Carbonite Collector

16/06/2026

Brian Johnson 1939 - 2026

Very sad news about the recent passing of Brian Johnson the British award winning special and visual effects designer and director who for over 40 years provided his services to a multitude of film and television productions. I only met Brian the one time at Echo Base Live in 2018, it was a pleasure to meet him in person and add his autograph to my collection.

Brian won an Oscar for special visual effects for Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back & Alien, and won a BAFTA for Aliens. A truly great British artist, rest in peace.

25/05/2026

MCM Comic Con London was a hive of scum and villainy on the Saturday. It was an extremely hot day in London and the event was packed.
I was only attending for a single guest this year, K-2SO himself Alan Tudyk. I had previously met Alan back when Rogue one came out and had a table photo signed, this time I had a lovely Topps 8x10” and my Andor season 2 poster.
There were an array of Clone Wars voice actors also attending, Ashley Eckstein, James Arnold Taylor & Dee Bradley Baker but no budget for those guys at this time🙁
I got to the event at Midday and Alan was on lunch till 2.20pm, so I had a wonder around.
I noticed the queue building at about 1pm and so decided to join.
I got to the front of the line at 4pm, three hours standing in line in the heat, ready to pass out!
When I got to the table Alan had an awesome team of people with him, handing my items and pinpointing placement and pen colour. I shook Alan’s hand and had a brief chat and he started to sign my Topps photo, I had requested a quote “I find that answer vague and unconvincing”.
At this point there was a small disaster, the paint pen pooled paint out onto the photo!
Not a problem I hear, the lady next to him (possibly his wife) removed the spill with tissue and hand sanitiser, perfect to start again.
Alan completed the quote beautifully along with my Andor poster and a R1 poster for a friend.
A long wait but a lovely meet and greet with 3 very nice autographed pieces completed.

19/05/2026

LIVERPOOL COMIC CON & STAR WARS FUN FAN DAY EVENTS REVIEW:
It’s been a busy month so I’m only just getting round to reviewing my amazing weekend a couple of weeks ago. My annual trip north to my two con weekend did not disappoint.
This year I only required one Liverpool guest following Venessa Marshall’s cancellation. Tiya Sircar the voice actress of Ghost crew member Sabine Wren from the Rebels animated show was my only target. I had two 8x10” Official Pix photos and a mini poster with Steve Blum & Taylor Gray’s signatures already in place. As you can see from the images I also requested a quote which came out beautifully, I did unfortunately get charged an additional £20 for the quote but really pleased with the result. Tiya was very pleasant to meet, I would have loved a selfie but I was unwilling to pay £50 for that pleasure.
We left Liverpool and headed to Blackburn for the SWFFD meal with the stars,
“A night at Canto Bight”. This is my favourite annual Star Wars social event. Every year I have the pleasure of spending an evening with all my Star Wars friends/family, eating, drinking all whilst raising money for a great charity. This year’s event was a massive success with the amount raised being an amazing £12,011.25 for East Lancashire Hospice. This year the celebrity at our table was Andor season two actor Alex Waldman who portrayed Lieutenant Krole. Alex was great in Andor and had a very challenging scene which was the first of its kind in Star Wars, Alex had a good chat with all of us at the table.
The silent auction this year had some truly amazing items, Brian Herring & Dave Chapman had donated some Cast & Crew items and they were truly unique items and drew some considerable interest and raised a good amount for the charity. The meal was lovely as always and was followed this year by the opportunity to experience casino tables like those at Canto Bight, very enjoyable. Some lucky individuals won some fantastic prizes in the auction and raffle with some really amazing items up for grabs.
A great evening spent with great people.
We were up early on May the 4th in order to queue up outside the SWFFD event and take photos with all the costume characters parading outside.
This year’s event was for the first time spread evenly over two rooms, with guests in both.
My tick list of guests to obtain autographs from this year totalled 6. Most of my autograph interactions were from Andor actors: Anton Valensi, Alex Waldman, Richard Dillane and Dave Chapman. All these guests signed 8x10” photos and most added quotes upon request. The only original Trilogy guest I acquired was Mike Carter - Bib Fortuna, I added him to my Return Of The Jedi quad poster using gold paint pen.
I finished up the day looking around the many stalls filled with Star Wars merch and picked up a SWFFD patch for my collection.

