Midwest Haunters Convention, 2016 - Part 2

When we left off, James, Chad and I had gone back to our room early Saturday afternoon to down some "beverages," watch some classic Scooby Doo, and to get ready for the evening's big event - the Masquerade Party.

2016 was my sixth time attending MHC, and with each year that I attend, I am able to whittle down the prep time it takes to get into my costume. This year, I was able to get completely into character in just under an hour and a half. Of course, James and Chad are both smarter than I and were able to get into their costumes in an astonishing SEVEN MINUTES. Oh well, I had more makeup to apply then they did...

Upon heading out the door and over to the elevator, we immediately ran into Ken Sheldon, who graciously took our photos!

Photos by Ken Sheldon.

When we got to the party, I immediately set about taking photos of all the incredible costumes and makeups. The MHC Masquerade Party is the highlight of the convention weekend and this year did not disappoint. 

For the first time in all the years I have been going, I was outside in the lobby taking pictures and talking with friends and I actually missed the Body Art Fashion Show. Oops! Luckily, I was able to track a few of the models down and got a few pictures before heading in for the rest of the costume contests and then to get our groove on.

Here, in no particular order are some of the amazing costumes that were on display.

Our annual group photo, taken and sponsored by PromoSocial. (l to r: Chad, James, me)

Stacey Rager and family (and some hooligans...)

Dave and Tammy Boston, from Boston Haunted Manor.

Christopher Weeks from Spyder's Realm, who flew in all the way from Vancouver, BC, Canada. Damn!

 

"Hauntzilla" Melissa Winton from Haunt Shirts. How the hell did she get angel wings??

 I laugh every time I see this. JWAL Twistedseed as "Dirty Cop." He just made you feel so "icky"...

 

1. Wear a costume.

2.  Hand out treats.

3. Never blow out a jack-o-lantern.

4. Always check your candy.

The belle of the ball herself (and winner of the Scariest Zombie contest AND Best Kids' Costume), Miss Alexis Skye!!

 

A few of the models from the Body Art Fashion Show. A big draw every year, for obvious reasons!

(Here's your photo, Chad. Dirty old man...)

 

The welder tears up the dance floor!

 

After a long night of socializing, imbibing and generally getting crazy, we finished it all off with a nightcap at the hotel bar with a big group of friends (many of whom had already gotten out of their costumes. But not me!!).

Luckily, I downed enough water and Gatorade before passing out so that I was up and (relatively) ready to go early Sunday morning to check out William Ramsay's free class on skeleton corpsing. It was pretty much a how-to on Allen Hopps' "plastic dropcloth and a heatgun" method that I had used in the past, but it was still nice to get up and get moving early. 

After the class, I met up with James and Chad. We took one last lap around the tradeshow floor, made our final purchases, said our goodbyes and departed for home.

Without a doubt, it was another successful and incredibly fun weekend. I picked up a few necessities for the upcoming haunt season and I have been fully recharged to jump back into this year's monstrous prop projects.

A huge thanks to my roomies, James and Chad, as I had an absolute blast the entire weekend. Only with you two could I get away with acting like such a dork and have so damn much fun doing it!

And thank you for checking out my recap, but now I gotta go. Only 137 days until Halloween, and I'm supercharged with creative energy. Look for me in the garage from now until the end of October!! 

  

One Week Until MHC, 2016!

Nothing like waiting until the last minute. As usual...

Even though I started in March, the costume is nowhere near done. I'm still waiting on a package with a few pieces for it (which probably won't even show up in time), but somehow, I'll be able to throw something together for this year's Midwest Haunters Convention Masquerade Ball.

Oh, and I have six days to finish it! MHC is next weekend!

Going to get to the thrift store today to gather up the last remaining pieces to tie this year's costume all together (the devil is in the detail!), and then crank it all out in the garage. If everything goes according to plan, I should be wrapping it all up late Thursday night, as I'm packing to leave early the following morning.

Here's a couple of teaser shots of what I have so far. I'm going a little bit bloody this year, as I got a bottle of FrightProps Blood Formula and I've been splattering it on everything! 

Say cheese...

Also, for anyone going to MHC this year, we have decided to skip the Friday night tour and after party. We just toured the ScareAtorium two years ago and the Beach Party with the old Playmate sounds a little bit too goofy...

So if you're in Columbus Friday night with nothing to do, why not join us as we go check out Arcade Super Awesome, a local bar/pinball arcade, complete with a pizza shop downstairs! It's about a 10 minute cab/Uber ride from the Convention Center. A few of us are going to grab some pizza and a few drinks, and play the hell out of some pinball. And we'll STILL be back at the hotel bar in time for last call!

