The 2011 Star Trek Las Vegas Convention Report
Hey gang,
So a little retro con report action for you here. Last August on a last minute whim, Teri and I attended the Creation Star Trek Convention in las Vegas at the The Rio. I had always wanted to go to one of these but usually money is too tight post SDCC. They used to have annual Star Trek Cons in pasadena here every spring, but that stopped after the renovation of the Pasadena Convention center in the mid 00's. So I was feeling nostalgic for a Trek con, this year it was spaced out a little farther away to help my SDCC battered wallet recover, and my aunt and uncle were gracious enough to allow us to stay with them to save on hotel fees. So away we go to Vegas!
Due to Teri's work schedule we missed Thurs and Friday which is a minor shame as I wanted to try and meet a couple of the guys from Enterprise. Despite it's rep I've become a fan of the show with a few marathon viewings of the whole run back in 2009. Oh well, next year maybe?
The weekend traffic was awful and we got in pretty late at night. The next day after a well prepared family breakfast, we set out in our classic TOS Dr. mcCoy/Science officer costumes to enjoy the con. My Aunt and Uncle gave us a big thumbs up which was nice- turns out they were fans of the show when it aired back in the 60's (and they were in college). Neat!
More pics
SATURDAY
It tools us a while to find the actual convention center IN the Rio itself. it was bait maze like- but once there we wandered in and took in what was a LOT of pretty awesome Trek costly. There were an estimated 1500 cosplayers and it was cool to see the love for so many different eras.
Classic TOS Trek and Movies
Classic Trek Reunited
We always made sure to stop and take pics with fellow TOS Crew members.
Classic Klingons
Bajoran and Vulcan Ambassadors
The Wrath of Khan pair
Full Wrath of Khan!
We ran into a few folks who were rocking a really awesome Wrath of Khan away team outfits we remembered from sdcc '11. Great to see the costume more close up. The guy called his Khan Kirk wig his "TJ Hooker look"
A Fistful of Datas Troi and Worf
Picard Clone Shinzon from Star Trek Nemesis
Teri and I at the con
The neatest thing we saw on the floor was a woman with a miniature remote ctonrolled Horta from the Devil in the Dark! Awesome!
remote Control Horta!
Q!
Encounter at Farpoint
Star Trek Enterprise
We also saw they were selling these really nifty and comfy novelty robes in the classic Trek red, blue and gold colors with insignia etc. They had them on sale off the website price (anise change!) and I needed up buying a couple my me and a friend of mine in Blue and Gold.
Spock on Vacation modeling a Science Officer Trek Robe
Kirk and Janice Rand
Enterprise custom Backpack
A fan had a very cool custom enterprise shaped backpack that she was sporting. We almost wanted to ask where she'd got it til we figured it out. Kudos for the creativity.
Candid Klingon
Romulans
Around this time we stopped in the main auditorium to see Brent Spiner (aka Data) speak. He was very funny, cracked a few jokes about Jonathan Frakes, and handled the fan questions pretty well and very entertainingly. A breezy 45 minutes.
Trek mashup!
Outside the Main hall we ran into agiant trek mash-up of Eras- mainly focusing on TNG and DS9 with some Borg, Data, a Jem hadar and so on. All very nicely done!
TNG Season 1
This tunic is apparently a screen worn Season 1 TNG piece.
Ilya From TMP with Barbarian Kirk
i was impressed to se that pretty much every era of uniform was represented from TOS to the films to TNG and Enterprise. I was doubly surprised to find an Iyla from TMP!
Nancy Novak
Ferengi is the man
TNG and Enterprise crossover
Outside the main ballroom we ran into a super tall but very cool looking Spock Cosplayer who lit up and ushers due over for a photo as the classic Crew. We were ding the cosplayers checkover for props and tunic fabrics and such which was funny but it was great to see such a good Spock. He had a card too "Vegas Spock"! Hey we need to get him together with the Elvis impersonators and have a party.
Vegas Spock
I was probably just as impressed with the Harry Mudd & women entourage we ran into shortly after- just awesome to see the TOS love.
With Harry Mudd and his Women
Orion Slave Girl
No Trek Con is complete without some Orion Slave Girls and a Seven of Nine.
