DeLorean Car Show 2012 - Part II

Group shot in front of the raffle car.  Picture by Kevin Abato

Friday, 15 June 2012

We spent the morning and afternoon at Downtown Disney. This time, we hit the shops and Planet Hollywood for lunch.  The convention pretty much starts this afternoon.  There were about a dozen guest speakers, including myself, giving presentations on all things DeLorean and Back to the Future related.

By late afternoon, the crew had brought in around 40 cars

The best part of any convention is meeting the people that share the same passion as yourself.  I got to meet Stephen Clark, the guy who runs BTTF.com.  Great site, check it out.  If you ever need anything Back to the Future related, Stephen's site is the best place to go.

Stephen Clark of BTTF.com

Finally got my picture taken with Bob Gale

In all the excitement of our meeting with Bob Gale, I totally forgot to get a picture with him.  Well, three months and three thousand miles later, I finally got that picture with Bob.  You want to know the cool part?  Bob remembered my name.  Classy guy!

Finally a picture with Don and Nancy

Speaking of time and space, this picture with Don and Nancy of DMC-California, took over two and half years and also three thousand miles to happen.  I got my car from their shop, as well as having it serviced there.

The raffle car

We took a group shot with the raffle car, see picture at top of post.  Then, it was back inside the hall for dinner and presentations from the guest speakers.  We were unable to get photos of some, busy listening and preparing for my segment.  Kenn Knowlton talked about Cliff Schmucker's collection of original DMC documents, some were displayed at the show.

Production Illustrator, Andrew Probert

Andrew Probert gave a presentation on his work on Back to the Future.  The highlight was the storyboard sequence of an alternate ending.  I love alternate endings and I love storyboards, this was amazing.

Shawn Kerkhoff and Donald Fullilove

If you ever saw the episode of American Dad where Stan and Steve drive in DeLorean in search of a door, you will recognize Shawn Kerkhoff.  Shawn works on American Dad, and is the guy in the Time Machine that was racing against Stan to get the DeLorean door.  There was a surprise appearance by Donald Fullilove, you probably know him better as Goldie Wilson from the Back to the Future series.

Oliver and Terry Holler discussed their Time Machine that was featured in an ad campaign for Garbarino, an electronics store in Argentina.  Christopher Lloyd reprized his role as Doc Brown for these viral ads.

Then there was this guy.

Holding up my Hot Wheels DeLorean

There were a lot of speakers, so we were limited to about twenty minutes of babble.  I went a little over at about thirty minutes.  My presentation included:

- A brief history on the relationship between Hot Wheels and the original DeLorean Motor Company.
- Story of the almost Hot Wheels DeLorean, released as Turismo after slight modification to the casting.
- My responsibilities at work
- How I finally got the DeLorean into the Hot Wheels line up
- Process of how I made the DeLorean
- Summary of the different versions, including the Back to the Future Time Machine
- Mattel Hoverboard and my involvement on the project
- Sneak peeks that were exclusive to DCS 2012
- Q & A session

Yeah, I covered a lot.  You can see how I went over.  As you can tell from reading my posts, I am not the best at communication.  Things get a little harder when there are 300-400 people in the audience, plus video cameras pointing at you.  A lot of pressure when you are representing a big company like Mattel.

After my long-winded portion, there were a handful of other speakers, including Stephen Wynne, who spoke about how he acquired the parts and the name for DeLorean Motor Company.  Tony Ierardi talked about his involvement with Proto-1 and the promise that it will always be preserved and part of the DeLorean community.

Going back in time, there were two presenters that spoke about their time with the original DeLorean Motor Company.  Mike Knepper and Nick Sutton gave us some interesting historical information. They probably could have had more time, but some idiot was talking about toys and went over his time limit.

Back to the Future Special Effect Supervior, Kevin Pike talked about his experiences in working on the movies.  

Kathryn DeLorean

Last speaker of the night was Kathryn DeLorean, John DeLorean's daughter.  Always fascinating to hear behind the scene tales as she shared interesting stores about her father.  Afterwards, before we were kicked out of the hall, there was time a little time for guests to mingle.  I got a picture with Kathryn. 

Photo with Kathryn, with Danny (DMC-CA) in the back.

See that hoverboard?  That is the prototype board that was shown at Toy Fair in February.  I had to carry that thing around the whole day...the things I do for work.  It gave a lot of people a chance to handle and take pictures with the board.  Many came up to me and had questions and comments about the board and Hot Wheels.

End of a long day, and there is another day to go. Luckily, I will not have to talk in front of hundreds of people and cameras, tomorrow.  I can fake one-on-one conversation, but winging it on stage is another thing.
 
Go to Part I

To Be Concluded...