 See everyone in Columbus next weekend. It's going to be insane!

 
  

Midwest Haunters Convention, 2015 - Part Two

If you missed Part One of my Midwest Haunters Convention review, you can read it in all its glory right here!

When we left off, we had just gotten back to our hotel room Saturday afternoon and we were going to get ready for the highly anticipated Masquerade Ball. We had some time to spare, so we decided to have another visit with our old friend, Mamuwalde...

This time, we sat down to watch the 1973 blaxploitation horror sequel, Scream Blacula Scream, co-starring the always sassy Miss Pam Grier. Again, William Marshall owned every scene he was in and gave another stellar performance as the black prince, making this another solid film. And again, I digress...

As we watched the movie, we started getting our costumes and makeup ready for the evening's festivities. This time around, I went with a new character, Dr. Albertin Kyphosis, a mad alchemist with a twisted spine and a fractured psyche. I had worked on the costume for about 3 or 4 weeks, and went with a makeup that I created from reference photos that I had pulled two nights before. The entire thing was completed in about an hour and I was really happy with the way that everything came together. I will have a full blog entry next week, detailing everything with this costume and makeup...

Jim on the other hand, had his costume and makeup ready to go in all of about 10 minutes and it still turned out great!!

Once we were all ready, we made our way over to the Masquerade Ball. And as usual, the array of costumes and makeups was absolutely amazing. I had the camera snapping like crazy...

Now THAT is some Steampunk.

Brad Goodspeed from Haunters Hangout and The Butcher of Provincetown.

Stacey Rager and her family. And Jim...

Hector Turner from Halloween Haunt Calendar.

Duck Dynasty. And Jim...

A killer bat costume, complete with retractable wings.

The infamous Tater from Froggy's Fog as the even more infamous Granny. 

Don't get too close, she's a mean one...

Bart Butler from A Haunter's Life and The Dead Zone Haunted House. 

He stood about 8 feet tall.

As everyone made their way into the large ballroom, the evening's festivities began, including the always-popular Body Art Fashion Show. This year's makeups did not disappoint. I was able to squeeze my way up near the front to get a good vantage point to check out the show...

After the Body Art Fashion Show, I was able to shoot a couple of photos of the Scariest Costume Contest judging.

With everyone running around on stage and the dark lighting, I wasn't able to grab many usable photos, so I retired to the rest of the ballroom to grab shots of all of the partygoers...

(Somehow, she just kept showing up in my photos from the night...)

We had a lengthy discussion on the virtues of all things Ghost...

After a couple/few/some/many cold ones, we scoped out the dance floor, but called it an early evening. Fortunately, the party picked back up by the time we had made our way back to the hotel room and went to bed/passed out... D'oh.


On Sunday, we woke up refreshed/hung over and made our way back to the trade show floor for one last trip through the vendor displays. 

It was a standoff...

I picked up a few odds and ends and made my way over to the Haunters Hangout booth for their big raffle. I had picked up a few tickets, thinking I might have the slightest possibility to maybe take something home. I was surprised by the amount of prizes that had been donated...

It was great seeing hosts Deoblo, JWAL and Brad in the flesh, as well as a few of the show's featured guests.

As JWAL called out the winning ticket numbers for the prizes, I watched people going up to claim their winnings (some even winning two or three times). I laughed thinking that I could get anything with five measly tickets...

And then it happened. See the skull faces behind JWAL's head in the photo above? He called out the winning number. I had to triple-check that the numbers matched the ticket that I was holding. Oh damn, I won!

A really cool, custom foam skull face plaque from VFX Creative Studios. The plaque is about 18" tall and has a sturdy hook on the back for mounting. I was beside myself. I never win anything. But I did now, and I got the chance to go up, get a picture with the guys, and claim my prize.

It was the perfect ending to an incredible weekend, packed full of non-stop mayhem and fun. Each year, the Midwest Haunters Convention is the other highlight to my haunting season. It gets my haunt creativity flowing and is the starting point to the countdown to Halloween. So with the excitement and new ideas still rattling around in my somewhat fuzzy brain, it's time to get down to business and get back into the garage. I have a long list of things to do for 2015 and I have less than 150 days to do it. Are you ready for the big night?


Oh, and it's never too early to start planning ahead. It was just announced the the next edition of the Midwest Haunters Convention will be June 10-12, 2016 in Columbus. Who is going to meet us there!?