Dispensor's trip to Melbourne for Toyfair

Toyfair was on last weekend, and Dispensor was there once again... tormenting humans and creating the usual havoc.
I had to join him to try to keep him under control, but probably had no effect on him.

Friday night, and we were off to the airport for a 7.30 flight, and we got there at about 5.30pm to make use of the Business Lounge. Since seats were short from all the people going down for the Grand Prix, I had to use my flyer points for the flight there and the flight back, and the only seats available at night on Friday were in Business Class... which gets you into the business lounge for free food, drinks (including alcohol) and entertainment (internet and papers).
The food wasn't as good as it has been in the past, with just a sandwich station (with toaster press) and a hot dish (stew with rice), plus some desert slices and cheese & crackers board.
I did up some sandwiches for myself, while Dispensor got stuck into some tasty caramel nut brownies... to keep up his sugar levels to produce all those soft drink cans he fires out of his cannon.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/d112.jpg

Nothing but the best for Dispensor, demanding to be seated in seat 1A of the plane to Melbourne.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/d113.jpg

I don't think I've ever been in seat 1A before, so when I was checking in, I had a look at what seats were still free, and swapped mine to that one... which had 1B free as well.

On the plane, the seat next to me remained empty, so I could put my toys on there during the flight (I was taking down several toys for Demonac and the Meet, and they were in robot mode, so I wanted to transform them into vehicle modes to reduce space).
As soon as we took off I turned on the TV screen from the armrest, and looked for a movie to watch. I was surprised to see the Star Wars Movie on there, but I guess it has been three months since it was in theatres.
All of the movies I wanted to watch were longer than 2 hours, and the flight wouldn't be long enough, so I decided to watch the shortest one on my list (The Martian) and just fast forward bits whenever possible. It didn't work, as I still had about 15 minutes left when we had to put away the TVs for landing, so I had to read the rest online.

Soon after we took off we got an announcement from the flight crew that the food had arrived frozen, and they couldn't defrost it, so would be giving people meal vouchers for when they get into Melbourne... but only valid in the International terminal as all the stores in the Domestic terminal would be closed by the time we land (at 10.30pm).
Honestly, I laughed out aloud, thinking that it was typical that I finally got a Business Class flight during a dinner meal period (to get a meal and not a snack) and wouldn't actually get a meal out of it.
Within a minute, the flight attendant for the Business Class (of 16 seats), came around and reassured us that it was only the Economy class meals that were frozen... we would have ours as normal.
Phew.
Dispensor would have been angry and I would have been the one to incur his wrath.

So dinner was started about half an hour into the flight, and I was in the middle of transforming Masterpiece Ironhide, and the flight attendant recognised it as a Transformers toy, telling me that he used to watch it and was now getting his young son to watch it.
I then pulled out Masterpiece Bumblebee in car mode and he recognised that one as well, so we had a little chat while he was putting together my meal (a mushroom and artichoke pasta dish).
It wasn't as impressive as I was expecting, as it didn't seem much different to an international flight meal. And he forgot my bread (I probably distracted him too much with the toys).
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/d114.jpg

Arriving at Melbourne at about 10.30pm (daylight saving time), I was the first off the plane... but while we were waiting for the door to be opened, I sent a text to Demonac to let him know that I had arrived and for him to start on his way to the Airport from his place (he lives about 20 minutes away).
He rang but I couldn't answer because I was talking to the flight attendant and didn't want to be rude. So when I was out into the terminal I rang him back and he said he was already nearly there, estimating what time he should leave home to get me soon after I landed.
But damn it was cold in Melbourne when I got outside, after seeing on the news that they were having a rather warm week. It was about 15 degrees with a wind blowing, and all I brought with me was shorts and t-shirts.

Demonac picked me up and we got back to his place at around 11pm (as he was generously hosting me for the two nights I was there), and we talked for about an hour (with him playing with the toys I brought down for him to check out).
He also gave me the RID Clash 3-step Optimus toy that Megatran had bought for me and left with Demonac.

