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Attendees:
Stefan Garcia
Victoria Garcia
Peter F. Guenther
Rick Hallman
Ken Koleda
"Purple" Dave Laswell
Chris Leach
Sandy Leach
Trevor Pruden
Scott Sanburn
Jason Spears
Steve Weiser
Lester Witter
Overall Picture Directories:
Ken Koleda
Peter Guenther
Jason Spears
Scott Sanburn
Purple Dave
Report by Peter
This was our third appearance at the Motor City Comic Con and our umpteenth time in the Novi Expo Center. The show featured dozens of
dealers of toys/collectibles, anime and other DVDs, shoe insoles, and of course comics, as well as guest appearances by Michael Dorn (Worf
on Star Trek: TNG and DS9) Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher on ST: TNG), George Takie (Sulu on the original ST), and Ron Perlman (Hellboy in Hellboy).
Our display featured a 5'x12.5' Castle display using the CCC standard and the MichLUG tall-wall variation and a 7.5'x10' Space display
using the Moonbase standard. Purple Dave also unveiled some new Bionicle creations based on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and one of
the show's dealers showed off some Aquazone creations.
Setup
Jason and Lester arrived about the same time, Steve W not long after. We had to wait in this line for dealers to sign in, get badges, find out where to setup, etc. The Con hadn't quite figured out where we were going to go, aside from motioning "over there, along the wall". Not very descriptive, but the impression was that we had as much space as we needed. Jason was only able to bring 3/4ths of the tables needed, so we were not able to setup both castle and space right away. Trevor had made the request that space be setup first, as he was running on a tight schedule, so that went up first. Purple Dave arrived a bit before we started to setup tables, so we had a crew of four. Tables went up with minimal hassle, although it was muggy and hot, which wasn't a treat.
Trevor and Peter arrived around 5:45 after some hideous pre-rush and rush hour traffic; Ken and Chris arrived soon after. We unloaded the
tables Ken brought and used them to set up the Castle display. Since the display didn't use a lot of tables, we bolted them all together
upside-down on the floor, including the legs, and then flipped the whole assembly over. This allowed for very quick assembly.
This was out largest Castle undertaking yet, but it came together very quickly. Peter and Jason set up their walls, Jason set up his
island castle, and others began filling in green baseplates and then tan baseplates for the path. We then set up minifigs on the paths
and the attacking armies outside the gates, arranged the various houses and other buildings inside the walls, and started to add some
finishing touches before setup ended for the evening.
Friday
On Friday, setup continued at 8:00 am. Jason finished up the detail work on the castle layout, while Purple Dave and Steve Weiser worked on the Moonbase. Scott had some last minute building to do and worked on his hanger walls. We had everything pretty much finished before the show opened at 1 pm, so some members ducked out for lunch before the crowds. When the public was finally let in, it wasn't a crush or people, more of a trickle. The crowds picked up over the day, but Saturday always has the largest attendence. The show didn't end until 8pm and as some of us had been there since 8am, it made for a very long day.
Saturday
Scott got to the Expo Center at the promised 8:30 dealer-open time, and as usual had to wait around a while. Purple Dave got there around 9. Other club members arrived throughout the morning, so we ended up with a good-sized team to work the display. With the stantions in place and plastic chains keeping the crowd back, the display didn't actually need a lot of attention from the club, so we got a chance to sit back
and enjoy all of the costumes Con attendees had. In addition to the usual comic book, Star Wars, and Star Trek characters, G.I. Joe was a
surprisingly popular costume theme this year; our other favorite was the four Goth women, one of whom had a bat-winged Goth baby.
The Con was very well attended on Saturday, particularly in late morning and early afternoon. Hordes of people wandered through the
show to buy things from dealers or get autographs; we were effectively a sidenote to the Con, but our displays still impressed and amazed.
