The 24th MICA/MATCHBOX CLUB CONVENTION 4 APRIL 2009

By Kevin McGimpsey

I have just got back from the 24th MICA/Matchbox Club Convention held in Newport, South Wales. From all accounts it was one of the best ever!

Although there was a small band of collectors in the Hilton Hotel on the Thursday the official programme began on Friday 3 April. John Moore organised the Convention Toy show, taking over 3 rooms in the hotel. The standard and quality of Lesney/Matchbox product was unbelievable. The show lasted all weekend concluding at lunch time on the Sunday.

(Seen here are from left to right David Tilley, Rob Freeman, Gary Galvin and Nigel Clark)

Annual MICA Golf Tournament.

Some of us (8 men and one brave lady) participated in the Annual MICA Golf Tournament. Organised to a tee, excuse the pun, by Eddie Cooper, the trophy was won by Mike Searle in a not particularly high scoring game. But it was great fun and Mike received his trophy during the Saturday dinner.

(Seen here on the left Andy Daniels and on the right Jim Ashbridge)

The Convention Auction...

The MICA/Matchbox Club desk opened at 4 pm and conventioneers received their badges, auction catalogue…a special set of Y30 Mack Trucks were on sale and over 80 auction lots on display.

(Having a great time David Henson and David Tilley)

Great lots

These included: A 1976 Matchbox 1-75 Rotating Counter Display (featuring Superfast, Rolamatics and Streakers logos in good used condition. The display came from a small toy shop in West Street, Rochford, and Essex when it closed in 1986. Sold for £110; A very large 1-75 cardboard display stand circa 1960s in near perfect condition, measures approx 3 x 2 feet laid flat. Sold for £190; a Hilton voucher for a free weekend break for 2 people to include 2 night's bed, breakfast and dinner at the Hilton Hotel in Bristol. Sold for £110 (and another one in Belfast sold for £100); a #21 Rod Roller, an early model maker's prototype made mainly in brass, secured together by 1 tiny screw and 2 small bolts. Sold for £210; a selection of wooden and or plastic display stands from the 80s and 90s that sold for £30.

(Ron Burgess on the left, Gary Fagan from Canada in the centre and Jeremy Burgess on the right)

The 50 or so raffle prizes...

Barbara Birch was as usual in charge of the Raffle. The 50 or so prizes were of the highest quality with models for all tastes. The high light of the Ladies Raffle was a beautiful teddy bear crafted by Jenny Dunkley…it came with a Dinky Code 2 DY28 Stag in yellow with Matchbox Club web decoration. This prize was won by Mrs Hutson, whose son Anthony collects Dinky, a great mother and son team on the night! By the way Barbara has an uncanny knack of getting even the most resistant people to buy her tickets and it was good to see that over 90% of the conventioneers had joined in the raffle.

(Ron Calcott , Barry Scott and Paul Carr)

Afternoon talks...

The Hilton Hotel laid on a wonderful 3 course Carvery that evening and it was well supported.

The next day, the MICA/Matchbox Room opened at 9.30 to greet more conventioneers. A 'Silent' Auction of 10 lots took place in the morning and it attracted some heavy bidding. In the afternoon, I lead off the 2 talks. My theme was '25 Years of MICA and the Matchbox Hobby…some memories'. Assisted by 70 slides my power point presentation lasted 90 minutes, and seemed to go down well with the audience. Member Chris Kisko recorded the talk and it may be published in this year's Club Annual. Horace Dunkley was speaker #2 and he gave further details of how his massive Models of Yesteryear collection was to be auctioned by Vectis during the week preceding the 25th Convention in 2010. Horace by way of slides showed the audience some of the rare models in his collection, the theme being ones that had not come to auction in recent years.

Free drinks for everyone...

The Hilton laid on a complimentary drinks party at 6.15; this was naturally enough well attended. Paddy and Mo handed out the free dinner models at this time too. There were 8 types. Later in the auction, these sold from anywhere between £35 and £210. Dinner was called at 7.20 and our in house man of the cloth, Donald Keegan said grace.
(Stewart Orr and Susan Recchia)

I wanna tell you a story...

After dinner MICA NA President, Joe Recchia said a few words on the 2010 Convention. Being the final convention and the 25th to be held in the UK, he predicted that it would be a sell out, with many delegates coming because it was to be the last one. When I addressed the tables of conventioneers, I began with a story…a couple were to get wed in 3 months time at a hotel near Newcastle. With only 2 months to go, the bride is contacted by the hotel…another couple want the hotel the day of the wedding and they will pay for our bride's wedding reception at the hotel at a re-arranged later date. She says an emphatic no. Back comes the couple…and yes we will pay for the whole wedding…again the answer is no. Back comes the couple…and we will pay for the honey moon to the Maldives…no is the reply. It all goes quiet for a day or two but then back comes the couple with an offer that they will pay off the couple's £250,000 mortgage…the bride says yes and asks who are these people…is it a wind-up? The wedding hotel is the one featured in the Harry Potter books and the couple had promised their 7 year old son that he could have his birthday party there…and oh yes the couple were the…(I said who they were and if you want to know then send me an email).

(Horace Dunkley and Nora Leask)

The point of the story was to highlight that organising conventions is not as easy as some may think. I have now attended 41 of the 48 MICA Conventions and have organised 34 of them; this year was the first time that the hotel had double booked the event. Yes a wedding reception had our function room! And I only found out 6 weeks before the convention. In the end it all ended well but not after a considerable amount of stress and anguish. Each year we get fewer delegates and each year we obviously are getting older and older and that includes me and the convention helpers. I want our conventions to be remembered as being highly successful social occasions where the emphasis was on Matchbox and good fun. I don't want to see them wither on the vine and in time disappear into obscurity. The MICA/Matchbox Club Convention in March 2010 will be the last one, so let's go out with a bang rather than a whimper.

Maybe see you at the 25th Convention...27 March 2010????

(3 visitors from Ireland...on the left David Keegan, centre Brendan O'Brien and on the right Donald Keegan)