TMP Vlcan with Andrea from What Are Little Girls Made Of?
Janice Rand
Kudos to the Janice Rand and the 60's hairdo!
reboot Trek
I know he's not the most popular character- but I was pretty blown away by how spot-on awesome this Wesley Crusher was.
Ensign Wesley Crusher
Andorian
A Newer style Andorian- more barbaric than TOS but still neat to see!
W/ Seven of Nine
Mirror universe TOS crossover
Kirk
A Piece of the Action
I was pretty chuffed to see a guy doing a peice of the Action cosplay- one of the more memorable eps that gets forgotten about on the costume front.
Lee Meriweather
Finally after a brief lunch in the Rio casino (few choices but we ended up at a cafe where we got some sandwiches and fries) Teri and I took part in the Guiness Book of World Records attempt to get the most number of Star Trek Cosplayer sin one room at one time. The previous record i guess had been set by Dragon Con or another Creation Con the year before in the 600 range. We took our tickets in the mid-400's and hung out in the room enjoying the camraderie and the wide range of other costumes... a LOAD of pics seen below:
World Record Attempt- Most cosplayers together run 1 room - 1040 cosplayers!
In the end we crushed the record with 1,040 cosplayers! The picard and Sisko look-alikes were on stage cheering on the countdown and hailing love live Star Trek with everyone giving the vulcan hand sign. Pretty neat stuff!
Borg Queen with Orion Slave Girls
Classic Trek Girls
Back in the Dealer Room I hunted around for some neat stuff but never really decide don much since I was low on funds. We did run into Lee aka strollerman who was there with friends. Nice to see a familiar face. At one of the nifty Replica prop booths one of the fellow RPF member Nickeytea was there who recognized me from the board and we had a nice long chat about things there, Dr. Who props and the state of Trek. Wish we could have talked longer but he had customers to deal with!
Kirk with McCoy and Science Officer
Classic Trekkin it with Tribbles
KirockII
Cardassian and Orion Slave Girl
The Dealer room was pretty big- double or triple the size of Gallifrey. Brent Spiner, John Delancie, Garrett Wang, Chase Masterson and a few Classic Trek Actors like Grace Lee Whitney had tables inside so fans had a better chance to meet and properly talk with the actors. They all seemed very open and friendly.
We ran by a great looking T'Pol on the way out with I assume her BF the Picard look-alike and they posed for us.
T'Pol
Picard and T'Pol
Our last stop for the Day was the Leonard Nimoy Panel which was his farewell to trek Cons (save for one final appearance schediled for Chicago that fall). It was heartwarming to hear him talk through his long career form Zombie of the Stratosphere to the latest Abrahms Trek film. It was personal and touching. He took no questions but teared up at the end saying goodbye to everyone and he got a standing ovation. I'm sorry my wallet was too weak too have afforded a photo op or autograph from him- but I was happy to have seen this!
Finally we wnet back to my Uncle's and changed. I was grateful as I wore my trousers differently and they constantly wanted to sli too low with the eight of the phaser on them so i was frequently hiking them up if not literally walking with my hand carefully placed on my hip to help holed them up! So I was happy to get everything off and walk normally finally.
After dinner we wanted to take in a show and wanted to see an old school rat pack performance-esque show or a magic show. Well there wasn't much to see and by the time we set out to do so it was getting late. And most shows were pricey- best we could swing was something in the $40 range or less.
By Luck it turned out at the Trek Co that James Darren of Time Tunnel/TJ Hooker and DS9 would be performing a rat pack Crooning performance back at the rio- cheap ticket and right in our schedule window! So off we went!
Although I don't have photos form this Teri and I both loved it- a short but swinging 1 hour performance. He sung a lot of classics and it had a Dean martin feel. It was exactly what we wanted a nice way to end the evening.
SUNDAY
The next day we got a slightly late start as we wer eon the fence whether to attend the 2nd day but I insisted as I wanted to see the Shatner panel. So we had another fine breakfast and said goodbye to my aunt and Uncle. Thier hospitality was greatly appreciated. We packed up (going in civvies this time to avoid awkwardly changing in the hotel bathrooms) the car and drove back to the Rio.
