We all have our favourites, bands, films, football teams, even childhood toys.
But what happens when our interest in them becomes more of an obsession?
You’re about to meet some fascinating people who have been absolutely enveloped by their passions, who hang on every word and devour every release.
They’re not anoraks, they’re superfans!
But what happens when our interest in them becomes more of an obsession?
You’re about to meet some fascinating people who have been absolutely enveloped by their passions, who hang on every word and devour every release.
They’re not anoraks, they’re superfans!
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 [Music playing]
00:18 We all have our favourites, bands, films, football teams and even childhood toys.
00:24 But what happens when our interest in them becomes more of a, well, obsession?
00:28 [Music playing]
00:30 You're about to meet some fascinating people who have been absolutely enveloped by their passions
00:36 and who hang on every word and devour every release.
00:39 They're not anoraks, they're superfans.
00:42 [Music playing]
00:53 First, to Portsmouth, where the force is strong.
00:56 [Music playing]
01:00 Logan, come and tidy your room.
01:02 No. Why?
01:05 Because I said so.
01:07 Why?
01:08 Because I'm your father.
01:11 Ok.
01:12 [Music playing]
01:16 That's, yeah, that's not a light saber.
01:18 No, come on.
01:19 Come away from the camera.
01:21 He's the bigger fan than I am, to be fair. He's the, like, superfan, but, yeah.
01:27 Slightly more an average fan of Star Wars, I would say. Yeah, bit of a fan.
01:32 [Music playing]
01:35 Obviously, growing up in the 80s, I had the original films.
01:40 I mean, I was born in '78, so I missed the first film.
01:44 I missed the first round of most of the first films, but, you know, in the early 80s,
01:49 you know, Star Wars became, I don't know, it was like a massive...
01:54 Shoot, wasn't it? It was bigger than what they even expected, wasn't it?
01:59 Even in terms of the toys and stuff, which there's a cabinet behind you with a lot of the originals in, but...
02:05 Yeah.
02:06 Yeah, I think it kind of just took the world by storm, really.
02:11 It was something completely different to what the normal, like, whatever else was going on out there.
02:16 I mean, for me, it was a complete release from, you know, as kids, we played a lot, and I grew up on army bases.
02:28 But Star Wars was always something different. I could just, you just lose yourself in Star Wars.
02:34 And as a kid, that's what I used to do. I used to, you know, I did have a lot of toys.
02:38 I had a few of them back in the day, you know, a few X-Wings and bits and pieces, but...
02:43 Star Wars was always just... it's just another universe, isn't it?
02:48 You know, I had this thing a few years ago where I saw a group of cosplayers, a group of Star Wars cosplayers.
02:57 It started off, didn't it?
02:59 It started off at someone's party.
03:01 So I got a chat with a few of the guys and decided, I think, the next week to buy a Stormtrooper.
03:07 You'd always want to buy one, but I think this kind of was a catalyst.
03:10 I think my end game was always Boba Fett. I always wanted to dress up as Boba Fett.
03:14 It was always my favourite character.
03:16 So I bought a Stormtrooper. I didn't buy the best Stormtrooper, but I got a Stormtrooper off of Amazon.
03:22 SDS. So a lot of people, there's a bit of... I'm not going to go into the whole politics behind the makers of...
03:30 Huge politics within Star Wars.
03:32 There's politics in Star Wars anyway. If anyone's watching this who understands, they'll know.
03:36 It's a difference between Gucci and Primark, I think.
03:39 Yeah, it's an SDS, but it looked good and I wanted to make sure that I had a kit.
03:44 I just went out one day down in the South Sea.
03:48 I was at work.
03:50 You were at work, so your second eldest son came with his girlfriend to help me.
03:55 Because you can barely see in this thing.
03:57 It can be tricky to walk in. You can't sit down in this thing.
04:04 I didn't have the pauldron at the time and I wasn't considering doing anything other than just walking out on it.
04:09 But the reaction from the public, seeing a Stormtrooper walk down the road, was pretty amazing.
