German Comic Con Dortmund 2022 - Spring Edition

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Arrival and set up (22.04.2022)

After a 2.5 year break because of Covid-19, I was able to participate again with K.I.T.T. at the German Comic Con Spring Edition in Dortmund in April 2022.
Besides my teenage crushes Teri Hatcher ("Lois & Clark - The new Adventures of Superman", "Desperate Housewives") and Alyssa Milano ("Charmed", "Who's the Boss?"), two actors from "Knight Rider" were also announced: Vernon Wells played the villain "Wilson" in "Hills of Fire" (season 4, episode 18) and Brian Thompson played one of the hijackers in "Sky Knight" (season 4, episode 4). The aim, of course, was again to get them to the car to have them sign their autographs on the trunk cover and take a few photos. To increase the chances of that, I was given two tickets each for autographs and selfies for the two of them in addition to the photoshoots, which I could then redeem at the car.
So I drove to Dortmund on 22.04.2022. After two minor traffic jams, I arrived there at the car wash around 16:00, where I cleaned the car properly in bright sunshine before then going to the exhibition hall 3, where K.I.T.T. was perfectly positioned in the middle between the autograph tables and photo shoot area. In hall 2 the panels took place and in hall 4 was the merchandising dealers were located. There was also a second panel stage outside the main entrance, where Comic Con's red British double-decker bus was also on display. I stopped by here again later on my way to dinner.

Day 1 - Saturday (23rd April 2022)

The first visitors were allowed into the hall from 09:00 AM. Thanks to my exhibitor pass, I was able to enter the hall at 07:00 AM. There I activated K.I.T.T. and then looked around a bit in the halls before I picked up my Fast Lane wristband, with which I should get faster at photoshoots and autographs later.
Surprisingly, most of the star guests were already present at the opening. In the past, they often arrived after 10:30 AM. I took the opportunity to take a photo of dubbing voice artist Sandra Schwittau (German voice of Bart Simpson, Eva Mendez, Hillary Swank and others) with K.I.T.T. The dubbing voice artists sat in close proximity to K.I.T.T., so that every now and then one of them passed by the car.
My two favorites Teri Hatcher and Alyssa Milano were also sitting within sight. Unfortunately, both were very much shielded by their security staff, so that there was no real approach. At the moment it was easier to talkt to Cameron Monaghan ("Shameless", "Gotham", "Malcolm in the middle", "The Three Investigators"), who was still sitting alone at his table. Unfortunately he didn't want to take a pic with K.I.T.T. - well, you can't force anyone ;)
Chase Coleman ("Boardwalk Empire," "The Originals," "Aquarius") was visibly more pleased, suddenly standing by the car of his own accord and being quite enthusiastic. He wanted to take photos himself and even came by a short time later with a matching leather jacket to sit in for photos again. That's how it should be!

Of course, my main target remained Vernon Wells and Brian Thompson. Both were already walking around and Brian came to K.I.T.T. - I approached him and explained what I was up to and he agreed to come back later. Besides that he was interested in the paint job of the car, because he had a classic car himself. So far so good.
Since the personal assistents didn't have their scanners for the tickets yet, I first went to Lochlyn Munro from "Scary Movie". I had a photoshoot ticket with him for Sunday and wanted to explain my plan to him in advance in case he wouldn't like it: In "Scary Movie" his character dies after he finds a Polaroid with his rather small private part in the men's locker room and gets really upset about it. I had this Polaroid with me in a slightly larger format and wanted to hold it up to the camera during the photoshoot. Of course, he would have to have a sense of humor for that... and... he had! He laughed a lot and told me about the shoot, since the scene was mostly improvised. I was allowed to use the photo and he wished me a lot of fun at the con. A super nice guy!

Meeting Vernon Wells (23rd April 2022)

Next to Lochlyn sat Brian Thompson and Vernon Wells. Several fans were in the queue for Brian, so I turned to Vernon first and showed him a screenshot of his appearance in "Knight Rider" and told him that I had brought K.I.T.T. with me. He also told an anecdote about how he had injured himself during the filming and got away with a bloody nose. That K.I.T.T. was standing about 50 meters away was no problem. Vernon willingly stood up and we walked to the car together.
On the way there, he also told me that he had even been in 3 episodes, though I had only found one of them. But later he remembered that he had mixed it up with "MacGyver". We stayed a few minutes with K.I.T.T. and he signed on my trunk cover, on which in the meantime only little space is left, but on the far left a little place was found... Afterwards he took a seat at the wheel for photos and also stood in front of the car. Thus I had everything I wanted :)
At 16:15 we had the official photoshoot, so I could also take a joint photo with him.
Vernon is best known from movies like "Commando", "Mad Max 2", "Power Rangers Time Force" and "Innerspace".

Day 1 - Saturday (23rd April 2022)

The rest of the day I spent at K.I.T.T. from time to time, where again some cosplayers came by.
Teri Hatcher and Alyssa Milano were signing autographs just a few meters away. Of course, I would have loved to take a photo of them with K.I.T.T., but they were too busy and shielded by their security staff. At least I could ask Teri for it personally during a break, but unfortunately she didn't want to come. It was still the nicest rejection I've gotten for this so far :)
I didn't even get to Alyssa, but the result would probably have been the same, so it didn't really matter.

