The Fuss

I spent a great deal of time this weekend – the parts where I wasn’t working or sleeping, that is – trying to write a post about the recent announcement that Reeves is getting of the BreyerFest Special Run ticket line, and replacing it with a prepaid voucher system. Trying to come up with a measured, thoughtful response that would give some of the angry voices a moment to take a deep breath and step back…

But then I realized that nothing I say or do will really make a difference, because this is being fueled by the social media environment. Social media thrives on engagement, and there’s no better engagement than enragement. 

But I’ll still give it a shot, in my little corner of the Internet universe. 

I’ll also reiterate that yes, I do occasionally do some work for Reeves International, though it’s certainly not enough to live on. But I also happen to be a Hobby Lifer and would be saying most of this stuff regardless. I don’t be getting anything extra out of this effort.

Anyway.

Just because you personally were able to make a system work for you doesn’t mean the system is not broken, or cannot be improved. The previous system of timed tickets was put into place to solve the problem of hobbyists lining up to acquire Special Runs for hours on a first-come, first-served basis. Which resulted in a lot of hurt feelings, heatstroke, sunburn and so on…

BreyerFest has grown to the point that distributing them via the timed ticket system was soon going to become logistically unfeasible. Throw in on top of that several hundred people crammed under a tent elbow-to-elbow, with misters blowing not-just-water around wasn’t a healthy environment pre-pandemic, much less now. 

And those with multiple tickets often ended up spending most – if not all! – of their time at the park just picking up models, and thus missing most of the festivities in the process.

I thought they’d take a hybrid approach – the prepaid VIP tickets would take out a chunk of line standers, and maybe they’d do something similar for Live Show Attendees and Volunteers, who also struggled to schedule their ticket times – but I guess they decided to save a step and go “all in”. 

I have no idea how the Will Call or Pickup Windows will be set up; I’m assuming – or at least hoping – that there will be multiple lines and windows involved. I’d like to see at least one Pickup window dedicated as an “Express” pickup for hobbyists with only a couple of tickets, or perhaps a window for people picking up multiple orders of tickets instead. 

Will this be a better system? I have no idea. I can see the logic behind it: instead of standing in line for multiple hours throughout the length of the event, you can pretty much just pick whenever it’s convenient for you and get it all done in one fell swoop.

Will there be problems? Of course there will: there are problems every year, even with seemingly minor changes of format, venue or scheduling. It kind of sucks a bit that we don’t get to review our potential choices the night before at the hotel, and it changes the entire experience of the Surprise now. 

And paying for everything up front is also a bummer, especially for people on tighter budgets. 

I haven’t given it much thought beyond that: my life is messy, complicated and weird right now, and I don’t need to add “worrying how BreyerFest will work this year” to it. 

I don’t know much about Event Planning in general, but I do know that I trust the people who have been running this event for years over folks on the Internet who have opinions. Especially since the hobby’s track record in running its own large, convention-type events hasn’t been universally awesome, either.