WONDERFEST 2007

Official Site

Ok here is my tale from Wonderfest 2007 told from our perspective.

First, the trip down was pretty uneventful. Always a good sign. Just a little traffic conjestion just before we got to the hotel. Which was around 5 as we got a late start this year. One bit of info that will be of interest to some for next year. There will be no more smoking rooms at the hotel. Actually, the entire state from what I understand. Still not sure how I am going to deal with that. I could try to get a room with a balcony, but I also know how inconsistent the hotel is with their reservations.

Got up to our 4th floor room. And started hauling stuff up from the car. Met 'liquid metal' and his wife in the process. They were in the lobby as we went by a few times. Ran into them several times over the weekend and did my best to introduce them to others from the board, and make them feel welcome.
Also ran into a lot of other first time attendees from the boards. Unfortunately, those I met in the dealers room were but quick introductions. As the chaos that is going on during the show hours doesn't leave a lot of time for visiting.
Got all our stuff hauled up stairs. Unpacked, and checked on the kits. A little repair work to do. The satan's crate had his trident broken off, and some of the paint along the bottom edge of the para had worn from rubbing on the box. Refilled the cooler with pop and ice and headed downstairs to get our admission and contest forms purchased and out of the way. Then we hung out outside the doors by the dealers room and talked to friends as they took a break from setting up. After that is was back to the room to fill out our contest entries. Grab a snack, and a beverage and head to the Lizard Lounge

The Lizard Lounge
This is a great way to meet people who don't normally do the WF night life.
In years past it was well attended, but the past couple years, attendance seems to be dropping.
I don't know why, but I hope this trend turns around. As I said, it is a great way to meet people who don't do the nightlife. It's a place to sit and hang out and visit outside the show hours. During the show (when the dealers room is open) time is at a premium. So many things to do, and no time to do them all. Friday night is when I get to see and catch up with several people. Would be nice to have more show up as well.
Many people bring stuff they have in progress as a sort of show-and-tell. Great for conversation, and a good way to break the ice. I have met quite a few people by just stopping and commenting on their pieces.
I think part of the problem is mis-perception.
This isn't the bar. It is the big room just past the bar. Yes, there is a bartender in the room for those who want some alcoholic beverages, but mainly this is just a nice semi-quiet place to gather and visit.

We made a trip up to the theater to check things out there. It was fun for a while. Bob Burns was giving a movie the MSTK treatment. But, as funny as it was, we were just a little too tired to sit still that long.
So back to the LL again. Things were starting to empy out a little, and get a little rowdier as some of the dealers and staff made their way in.
After hanging out there for a little longer we decided to make the rounds. Which for us means - through the lobby, down the hall by the dealers room. Up the stairs and past the theater. Out through the 2nd floor patio. Then down through the courtyard and back to the lobby. Doesn't sound like much. But on a busy night it can take us a couple hours to make that trip. You would be amazed at the people you run into and the things going on.
Anyway, this trip got cut short. Just as we came out of the LL we spotted Scott Johanson. Seems he just arrived late, and couldn't unload into the dealers room. And he had an SUV full of stuff. We offered to give him a hand.
Was interesting listening to him talk to Chinxy on the phone. Then later in person when he showed up to 'help' also. Too bad the rest of this particular crew couldn't make it this year. Wasn't the same without Don and Bill there. Got all the monkeys upstair (not just talking about the resin ones either). Hung out in Scott's room for a while, then called it an early night.
Very unusual. Going to bed around 2 AM.

Saturday was show time!
Made an early trip to the contest room to enter some of my kits while Britny was still getting ready.
Then we made a second trip with my last 2 and her 2. The lines weren't that bad considering all the multiple entries people were bringing. These guys have the contest room down to an art form. Very fast and efficient.
Might have seemed long while standing in line holding models, but realistically it could have been a whole lot longer.
With that out of the way, and some time to kill until the dealers room opened at 10 (no early bird for us) we wandered around and talked with more people we knew. Hung out outside the doors down by the dealers room so I could have a smoke or two. Ran into lots of people there as well.
Matter of fact, we were out there when the dealers room opened. By the time we got inside, the line was almost gone, and we just walked into the dealers room.

And this is where all our plans fell apart.
Now anyone who has been to WF knows you can't really plan anything. But we did have a good idea of what we wanted to do and when we wanted to do it.
The first demo/talk we wanted to catch wasn't until noon. Which gave us 2 hours to troll the dealers room. Up until this point, things had been going pretty much the way we though. The plan was the normal. A quick pass around all the tables to get an idea of what was there. Then a second pass to get a better look at things, and to hit tables that were just too crowded the first time.
Well, we barely got the quick pass done in 2 hours!
We just kept running into people and talking to them. Not that this is a bad thing. It's one of the great things about being here. And I wouldn't trade it for the world. But it really kept us from making our way around the room.