04:17 I think a few weeks later I had a few guys from the UKG come over and help out to do a walk down South Sea and collect some money for charity.
04:30 Cancer Research, it was.
04:31 It was Cancer Research, wasn't it?
04:32 So from there it just spiralled out of control and I decided to do the Pompidou Trooper.
04:37 Until this moment no one has really ever known who the Pompidou Trooper is.
04:41 So this is kind of a bit of a revelation.
04:43 There are some people.
04:45 Yeah, there are some people who know who he is and there are some other people, I've got to admit, who have worn it to be the Pompidou Trooper.
04:52 Because it's more like...
04:53 There's two people.
04:54 Yeah, so it's been more like...
04:56 The Pompidou Trooper doesn't have to just be one person, if you like.
05:00 It can be whoever's wearing the pauldron, making money for charity and raising funds and stuff like that.
05:06 When I haven't been able to wear it because of Covid, I've put on a little bit of weight, other people have worn the Pompidou Trooper pauldron and done the honour.
05:16 So the very first event we did as the Hampshire Cosplay initially started off as a Pompidou Trooper event and it was at Tesco in Fratton.
05:25 And then we decided we would make it the first event we did as a Hampshire Cosplay and it kind of just spiralled from there.
05:35 That was back in 2019, July.
05:38 Well, the good thing about putting the armour on and putting the helmet on is no one kind of knows who you are. You can kind of get away with quite a bit, can't you?
05:45 Yeah, you've had dances with older people.
05:47 Yeah, I've been to a few weddings.
05:49 I've had some dances at weddings.
05:51 I've done some birthday parties.
05:53 You've been stopped by the police?
05:55 I've been stopped by the police a lot.
05:57 For autographs?
05:59 For the autographs, they're really good actually. I mean, considering I'm walking down the road with what is a replica weapon that is designed from an actual World War II machine gun.
06:11 They've been amazing. Portsmouth Police are pretty good. They've always been fantastic when they've seen us out. Since down Southsea so many times.
06:19 They've stopped? Their cars have gone out of town?
06:21 They've literally stopped their cars down the seafront and jumped out and ran across and got pictures with us.
06:27 And finally, so what's the next step? So I understand that you've already passed on the influence to the young one. He's three years old at the moment.
06:39 Tell us about his room and future plans for the Star Wars collection.
06:44 I think his room is all Star Wars and dinosaurs.
06:47 Star Wars and dinosaurs.
06:49 I mean, I think, I mean he's only three years old but if you asked him, I think probably he's on the more dinosaur side of things at the moment.
06:55 I think the influence of Star Wars is from me.
06:58 So his bed, his wall is covered in Star Wars.
07:01 He's loved Darth Vader since he was a baby. Absolutely.
07:06 And Chewie.
07:07 The first thing he could ever, the first noise he could ever make was 'Krrr, Krrr, Krrr' wasn't it?
07:12 And Chewie.
07:13 And Chewie, you know, loves, when he sees those characters on our events, he's hugging Chewie.
07:18 He's never been scared of them, sometimes you see people and Darth Vader's a very scary character.
07:25 And even though Chewie is generally, his class has been quite soft in the Star Wars world even though he rips arms off and stuff in the film.
07:37 But he's quite an imposing character. None of these people who play Chewie are less than six and a half foot tall and often they'll have another foot of stilts.
07:50 So, you know, they're often kind of seven foot.
07:54 And Logan's always, you know, when we do our events, I mean he gets to see the behind the scenes.
08:00 So it's a bit of a break the magic moment for him unfortunately. He doesn't just see the front side of it, he sees the back side of it.
08:07 But he's always taken it really, really well hasn't he?
08:10 And I hope he grows up liking Star Wars as much as I did. I really do hope.
08:16 I say hope because that's the Star Wars way.
08:18 (Music)
08:44 Now from a universe far, far away to a collector's universe a little closer to home.
08:50 Here's Adam Marshall at the Central Arcade in Leeds with a rather expensive hobby.