03/02/2026

Festival of the Force Convention Review:

On Saturday 31st January I embarked on my first convention of the year, an early start for me as it’s usually Echo Live in March.
Festival of the Force is a new convention only in its second year and my first time attending.
The event was held at Newark Showground, just north of Nottingham.
The guest list has doubled from its first year with 14 Star Wars guests signing at this years event.
We travelled the three and a half hours to the event by car and were greeted by free on-site parking, a luxury at any con.
The event had sold out and that was evident when entering the car park, it was packed, lots of SW cosplay characters emerging from their cars.
A short walk to the main hall and a short well organised queue and we were in.
The hall was packed with people but as we soon found, a well organised lay out had been established.
The autograph area was really well laid out and queues well formed, time to join a queue and start prepping pens and pieces.
I could see that after 15 years of collecting I was finally going to meet Paul Springer who has been away from the circuit for many years. I joined Paul’s queue and prepared two action figures and a Celebration 8x10” photo to be signed.
I told Paul I had been waiting to meet him for years and he apologised for cancelling previous appearances and being away from cons for so long, a really nice gentleman.
Paul completed three beautiful signatures, I obviously sealed the meeting with a photo, so very pleased to have met him a last.
Next, onto Robert Emms, Lonni Jung from Andor, I had a photo printed and a quote prepared, signed using Medium & fine white paint pens, it looks awesome!
Next was Silas Carson, Ki-Adi Mundi from the Prequels. I added Silas to my Ep1 Teaser poster, Silas was great to chat with as always and such an exquisite autograph.
Lunch time came around and the event had a great onsite cafe serving hot and cold food at very reasonable prices. The burger and chips were lovely and there was plenty of seating to sit and enjoy your food with friendly staff.
After lunch I completed my last couple of autographs from Paul Kasey (Rogue One) and Garrick Hagon (Red Three Standing By!)
With all autographs completed we were able to have a leisurely walk around the merchandise stalls, it was great to see a huge number of stalls with such a great range of SW collectibles on offer, not just Funko’s. There were some great fan produced replicas on display, from set design objects right up to full sized droids and even a rancor.
I had no expectations of this show and for a Star Wars only themed event it was totally awesome. I shall certainly be attending this event again, save your Christmas money for this one next year!
Congratulations to the organisers for a superbly planned and executed event.

22/01/2026

Whilst the convention circuit is quiet for me at this time of year my thoughts moved to my in progress multi signed projects.
Here is a collection of some of these projects, some completed, some in their infancy and others waiting for the odd name or grail signer.
There is much to consider when starting a signing project, the average age of the actors you want to add and how accessible they are would be my main considerations.
You have to accept that some projects may take years to complete and unfortunately due to the passing of some actors, some projects have to be retired before they are considered to be complete.
Adding the last name to a project is very satisfying, many of my projects remain incomplete due to cost restraints and access to certain actors, fear of shipping projects to third parties is another factor.
What are people’s thoughts on multi signed projects, what are your item preferences, posters, photos, helmets? Let’s see some of your projects, big and small, I love to see other collectors pieces.

10/01/2026

I’ve just heard the sad news that the wonderful Michael Henbury has passed away. I had met Michael many times over the years and he was such a lovely guy. This last meeting was in 2023 at LFCC, sadly now my last time meeting him, what a smile!
Thinking of his family at this sad time.

22/11/2025

Liverpool Comic Con Winter 25 Review:

Only the second time attending this event and both this year. I particularly like the venue at Liverpool with plenty of onsite parking and no queuing to get in.
I was originally only going for two guests but on Friday night I was the lucky winner of a competition in the Elite Cantina autograph group. I won an 8x10” TFA Falcon cockpit image signed by Brian Herring the BB-8 puppeteer & a free John Boyega autograph ticket for collection at Liverpool on the Sunday.
My main priority was meeting Genevieve O’Reilly and adding her to my many projects. I have been waiting for Genevieve to do a show ever since the release of Rogue One.
I had for items to get signed, my Andor Season 2 poster, my Rogue One Celebration mini poster, a Topps Authentics 8x10” from R1 and a Rogue One mondo poster for a friend.
I was the last person in Genevieve’s queue before it was cut for her lunch. I had a good amount of time to get my paint pens and items prepared before arriving at her table. I had five different paint pens so it was a bit of a juggling act.
When I arrived at the table I had a lovely little interaction and asked her if she was ok using a selection of my own pens.
Genevieve very kindly added a quote to my R1 8x10” which reads: “Despite what the others say, war is inevitable”
My next guest was Alistair Petrie and I was also adding him to my R1 poster and a Topps Authentics 8x10” of General Draven. Alistair completed a great quote on the 8x10”, writing: “There will be no extraction. You find him… you kill him.”
I joined the queue for John Boyega whilst he was talking at a panel which was being shown on a big screen in the centre of the room. I waited about half an hour before he returned.
I had found 16x20” photo of Finn holding a saber from TFA at a merch stall and decided I’d rather get that signed than the TFA cockpit 8x10”.
John seemed nice enough and signed my photo in gold paint, he has a very quick graph and the pen skipped a bit but still a nice result if not a little small on my large image. I had requested a quote but John joked “Wow, that’s like the whole script” and declined to complete it, it was two lines!
Due to my budget and some fairly unreasonable charging I was unable to get a selfie with the guests at this show. I am still a strong believer that if you purchase one or more autographs and in some cases 3 or 4 a free selfie should be included, charging upwards of £20 is unreasonable.
Liverpool is a very well run & organised show organised by Monopoly Events. For anybody planning on going to one of their events always preorder your autographs online prior to the event, they are at least £5 a graph cheaper this way.😃

11/11/2025

Surrey Star Wars Weekend Convention Review:

On Saturday I travelled to Weybridge Technical College for the greatest gathering of Andor guests since the completion of its production.
This event was split over two days with Saturday providing 16 Andor guests and the Sunday a mixture of a further 18 original trilogy and other Star Wars guests.
Arriving at the event at midday it was really busy, the hall was quite small and the autograph aisle was narrow and very cramped, making prepping a real challenge.
I decided to start with my two identical 10x20” ISB Table projects for myself and a friend.
Having added the first two names in September at Invasion, it was time to add another 6 guests.
I loved the ISB agent meetings in Andor, they reminded me of the iconic scene from A New Hope with Vader force choking Motti on the deathstar.
I had marked out a specific spot on the project for each and every signer even though at this stage I have not yet identified all of the actors.
Each of the ISB agents were a pleasure to meet and were impressed by the project. Jon Cass & Nick Owenford assisted me with identifying some of the other actors but I’m still a long way off identifying all of them.
I attended a panel of the ISB agents at 2pm, it was fascinating to hear the btc stories from the actors. The main theme of the talk focused around the stringent security measures during the initial recruiting stage. The production used the code name “Pilgrim” to hide the nature of the production and the actors had no idea they were auditioning for a Star Wars show. The lack of scripts and detail about the characters and story almost deterred some of the actors from committing to the roles.
I returned to the autograph aisle following the panel with my selection of 8x10” photos at the ready, I had printed and prepared these prior to the show.
At this point it had quietened down and I was able to politely ask a couple of the guests to write me a quote alongside their signature & character name.
Anton Lessor and Ben Bailey Smith completed awesome quotes from the show, I was particularly pleased with how these turned out. The writing on this show was so fantastic, capturing quotes from the actors themselves felt like creating someting historical. Other Andor actors like Jonjo O’Neil, Alistair McKenzie, Jonathan Rhodes, Toni May & Joplin Sibtain signed my various 8x10”s with some fantastic results.
I was unable to attend the show on the Sunday which is a shame as I would have loved to have met Koo Stark in person as this was her first ever show, hopefully not her last.
I think the venue needed to be bigger and better laid out but the show really delivered on the guest front.
This year is winding up but I still have Liverpool CC next weekend and “Thank The Maker” in December, so watch this space.
Congratulations to the organisers of this event, I look forward to next year’s show.

22/09/2025

Due to a ban on phone use at the event I was unable to provide any videos or photos from Invasion so here is the official video:

Starfury: Invasion 2025 was an event celebrating Star Wars, with a particular emphasis on the Disney+ shows such as Andor, Ahsoka and The Mandakorian. It was...

