Having unexpectedly won the eBay auction, we had to hurriedly arrange to collect it. So off we went in our hired van to collect the theatre all the way down in Torquay. Although we had seen photographs from the eBay site, it still amazed us to see it for real the very first time. Its wonderful characters and captivating animation caused us to fall in love with it immediately. It is large and very heavy, but an hour or so later and the removal of some door handles plus a lot of brute force had the theatre safely in the back of the van and on the way home.

Getting the unit into our own house was another story. From precise measurements we already knew we could get it through the front door Okay. We also knew it would go up the stairwell by removing the hand-rail. We knew we had the space tp turn it through 90 degrees on the landing and that it would then go into the room where we intended to display it, through the door frame, but the door itself had to come off first. However, we had not anticipated that the theatre would be too large to come completely through the front door and line up with the stairs. Even with helpful neighbours on hand, the thing simply would not tip or turn quite enough to get it in through door. There was only one solution for it, and so out came the saw and a few minutes later the banisters were no more. But that did the trick, and after a lot more pulling, pushing, not to mention trapped fingers, the theatre ended up in the required room.

The removal of wardrobes means we have a space that is perfect for displaying the theatre. It could have been designed for it, leaving a mere handful of millimetres spare when in situ. This precise fitting causes a problem in itself, as the theatre needs to have access from the side for maintenance purposes, and we resolved that problem by having a strong box on casters custom made for it, so that it can be rolled in and out when necessary. The trouble at the moment, is that we need several strong and healthy people together at one time to lift and shift the cabinet as well as someone else to manoeuvre the base unit below it. We are still waiting for this many strong family and friends to be around at the same time, so for now the unit still sits on the floor. Restoration will begin in ernest once we have sorted that problem out. ... Any strong volunteers out there? !!!