08:56 It started with my brother actually. He started collecting the Funko Pops.
09:02 I started collecting Game of Thrones Funko Pops.
09:06 Then it went from there and then I fell in love with, had icons. Stuff like the McDonald's line, all like breakfast cereal lines, Tony the Tiger.
09:17 And I set my task to get every single one.
09:21 But then they kept bringing them out over and over. And the one that I really wanted, there's only 24.
09:27 And it's going to set me back about £20,000 for that.
09:31 It was like when all this started, was during lockdown, being made redundant.
09:38 Was buying and selling just to make a bit of extra money.
09:42 Then I met a good friend of mine. A lot of knowledge came from him.
09:47 And it's how it's grown today.
09:49 It's a man called Mike Becker now who owns Funko.
09:54 So they do lots of Comic Cons. And over the years they've become, instead of just toys, more collectible items.
10:02 Where the most recent record sale was $230,000 in cash for one.
10:09 The ones you want to be collecting are actually the limited number ones.
10:16 The rarer to find.
10:19 And then you get stuff like the Shared Sticker, what we get over here in Europe.
10:25 And over in America you've got the Target stickers, Walmart, Entertainment Earth, the actual Comic Con stickers.
10:33 That's what holds the money.
10:35 When you think you've caught up, you see that they're announcing even more.
10:40 And you're like, "Oh no."
10:42 Especially when you want them to get them before the prices shoot up.
10:47 Or you could pay, I paid £300 for one Pop Ones.
10:51 And then they've re-released it.
10:53 Now it's about £40.
10:55 Since after Covid I used to come into Leeds all the time.
10:58 It's been a big decrease in footfall.
11:02 Especially in the arcade because a lot of people don't know there's shops upstairs.
11:07 Now online's taking over and making a big impact on businesses.
11:11 I've talked to a lot of shop owners and they're doing the same. There's a lot of them closing down.
11:18 But the ups of it are being your own boss.
11:25 Especially interacting with customers.
11:28 Find out what they like.
11:30 Certain pops that they want.
11:32 Certain items you can order in.
11:34 Business in Leeds and all the way around the UK is always going to be hit and miss.
11:39 Especially with footfall shrinking and then online taking over.
11:45 Local shops just need people to support them.
11:51 Even if it's just coming in and saying hello, giving some support or just buying one item.
11:56 Everything makes a difference.
11:58 Now here's a lady who has spent a staggering £3,500 in the last five months on Barbies.
12:05 My name's Claire Rawling. I'm from Lancashire.
12:08 I first started collecting Barbies in February this year.
12:11 It was as a result of seeing something online that sparked something inside me about my youth and the toys I used to play with.
12:19 And as a result of that, somehow I thought it would be a good idea to start collecting the Barbies I had as a child.
12:26 When I was younger, my most prized Barbie would probably have been one of the Barbie Benetons.
12:31 And that was something that was really close to my heart because I had the whole range of them, including the Barbie Benetons store as well.
12:38 In terms of how many Barbies I'm looking to collect now, I don't really have a number on it.
12:44 For me, it's about trying to buy back the ones I had as a child.
12:48 And then along the way, I'm sure acquiring a lot of others that just look nice.
12:53 I would say the amount of money I've spent on the current collection I have is somewhere between £3,500 and maybe £4,000.
13:03 At the moment, I would say my most prized Barbie is probably Barbie of Tippi Hedren from the film The Birds.
13:11 My family thinks my collection is pretty unique, but in all honesty, they're very, very supportive.
13:19 My husband's been a major factor in actually the fact that I've kind of continued to collect and continue to make the videos that I make.
13:28 And my son, as much as he maybe thinks it's a little bit cringe, I think he's quite impressed by the fact that I've got such a cool collection.
13:37 I think for the future, as my collection grows, we might have to get an extension on the house.
13:44 But realistically, I would absolutely love to have a dedicated Barbie room, yeah, without a doubt.
13:50 So we'll just have to see what happens with that.
