German Comic Con Berlin 2016

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Videos

Arrival and setup (14th+15th October 2016)

After being at London Film & Comic Con in July 2015, I watched the guest announcements for German Comic Con 2016 in Berlin. Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown from "Back To The Future") and Amanda Bearse from one of my favorite shows "Married... with Children" should be there.
When they announced Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger from "A Nightmare on Elm Street"), my interest rised, to bring K.I.T.T. there, because Englund had played the "Phantom" in the 4th season episode "Fright Knight" of "Knight Rider". So a photo with him at my car would be a great addition. I contacted the organizers and offered them to display my K.I.T.T. for free and get some photos and autographs from their star guests in return. They accepted.
On 14th October 2016, I drove to Berlin and visited the Reichstag, the chancellor's office and the Brandenburg Gate, before I went to the Berlin Fair to assemble everything and connect K.I.T.T. to external power.
On Saturday, 15th October, the fair opened at 9:00 AM for "Early bird" ticket holders and 10:00 AM for everyone else. Being an exhibitor, I was allowed to enter at 07:30 AM to take some time to clean K.I.T.T. up.
K.I.T.T. was not the only movie car. Oliver Wirtz brought his Tumbler from "The Dark Knight" and his DeLorean time machine including some 1:1 movie character figures. Also Josef Hesse's DeLorean time machine was planned to be the photo car for Christopher Lloyd. And in the lobby, there was a third DeLorean by Terry and Oliver Holler from the USA, which was still covered. Maybe, there was a weather experiment going on ;)

Meeting Robert Englund (15th October 2016)

Shortly after 9:00 AM the first star guests arrived. Also Robert Englund was already sitting at his table, but there was nobody in his queue, yet. So I went to him and told him, that I had brought K.I.T.T. with me and asked him about taking some pictures with him at my car, because he had played in "Knight Rider". Robert accepted immediately, stood up and went to the car with me. He remembered his role of the "Phantom" in the 4th season very well and even told some anecdotes (e.g. that the stage of the show was the same stage as "Phantom of the Opera" and that he has met William Daniels (voice of K.I.T.T.) some years ago). Meanwhile, he posed for pictures at my car and signed my trunk cover.
After that, we went back to his table, where he also signed two scene photos of his role in "Knight Rider", that I had brought along with me. A very nice guy. And as I realized later - one of the highlights of the Con with a never ending queue at his table. I was lucky to ask him that early. I guess, he wouldn't have had time for me any later...

Amanda Bearse, Christopher Lloyd and Famke Janssen (15th October 2016)

Later, I went to Amanda Bearse and got some photos of her signed. I told her about K.I.T.T. and invited her to take a look at the car. She couldn't leave her table now, but said, she might come over later.
I spent the rest of the day at the Con like a normal visitor. I looked around, met some familiar faces and also a lot of new people, plus many great cosplayers. I visited K.I.T.T. from time to time, who really went down well with the audience. I took photos with Amanda Bearse and Famke Janssen and really had a good time.
At 2:00 PM, the photo shooting with Christopher Lloyd at the DeLorean time machine took place. Altogether, there were 3 DeLoreans. I already met the team of DeLorean-Timemachine.de on Friday, so I was able to get my photo right after them. Lloyd was kind of shielded. A photo with him at my K.I.T.T. would have been great, but that was totally unrealistic. Even the DeLorean owners had a lot of efforts to get photos and autographs from him. Being their return for bringing the cars, they got at least some of their stuff signed in the end. But I also got two of his autographs on Sunday.
The rest of the day, I spent with K.I.T.T. from time to time and at the talk panel with Christopher Lloyd at the Main Stage. Here the star guests were interviewed for about 30 minutes and fans were allowed to ask questions. See more of it at my Sunday report ;)
At the end of the day, I met the american comic artist M. Zachary Sherman, who was very interested in K.I.T.T. and also did a video interview with me.

Day 2: Autographs and talk panels (16th October 2016)

After getting almost everything, I had wanted, on day 1, I was able to relax on day 2. I went there at 7:30 AM and cleaned K.I.T.T. up again. Besides many finger prints from day 1 (even though I cleaned him several times before), there was also a lot of dust on the car. Black is an unrewarding color for cars.
I used the time to look around and take some photos with Groot from "Guardians of the Galaxy".
The star guests took some more time this day. I got some vouchers for autographs, but at 10:00 AM, when the doors were opened, none of them was there. I joined the queue for Christopher Lloyd, to get yesterday's photo signed, plus the BTTF cartoon series DVDs (which had already been signed by writer and producer Bob Gale). Since Lloyd was not there yet, I left the queue to get my photo with Amanda Bearse signed by her. She recognized me immediately, even remembered my name and asked for K.I.T.T., because she was not able to find him the day before. I asked, if I should show her and she stood up and followed me to the car, where I was able to take a picture with her and K.I.T.T. :)
After that, I went back to Lloyd's queue, where I was able to get back at my place. Shortly after that, Lloyd showed up and I got my 2 autographs.
Outside at the lobby, there was the third DeLorean time machine. It belonged to Terry and Oliver Holler from the USA, who travel around the world to collect money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation against Parkinson's. Some of you might know them from the Netflix documentation "Back in Time". I gave some money and took a picture with them and their DeLorean. After that, I got an autograph from Chad L. Coleman from "The Walking Dead" for my neighbor's daughter, who is a fan of the show ;)
The rest of the day, I spent at the Main Stage. I listened to the talks of Chad L. Coleman ("The Walking Dead", "The Wire"), Famke Janssen ("X-Men", "Taken", "007 Goldeneye"), James Marsters ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), Robert Englund & Ken Kirzinger ("Freddy vs. Jason"), Amanda Bearse ("Married... with Children"), Greg Grunberg ("Heroes", "Star Wars VII") and Ray Park ("X-Men", Darth Maul from "Star Wars I").
The final and highlight was the talk with Christopher Lloyd at 4:00 PM. This time, I was able to ask a question as well. Since it was well known years ago, that he is a shy person, who doesn't give interviews, I asked him what made him change his mind and thanked him for that decision. Funnily enough, he has not changed his mind ;)
At 5:00 PM, the German Comic Con was over. It's been a funny and great weekend for me. I got everything, I had wished for and now I'm looking forward to the German Comic Con in Dortmund in December. David Hasselhoff will be there as well ;)

Previously on 2016-09-24:
PKeV-Meeting Sinsheim 2016

Next on 2016-12-02/04:
German Comic Con Dortmund 2016

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