One there we spent half the day in the panel room watching Patrick Stewart, then the 3 captains- Shatner, Mulgrew and Stewart and finally Shatner Solo on Stage. These were very entertaining. Shatner is a hoot- he plays up his persona well and was cordial on a lot of the questions. The three Captains together was a highlight as Mulgrew and Stewart made a point of outlasting Shatner's reign by a good 4 years on TV but Shatner countered saying without his run they wouldn't have ever BEEN Captains! Touche! Stewart also acknowledged Shatner as the best Captain mainly because he had to contend with limited technology and budget and still sell it as credible, realistic entertainment and succeeding while they had all the modern whiz bang help of the 90s. They also promoted the Captains feature Shatner made recently and I had a chance to see a few weeks after the con which was pretty entertaining and eye opening about what all goes into playing these parts and the effect on thier personal lives it has!
Trek TOS at the Panel
Tron
We also saw the Sulu summit panel with Garret Wang introducing George Takei and John Cho together as the two Sulus. This was a neat panel mostly to see how Cho was reacting to the fans at his first Trek Con and how they both approached playing the same role for different times/audiences. They both had a blast and seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely.
Mirror Universe Enterprise
My one regret is I wasn't able to swing an autogrpah with David Warner- a guy I've loved in Time After Time, Dr. Who Audios, Tom Jones, Tron, Man With Two Brains, Time bandits and many others for years. Again I was strapped and had to let it go. I did end up getting him to sign two of my DVDs a few months later through a friend which was nice though.
TOS
Gamesters of Triskilion
Romulan
We took a finally round through the dealer's room spotting more cool cosplay which was neat and I scored another bathrobe and some trek Models for a buddy of mine who promised to re-imburse me later. I took not eof some shops to try later for some t-shirts and with that we made our way out and back on the road to Los Angeles. It was a nice little get-away and a fun con. It scratched my Trek Nostalgia itch and we hope to try to make it to the Vegas 2012 con this year.
Orion Slave Girl
Regal Vulcan (who won the costume contest as I recall)
til next time,
-honorarydoctor
So a little retro con report action for you here. Last August on a last minute whim, Teri and I attended the Creation Star Trek Convention in las Vegas at the The Rio. I had always wanted to go to one of these but usually money is too tight post SDCC. They used to have annual Star Trek Cons in pasadena here every spring, but that stopped after the renovation of the Pasadena Convention center in the mid 00's. So I was feeling nostalgic for a Trek con, this year it was spaced out a little farther away to help my SDCC battered wallet recover, and my aunt and uncle were gracious enough to allow us to stay with them to save on hotel fees. So away we go to Vegas!
Due to Teri's work schedule we missed Thurs and Friday which is a minor shame as I wanted to try and meet a couple of the guys from Enterprise. Despite it's rep I've become a fan of the show with a few marathon viewings of the whole run back in 2009. Oh well, next year maybe?
The weekend traffic was awful and we got in pretty late at night. The next day after a well prepared family breakfast, we set out in our classic TOS Dr. mcCoy/Science officer costumes to enjoy the con. My Aunt and Uncle gave us a big thumbs up which was nice- turns out they were fans of the show when it aired back in the 60's (and they were in college). Neat!
More pics
SATURDAY
It tools us a while to find the actual convention center IN the Rio itself. it was bait maze like- but once there we wandered in and took in what was a LOT of pretty awesome Trek costly. There were an estimated 1500 cosplayers and it was cool to see the love for so many different eras.
Classic TOS Trek and Movies
Classic Trek Reunited
We always made sure to stop and take pics with fellow TOS Crew members.
Classic Klingons
Bajoran and Vulcan Ambassadors
The Wrath of Khan pair
Full Wrath of Khan!
We ran into a few folks who were rocking a really awesome Wrath of Khan away team outfits we remembered from sdcc '11. Great to see the costume more close up. The guy called his Khan Kirk wig his "TJ Hooker look"
A Fistful of Datas Troi and Worf
Picard Clone Shinzon from Star Trek Nemesis
Teri and I at the con
The neatest thing we saw on the floor was a woman with a miniature remote ctonrolled Horta from the Devil in the Dark! Awesome!
remote Control Horta!