13:53 Now, I'm sure seeing Elton John in concert is a wonderful experience, but seriously, 233 times.
14:04 [MUSIC]
14:14 Yeah.
14:15 [MUSIC]
14:37 I was roughly about nine, ten years old, be 1970, something like that.
14:43 And I listened to Radio 1, and this bloke called Elton John doing Your Song and other tracks from an album he was doing, from an album called Empty Sky.
14:59 And I thought, I really love this music.
15:01 And Tony Blackburn, who, remember, took DJ, he was really playing a lot of Elton John stuff.
15:07 And I just really got to like it.
15:09 And Radio 2 as well, and Radio Luxembourg as well.
15:12 Rocket Man was a big hit, and it went on.
15:15 And I just love his music.
15:17 It's just the way it started.
15:19 And 1979, so I'd have been about 19 then, he was on at the Guild Hall at Preston.
15:31 Anyway, I queued up all night.
15:35 And I mean like from 6 o'clock at night right through the night to get a decent ticket.
15:42 You couldn't get tickets online in them days.
15:45 It was at the box office at the Guild Hall.
15:48 The box office opened about 9 o'clock.
15:51 Got a ticket, sent it, it was like a golden ticket to me then, you know then.
15:56 And when we went out, the queue was going all the way down up towards Church Street.
16:02 And that was my first time.
16:05 And it was just brilliant.
16:06 And I got to the front, sort of in the middle if you will.
16:09 But I got towards the front at the end.
16:11 And it was just brilliant.
16:13 And it just went on from there.
16:14 The rest is history.
16:17 When you see him live, he's just like, he's better than the studio to me.
16:25 You know, he's just great.
16:28 It's just something I just love.
16:30 I can't, there's never an album I don't like.
16:33 Now, er, not many.
16:42 Er, about 233 now.
16:45 Yes, 50 odd years later, yeah.
16:48 Vegas, er, Madison Square Garden, New York.
16:54 That's the furthest I've been.
16:57 Been to France, Belgium, Isle of Man.
17:01 Most of it's all been in Great Britain, right.
17:04 Latvia.
17:06 Done Paris twice I think.
17:08 Italy, Rome, yeah.
17:10 Done that.
17:12 Right, I did, before, just Covid time I think it was.
17:16 I put a phone there, playing music, and it comes out the speakers on this.
17:21 And there's also a video of him in a pink jacket.
17:24 Well there is there as well.
17:26 But to do this, and besides my hands, these tiny people gluing down,
17:30 it's a nightmare.
17:31 But I put it all on Facebook this lot.
17:33 While he's playing, there's like a train going round and all that sort of thing, you know.
17:39 You mentioned your lovely wife, what does she think of all this?
17:41 Oh, she was a fan about a time once.
17:44 You put her on.
17:45 Yeah, she's got a bit fed up.
17:47 No, she doesn't mind.
17:48 She's gone through a lot really.
17:50 Very patient wife I'd say.
18:07 Favourite concert?
18:09 It's got to be, well, Glastonbury to be honest.
18:14 I would have to be on my own.
18:16 Because we, we, we didn't get a chance to get a ticket, one ticket though.
18:20 And I had to go to this Glastonbury concert, because it's his last one.
18:25 He's never been to Glastonbury, he's never done Glastonbury before.
18:27 I've never been to Glastonbury.
18:29 So, a friend from a friend of a friend if you will, ticket, managed to get a ticket.
18:34 And managed to get to the front, and that's just like, capped it all off, you know.
18:39 That was my 233th concert.
18:43 Just, just an expensive thing, because it's, it's just for the farewell tour only, you know.
18:51 You won't be able to get them again, once, you've only sold so many, you know what I mean.
18:58 That's all I'm told anyway.
19:00 Blackburn, it's my 200th, we were at the front, and, er, Ray said,
19:08 "Hold the banner up", we had a banner saying 200th and all this.
19:11 "Hold the banner up", it was before Elton John came on.