Next thing we knew, it was noon and time to get our butts up stairs to see Greg Nicotero. He had to cancel last year, so we were really glad to see him back. His presentation was supposed to be an hour. Turned into an hour and a half, and only felt like 15 minutes. Which is one of the reasons we enjoy him so much. He has such great stories about all kinds of things The actual presentation was maybe 20 minutes long. The rest of it was all just him taking questions and talking about stuff.

Since he ran long, we skipped the next demo we were going to do since it was already half over. This would give us more time in the dealers room. The next talk wasn't until 3 (John Goodwin. I was going to watch a little of that, then slip next door for the Zacherle one).
Well, we ended up missing those as well.

We did manage to hook up with 2 other moderators from the clubhouse to get a pic of the 3 of us together

After an abreviated pass through the dealers room, we decided to head up and check out the contest room. Going along, checking things out, and taking pictures. Just having fun. When I see this.

Now, if you know this kit, then you know something doesn't look right. The skeleton is leaning the wrong way.
And a closer look shows the wall doesn't look right either. And to make things worse, this is my contest entry!
There was a little note on the entry for to see the contest officials.
We finished going through the contest room first though. My shock at seeing my kit damaged was quickly replaced by seeing this.

Seems FSM wanted to shoot pics of my daughter's entry!
SWEET!
After finishing our pass through the contest room, we talked to the guy supervising the room at the time.
Seem a big resin kit with no base on the top row fell over and landed on my little styrene kit!
I build my kits to take some handling, but even my construction couldn't withstand that kind of abuse.

The chain holding him to the wall broke. The wall came off the base. The arm came off. And one of the rats came off.
On top of all that. By the time we had finished going around the room. Then finding out what to do about my kit, it was almost 3. We had to go back up to the room to get the pink copy of my entry so I could pick my kit up. Then take it back to the room and repair it. By that time, it was way too late for either talk. So we hit the dealers room while waiting for the glue to dry.
Then I had to touch up some of the paint and get it back downstairs before the show closed at 5.
(good thing I bring a ton of modeling supplies with me)
On the way to the stairs I ran into John Davis. The guy who runs the contest. He saw the kit in my hands and realized it was mine that had gotten damaged. He started to appologize. I stopped him. And told him I didn't blame him, or any of the staff. Things happen, and it wasn't worth getting all worked up over.
Still he felt bad. Especially since this kind of thing never happens here.
Litterally. Don't not enter a kit just because this fluke happened to me. I mean the last time anything happened to a kit in the contest Dave Fisher was still entering in the contest. That goes back a ways. He was telling us about it earlier in the dealers room while I was waiting for my glue to set.
John offered to make an announcement to the judges about what had happened and to not let the damage affect the judging on it. I asked him not to do that, as I wanted the kit to stand on it's own merits regardless.
I didn't want the kit to win something, then me wonder if it was actually that good, or if they just took pitty on me.
I don't know if he did that or not. I just know it didn't win anything.

By this time, the dealers room is getting ready to close, and things are winding down.
We did manage to slip into the tail end of Joe's painting eyes demo.
This has become something of a tradition for us. It had been penciled in as a possibility for me, and Brit had definitely wanted to do it. So it was fun to sit in on it again.
Though it was different seeing Joe use a chalk board. Who's idea was that?

By this time we are hungry and worn out. It has been an unusually hectic WF so far.
Head back to the room with what goodies we had managed to get on our trips to the dealers room.
Flopped on the beds and ordered some pizza.

By the time we got done eating and resting, it was almost 7. Really had to force ourselves to get out of the beds. They were so comfy. Would have been easy to take a nap. But, no time for that. Contest room was opening back up so we could get back in there and take more pics and check out more kits.

Did that. Checked out the shock theater with Doctor Gangrene and Bob Burns. Also hung out with the Led Belly guys outside on the patio for a while. Had to leave though.
Cultsuite was supposed to start around 9 and we wanted to get there fairly early to get some decent seats.

Turns out we were the first ones there!
Soon others trickled in, and we started watching one of the Masters of Horror episodes.
Part way through, Robert Picardo showed up. Actually, just about in time to watch his own death scene in the episode. He also brought John Bruno with him. So that was really cool!
After that ended, Steve ordered some pizza and put in an ep of Voyager for us to watch.
It was actually a good one. Made better by having the main character for that ep sitting in the room with us.

