Anne Golden, a young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the powerless, the helpless in a world of criminals who operate above the law.
Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:
It’s that time of year again! Anne and I are at Wizard World Chicago in scenic Rosemont, IL, where we’re so far having a blast even though parts of it resemble hard work and our feet feel battle-damaged after two days of endless walking, standing, lining up, shuffling forward in cattle-call formation, and scurrying toward exciting people and things…
My wife and I took an okay number of photos over the course of our three-day stay and will once again be sharing the most usable over the next several entries.
Tonight’s episode: famous cars and stuff! Every Wizard World show has a couple of recognizable vehicles from movies and TV, but this year brought in a few newcomers we hadn’t seen in person before. Exhibit A: KITT from Knight Rider. My wife saw many more episodes back in the ’80s than I did and firmly demanded photos with the greatest talking car in pop culture history. (Sorry, Speed Buggy.)
This KITT has all the nonlethal bells and whistles. The tracking light in the hood oscillates. The dashboard power is voice-activated. KITT speaks a few lines that I’m 95% certain were prerecorded. Its security system includes an exterior camera so you can keep an eye on that shady warehouse-looking wall behind you. I’m not sure why there’s a mini-KITT mounted inside, unless that’s a deadly spy weapon cleverly disguised as a collectible toy. No henchmen would ever suspect.
KITT’s original driver, Michael Knight, couldn’t be with us this weekend, probably because he had two shows booked at a lounge in Brussels or whatever. But his good twin Flat Michael stood by heroically, ready to be called into inaction.
DISCLAIMER: Midlife Crisis Crossover does not condone the use of trendy-five-years-ago showoff pointing in photography, but has granted a one-time waiver as a gesture of goodwill toward Studly Cardboard Hasselhoff.
Next to KITT: a Jurassic Park jeep! Appearing on behalf of a local natural history museum, you can relive those classic moments of zooming away from sprinting dinosaurs or just wonder to yourself if this is one of the real jeeps driven by Newman from Seinfeld. We didn’t ask.
On KITT’s other side, Tony Stark’s 1967 Shelby Cobra (or something like that) still bears the dents and scars of its owner’s failed armor testing.
For a few dollars more, you can pretend you just crashed into it during your armor-crafting experiment, and a concerned yet debonair Tony Stark rushes to your side to make sure you won’t sue.
Also not far away: the Mad Max Interceptor. Beyond it is the Mystery Machine, but we’ve seen that before.
Cars weren’t the only fascinating items at hand. The following is a select portfolio of random fun things and stuff we ran across during our walks through, up, and around the exhibit halls. Things and stuff are cool.
Pretend this is a title card for all the other photos.
I forgot my fez at home (AGAIN), but if I’d been worried about covering my head, available options included Marty McFly’s Back to the Future Part II future gear and The Grand Budapest Hotel‘s bellboy cap.
Comic book fans of a certain age recoil at the sight of an authentic copy of Dr. Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent, the controversial 1954 screed that ruined the medium’s reputation and self-image for decades, largely thanks to a mess of Baby Boomers who refused to accept blame for their parenting failures and were desperate for scapegoats they could knock around.
Old-school Cylon statue at the Iron Brothers of Topeka booth.
Once again the folks from The Shire of Mystical Oils bring one of the prettiest merchandise displays to the show floor.
Crow T. Robot parades around with a handler who was passing out ads for a Saturday night “nerd burlesque”. Not our thing, but hey! It’s CROOOOW!
In all our years of attending cons, we’ve never had Anne the massive Star Wars fan pose with a lightsaber. Major oversight rectified. Achievement unlocked.
Tastiest objects in all the Wizard World, 5000 times better than anything you could find at the concession stands: geek cookies from Max and Benny’s. I bought one TARDIS cookie for my wife and a Watchmen smiley-button cookie for myself. In a time of physical and psychological stress, they were most welcome lifesavers.
To be concluded! Other chapters in this special MCC miniseries:
Prologue: Five Shots from Our Convention Weekend in Progress
Part 1: Team Cosplay
Part 2: Marvel Cosplay
Part 3: DC vs. Star Wars Cosplay
Part 4: Last Call for Cosplay
Part 5: Actors We Met
Part 7: Why We Convention
Midlife Crisis Crossover! 
Crow!
Sorry, I would still be sitting in KITT, I think 🙂
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Oh, Anne stretched out her moment for as long as she could. She took a couple more dashboard pics, she took a selfie I didn’t post, and it was all she could do to resist negotiating a price and asking them for a loan application.
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Lol. Love reading your stuff. Looks like you all had fun.
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Thanks, Lisa. 🙂 We kind of overextended ourselves and I’ve been paying for it all week long. Up until that part, it was a blast!
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Hey this is Joe – KITT’s owner from Wizard World. I really appreciate the mention from your visit with KITT at the show, and I’m glad you enjoyed all of the components I installed! Mini-KITT was feeling left out back in the trunk. He wanted to be closer to his bit brother. So there he is! lol If you want to check out more pics or see where we’re headed in 2016, feel free to follow KITT’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NotchbackKITT. Thanks again for stopping by! -Joe Fiduccia, NotchbackKITT owner
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Hey, Joe! It was our sincere pleasure. Thanks very much for giving my wife the chance to realize a childhood dream, even if we weren’t allowed to fire any of KITT’s weapons. I’m sure Wizard World had strict rules about that. 😉
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