Around noon, I met Caesar from Herne, whom I know via Facebook and who is also building his own K.I.T.T. at the moment. I was able to talk to him for a little longer. And also many K.I.T.T. fans came by the car and made photos with him. Because of the fact that the photo shoots started, more and more visitors gathered in the area in front of K.I.T.T.
Between 12:10 and 13:15 I had the first 4 of 6 photoshoots of this day: Teri Hatcher ("Lois & Clark - The new Adventures of Superman", "Desperate Housewives", "James Bond: TOMORROW never dies"), Cameron Monaghan ("Shameless", "Gotham", "Malcolm in the Middle", "The three investigators"), Alyssa Milano ("Charmed," "Who's the Boss?") and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau ("Game of Thrones," "Oblivion") were on my list. Thanks to the "Fast Lane" wristband, I didn't have to wait in the queues for long, but got there quite quickly, so that I managed to get through all the shoots without any problems.

At 13:40 and 14:30 I watched the stage panels of Teri Hatcher and Alyssa Milano. Here the stars sit on stage and are interviewed. Fans can also ask questions, which is always quite entertaining.

Meeting Brian Thompson (23rd April 2022)

After I was able to take Vernon Wells to K.I.T.T. in the morning, I had to wait a little longer for Brian Thompson, because quite a few fans came to get his autograph. Due to his numerous appearances as a villain in cult movies like "Terminator", "Cobra", "Star Trek Generations" and "Mortal Combat 2", he was better known than I had assumed.
Around 15:15 I was successful and caught him "alone", so that I could take him to K.I.T.T. for photos and an autograph. Brian also remembered the episode and the filming. He signed my trunk cover and posed for photos and videos behind the wheel and in front of K.I.T.T.
Both he and Vernon Wells were super nice, very approachable and good-humored. That's how you want to meet the stars.
At 16:05 we had the official photoshoot, so I was also able take a joint photo with him.

Day 1 - Saturday (23rd April 2022)

I also met some familiar faces. Among others, I ran into Chris Theisinger again, who was the personal assistant of AJ McLean from the Backstreet Boys at the German Comic Con 2018 in Berlin. He also plays smaller roles in film and TV from time to time and can thus be seen in "The First Avenger: Civil War", "Hitman: Agent 47" and "Jerks", for example. I spent the rest of the afternoon with Chris and we went together to the photoshoots of Vernon Wells and Brian Thompson.
Lochlyn Munro ("Scary Movie", "Riverdale") also stopped by K.I.T.T. and posed for a photo, as did actor and dubbing voice artist Dietmar Wunder (German voice of Daniel Craig and Adam Sandler, among others). I also had Dietmar make record a message for my wife's cell phone, who is a big fan of Daniel Craig as James Bond.
My last appointment for this Saturday was a special group photo. For a few years now, I have been a member of the Facebook group "Stars and me", where fans can present their photos with the stars. Since, of course, many members of the group were also at the con, we had arranged to meet at 18:00 for a joint photo on the main stage. A total of 61 people showed up. Not bad!

Day 2 - Sunday (24th April 2022)

On Sunday morning, I took the opportunity to take a few photos with the exhibited props in the (still) empty halls. I posed on a throne from "Vikings" as well as "Game of Thrones", a set of the Ahoy from "Stranger Things" as well as a "Radnecks workshop" from "Fallout 4"...
Aound the corner from K.I.T.T., the Ghostbusters Germany also had their booth with various props, Vigo's altar, Marshmallow Man, Slimer, etc.

The con opened at 09:00 AM and also today most of the star guests were there right from the beginning. Since K.I.T.T. was quite close to the dubbing voice actors' tables, some of them came by from time to time. First Sandra Schwittau (German voice of Bart Simpson, Eva Mendez, Hillary Swank and others) took a seat behind the steering wheel again, after she had stopped by only briefly yesterday. Later Martin Kautz (German voice of John Berntal, Magic Mike and Darth Vader since "Rogue One") was very enthusiastic about K.I.T.T. and also recorded a video for his Instagram story.

... also some cosplayers showed up at K.I.T.T. - I only took a few photos this time, because I wasn't there most of the time myself.

Around noon I watched some panels again: The 8 actors from "Vikings" spread a super atmosphere, the German dubbing voice artists were also very entertaining, Kevin Sussman told that before "The Big Bang Theory" he actually worked in a comic book store himself and Teri Hatcher had to recognize 5 European countries today based on their music performances at the Eurovision Song Contest...

I was also able to take a few photos of K.I.T.T. with some of the German dubbing voice artists: Dennis Schmidt-Foß (German voice of Ryan Reynolds, Chris Evans, Michael C. Hall and since 2007 also Eddie Murpy), Charles Rettinghaus (German voice of Jamie Foxx, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Robert Downey Jr.) and Santiago Ziesmer (German voice of Spongebob, Steve Urkel and the piglet in Winnie Poo).

Between 15:00 and 16:00 I had my last 3 photoshoots: Kevin Sussman ("The Big Bang Theory"), Lochlyn Munro ("Scary Movie", "Riverdale") and Emma Caulfield ("Beverly Hills 90210", "Buffy - The Vampire Slayer"). For Lochlyn I had brought the matching Polaroid from "Scary Movie". He had already allowed me to use it at his autograph table on Saturday and told a few anecdotes about it. The uncensored version is available here...
And so the German Comic Con ended again around 17:00. Once again I had a great time and I'm glad that once again everything worked out. It was also very nice to be able to experience a big event like this again after 2 years of being forced to stay home because of Covid-19.
I gradually began to prepare K.I.T.T. for my trip home again, when around 5:30 p.m. Nick Carter came back from a shopping tour through Hall 4 with his bodyguards. I took the opportunity to ask for a photo with K.I.T.T. and he agreed immediately and posed next to the car. So after meeting AJ and Howie at the German Comic Con in Berlin 2018, I now had 3 of the 5 Backstreet Boys at my car. Only Brian and Kevin are still missing ;)

Previously on 2021-10-15-17 :
Season Final Meeting 2021

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