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My Trip To The BARBICAN!

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  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    Posts: 11,139
    Samuel001 wrote:
    doubleoego wrote:
    How long is this exhibit at the barbican for?

    Until 5th September.

    Cheers.
  • db5007db5007
    Posts: 61
    Went today. Quite busy. Really enjoyed it and, if you have the chance, I recommend that you go! Highlights were the DB5 at the entrance, the re-creation of Shirley Eaton painted gold, the Q section, the Casino section where several of the outfits from early films have been re-made plus - spread throughout the whole exhibition - lots of Ken Adams drawings! Could have spent a lot more cash in the gift section and will go back for the Martini Bar at some point!
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,350
    How long did you stay there for @db5007? Does it take a good two or three hours to take it all in and experience everything?
  • RogueAgentRogueAgent
    Posts: 12,506
    Samuel001 wrote:
    How long did you stay there for @db5007? Does it take a good two or three hours to take it all in and experience everything?

    Your certainly looking at 90 mins minimum samuel in terms of going through the exhibit itself, then obviously you have the 007 bar and gift shop. So you can easily spend 3 maybe even 4 hours there depending on how many "Vespers" you can drink? ;)
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    edited July 2012 Posts: 13,350
    OK, great to hear. With the drinking in mind, it could be a fun day out. :))
  • RogueAgentRogueAgent
    Posts: 12,506
    Samuel001 wrote:
    OK, great to hear. With the drinking in mind, it could be a fun day out. :))

    You will love it Samuel, me and my better half did. You will have to let us know what your thoughts are once you have been?
  • GrindermanGrinderman
    Posts: 165
    Does anyone know what other cities will get the exhibit? Tornonto will be the next stop, but where after that? I'll be going to London, but, alas, not until February. :(
  • scotty8692scotty8692
    Posts: 43
    Guys, anybody know anything about the guides available to buy relating to the exhibition? I'm going next month and bought my tickets on the Barbican website-there's the aforementioned 30 pounds catalogue, but also they were selling a guide to the exhibition when I was on the website. The guide was 5 pounds. I bought both. Wondering if there's any difference in them.
  • RogueAgentRogueAgent
    Posts: 12,506
    From what i saw of the £5.00 guide, it wasn't anything special. But the £30.00 book is a very nice piece of memorabilia.
  • scotty8692scotty8692
    Posts: 43
    RogueAgent wrote:
    From what i saw of the £5.00 guide, it wasn't anything special. But the £30.00 book is a very nice piece of memorabilia.

    Much appreciated, brother! Well, that's what I was thinking Rogue-even though it's 30 quid, the catalogue would make a nice memento of my visit...and I'm coming to London for it, so it'll remind me of my London trip as a whole. If the guide isn't anything much, for having spent only 5 pounds on it, I won't lose any sleep over it. I really should visit the quoting Bond in every day thread too...

  • RogueAgentRogueAgent
    Posts: 12,506
    scotty8692 wrote:
    RogueAgent wrote:
    From what i saw of the £5.00 guide, it wasn't anything special. But the £30.00 book is a very nice piece of memorabilia.

    Much appreciated, brother! Well, that's what I was thinking Rogue-even though it's 30 quid, the catalogue would make a nice memento of my visit...and I'm coming to London for it, so it'll remind me of my London trip as a whole. If the guide isn't anything much, for having spent only 5 pounds on it, I won't lose any sleep over it. I really should visit the quoting Bond in every day thread too...

    Your welcome my friend, it is a good day out, some great items on show! Have a few Martini's in the bar for me too! :-bd
  • scotty8692scotty8692
    Posts: 43
    Already got my voucher for one of them-if I like the first one, I'm sure a few more will follow! :D
  • db5007db5007
    Posts: 61
    Samuel001 wrote:
    How long did you stay there for @db5007? Does it take a good two or three hours to take it all in and experience everything?

    I was there for just over two hours for the exhibition. With the gift shop and a few Vespers it could be somewhat longer!
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,350
    db5007 wrote:
    Samuel001 wrote:
    How long did you stay there for @db5007? Does it take a good two or three hours to take it all in and experience everything?

