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20th Annual NNL East Show Report
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April 18, 2006
Greetings and Salutations fellow styrene junkies, El’Presedente’, Senior Goschke, has asked yours truly to whip up a little show report from the 20th Annual NNL East model car show, which was held on Mar 25th in Parsippany NJ.
Now for those of you who don’t habla, NNL East is The PREMIER model car show, contest, and swap meet in the country…if not the world!
In fact, this show may be one of the largest model shows of any kind in the world, period. I can hear some of you tread-heads and prop-jockeys out there scoffing in disbelief, but before you declare war, check out these numbers. The attendance was 1309 people, and Uncle Bobby. Of this number, DVSM(PACM) made an extremely strong showing with 23 members making an appearance.
We met modelers from all corners of the country, including Hawaii. I talked to a few guys who came down from Canada, and there were even a few “committed” gentlemen who flew up from Atlanta on Fri afternoon, and were heading home Sat. night. Last year they tried to do it all in ONE day. Those guys are hardcore!!
There were…are you ready for this…1853 model cars on display. That’s correct. One thousand, eight hundred, and fifty-three models on the display tables. There were vehicles of all makes and models and in every color conceivable. The Crayola people would have been happy.
This weekend extravaganza starts off on Fri. night with a VIP party at the Parsippany Holiday Inn. This is a great chance to get together in a relaxed environment and tell lies. The food was great. It was served buffet style and was salads and sandwiches. Desert was monster cookies. Seriously, these things were huge. This broke up about midnight when we were thrown out of the hall. Sat. started early with breakfast. Then, it was off to stand in line for an hour. The Tri-state crew runs this show in an extremely efficient manner. It only took 10-15 min to get everyone in the building. These guys are good. First, the mad scramble to put up your models, and then you stampede to the vendor room to throw all your money at some of the 30+ vendors that come for the show. And these vendors aren’t just kit sellers. In fact there are only 4 of those there. Most of these are aftermarket detail vendors with all kinds of paint, resin kits and accessories, photo etch, and reference material. One word of caution though. If you are claustrophobic, stay out of the vendor room. Now I know what cattle feel like.
The event winds down around 3:00 with the awards presentation. For those of you who don’t know, NNL is a people’s choice contest, and there are usually only 4 or 5 awards given out for the show themes, best junior, and best in show. Why then do you get so many models? The real awards for most of us is to be photographed for either Model Cars magazine, or Scale Auto Magazine. And to that end, I would like to proudly announce that the following members had their models photographed: Bill Garner - ’06 Mustang and 58 Edsel flower car which was also posted on the Scale Auto web site of the event coverage:
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Keith Jones - ’29 Ford:
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Nick Sandone –’56 Chevy.
Mike Napolean – 2 dioramas and 2 trucks(show off!):
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...and yours truly for the Boot Hill Express:
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Sorry if I missed anyone.
Ladies and Gentlemen, This is the must make show of the year! Why even Uncle Bobby actually finished, not 1, but 2 models to take to the show. Amazing!
So all you gear heads, even you guys in the closet, mark this show on your calendars for next year and start saving your pennies. You won’t be disappointed!!
Until next time…Adios!
El’ TANQUE
Tommy Kortman
(Editorial Note: Found below is a link to additional pictures that Bob Doebley has posted on his Fotki Website from this year's NNL East Show: http://public.fotki.com/BobD/nnl-east_2006/
In addition, found below is a link to additional pictures that have been posted from this year's NNL East Show on the "Official" NNL East Website: http://members.aol.com/nnleast2006/nnleast2006.html)
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