Followers of Fantha Tracks and Making Tracks will be well aware of the high regard in which we hold Farthest From, the vintage Star Wars collecting event which has been running for over a decade across 23 live events (all held in the picturesque town of Fordingbridge in the New Forest) and a number of online shows celebrating The Empire Strikes Back in its 40th year and more. The 24th running of the show had at its heart the 40th anniversary of Return of the Jedi, and as always it brought the spirit of the original trilogy to Fordingbridge Town Hall.
The Saturday saw the running of the Family Fun Day, a kids focused event which sees the hall filled with games and activities for kids of all ages. Fantha Tracks (for this show represented by myself, our modern Hasbro expert Richard Mitchell and our Events Coordinator and Start Your Engines co-host Paul Naylor) were onhand to help out with the games, with Richard at the Fantha booth handing out prizes the kids earned with points they gathered while playing the games and myself and Paul helping out with door entry, drinks and games. It was hot, hectic and a lot of fun.
The evening saw a special private screening at 6.00pm of the 1983 film ‘I Am 40‘, shown in its original form which along with a few drinks and a takeaway curry made for a great night that carried on into the small hours. However, sleep was needed and so we rolled into our nests at The Crown for the night to get ready for the big day ahead.
A fantastic breakfast at The Ship got the day off to a great start, and a short (and we mean short, The Crown and The Ship are both roughly 15 seconds walk away across the road from the Town Hall if there’s no traffic coming) walk saw us prepare the booth for the crowds to come in. Badges and flyers ready, 11.00am arrived and we were off.
As ever there was plenty of vintage treats to see at the show. All The Cool Stuff had a slew of vintage vehicles, accesories (need a Star Wars Action Figure Survival Kit? many of the parts were here), coins from Celebration Europe back in 2007 (Dave sponsored one of the coins) and more. Other tables included Bowmansgreen, with a fascinating box of magazines and books from the UK, US and Europe and of course their fantastic prints (now available in A4). No More Heroes were displaying their second wave of repurposed action figures, painted to become characters either not seen in vintage form back in the day, or turned into entirely new characters. Luke explained that all of these figures had been in dump bins at every prior Farthest From event, meaning that these freshly repurposed lovingly crafted figures were quite literally Farthest From veterans.
Our Fantha Tracks booth came for its third outing after London Film and Comic Con and Celebration Europe, giving us the chance to chat with visitors and hand out badges (this time out Fantha Tracks TV and Start Your Engines badges). The Prototype Archives last seen at LFCC were back celebrating the unseen toys of Return of the Jedi, placed next to our friends from Generation Skywalker and the team from Entoyment who brought a huge number of Star Wars Legion, Armada and the brand new Shatterpoint releases for fans to check out.
Walking across the other side of the hall there were even more tables, with figures, books, sticker albums, badges and more to peruse and purchase. Bring deep pockets – you’ll see cool stuff that you won’t see anywhere else.
The featured guest for the weekend was Bob Brechin, who gave a presentation on his amazing career and time with the Star Wars brand. One of the joys of Farthest From is the inclusion of such talks and panels, and with Bob’s Kickstarter project reaching a successful conclusion, his appearance was perfectly timed.
Bob’s book is available via TotalToyBooks, so be sure to head over there and get your orders in for a tome that not only gives a detailed history of this legendary company but a unique perspective on his storied days working on the Star Wars brand.
To cap off another great weekend, Dave announced the fundraising total raised at the Family Fun Day on Saturday and across the weekend, a superb total for such an event.
So the 24th Farthest From is in the books and work has already begun on FF25 – see you in December!