22/09/2025

Starfury Invasion 2025 Review:

I had been looking forward to this event all year following the show’s announcement of Diego Luna.
I have never attended a Starfury event before and as conventions go it’s a completely different beast.
I felt a lot less prepared than usual running up to the show with the full autograph price list and schedule only being released 48 hours prior to the event.
I had already printed a great selection of 8x10” photos for this event and planned pen colours for more of the images than I needed in case I changed my mind on the day.
I was already quite apprehensive due to an extensive set of rules and restrictions mainly regarding phone use and strict entry time slots to autograph sessions.
I had established from the schedule that the two mornings of the event were solely for photo sessions with the afternoons set aside for autographs.
I arrived at the event at about 10am and completed registration, collecting my badge and wristband, I also redeemed my preordered autographs and purchased “Badgers” for all the extra autos that I needed over the weekend. I had plenty of time to meet up with friends and grab a coffee before hitting the autograph trenches.
I lined up for the 12noon to 3pm session which included Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Ivanna Sakhno, Wes Chatham, Paul Darnell, Katy O'Brian. We were the first in line at about 11.45 and were ushered into a holding room next door to the signing room.
Once inside the room you were able to chose any of the five guests to queue up for.
Time to prep pens and items for my first choice Natasha who was so lovely. Natasha signed my Ahsoka poster and an 8x10” photo.
Once my first guest pieces were completed I just joined each of the other four lines in turn until I had completed all items for all five guests.
This process went so unbelievably smoothly, I had been worrying unnecessarily, great organisation and planning had clearly gone into this. There were drying table provided to sort your stuff after each guest, they had thought of everything.
Time for a spot of lunch before queuing outside the next session, 3pm to 6pm Diego Luna, Denise Gough, Robert Emms & Elizabeth Grullon.
We joined the Diego line after the Gold who had priority, the line was long but moved swiftly.
We were told that due to time restrictions there would be no personalisations or quotes.
Diego looked very happy to be signing all the different items and was signing with his character name included.
I had Diego sign my season 2 Andor poster and my Rogue One Celebration poster, both came out beautifully. I very nice interaction getting signatures just where I wanted and with my own pens.
Unfortunately due to time constraints we were not allowed to queue up for Denise or Robert, autographs were done for the day.
We went for dinner and returned for the cosplay contest at 8.30, this was lots of fun. Day one was rounded off with drinks in the bar of the Hilton with a group of friends.
Day two started similar to day one with coffee in the lobby with friends. The first session of the day was with Elizabeth Dulau who was originally supposed to attend both days but due to filming was only able to sign for two hours.
I knew that it was going to be impossible for her to sign for all the attendees in this time.
I made it a priority to hover around in the hallway waiting for the Gold passes to filter in and be one of the first standard guests in her queue. After about an hour of waiting we were aloud to enter her queue. Elizabeth was so friendly, another lovely interaction in which I added her to my Andor season 1 & season 2 posters. Elizabeth’s autograph was wonderful and included character name, although we were told no character names or quotes as she had to leave earlier than expected.
Lunchtime at Starbucks across the road and back ready for the final autograph session of the weekend, 3pm to 6pm Kyle Soller, Denise Gough, Robert Emms & Elizabeth Grullon.
Kyle was Gold only at the time I entered the room so I joined Denise’s queue first as I had four items for her to sign.
I had previously met Denise at Celebration and she was just as lovely as the first time we met.
I added her to the Andor poster, my new ISB table project and a wonderful 8x10” with quote in White Edding pen.
I also added Robert Emms to the ISB Table project.
I had nothing for Elizabeth Grullon to sign but as she was free I got her to sign my Invasion programme.
Last but not least was Kyle Soller and his queue was huge. We were told again that there were no quotes or personalisations but my 8x10” was one of a pair with Denise so I really needed a quote to match. I asked politely if he would complete my short quote and Kyle obliged, it looks great.
Kyle also signed the Andor poster.
I was unable to stay for the closing ceremony but what a fantastic event. For anyone with reservations about Starfury events, I got every single guest on the tick sheet at this event and came away with a massive smile on my face.
I’m sure I will be attending Invasion again, big thankyou to Sean and his team.