Wonderfest 2021 Sneak Peak #11 – Celebrating the Polar Lights Bulletin Board

Back before Facebook, and even before My Space, hobby enthusiasts were connecting on the internet. One of the earliest of these was Hobbytalk, and one of its sub-forums, the Polar Lights Bulletin Board. Polar Lights launched their website sometime around 1996, and the Bulletin Board launched around 1998. The Polar Lights Bulletin Board brought together modelers interested in classic monster kits, creating a community that continues in many ways today. The forum was sponsored by Playing Mantis, the parent company of Polar Lights, and moderated by Lisa Greco, who was christened “The Queen of Styrene.”

The Polar Lights Bulletin Board had a close connection with Wonderfest. Polar Lights would attend the show, promoting their product lines. Lisa Greco would promote Wonderfest on the PLBB, and soon many of the community would meet up at the show. The Wonderfest 2000 show was one of the biggest events. In addition to the meet and greet on Friday night, Polar Lights sponsored a bit pizza party, which famously ran short of pizza.

We’d planned to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Pizza Party at Wonderfest 2020, but we all know the show didn’t happy.

So this year, Lisa, the Queen of Styrene, is sponsoring a table in the dealers room. We’ll be showing off various memories of the Polar Lights Bulletin Board, including an appearance by the Mystery Machine, the real Yamahog model, and more.

Lisa’s message on Facebook said:

“Hey, Gang! The PLBB Clubhouse will have a table at WonderFest, celebrating over 20 years of fun and friendship. We’ll be displaying some iconic pieces from our history so if you are coming WF, please be sure to stop by our table (right next to CultTVMan) and sign the petition to Free the Hamster and pick up a Clubhouse brownie. Also, we will be doing a “Package Park” where you can drop- off your purchases if you get tired of lugging them around and need to free up your hands to buy more! We will ask for a $1 donation to park your stuff with all money going to this year’s WF charity of choice.”

“Everyone, please gather ’round. Grab some coffee and one of our famous Clubhouse brownies . . . we will be “representin'” and showing out at WF with a – well – Tribute Table, so to speak. The plan is to be set up next to Cult’s mega-booth with our own display of PLBB artifacts from days gone by. You know – The Mystery Machine, Yama’s Hawg, quite possibly some Flinging Monkeys and maybe even a pardoned hamster. I’m here to tell ya, the stuff is on it’s way to the Royal Court for display after having been guarded by none other than the Most Loyal Knights of the PLBB Roundtable and with an assist from the Knights Templar. Also, we want to pay tribute to those who have left this realm for the Big Monkey Bars in the Sky – Mike Warshaw and Tom Parker. Please let me know who else we count among those loved and lost so that I can have their names added to the list.”

Many great friendships were formed at these events. The community supported and promoted the hobby. Many of us are still building models, and participating in forums on Facebook. Hobbytalk is still out there. The Clubhouse forum spun off the PLBB. And the Queen, herself, Lisa, has attended Wonderfest several times over the years, often helping out at the CultTVman booth.

(Can you believe I actually found a screen image of the PLBB from 1999? I got lucky on the Wayback Machine/Internet Archive. Unfortunately, none of the links worked.)

So stop by and share some memories of the earliest days of social media, and celebrate the PLBB! Wonderfest is happening this weekend, June 5-6, 2021 in Louisville KY. For more information, please check out the Wonderfest website