After a short night of sleep we were up at around 9am to get ready and head into the city for the 10am meet.
Demonac is always great with finding free parking in the city, and after almost parking outside of a brothel, we found a backstreet near the convention centre.

We walked over to the Casino foodcourt and found M-bot and Chileno already there, and after unpacking my toys and posting up on the board that we were here, others started showing up as well.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/d115.jpg

Borgeman brought in some Mcdonalds Transformers from the 80s, Chileno brought in a custom painted Crasher, Jinto had a Legends Shockwave, while Kazza brought his EVA Convoy toy.

The Q-Transformers toys commandeered the EVA Convoy trailer.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/d116.jpg

At 11.45am I headed over to the Convention Centre to get our Hasbro guests, leaving people to keep playing with my toys.

It has been a while since there was another large exhibition on at the same time as the Toyfair inside the Convention Centre, so it was the first time that I can remember, seeing a huge crowd of people everywhere... and they were almost all super-bulked gym junkies for the "Supps R Us" Fitness Expo, featuring special guest, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
There were biceps and veins everywhere... and the guys were huge too. :p
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/d117.jpg

I didn't notice it until this year, but last year the Toyfair changed its name, replacing "Nursery" with "Licensing".

Outside the entrance to the Toyfair were the usual promotional displays by the main sponsors of the event.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/d118.jpg
.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/d119.jpg
.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/d120.jpg
.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/d121.jpg

And the entrance this year was all LED coated, with lights and images... which isn't easy to photograph.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/d122.jpg

I get inside (after getting my nametag), and on the way to the Hasbro exhibit I found this photo-op diorama... and since Dispensor loves the Lion King Movie, I had to take his photo with Simba... making us a little late.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/d123.jpg

Once at the Hasbro Exhibit it took me about 20 minutes to finally leave there with our Hasbro guests and head back to the meet. I sent a text to Demonac just to let them know that we were still coming.

The full details of the meet were posted in the News section, but it ended up being about 45 minutes at the meet with the Hasbro people and their upcoming toys... heading back to the Convention Centre (with my toys and Demonac) at about 1.15pm.

Demonac and I spent a couple hours at the Hasbro exhibit, asking questions, taking photos and fixing up their Transformers toys.
At about 3.30pm we had a wander around the rest of the Toyfair to see what interesting things were on display this year that we could actually see (the larger toy companies have enclosed exhibits now, with a front desk to only admit people who have an appointment... and you only get an appointment if you are someone they know or want).
Outside the Lego exhibit there was a table of lego tubs, and instructions to build your own Nexus Knights mini-vehicle to keep, which Demonac did for his own collection.

Just before 5pm we headed out and back to Demonac's place.

The next day (Sunday) we left late in the morning and did some toy hunting at Highpoint and Airport west (not finding anything for me to buy), before dropping me off at the airport around 3pm for my 5pm flight.
I wanted to be there early because I had a complimentary pass for the QANTAS lounge, and it expires this month.
It gave me the chance to see if there was any difference between the two Lounges, but there wasn't. There was the same foods and drinks stations, and similar seating and entertainment, so I don't know why they have separate Lounges when they could save money and just have the one. Maybe they used to be different, but over time they just got lazy or cheap and they are both now the same.

In economy this time, I was up the back of the plane, and on a window to see the sunset burning the clouds red while we were going over the Gold Coast. (it looked really nice to the eyes, but none of the photos I took turned out anywhere near as good)
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/d124.jpg

My typical bad luck had me grabbing a broken set of headphones at the departure gate, with the plastic loop snapped in half... so I had to wait until they were handing out headsets in the plane before I could plug it in to listen to some music (I don't keep music on my phone, or want to spend money on a music device and legal music downloads).

Back in Brisbane at about 6.30pm, I was back home by 7... with lots of work to do on my computer (only got about 2 hours sleep that night), while Dispensor was soundly asleep on his shelf.