Steel City Adventures!

Article by Richard Smith

If you follow me on Facebook, you know that over the past year I've gotten really into the Con and Cosplay scene. I can't really think of a better way to spend a weekend than by getting my geek on with hundreds or in some cases thousands of other fans. It was in that spirit that I led an intrepid band from the USS Crystal Point to Steel City Con in Monroeville, PA last month.

This Convention has a reputation of being one of the largest in the area, and with good reason. When we finished our 2+ hour road trip the parking lot was full and the line to get in stretched around the block. I was certainly glad that I had taken the opportunity to buy my ticket online a few days before in order to save a few bucks and that we decided to leave home early enough to experience all of what was going on. It didn't disappoint.

I as usual decided to don my Flag Officers uniform, my son wore his Iron Man costume as had become tradition, and my daughter didn't want to dress up this time around. I have to say that there was a good mix of cosplayers vs those in regular street clothes. I would've like to have seen more Starfleet Uniforms, but I have to say that those that I saw from the 501st Legion and the Rebel Alliance had some of the best costumes there.

I took the opportunity to buy my first autograph at this con. Normally I deem them too expensive, but decided to throw caution to the wind this once and got  a signature from Tim Russ.  He was a very nice guy. We spoke for a few minutes, he signed, and I moved on. I wish I could've asked him all the questions I had, but maybe we'll be able to secure him for a future Blue Report Back Stage.

My kids got a little tired of walking and so we sat in on the question and answer session with Dee Wallace, the mom in E.T., she was also in Steven Kings Cujo, and The Hills have Eyes, among other projects. She was very funny and very personable with the audience. It didn't really surprise me, and I'm sure she does enough of these events to have some answers down to a soundbite, but she seemed to be genuinely friendly with those in attendance. Good to see.

The Lines for David Prowse and Anthony Daniels were long and I didn't even attempt to wait for see those guys. It's interesting to see these guys, whose faces are masked from the Camera having longer lines than those you actually see on screen. I do have to say though, that it was really cool to be in the same room and see them.

My kids and I decided to take another turn around the vendors room before we left as we usually like to pick up a little something to take home to remind us of the day. The selection was as you would expect very good and as is traditionally the case you need to make one or 2 laps on the room before deciding on something, but in doing so we were quite content. Laura snagged a locket from a local jewelry maker and Cameron, who is big into Pokémon really wanted a Pokéball. I had my autograph and that pretty much blew my souvenir budget and so we rounded up the rest of the crew after their photo ops and headed home. All and all a good day and a good Con. Very crowded, but nonetheless quite fun. There was some grumbling online after the fact online that the promoted had oversold the event for Saturday, which made me very happy we wen early. My crew is looking forward to hitting this one up again.