Screamfest 2007: Best Year Yet!
So Friday morning I got up at 5:30, finished stuffing a few items in my suitcase, and had Papa pick me up to go to the airport at 6:00. My flight was at 7:50, got through security just fine, and off I went. Sat around in Dallas for a couple of hours, nothing too bad. Got in half an hour late to Orlando and waited for Kal and Alexx to pick me up.
When they got there they were in a minivan rented from Enterprise. Since we were mostly selling toys this year, we didn't need a big conversion van like last year. However, there was one problem...where was I going to sit with all the inventory in the back?! So after the initial hugs, and meeting Alexx for the first time, I wound up sitting on his lap for the short drive to the Wyndham Orlando Resort. Lots of jokes followed.
We were running late, so after getting our vendor passes, I went to check in and the boys went to go set up our vendor booth.
Art for the program done by Gris Grimly.
There was a Zombie Walk which took place before we got there. This was the remnants from it.
One of the many lines which took place that weekend.
Alexx and Danielle Harris from Halloween 4, 5 and Rob Zombie's Halloween.
Beef Jerky anyone? Food was a high commodity!
A customer from our booth! We had record sales for a Friday!
Yay for Ashley and Alexx, Kal's little helpers!
We caught a tiny peek at the Vaude Villians' burlesque show...very nice.
We're still not sure what he was supposed to be, but it was kind of creepy!
Eating at the Perkin's after the vending room was shut down. It was late and the three of us split a yummy appetizer sampler.
Kal sure loves his iPhone and taking pictures of us waiting for food!
Voltaire returned for another year!
Kal had his eyes closed, and Alexx pretending like he didn't know I was taking his picture.
Hanging out at the Tiki Bar after a long day.
Who wants to pass up the opportunity for free candy?!
Saturday was the longest day. Lots of celebrity photos to get. Lots to sell. Lots to do!
Michael Barryman. Not sure where Alex Vincent from Child's Play was at this point. He returned from last year.
Robert Englund sometimes more commonly known as Freddy Kruger.
One of the Graveyard Girls. Isn't she so cute?! She makes those tiny little hats too!
Here I am working the booth! After passing up buying one last year, I had to get a little hat for myself!
Cassie and her dad John. We all met at Screamfest last year!
Kal's dream finally came true, he met Gunnar Hansen! If you don't recognize him, think Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Since little Gunnar couldn't make it these year, Kal got his picture on the iPhone and had his namessake hold it! The original Gunnar also got one of Kal's TCM shirts from Mother May I Clothing!
Liz and her sister with the name I can't possibly spell were behind me in line. For some reason I didn't get a picture of their friend Tracy. I spent 3.5 hours with these girls waiting to meet Robert Englund. Many people waited even longer! The line was outside of the building!
While continuing to wait in line we ran into these guys, who were all dressed up last year too. There were four or five of them dressed at the Umbrella corporation from Resident Evil. The girl to the right was supposed to be in line BEHIND us, but somehow made it into all of my pictures of the Resident Evil guys.
And then I finally made it! Robert Englund. By the time I made it to the front of the line, he had been cut off from doing posed pictures due to the massive amounts of people wanting his autograph, so I had to do a lean and shoot. It was completely worth it. "Hi Ashley! Have you been a good girl?" He said it in the voice!!!
After working for several hours back at the Mother May I Clothing booth, Cassie kidnapped me and we did a silly little photo shoot...
Totally breaking character after the photographer commented on how it was really pretty creepy that I had a tiny little hat on while holding a big chainsaw, we couldn't keep from giggling.
More tiny hat comments, haha.
Of course you can't have a bloody shoot without being a zombie!
Once we were done, John wanted some pictures with the creepy McDonald's clown model.
Our photographer, Warren Bradford Whitmore III. We had a blast!
Doing their "I could kill you" pose.
Betsy Palmer who played Mrs. Voorhees.
Buying the rare Living Dead Jason Voorhees Doll at our booth!
We had lots of merchandise that was great for getting autographs on.
They were hot.
Alexx with two guys dressed as the Baseball Furies from The Warriors
"Wait wait! Me too me too!" was what I was saying as I ran from out of the booth. I had to have my picture with them, I love that movie! Besides, I saw them first! I look so tiny, those guys were huge!
I'm not really sure what the deal is with this movie. There was a guy over by the Troma booth in a blonde mullet dancing and convulsing to a clip of this song for the better part of 5 hours (at least). Finally I went over there and I told him we had been watching him from our booth and couldn't understand how he had soo much energy to keep dancing like that without passing out. After talking a little bit, he said he had something for me and came out with a copy of this movie that they were advertising.
He got his tattoo autographed so he could then get the autograph tattooed onto him.
How cool is it to have some normal looking lady walking around with a bullet hole in her head?!
Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy
One of my favorite things about this convention is that you run into the coolest people, and when else can you dress like this for 3 days in a row?!
We ran into Gunnar in the vendor room, and Alexx needed his picture!
That night we hung out by the pool with Pinhead and Edward Scissor-Hands look alikes, along with Gris Grimly, Unkle Pigors, and many others. Edward soon disappeared, but Pinhead stuck around. We drank and ate pizza, and laughed at the fact that Pinhead never spoke, no one knew what he looked like, and he seemed to be completely fascinated by me.
This couple was a riot. They were so nice and fun to hang around!
Alexx getting a haircut.
Doug Bradley hung out by the pool both nights. Saturday night we finally got our picture taken with him. Yay for poolside drinking with Pinhead!
Later we went to see part of Gargamel's set. They were pretty damn cool! We had missed the Van Orsdels due to it being a necessity that we eat.
Sunday we got up, got the van jumped (since the battery was really old and died the night before), sold the last of the toys super quick, checked out of the resort and it was off to the airport for me on Kal and Alexx's way back to Miami.
I bought this book at the airport since I was going to have a very long wait ahead of me (but hey I saved cab fare!)
Then my plane was horribly delayed due to weather in Orlando. It was stuck circling around the airport before it could land. Once I was finally on board, we got stuck on the runway for another 45 minutes or so due to more weather. By the time we landed in Houston, my plane to Oklahoma City had already been boarded, so I ran across the terminal to catch the plane (I was supposed to have a 2 hour layover in Houston, so much for that!). Then we got stuck in Houston in the plane at the terminal for a while because there was weather in Oklahoma City that we couldn't land in. But hey, it gave my suitcase time to catch up and make it on to my plane!
A couple of pictures of the lights in Houston from the plane:
*Pictures taken by Kal, Ashley, and Warren Bradford Whitmore III*