German Film & Comic Con Dortmund 2024

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Arrival & set-up

The biggest Comic Cons in Germany always take place in Dortmund in December. Since my K.I.T.T. has an historic car registration all over the year, I can also take part without any problems. Thanks to permanent winter tires, even in colder temperatures.
This year, the GFCC celebrated its 10th anniversary. 40 star guests and 12 German dubbing voice actors were announced. There were also great comic artists and many fan groups - and of course K.I.T.T. was not to be missed.
So on 6th December 2024, I drove to Dortmund again. At least there was no snow this year, even if the journey was still a bit of an adventure with pouring rain and several small traffic jams.
As soon as I arrived, I noticed that also this year, more emphasis was placed on fan groups and props: Half of Hall 5 was occupied with them. And the red... uhm pink carpet was also rolled out for K.I.T.T.! At least it was still to be laid, so I only put K.I.T.T. down at first and postponed the rest of the set-up until Saturday morning.
This time I couldn't wash the car in a car wash because of the rain, so I had to wash it by hand in the hall, which wasn't a big problem.

Thanks to the carpet, the set-up on Saturday was limited to changing the steering wheel and connecting the power supply.
Once again, I met up with Susanne and Heiko from Project K.I.T.T. e.V., who helped me with the set-up and who were always there to take a look at K.I.T.T. when I was busy at the convention.
We ended the evening together with delicious burgers from BurgerMe...

Police Academy / Short Circuit

My guest highlight this year was 6 actors from "Police Academy". Originally, lead actor Steve Guttenberg was even announced, but unfortunately he had to cancel in the meantime. I was actually most interested in him because of the movie "Short Circuit", where he also played the leading role of Number 5's inventor Newton Crosby.
His opponent in this movie was "Skroeder" from the U.S. Army, who was supposed to recapture the robot - played by G.W. Bailey, who is known to "Police Academy" fans as Lt. Harris from Part 1 and Parts 4-7. And at least Bailey was there. So I decided to at least take a photo with him and one of my two Number 5 figures and have him sign the figure's pedestal. Maybe it will also work out with Steve Guttenberg at some point in the future...

Unfortunately, I missed a visit by the entire "Police Academy" cast on Sunday morning to the associated fan group, who had set up their booth not far from K.I.T.T., because I was already waiting for G.W. Bailey at his autograph table at the time. Heiko and Susanne at least grabbed Brian Tochi (Cadet Nogata from "Police Academy" 3+4) and took a few photos with him and my K.I.T.T.
I was "compensated" in the early afternoon when G.W. Bailey came back through the hall with the fan groups and paid the “Police Academy” and K.I.T.T. another visit. He was very interested, had everything explained to him and thought it was great what the fans had put together. Bailey is now 80 years old and not very good on his feet, which is why he was in a wheelchair. He also told me that although he can't hear very well, he is still in good spirits and is very interested in the fan groups. Of course, he was also familiar with "Knight Rider" and K.I.T.T.
I also took a photo with Michael Winslow (Jones from "Police Academy" 1-7). I had brought my "Spaceballs" T-shirt with me for this, as he also was in the movie. Unfortunately, I didn't get him to meet K.I.T.T. as he was too busy signing autographs.
But on Sunday evening I caught Lance Kinsey (Proctor from "Police Academy" 2-6) leaving the hall, who quickly took a photo with K.I.T.T. before he had to leave 🙂

Elijah Wood ("The Lord of the Rings", "Back to the Future II")

Another highlight for me was Elijah Wood aka Frodo from "The Lord of the Rings"! However, I was less interested in him because of this epic, but because he had his very first movie role as an 8-year-old in "Back to the Future II"!
As a big fan of the films and webmaster of the biggest German-language fan site for the trilogy, www.ZidZ.com, I needed a photo with him and an autograph on one of my three BTTF film posters. As he only played a very small role in the second part and supporting actors from all parts had signed my poster for part III, I wanted him to sign there too. My autographs are mixed up across all 3 posters. However, the poster for the second part in the middle is reserved for the returning main actors.
Elijah also added his only sentence on his own initiative as a quote: "You mean you have to use your hands?". Plus his autograph and the title of his role: "Video Game Boy #2" 😂
In addition to Elijah, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd were also present for a Hobbit reunion. The fourth Hobbit, Sean Astin, unfortunately had to cancel in advance due to a theater commitment. Therefore, I was able to take his place as the 4th hobbit in a group propshoot. For some reason, the "hobbits" were very taken with my wedding ring 😜
On Sunday, I briefly watched the live panel of the actors. As it was Dominic Monaghan's birthday today, there was a cake for him and a serenade from the fans...