Steve-3 spent the late morning working on an Episode II Slave 1; the club has a bit of a tradition at this kind of show of, whenever someone is in a Star Wars costume and we have a matching minifig, taking their picture holding the minifig. Since Daniel Logan--the actor who played young Boba Fett in the movie--was there signing autographs, we decided we wanted his picture with the figure from the set. Jason set off to make it happen while Steve kept building.
Daniel was thrilled to see himself as a Lego minifig--apparently he had never seen the set or the mini-him--and readily agreed to the photo. Then he asked Jason if he could keep the figure; Jason said it wasn't his, but went to get Steve's permission. Steve agreed, in return for an autograph, so Daniel signed the Slave1 instructions right next to the figure on the first inside page. Later on, when he got a break, Daniel came over to meet Steve and thank him for the minifig.
In the late afternoon, Stefan discovered that one of the dealers had the larger Star Wars minis (last year's AT-AT, MTT, and Gunship, and
this year's ISD and Falcon) for $3 each. This required repeated trips back to the dealer as more members caught wind of it.
The other big Lego find of the weekend was that the Con had gotten one box of mini Knight Buses for each day of the show as a free giveaway. Some of the show volunteers limited the giveaway to kids, while others were more open. Regardless, several buses found their way into MichLUG members' possession.
At the end of the day, Stefan, Ken, Jason, Purple Dave, and Peter decided to go to dinner. Someone suggested Pizza Hut, and since Peter was in the mood for that he readily agreed and pointed out there were two Pizza Huts in the area--one a couple miles south on Novi Road, and the other about a half mile north. Chris, who was still around but wasn't going to dinner, said that the north Pizza Hut was in West Oaks, a fancy strip mall across from Twelve Oaks Mall.
Each person drove out separately (Stefan with Ken) to dinner; unfortunately, the Pizza Hut in question was replaced a year before with a Carrabara's Italian Grill, so the four cars spent about a half hour circling the area looking for a Pizza Hut before Ken, Stefan, and Peter met up. Jason asked at a gas station and arrived shortly thereafter; we saw Dave speeding the wrong way a few minutes later, so Jason went to intercept him, almost got into an accident, but eventually caught up--by which point Dave had gotten directions at a Radio Shack and was on his way back. After this, Dave stipulated that he wouldn't go anywhere new without another club member to follow.
Left without a viable plan for dinner, and following Dave's new rule, we started the world's briefest and least successful caravan, to the food court in Twelve Oaks Mall across the street. It gave us a lot of laughs, anyhow.
Sunday
Crowds were much lighter on Sunday. Surprisingly, there were still a number of people in costume, even though the contest ended Saturday
afternoon. There were also a number of borderline cases, where we couldn't figure out if it was a costume or just an outfit...
Club members purchased many more Minis and assembled them off an on through the show. Peter brought his two Yoda huts and spent the morning combining them into a full-round, taller hut destined as an Orc abode for a Castle layout.
At the same time, Scott worked on arranging all his Space minifigs onto 2x8 plates for easy addition to the display. Once he had them ready, he cleared out his large hangar/landing bay and set up an official visit by a high-ranking officer, with all hands present to greet him. He ended up with rank upon rank of minifig in a very impressive display, and then someone walking by made his day by saying it reminded him of the Emperor's arrival on the Death star in Return of the Jedi--exactly the effect Scott was looking for.
We had a very productive afternoon; Club members discussed future layouts, including future club expenses and some ideas for expanding the Castle layout. Ken pulled out a notebook which has a number of interesting ideas that he jots down regarding future layouts. We accomplished all this in spite of some distracting booth talent down a nearby aisle.
Teardown
Teardown took one hour and 18 minutes, but would have been shorter if we were allowed to pull vehicles into the Expo Center. Instead, they didn't allow vehicles in until 7 pm, well after we finished.
As usual, we enjoyed showing off Castle and Space creations as well as witnessing overall Con attendee craziness, so we're looking forward to the Con again in the fall.
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Layout Details:
Layout Pictures:
Castle
Space
Bionicle
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