19:14 With the crowd behind you and all this lot, so I did that.
19:16 We were at the front, and the crowd were going mental, I couldn't believe it.
19:20 It was on the screens, me holding this banner up.
19:23 Next thing, local papers interviewed me as well and all this.
19:27 Anyway, Elton John comes on, and he says, noticed my name holding the banner, obviously.
19:32 He says, "This is for Ricky, I'm going to do your song", it's on YouTube, you know.
19:36 And he did your song, and then he said, "Right, I'm going to do Tiny Dance, and I want you two to dance".
19:42 Me and Ray, and I can't dance, I've got two left feet.
19:45 So I thought, "Right, idiot".
19:47 Six months later, I went to a Morrissey concert.
19:52 Wife said, "Will you go and kick and get some nachos?"
19:55 I said, "Yeah, yeah".
19:57 So I'm in this queue, talking to this bloke, never met him before.
19:59 Never mentioned Elton John.
20:01 And he goes, "My mum went to see Elton John six months ago at Blackburn".
20:08 I said, "Oh yeah, he said there was this madman from Preston, I've come to see him 200 times".
20:15 I said, "You're joking".
20:16 I went along, he doesn't know it was me.
20:19 200? That's ridiculous.
20:21 She went along with him, you know. And he doesn't know what to say it's me.
20:25 Lastly, we're off up to the North East to meet a lady who gets all fired up about dragons.
20:36 Basically, yes, it's an adventure to see them, to see the people that made them.
20:44 I've got so many, I forget the names.
20:46 But they all had names that were appropriate.
20:49 So this one here is a little cat trying to be a tiger.
20:54 And there's ones where it's little babies, so that one's got a little baby dummy.
20:59 My name's Lynne Budden, and I'm a collector of these little ornaments, pocket dragons.
21:04 I've been collecting them for probably about 40 years.
21:11 The guy that makes them, that sculpts them, Real Musgrave,
21:15 noticed that some of his cats had really cute features.
21:19 And they looked like they were a little bit mischievous.
21:22 So he started making the pocket dragons that were big enough to fit in your pocket and take around with you.
21:29 And they kind of emulate little things that cats do.
21:34 My husband and I have met Real Musgrave a lot of times, and his wife,
21:37 because he comes over from America and does signings.
21:42 So quite a lot of my pieces are signed.
21:44 Like the collection, going and buying the new piece or going to get some signed,
21:49 got us out to some various places.
21:51 Like he'd do signings in different places in England, places that he wanted to visit as an American.
21:56 So we might go to York one time, to Bournemouth another time.
22:00 So it gave us a reason for travelling to see him and to buy new pocket dragons,
22:04 which was rather lovely at a time where we didn't have that much money.
22:09 So they weren't that expensive to buy, and it got us travelling around,
22:14 seeing some great places in England that we probably wouldn't have bothered otherwise.
22:18 This piece is called 'On the Road Again'.
22:20 He's got a little rucksack, and I always wear a rucksack whenever we go travelling.
22:25 And this piece has been signed by Real.
22:27 So he puts 'Real' and then the date that he saw you, that he signed it.
22:32 And he reminds me of 'It's Great to Travel'.
22:34 I believe they're more collected in America.
22:38 But they are widely collected in the UK.
22:42 Real Musgrave has now retired, so he doesn't do the signings anymore.
22:48 I believe he probably still does some in America.
22:51 He's a lovely man. He's kind of like your old-fashioned professor.
22:57 He wears tweed jackets, smokes a pipe, and he has that lovely kind of faraway...
23:06 He's so away from the modern world.
23:10 This one is called 'A Fond Farewell'.
23:13 And this one's Real at a signing, and this one represents Muff, his wife.
23:20 And she likes dragonflies, so she's got a little dragonfly necklace.
23:27 And they're both waving goodbye.
23:29 And that was the final one that they did.
23:31 There's a little flower in their entwined tails at the back.
23:35 So cute.
23:38 [Music]
23:42 [Music]
23:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]