    I was there for just over two hours for the exhibition. With the gift shop and a few Vespers it could be somewhat longer!

    Thanks for the reply. In total, it's a good few hours then. Great to know.
  • scotty8692scotty8692
    edited July 2012 Posts: 43
    I was at the Bond Exhibition back in '08 at the Imperial War Museum and I took about 1.5 hours or so to do that. Though I'm one of those people that in museums and such takes their time and reads absolutely everything! Is there much info alongside the displays to read, etc?
  • db5007db5007
    Posts: 61
    scotty8692 wrote:
    I was at the Bond Exhibition back in '08 at the Imperial War Museum and I took about 1.5 hours or so to do that. Though I'm one of those people that in museums and such takes their time and reads absolutely everything! Is there much info alongside the displays to read, etc?

    Yes - pretty well every exhibit has a information panel next to it. There are also some audio recordings which you can pick up a phone to listen to. Plus there are various video screens in some of the rooms showing relevant parts from the films. Some of them have three screens running on a loop and the dialogue shifts from one film to another on the loop - very effective.

    The Imperial War Museum was the Ian Fleming exhibition? I went there and really enjoyed it. Designing Bond has more content.
  • scotty8692scotty8692
    edited July 2012 Posts: 43
    Yes, that's the one db5007. I liked that as it had props too, as well as the Ian Fleming stuff, and it was my last trip to London. Also met a certain Roger Moore at a book signing on that trip too!
  • NW_LondonerNW_Londoner
    Posts: 26
    Did any of you guys pre-book your tickets or just turn up??
  • slyfoxslyfox
    edited July 2012 Posts: 940
    I went last Saturday. Just turned up, but it was so popular that I had to come back a few hours later with a time slot entrance. Enjoyable visit, well woth it. I had hoped for even more but that's probably me just being greedy! The Casino/Q branch section was probably the best, the Ice room (on a lower floor) was a little underwhelming I felt.

    There was a variety of props on display, even random things like the chip scanner machine used on Bond's arm in the Bahamas (CR) to the signature gun in LTK, as well as more well know props. I had hoped to see a few SF additions too, I've have heard they are installing some later down the line. There was one SF exhibit however, Severine's dress from the Floating Casino scene, which was nice to see.

    All Bond fans would enjoy it. The posters (old and new) as you walk through the entrance, leading up to the car were a nice touch too.
  • db5007db5007
    Posts: 61
    I pre-booked my ticket but I could have easily just turned up and walked in - there were just 4 or 5 people in the queue as it was mid-week and not all the schools had finished for summer plus the Olympics have yet to hit town! But if you are going at a weekend I would definitely book.
  • VolanteVolante
    Posts: 774
    Hope this exhibition comes to Australia. The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney has lots of exhibitions like this; Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc. Even went to an ABBA one, all the costumes and instruments. But even if it ends up in Melbourne I'd make the trip to see it.

    Very jealous of all you Brits.
  • jbondcollectorjbondcollector
    Posts: 74
    A word of warning about the gift shop, there isn't a lot left in it as I visited yesterday and came away with three bags full!!!! Not looking forward to the credit card bill.

    A fantastic exhibition with lots of items I had not previously seen at other bond exhibits. great to see the costumes, was particularly impressed with the alum Cummings figure after not being quite so invincible.

    Go if you can it's well worth it. I'm going to try and post a bit of a more detailed summary of my trip on here later.
  • actonsteveactonsteve
    Posts: 1,492
    I have pencilled it in for the 11th.

    Reading this it looks like it is very popular so what time does it open in the morning?

    Also the Olympic decathlon runs past St Pauls Cathedral that day - its not far away so we might go down and cheer them on.
  • PanchitoPistolesPanchitoPistoles 2.0
    edited July 2012 Posts: 4,619
    I visited the exhibition last Sunday. I thought it was good but not great. I loved how extravagant some of the costumes looked in real life, even though they look fairly normal in the movies. My favourite parts were the things from Skyfall: Severine's costume and
    the office door of the new M
    .

