Meet the experts

We have assembled an enviably diverse panel of experts, each of whom will regularly publish articles and advice for Members, as well as monitoring and answering the Ask the experts section.

We expect to add to this list as time goes on, and will be inviting guest experts to partcipate in special events, but the largest body of expert opinion is intended to be our Membership.

Arthur Ward
Author of half-a-dozen books aimed at collectors and modellers, Arthur has appeared on Channel Four’s Collector’s Lot and most recently on BBC 2’s Christmas special, James May’s Top Toys. On both these programmes and whilst appearing as a guest speaker at last summer’s Festival of History (English Heritage’s annual bank holiday Jamboree), he talked about the history of Airfix and kit collecting in general.

He provided a regular feature for the late lamented Airfix Magazine and has now reprised this (‘Tail Gunner Ward’) for the Airfix Collectors Club fanzine, Constant Scale.

 

Lisa Bessinger
South African born Lisa is proprietor of Arundel collector’s shop Timeless Toys. She was bitten by the collecting bug whilst in Africa surrounded by her father’s burgeoning collection of vintage and classic motor cars. His collection numbered over 100 vehicles! Her interest, however, focused on collectable toys.

A graduate teacher, when her family moved back to the UK she discovered that her enthusiasm for collecting toys outweighed a desire for a career in education and she spent most of her time frequenting toy fairs and auctions.

 

Richard Ingram
Whilst working at Portsmouth’s famous Sabre Sales, Richard quickly progressed to specialist consultancy and wardrobe handling for museums, galleries and, increasingly, film and television production companies.

Richard has worked as an extra or wardrobe handler on Michael Collins, Saving Private Ryan and BBC TV’s The Trench Lad’s Army.

Mat Irvine
As a BBC Visual Effects Designer, Mat is most famous for his creations on programmes such as Doctor Who, Blake’s 7 and Tomorrow’s World. Working to an extremely tight budget and without the luxury of the sophisticated CGI techniques available today, Mat and his team had to think on their feet and be ready to assemble whatever the story required. “You get the script and then you basically have to work out what is likely to be either a model or creature effect,” he added.

Mat left the BBC in 1993 and afterwards helped start the American import ‘Robot Wars’ in the UK. He was one of the main Technical Consultants on the first few series. Now he’s now involved with the judging panel.

Mat has had many pieces published for journals that include Scale Models Internatinal, Airfix Magazine, Model Cars Plus, Model and Collectors Mart, Tamiya Model Magazine, America’s Fine Scale Modeller and even Britain’s New Scientist. He is also a regular contributor to a myriad of Sci-Fi and car magazines.

Although recognised as an expert on the history and development of plastic kits, he is not precious about kit modelling per se, preferring to see assembled models professionally displayed, rather than boxed kits gathering dust in attic hoards. “It depends what you mean by collectable,” he told me. “You can have a collection of boxes if you particularly covet the artwork”.

Chris Malbon
Chris owns Metropolis Toys, the well-known vintage toy company specialising in 1960s and 1970s film and TV related merchandise.

An expert on toys associated with early Gerry Anderson programmes and a lover of Dr Who items, there’s little Chris doesn’t know about retro toys and games.

Roy Smith
Life long militaria collector Roy Smith worked for many years in the costume department of London’s famous, Berman & Nathan’s theatrical hire business. Whilst there he became expert about all many of film and TV costumes, working on many Bond films and on the early Star Wars blockbuster.

Since then, Roy has developed an interest in items associated with the Cold War from east and west and is an acknowledged expert on German militaria.

Andy Ruffell
An international BMX champion whilst in his early teens, Andy has gone on to reach equal success in the media as a music impresario and most recently owner of his own North American TV channel!

Co-founder of the famous MOBO music awards, Andy went on to establish Dance Star USA. He now lives in the US but for thousand of fans of extreme sports and especially past owners of ‘Mongoose’ bikes – he’ll forever be associated with BMX.