Q!
Encounter at Farpoint
Star Trek Enterprise
We also saw they were selling these really nifty and comfy novelty robes in the classic Trek red, blue and gold colors with insignia etc. They had them on sale off the website price (anise change!) and I needed up buying a couple my me and a friend of mine in Blue and Gold.
Spock on Vacation modeling a Science Officer Trek Robe
Kirk and Janice Rand
Enterprise custom Backpack
A fan had a very cool custom enterprise shaped backpack that she was sporting. We almost wanted to ask where she'd got it til we figured it out. Kudos for the creativity.
Candid Klingon
Romulans
Around this time we stopped in the main auditorium to see Brent Spiner (aka Data) speak. He was very funny, cracked a few jokes about Jonathan Frakes, and handled the fan questions pretty well and very entertainingly. A breezy 45 minutes.
Trek mashup!
Outside the Main hall we ran into agiant trek mash-up of Eras- mainly focusing on TNG and DS9 with some Borg, Data, a Jem hadar and so on. All very nicely done!
TNG Season 1
This tunic is apparently a screen worn Season 1 TNG piece.
Ilya From TMP with Barbarian Kirk
i was impressed to se that pretty much every era of uniform was represented from TOS to the films to TNG and Enterprise. I was doubly surprised to find an Iyla from TMP!
Nancy Novak
Ferengi is the man
TNG and Enterprise crossover
Outside the main ballroom we ran into a super tall but very cool looking Spock Cosplayer who lit up and ushers due over for a photo as the classic Crew. We were ding the cosplayers checkover for props and tunic fabrics and such which was funny but it was great to see such a good Spock. He had a card too "Vegas Spock"! Hey we need to get him together with the Elvis impersonators and have a party.
Vegas Spock
I was probably just as impressed with the Harry Mudd & women entourage we ran into shortly after- just awesome to see the TOS love.
With Harry Mudd and his Women
Orion Slave Girl
No Trek Con is complete without some Orion Slave Girls and a Seven of Nine.
TMP Vlcan with Andrea from What Are Little Girls Made Of?
Janice Rand
Kudos to the Janice Rand and the 60's hairdo!
reboot Trek
I know he's not the most popular character- but I was pretty blown away by how spot-on awesome this Wesley Crusher was.
Ensign Wesley Crusher
Andorian
A Newer style Andorian- more barbaric than TOS but still neat to see!
W/ Seven of Nine
Mirror universe TOS crossover
Kirk
A Piece of the Action
I was pretty chuffed to see a guy doing a peice of the Action cosplay- one of the more memorable eps that gets forgotten about on the costume front.
Lee Meriweather
Finally after a brief lunch in the Rio casino (few choices but we ended up at a cafe where we got some sandwiches and fries) Teri and I took part in the Guiness Book of World Records attempt to get the most number of Star Trek Cosplayer sin one room at one time. The previous record i guess had been set by Dragon Con or another Creation Con the year before in the 600 range. We took our tickets in the mid-400's and hung out in the room enjoying the camraderie and the wide range of other costumes... a LOAD of pics seen below:
World Record Attempt- Most cosplayers together run 1 room - 1040 cosplayers!
In the end we crushed the record with 1,040 cosplayers! The picard and Sisko look-alikes were on stage cheering on the countdown and hailing love live Star Trek with everyone giving the vulcan hand sign. Pretty neat stuff!
Borg Queen with Orion Slave Girls
Classic Trek Girls
Back in the Dealer Room I hunted around for some neat stuff but never really decide don much since I was low on funds. We did run into Lee aka strollerman who was there with friends. Nice to see a familiar face. At one of the nifty Replica prop booths one of the fellow RPF member Nickeytea was there who recognized me from the board and we had a nice long chat about things there, Dr. Who props and the state of Trek. Wish we could have talked longer but he had customers to deal with!
Kirk with McCoy and Science Officer
Classic Trekkin it with Tribbles
KirockII
Cardassian and Orion Slave Girl
The Dealer room was pretty big- double or triple the size of Gallifrey. Brent Spiner, John Delancie, Garrett Wang, Chase Masterson and a few Classic Trek Actors like Grace Lee Whitney had tables inside so fans had a better chance to meet and properly talk with the actors. They all seemed very open and friendly.
