Auto Assembly 2012 took place at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel, Birmingham, England between August 3rd 2012 and August 5th. The event was the 11th ever show (as two years were skipped) and saw the event break the previous attendance record for a European Transformers convention of 579, which was set by the 2010 event. The new attendance record saw the event grow by over a third to 773 attendees over the course of the weekend.
The guest lineup for the event was:
- Townsend Coleman - Guest of honour
- Paul Eiding - Guest of honour
- Michael Bell - Guest of honour
- Gregg Berger - Via video link-up
- Stephen Baskerville
- John-Paul Bove
- Lee Bradley
- Jason Cardy
- Kris Carter
- Simon Furman
- Kat Nicholson
- Ed Pirrie
- Livio Ramondelli
- Nick Roche
- Liam Shalloo
- Andrew Wildman
As usual we put on a toy display for the event, this year we decided to focus on the Micromasters and filled two cabinets with the Western and Japanese Micromaster releases.
Transformers At The Moon was, once again, a proud sponsor of the event, as we like to support conventions over in the UK to try to help them grow and become as successful as they can be. We were also part of the main committee helping to organise and run the event covering various stands and helping with the set-up.
The event saw Auto Assembly change home for the 5th time and, whilst staying within the Birmingham area, the event moved to the Hilton Metropole Hotel within the ground of the N.E.C. This change increased the size of the convention both in terms of attendee capacity but also in the number of rooms booked out for the show. The Saturday evening entertainment could now take place within it's own room allowing for easier transition even if there were some technical difficulties during the set-up.
The general consensus is that the show was a huge success. I would estimate that over 2/3rds of the attendees were either new or this was their second show, and so far the reports online heavily hail the event as the best yet.
From an organisational standpoint, there were less difficulties than the last few years, with a large part of that being due to the helpful nature of the hotel staff and the tireless effort by the volenteers who gave up their time to help out at the event.
From a collectors point of view, the dealers who were in attendance bought along a wide variety of products spanning pretty much every line which meant that there was something for everyone.
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