Diana Lee Inosanto ("Team Knight Rider", "Star Trek: Enterprise")

There were also various other stars with whom I took photos and whom I asked if they would like to take a photo with K.I.T.T., when passing the car. One of them was Diana Lee Inosanto - Hollywood stuntwoman and best known from "Star Trek: Enterprise", "The Mandalorian" and "Ahsoka".
She seemed a little hesitant at first, but told me that she had been in "Team Knight Rider" in 1998! Since I had never actually seen the series and she is not listed on IMDB as an actress for the show, but only as a stuntwoman, I had missed this fact beforehand. She actually played the role of dentist Jill in episode 15 ("Angels In Chains").
I told her that the complete series was included as a bonus disc in the limited edition German 40th Anniversary “Knight Rider” Blu-ray box set, so I could look it up later. This made her want to take a seat behind the wheel of the car and she posed for photos with K.I.T.T. 🙂

Photoshoots with the star guests

Of course I also had a few more photoshoots with the star guests this time:
- Hayley Atwell ("Avengers", "Agent Carter", "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning")
- Christopher Lambert ("Highlander", "Fortress")
- Dominic Monaghan ("The Lord of the Rings", "The Hobbit", "Star Wars")
- Josh Holloway ("Lost", "Yellowstone", "Intelligence")
- Tom Welling ("Smallville", "Professionals", "Lucifer")
- Ethan Peck ("Star Trek", "In Time", "10 Things I hate about you" series)
- Gustaf Skarsgård ("Vikings", "Oppenheimer", "Air")

Other guests

And some stars also dropped by K.I.T.T.:
- Kim Coates ("The Island", "Bad Boys", "Sons of Anarchy")
- Ottaviano Dell’Acqua (Spencer/Hill movies, "Zombie III")
- Silvia Collatina ("The House by the Cemetery", "Il fiume del grande caimano")
- German YouTuber Aaron Troschke and his brother Markus
I also met German comedian Torsten Sträter again, who already paid a visit to K.I.T.T. last time.

Ozan Ünal (German dubbing voice for Michael Knight in "Knight Rider" (2008)

Another highlight was the visit of Ozan Ünal - the German dubbing voice for Justin Bruening aka Michael Knight in "Knight Rider" (2008). His voice is also known as Leonard in "The Big Bang Theory", Ian Somerhalder in "The Vampire Diaries" and many more.
Ozan was very enthusiastic about K.I.T.T. and wanted to be shown everything and was very happy to pose for photos.

Other German dubbing voice artists

And of course a few more German dubbing voice actors came by:
- Bettina Weiß (Sandra Bullock, Teri Hatcher, Juliette Lewis, Rachel Weisz)
- Peter Lontzek (Tom Hiddleston, Timothy Simons)
- René Dawn-Claude (Satoru Gojo in "Jujutsu Kaisen", Toru Oikawa in "Haikyuu", Rutherford in "Star Trek Lower Decks")

Comic artist Joscha Sauer from NichtLustig.de

Of course, a comic convention also includes comic artists. I don't normally know much about them, but I've been following Joscha Sauer from NichtLustig.de ("Not funny") for years and have already bought a few of his books.
After unfortunately missing him at the GCC Frankfurt a few years ago, I was delighted that he was there in Dortmund this time. We also have a few things in common, as he was registered on my "Back to the Future" fan site many years ago. That's why he gave me one of his "Time Travel Ducks" T-shirts as a present 🙂
I also bought his latest book and had him create a drawing for me in the book. He drew one of his lemmings - albeit with curls and a black leather jacket - happily plunging into the abyss with K.I.T.T. and Turbo Boost 🤣
Many thanks to Joscha for this great unique piece and of course for the T-shirt!

Cosplayers

Of course, there were also numerous cosplayers at the con again. Due to the fact that I was also busy lot this time, I only managed to take a small number of photos and videos with K.I.T.T.:

Props & cars

Numerous props and fan groups were once again on display in the halls. These included the backdrop for the Hobbits shoot, a backdrop from "Once Upon a Time", the giant spider Aragog from "Harry Potter", the Ghostbusters, Police Academy, Pink Star Wars with a Christmas reindeer sleigh, Doctor Who, Umbrella Academy and many more.
Miloud from Avengers Live had a particularly large display. In addition to his best-known characters Spider-Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Panther, Captain America, Scarlett Witch and Barbie, he had a total of 9 suitably wrapped sports cars on display!

Conclusion: The German Film & Comic Con 2024 was once again a complete success! K.I.T.T. had a great spot with the fan groups, so it was very crowded there, especially on Saturday, and lots of people took photos with the cheeky wonder car. I also experienced a lot myself and met lots of nice people. K.I.T.T. was well received and survived his 13th GCC/GFCC very well. We would love to come again 🙂

Previously on 2024-10-11:
Season Final Meeting 2024

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