    Oh and I missed the most important part: the Aston Martin DB5! Where the hell is it? :) I guess I didn't enter the Barbican from the main entrance, that's the reason I missed it. I will definitely go back just for the car.
  • dchantrydchantry
    Posts: 278
    Went last Saturday and enjoyed it thoroughly, especially the premieres coverage TV set where I was nicely surprised to see myself all tuxed up attending the QOS premiere standing next to DC.
    How times have changed though. In 1990 I went to the JBIFC convention at Pinewood and saw pretty much everything (and more) of this collection (post 1990 excluded of course) in a more informal manner in one of the soundstages there.
    Hats off to Graham Rye (now thats something I dont say often) who spent the week going through and cleaning props and items that Eon had no idea that they had.
    In fact after the event when we were helping to put everything away, we were actually cataloging each item for Eon so it could go into proper storage.
    An exercise without which these sort of exhibitions would not be possible so well done Graham and all of the others who helped all those years ago.
  • RC7RC7
    Posts: 10,512
    I finally got around to going over the weekend. I thought it was pretty good, quite a few things I'd seen before and also things I hadn't. My only qualm would be the presentation of the whole thing, the worst being the cheek to call the third room 'The Ice Palace', misleading to say the least. Personally I'd rather pay £50+ and get more of a spectacle. It's definitely worth the £12 but I'd like to see an exhibition in future that focuses as much on the experience as it does on the content. Other franchises of equivalent size (HP, SW, LOTR) all seem to go the extra mile.

    IMO if you're travelling from outside London and have to pay for accomodation I'm not sure it's particularly worth it, unless you've never ever been to a Bond exhibition before and are desperate to see it.

    Best bit: Seeing more Ken Adam sketches up close. Sends shivers down my spine.
  • dchantrydchantry
    Posts: 278
    Worst thing about the Ice Palace was they actually played part of the DAD CGI ice surfing scene. I say part because they must have re-thought and cut it before its glory.
  • scotty8692scotty8692
    Posts: 43
    Guys, anybody that's been could you tell me as much as you can about the items available in the gift shop? I've heard there's Martini glasses, but what else? jbondcollector, you say you walked out with three bags full, what all did you buy? :D
  • jbondcollectorjbondcollector
    Posts: 74
    The gift shop has a number of 'official' bond bits and quite a bit of associated items.

    There are three tables, one has the corgi di cast cars on along with a 50th anniversary keyring (must buy) and some bond cars which make noise and sound effects. All range from £10 - £30. Keyring is £6.

    Second table has some bond shot glasses in a bullet shape (bought these) £20. Also some db5 shaped chocolate and gun shape chocolate. A number of random bits like kids spy glasses and unoficial notebooks and pads branded 'under cover'. There was an aston martin and martini glass tea towel.

    Third table is largely books including the official guide to the exhibition £30, the Ken Adam book, Bond Heroes and Villains, designing the movies and a number of other must have bond reference books. There was also a few copies of the catalogue from the Bond Bound exhibition held a couple of years ago.

    There are film posters including the 50th anniversay and skyfall poster.

    In glass cases there are the spectre ring (£200), martini glasses and shaving kits! The shaving kit i couldnt work out except it has bond written on it. The other glass cabinet had the algerian love knot in a range of jewellery although a full size one from the film will set you back £1500.

    Great carrier bag as well.

    Have a few pictures as well but am reading up how to upload these!
  • jbondcollectorjbondcollector
    Posts: 74
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/83421892@N05/7643419610/in/photostream

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/83421892@N05/7643417410/in/photostream

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/83421892@N05/7643413498/in/photostream

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/83421892@N05/7643411724/in/photostream

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/83421892@N05/7643409476/in/photostream

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/83421892@N05/7643407134/in/photostream

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/83421892@N05/7643403040/in/photostream

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/83421892@N05/7643401402/in/photostream

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