I didn't get any good pictures though. I was in the back of the room at that time (after giving my seat to John Bruno). I also didn't want to be obtrusive about it. I mean he was cool enough to come up and have pizza and beer with us. Why would I want to be a jerk and ask him to pose for pictures. So I just snapped off a few without the flash just to see what I would get. (which was the back of his head for the most part)
After the ep, he and John had to go. He had been hanging with us for well over an hour by then.
We too left to go get some more pop to drink. All Steve had was beer.

We inteded to go back and watch more stuff, as it can get really fun with those guys, depending on what we are watching. But, after hitting our room for fresh pop, we swung down through the lobby for another round. Where we ran into the Led Belly guys again on the patio. They were still shooting contest entry footage.
Then there was a goup in the lobby, that we talked with for a bit.
Then there was a gathering of people on the steps between the courtyard, and the 2nd floor patio.
Then it was Led Belly again (sensing a theme here yet?)
After that, it was off to bed, since it was sometime after 3 AM and I had a 9 AM demo I wanted to catch in the morning.

Sunday
Up early for the 9AM demo.
It was worth it. Some nice talk on dioramas. Plus I got a surprise. Crazy Joe was there before I got there!
Considering he was still at the party on the steps when I left there last night, I was surprised to see him bright eyed and chipper at this early hour.
Another bonus to doing the early demo. I had a great seat for the following demo.
Dave Fisher doing pastels.
This is the first time I have ever seen Dave do an actual demo.
Yeah, he does his normal slide-show thing on Saturday mornings, which we have seen in years previous. But this is the first time I have seen him do something hands-on in person.
Was really cool.
He had us all pull our chairs up close to better see what was going on.
Great guy. Very informative and informal. Just the way a good demo should be.

So, now it is past 11. And we haven't even set foot in the dealers room yet.
We soon remedied that. Tried another pass through. Especially since there was another thing I wanted to see at 12.
The Art Conan with Gary Gianni, Mark Shultz & William Stout.
It was originally supposed to be in one of the upstairs theaters. But at the last minute, it got moved down to the special exhibit room where they all had their tables anyway. A good idea in theory, but in practice it had a couple issues.
First, no seating. We all had to stand.
Second, a whole lot of noise. First, just the normal amount of noise from the hallway going by the room. Didn't realize how much their was until I was trying to listen to someone speak. Second, hotel staff was emptying trash cans in that room right at that time. Very annoying.
The talk was very interesting, but I cut out early. Both because the noise levels, and because it wasn't quite what I was hoping for.
Back to the dealers room to find my daughter.
We went outside for a few minutes so I could catch a smoke, and visit with whoever happened to be out there.
That is when we got some bad news.
Seems FSM had already left.
They were only there until noon.
Wish we had known that, we would have made time on Saturday to get Britny's model photographed. We figured we could do that after she picked her model up.
Hopefully she will get an opportunity next year, and that the instructions will be a little more clear then on what to do.

Back to the dealers room for a few minutes, then up to our room for a snack, and to grab our contest entry forms. We were going to see Picardo's presentation, then shortly after that was the awards ceremony.

Robert Picardo.

I was really surprise at how much fun this was.
When I first heard Picardo was going to be at WF, I was rather ambivalent about it.
I liked his work on Voyager ok. Though I didn't care much for that series. I did like his role on SG1 though.
After meeting him in the Cultsuite the night before though I liked him a lot more.
Then I really became a fan after his presentation.
Well, not really a presentation. It was basically a Q&A session.
And I think he really enjoyed it too. He seemed surprised and pleased that there were very few questions about Trek. And those didn't come until later. Everyone was interested in his other experiences. The Howling. Legend. Matinee. Masters of Horror. SG1/Atlantis. (which he mentioned he does return to Atlantis in the next season, which was shooting at this time. And that SG1 was busy shooting their second movie.). Total Recall. Innerspace. China Beach. Even his appearances on Home Improvements and Wonder Years.
He talked about some of the other stuff he does. Local theater, and some of his charity stuff.
He even sang one of his songs!

Great singing voice, and the song was excellent.
He has a couple CDs of song paradies. Basically dealing with Star Trek, it's fans, and it's conventions.
Very witty, humorous, and well done.
http://www.robertpicardo.com/store/store.html
Much like Greg's on Saturday, Picardo's thing ran long as well. It was supposed to be an hour, and turned into an hour and a half. Again though, the time just flew by.
He ended things up by auctioning off a couple items to raise money for a friend of his.

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