1st Puppen Shop(p)en 2018

Today was the first Puppen Shop(p)en (puppet with a word play on sale and morning pint) by the Headblast Oberhausen e.V.. Between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. the club rooms were used to chat, browse and trade, near the huge shopping mall CentrO. Of course, no event coverage without the obligatory parking lot picture!

It was quite the relaxed route for me. More or less just roll onto the A3 and stay on it until the very last 12 km for a bit more than an hour, and *bam* I'm there. There are sufficient parking lots right next to the venue and along the street in the industrial zone.

The event was promoted in a couple of boards and on facebook. There is the matching group Puppen Shop(p)en as well, with an detailed explanation on how to get there among other information about the bring & buy. For a first time event it was quite busy, lots of folk looking for miniatures and quite a broad range of offerings, across different scales and settings. And the hosts took care of the visitors and traders as well, with coffee, cake and rolls.

A date between the holidays is a great addition to the bitbox, that is traditionally held in spring and autumn. I have some familiar faces, had a couple of chats about the hobby and bought some fine lead. The proximity to the Centro and the fact that the food court (called oasis at this mall) is open on a Sunday, was used for my first visit to Five Guys.I wanted to go there in Frankfurt or London, but couldn't make it. And this young fast food chain asks the questions that really matter, why not bacon on a milk shake? The burger may not be the best looking, but was one of the juiciest and best tasting, I had so far.

But back to the bring & buy and my haul. I used the facebook group to communicate what I was looking for before hand and by that, I could arrange some deals ahead. That optimised the haul quite a bit, but here are the details:

I browsed through a huge box at Ralf's booth (Fischkrieg) and found two ratling snipers from the 2nd edition of 40k. The two Chaos Space Marines (Tzeentch und Khorne) were traded with another visitor. At one of the hosts, Christian, I found this Mini-Art-Con show miniature from 2009 erbeutet and I made the big hit at Sven's with an old Forge World Chimera turret, a Griffon and a lot of older ork miniatures.

I did a trade with Gregor as well. He got my Lord of Ring lot, and I got a bag full of Imperial Guard.

There was quite a solid base to start from for Gaunts Ghosts, a couple of 3rd/4th Edition Catachan snipers and some old 2nd edition Catachans and Cadians. What I'm going to do with them? More on that next year.

My search was quite focused, but there was a broad range to choose from. Warmachine & Hordes, Flames of War, all kinds of Warhammer products, terrain pieces and rulebooks and supplements. Organisation was well done, the bring & buy had a lot of customers. The question is, if they have to switch to another venue, if more people attend next time. I like the date around the turn of the year, as it is easy to arrange for myself and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Have a great sunday. Come by tomorrow for the summary of 2018.