MCM London Comic Con is done, the van is unloaded, and I think my body has finally realised we’re home again.
This one was a bit of a marathon.
We left Scotland at 6:30am on Thursday morning and finally rolled back home at 6:30am on Monday. In between that was 935 miles of driving, 21 hours behind the wheel, 13 hours of setup, restocking, and breakdown work, one deeply inconvenient bout of food poisoning, and 29 hours spent actively trading on the stand.
This year’s setup at MCM was one of the biggest we’ve done. More displays, more products, more stock, more moving parts. Dice towers, miniatures, cosplay ID cards, mystery bags, paints, accessories, and all the strange little hobby treasures that seem like a great idea to bring when you’re packing at midnight.
What people often don’t see with conventions is that the event itself is only part of the job. By the time the doors open, most traders are already exhausted. The build starts long before customers arrive, and the teardown happens when your body has already decided it would quite like to stop functioning entirely.
Still, MCM remains one of those events that makes the effort worthwhile.
The atmosphere is always excellent. Thousands of people excited about games, anime, cosplay, films, tabletop hobbies, and all the weird niche things they love. We met returning customers, first-time visitors who discovered us by accident, people hunting for specific gifts, dice goblins expanding their collections again, and more than a few people who looked at the stall, laughed, and said some variation of “I absolutely do not need any of this.”
They were usually wrong.
The cosplay ID cards were a huge talking point all weekend, especially newer additions and some of the more unexpected franchises. The mystery bags went down well, and it was great finally getting some newer display ideas out into the real world instead of just planning them at 2am while staring at shelves.
Physically though? This one was rough.
At various points during the weekend I lost my voice, survived largely through caffeine and stubbornness, attempted to trade through food poisoning, and reached the stage where sitting down behind the counter briefly felt like a life-changing luxury. Massive thanks to everyone who stopped by, checked in, offered water, painkillers, sympathy, or what I assume were last rites.
You helped.
Now comes the slightly ridiculous part.
Because while MCM is over… UK Games Expo is immediately next.
So the van’s unpacked, the workshop is already chaos again, stock is being rebuilt, new products are being finished, and preparations are underway to do it all over again in Birmingham.
I may eventually sleep. No promises.