't look like it. Alot of them already had their rations on the stoves and the smell of early morning fried bacon and eggs was something to relish, and would make anyone hungry.

If you've never been to one of these events before then you're in for a treat. This year on the Saturday there was a flypast by a WWII Hawker Hurricane as well as a couple of jets, that we were a bit too slow in getting out of the hanger to see. The hanger contains the last of the Handley Page Halifax bombers in the UK, only one other exists and that's in Canada. The Museum is on the site of the old RAF Elvington station and still has many of its original buildings such as the Control Tower and Naafi, along with a variety of planes, but then you'd expect those at an Air Museum.

The Battlegroup themselves have plenty of jeeps, trucks and tanks from WWII along with other original equipment from both World Wars.

It's a very friendly event, the participants are there to interact with, otherwise it wouldn't be living history. If you come along next year we'll see you there as Time Was... will be back, for us it's a very good event.

Thanks to the Museum and Battlegroup North for an excellent event and thanks to someone else for some warm weather this year.

A Day At The Races

Sunday the 17th saw Time Was... for the first time at York Racecourse for a Toyfair. Quite a trip, 200 miles there and back, but it's really just up the A1 and the A64 so nice and easy. Despite it being in the middle of April it was very sunny first thing, whatever happened to April showers??? When we arrived we were near the glass fronted wall with the sun streaming in. Well after just 10 minutes of starting to set up, it wasn't just the sun that was streaming. It was just like being in a Greenhouse, thank heavens when the sun moved round and it cooled down. And they're off!!! Well so we thought, at 10 the doors opened, by 10:30 we had done £50.00. Not bad for a first time, beats the bookies any day. But by 2:00 pm we had done just £60.00 overall. It was like pulling teeth from a toothless bod. Could it be that the toyfair was predominately trains and our Doctor Who, Star Trek and Fantasy Figures didn't quite gel with folks or was it probably due to the nice sunny day? Either ways it wasn't busy at all, not many buyers about. Still worth a try, but we seem to have backed a half lame donkey yesterday. Still Huntingdon next Bank Holiday Monday, let's hope for better.

Memorabilia - NEC

The Spring Memorabilia event at the NEC was a busy old affair. Saturday was very busy but very tiring. Getting up at 4 a.m. is not everyone's cup of tea certainly not ours. But Memorabilia is one of those shows that makes it worth it. Plenty to see and plenty of buyers. After a slow first hour, which is normal, our collectable toys flew off the shelves, though the Fantasy figures didn't do so well, the Gothic jewellery did. We eventually had the best day yet at the NEC, pity the evening meal at our local Indian Restaurant with family didn't go quite so well. Three hours for two courses is well just tto much, though they were apologetic and gave us a couple of bottles as an apology. Sunday though was a different story, like a football match it was a weekend of two halves. Pity the half -time whistle came, since Sunday only produced a quarter of what we did on Saturday. No gothic jewellery went, very few fantasy figures and it was only the toys that kept us going. Still overall it was a very good weekend, but very tiring, Sunday night was a time for sleep.

Doncaster Toyfair Again

The last toyfair of the winter saw Time Was... back at Doncaster Racecourse for a toyfair organised by MB Toyfairs. Pity it wasn't spring as the folks who turned up kept their hands in their pockets to keep warm!!!

After nearly two hours those hands must have been burning as we had only done £3.99 and were looking at a Total Wipeout, though not the Richard Hammond version and that's bad enough. But we persisted with sitting there smiling politely to the window shoppers and even managing to chat to those who didn't have laryngitis. It paid off a wee bit as we did manage to sell a few more things. Not enough to make a profit but you can't win them all, we normally do very well at Doncaster.

Never downhearted Time Was... will be back there on May 29th.

But this weekend, 26th and 27th March we are at Memorabilia at the NEC. So we're closing the shop on the Saturday and hopefully be pulling in the shoppers at the NEC instead. And it will be spring by then, so warmer hands already.

Hope to see you there.

Hammerhead 2011

Kelham Hall, Newark was the venue for Hammerhead 2011 organised by the Gaming Club Network. A popular event with plenty of folks partaking in the wide variety of games that were being showcased, from War of the Worlds to WWI, from Cowboys and injuns to American Civil War. Quite a sprawling venue in what is an impressive building, if you get a chance to visit it then take a look. It is the Council Buildings for Newark, but you can arrange to have a look around.

Also present was the 'Tenth' Doctor and a couple of Daleks, 'real ones' as the Doctor said, not these new versions dreamt up for the Eleventh Doctor. As we had quite a bit of Doctor Who products we were situated near them, which allowed us to spread out quite a bit. And when the lights were finally put on people could actually see what we had.

The show itself was a big success with the games being well used, unfortunately as is the way of the world at the moment people were very cagey with their hard earned money. Plenty of folks looking but not so many buying. So not quite the success for us this time as in the previous Hammerhead, but we still did make a profit, albeit a wee one.

All said and done we look forward to the next Hammerhead in 2012.

Was it an omen?

Last Sunday saw the re-emergence of the Kettering Toyfair and as it used to be a good one we had booked our space.

The day didn't start well. Or more accurately the car wouldn't start so we had to upgrade the AA membership and have Homestart added to it. It took the AA just about 20 minutes to get round and a further 20 minutes to get the car going and ensure that nothing was wrong. Very good service from the AA.

So we made our way to the Village in Kettering, a quite pleasant journey, some nice views and villages to go through on the A43.

When we arrived we found that one of the two tables we had booked was missing, but that was soon sorted out. We had about an hour left to set up, which we managed to do. And then it went downhill quite soon. Despite two early sales, and then just four more, yes that was six in total!!! This meant that every sale cost us £10.00 each, needless to say we lost money.

What with the AA upgrade, the petrol and the loss in sales, perhaps we should have taken the car as not starting as a sign that we should have stayed at home.

New Year Hangover?? No VAT Increase!!

It's been a couple of hectic weeks for the folks of Time Was... what with Christmas and the New Year. After having been away at Christmas being entertained by Arthur and Co. we came back to a very disappointing Lincoln Toyfair on the 28th.

There were plenty of folks through the door, but they obviously didn't get much in the way of Christmas money as presents as all the traders suffered from hidden wallets. But then on New Years Eve it was the Doncaster Toyfair, and what a difference a couple of days can make.

Thanks to the new Doctor Who figures we had a very good day. Pity there can't be a Christmas Doctor Who special every week, but then we'd tire of it quickly wouldn't we?? So Bah Humbug to that idea. But it made a big difference as at the previous two fairs we had done there was not so much as a sniff at the good Doctor, but at Doncaster they couldn't get enough. Perhaps there's a shortage of Time Lords in Yorkshire.

We must be getting old but we only just managed to see the New Year in before settling in for the night. Or was it the wine?? Non of the 8% stuff we had at Christmas, but then again not too much of the good stuff either.

This weekend the 9th sees the return of the Kettering Toyfair, organised by Barry Potter. It's good to see it back after it was unceremoniously dumped by the venue last year.

There are also new opening times in the shop in the Buttermarket in Newark, it will now be open on Wednesday, Friday and Saturdays only.

And because we are nice folks at Time Was... we won't be increasing our prices due to the VAT rise that comes into effect today, we'll be absorbing it instead so we'll be even better value than before.