We ran by a great looking T'Pol on the way out with I assume her BF the Picard look-alike and they posed for us.
T'Pol
Picard and T'Pol
Our last stop for the Day was the Leonard Nimoy Panel which was his farewell to trek Cons (save for one final appearance schediled for Chicago that fall). It was heartwarming to hear him talk through his long career form Zombie of the Stratosphere to the latest Abrahms Trek film. It was personal and touching. He took no questions but teared up at the end saying goodbye to everyone and he got a standing ovation. I'm sorry my wallet was too weak too have afforded a photo op or autograph from him- but I was happy to have seen this!
Finally we wnet back to my Uncle's and changed. I was grateful as I wore my trousers differently and they constantly wanted to sli too low with the eight of the phaser on them so i was frequently hiking them up if not literally walking with my hand carefully placed on my hip to help holed them up! So I was happy to get everything off and walk normally finally.
After dinner we wanted to take in a show and wanted to see an old school rat pack performance-esque show or a magic show. Well there wasn't much to see and by the time we set out to do so it was getting late. And most shows were pricey- best we could swing was something in the $40 range or less.
By Luck it turned out at the Trek Co that James Darren of Time Tunnel/TJ Hooker and DS9 would be performing a rat pack Crooning performance back at the rio- cheap ticket and right in our schedule window! So off we went!
Although I don't have photos form this Teri and I both loved it- a short but swinging 1 hour performance. He sung a lot of classics and it had a Dean martin feel. It was exactly what we wanted a nice way to end the evening.
SUNDAY
The next day we got a slightly late start as we wer eon the fence whether to attend the 2nd day but I insisted as I wanted to see the Shatner panel. So we had another fine breakfast and said goodbye to my aunt and Uncle. Thier hospitality was greatly appreciated. We packed up (going in civvies this time to avoid awkwardly changing in the hotel bathrooms) the car and drove back to the Rio.
One there we spent half the day in the panel room watching Patrick Stewart, then the 3 captains- Shatner, Mulgrew and Stewart and finally Shatner Solo on Stage. These were very entertaining. Shatner is a hoot- he plays up his persona well and was cordial on a lot of the questions. The three Captains together was a highlight as Mulgrew and Stewart made a point of outlasting Shatner's reign by a good 4 years on TV but Shatner countered saying without his run they wouldn't have ever BEEN Captains! Touche! Stewart also acknowledged Shatner as the best Captain mainly because he had to contend with limited technology and budget and still sell it as credible, realistic entertainment and succeeding while they had all the modern whiz bang help of the 90s. They also promoted the Captains feature Shatner made recently and I had a chance to see a few weeks after the con which was pretty entertaining and eye opening about what all goes into playing these parts and the effect on thier personal lives it has!
Trek TOS at the Panel
Tron
We also saw the Sulu summit panel with Garret Wang introducing George Takei and John Cho together as the two Sulus. This was a neat panel mostly to see how Cho was reacting to the fans at his first Trek Con and how they both approached playing the same role for different times/audiences. They both had a blast and seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely.
Mirror Universe Enterprise
My one regret is I wasn't able to swing an autogrpah with David Warner- a guy I've loved in Time After Time, Dr. Who Audios, Tom Jones, Tron, Man With Two Brains, Time bandits and many others for years. Again I was strapped and had to let it go. I did end up getting him to sign two of my DVDs a few months later through a friend which was nice though.
TOS
Gamesters of Triskilion
Romulan
We took a finally round through the dealer's room spotting more cool cosplay which was neat and I scored another bathrobe and some trek Models for a buddy of mine who promised to re-imburse me later. I took not eof some shops to try later for some t-shirts and with that we made our way out and back on the road to Los Angeles. It was a nice little get-away and a fun con. It scratched my Trek Nostalgia itch and we hope to try to make it to the Vegas 2012 con this year.
Orion Slave Girl
Regal Vulcan (who won the costume contest as I recall)
til next time,
-honorarydoctor