The All Things Fun! 2007 GAMA Trade Show Report

(or what Dina & Ed did on their vacation!)

DAY FOUR (Monday, 4/23/07):

Ok, this will be the last report for this page.  Hopefully tomorrow we will have so much news we'll need to add a new page.  I say hopefully because today while great for less exciting All Things Fun! business stuff, it was a sorely lacking in the news department.

This morning I attended an interesting seminar on Podcasting. (Where were these guys four months ago?!?)  I left the session excited about completing our next show!  The session was run by author and podcaster Mike Stackpole. Some of you guys may know him from his Star Wars books.  I suspect he'd rather you "know him" from his other fantasy works.  So the next time you are book shopping check out some of Mike's stuff.

So then I hit a seminar on Product Safety hosted by the Federal Governments own, head of the Consumer Products Council.  (Told you not very exciting but important.)

In the evening we attended a dinner meeting hosted by Wizards of the Coast.  Last year at this meeting Wizards launched DreamBlade.  This year they didn't even mention it.  It was the flatulent elephant in the room.  They did talk about all the great plans for Magic 10th Edition & tie-in Star Wars Miniatures product for the new Star Wars Computer Game.  They also showed us an extended preview of the new Transformers movie due out this July.  That part of the program was pretty cool. (I have to admit.)

Wizards then presented us with a sample Transformer card from the new Constructible Game they are producing this Summer.  (Think Transformers meets Pirates.) The construction seemed easier than in Pirates and the material the cards are made from seemed to have a little more flexibility than Pirates.  But don't be fooled this game is a one-shot deal.  So all of you Transformers fans get your orders in now.  Once this ships and sells out we'll not see it again!  We'll have the sample piece, Jetfire on display at the store beginning Friday, 4/27!

Later in the evening I did a quick tour of the Game Publisher Association (GPA) area.  The GPA is an association of smaller game publishers that band together to fight for truth & justice.  (And to sell some games.)  I am a former (or recovering) member so it seemed appropriate to show my support.  We did see a lot of cool new stuff that we hope to bring into the shop in the near future!

Gamers, much like the Amish, shun Ed.

How did this get in here?  I am such a tease!

Can you tell Dina's sleeping and I'm unsupervised?

Until tomorrow!

-Ed

DAY THREE (Sunday, 4/22/07):

It's day 3 and time to say goodbye to the Hampton Inn and hello to Bally's. Today we decided to skip the bad free breakfast and have an early lunch at one of our favorite Vegas restaurants, Hofbrauhaus. This great Bavarian restaurant has it all. Live music, serving girls in Bavarian outfits, authentic imported German Beers and the best Schnitzel we've ever had.

 
After lunch we checked out our new hotel and then registered for the convention. (Okay, my fault we didn't pre-register). We haven't seen too many people yet, but we did have the pleasure of running into Kristen from Looney Labs. That's right folks we got to see the prototype of the new Zombie Fluxx. It's all that and a bag of chips. It introduces a fifth card type into the fluxx deck for the first time. The Creeper. Fluxx fans and zombie fans alike will have to have this. We also got a sneak peek at the cards that will be included in the 10th Anniversary Fluxx Celebration Kit! It's all very cool and you can be sure All Things Fun! will be one of the stores hosting an exclusive Fluxx Anniversary Event!

After dinner at the Village Buffet at the Paris hotel (it was pretty good), we went out to experience one of my favorite activities. The dueling piano bar. Two guys playing great songs at the audience request. We got everything from Neil Diamond to Metallica with some Commodores' Brick House thrown in. (Yes, John I made that request.) We are all sung out and ready to face the first day of trade show business tomorrow.

Till next time,
-Dina

DAY TWO (Saturday, 4/21/07):

As this is our last day of rest we didn't fill it with to many activities.  After our complimentary breakfast (which was just terrible) I spent the morning preparing for next week's meetings!

At this point Dina suggested I take a break from my busy morning and we went out in search of this old style pharmacy downtown that still had a diner counter and was rumored to serve great milkshake.  The Decatur Pharmacy may not have been much to look at but the food was great and inexpensive.  The service was fast and friendly. We even saw a bogus Cheesesteak restaurant...oh, please...

After a little more work we celebrated our last free evening with a great dinner at the Brazilian Steak House in the Mirage where Dina had a fruity drink in a glass the size of her head!  I also took this visit as an opportunity to continue my photo series on casino toilets.

Even though the trade show doesn't begin until tomorrow we've already begun to hear whispers of cool stuff on the horizon.  Including a very cool new release from our friends at Looney Labs...

ZOMBIE FLUXX

That's it for now!

More tomorrow,

-Ed

DAY ONE (Friday, 4/20/07):

After a long painfully-early flight we finally arrived back in the city of sin (I even had a smile and a wave from a nice looking young woman walking along the street corner.  Hmmm?)  Vegas hasn't changed much since our last visit except a little more crowded.  We checked into our first place of stay, the Hampton Inn and after making Ed pull a shift in Housekeeping we were ready for adventure!

We immediately set out to find lunch at our FAVORITE fast food restaurant.  IN-N-OUT Burger was founded in 1948 and has been serving a simple but delicious menu of burgers, fries, sodas, & shakes every since.  Ed took some great shots.  

From there we headed out to one of Vegas's newest casinos.  The Red Rock is off the strip and known as a locals hangout.  It's a beautiful casino that I might try and talk Ed into staying at next time.  I told Ed he couldn't take any pictures on the casino floor so he came back with a beautiful shot of a Red Rock men's room toilet. After a little slot play (I'm up $20 but Ed's down $20) we had dinner at the Salt Lick Bar-B-Q.  As you can see from Ed's picture of the meat station, this place knew how to do Barbeque.  The food was great.  The Red Rock is also home to a restaurant called Terra Rosa.  The executive chef is Heather West, the winner of one of our favorite reality TV shows, Hells Kitchen.  Unfortunately, we didn't run into the resident celebrity. 

We left the Red Rock and made a quick stop at the nearest Best Buy.  Ed can't resist.  It's like a disease.  I've probably been in more Best Buy stores across the country than any other store.  I'm going to start cataloging them.  We're headed back to the hotel for some relaxation and maybe a soak in the jacuzzi.

Till tomorrow......

-Dina

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