Thread: Midwest Haunter Convention Review

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Just got back from the Midwest Haunters Convention in Columbus, OH. It was really good. Had a ton of fun and saw a lot and learned quite a bit too. I will have a ton of pics for everyone to see here tonight. I have them on my facebook page but I will also put them on my photobucket page so everyone can see. I think I took about 150 pics or so.

http://s92.photobucket.com/albums/l5...st%20Haunters/

I thought I would give a review of everything that I saw and went on. This is my first one but a friend of mine went two years ago so I can kinda compare it to other years but is based on what I have heard from her.


The Review

FRIDAY

Friday Night Bus Tour to 2 locations. The Scare a Torium and Haunted Hoochie for $50. You could get your own dinner near the first stop. (but not as good a previous years. No dinner provided, less attractions?? I think there were 3 or 4 stops last time, couple of shops, tour of a factory, and a couple of haunts but don't quote me.)

I got there on Friday so I could go on the Friday Night Bus Tour. It was really great, had a ton of fun and well worth the $50 to go but that doesn't include the extra night hotel stay.

It sold out so buy your tickets before the show or you could be out of luck next year. First stop was Haunt a Torium. It was inside of an old mall or something like that. It took a little while to get in which was fine cause they were dropping off a lot of people pretty quickly. The only draw back was it was really really hot in there like 85 - 90 and extremely humid. I think there AC went out so maybe it isn't always like that, I hope not. The itself was pretty good. It was really big like 55,000 sqft so it took a good amount of time to get through. There was a nice array of themes through the haunt so there was a good variety of stuff.

For non haunters it would be pretty scary there were some good original ideas and jump points. It took us about 30 - 45 min to get through it so that was great. They had a store set up there were everything was almost 90% off. I bought a bunch o stuff.

I give this place a solid B

THE HAUNTED HOOTCHIE
(There are two separate haunted houses there)

Main House
Was Friggin AWESOME !!! That place was super cool. The most detailed haunt I have ever seen. The line to get in was a bit long..... uhhh like a roller coaster line. Took about an hour and a half to get in to the main attraction. There is more than a million dollars in the haunts.... they just did a $250,000 renovation. Fantastic place but I think it is a bit of form over substance. I am a bit jaded cause I don't scare. Don't get me wrong was scary but nothing I remember seeing that would take someone by surprise. To be fair though the 5 15 year old girls were terrified.... lol There were a few places where the lighting was wrong, too much flashing.

The second house was a 3D haunt. It was really neat looking. It was really cool. It was my first 3d haunt so it was super cool to go through.

Give it an A

More to come

There were 5 haunt locations and 14 total"houses" on the pre-tour this year, *Wed-Thurs*

I wanted to go but was too salty for me. I can't spend $500 per person.... ouchy

I think you have that number wrong, it was 440 for both my wife and me.

Thanks for the review. I will forward that to some of the people involved.

A couple of things I will add: Last year we did not have any haunts on Friday. We are always at the mercy of haunts the can, and are willing, to open for both of our tours. In prior years we have had stops at prop makers and costume shops, but this is the first year we have ever had more than one haunt on the Friday tour. While I was not on the tour (I stay at the convention center while the vendors set up) I think your review is accurate from what I have heard.

The pre-con tour was a great tour as well and FracturedDS is correct. Prices started at $199 per person and were at most $265 per person. This was one of the biggest (number of attractions) and cheapest tours the industry has ever seen!

I am glad you had a good time and I hope to see you next year.

Sorry for the delay on the rest of the convention review.

The Convention Hall
Check in for the convention was pretty painless but there was no sign for the Friday check in which was in a different room. So you walk right past it and it is like a 1/4 of a mile to where the booths are.

The convention itself was pretty nice. The booths were pretty cool and the products were really cool. I got to see a lot of stuff I had not seen before. From what I have heard though there were a lot less vendors this year than last year and the year before. The stuff there was pretty good and there was a good variety of stuff. The prices were pretty good, there were a few that were still pretty high (I am a bit cheap when it comes to buying stuff cause I am a builder).

The Auction
The auction was pretty cool a good variety of stuff. Most of the stuff went at or near full retail price. A few things were below. Unless you are a haunt owner, I wouldn't bother going. The big boys buy up everything. The only reason I would go is cause the proceeds help the convention.

Classes
Included classes (non extra pay classes)

I was there for the classes. That is the whole reason I came for the weekend. My friend was there two years ago and she said they were great and she learned a lot . I was a bit disappointed with the classes. The selection of classes this year were not as good as in the past. Some of them were good some not so much..... Typically there are 4 runs of classes: makeup, building, acting, and business. This year is was a lot more fragmented. There were intermediate classes but not beginning.... I can comment on the classes I took.

First Class was Lighting:
This was a product demo and not a class. I wouldn't have a problem with it being a product demo if it was out on the floor and it said "PRODUCT DEMO". I and most everyone else in the class was not happy with this class. There was some very basic lighting stuff in the beginning. Like "don't just red light for your haunts..... " That sort of stuff. Most of it was ... use my leds to light up your stuff. Light up your haunt 1 led at a time. Use my controllers and this is how. The problem I have is he never actually showed us how to light up anything. No real techniques for lighting up haunts were given. What little he did show only applied if you used his stuff.

I believe he knows his stuff and would be great to hire to properly light your haunt. Just should have spent time teaching and less time trying to sell us on his product.

Speaking of his product, it is ok but a bit overpriced. $14 per led and $200+ for the basic controller......He does have a dmx controlled light controller which is pretty cool. The leds can be made for $4 and the basic controller can be made for $25-$30. All of his leds are singles only, no multiples.... So do the math, lighting up a skeleton should only take 4 leds..... X $14 each.

Now I am being a bit harsh but that is because of the markup on the product. Out of all of the lighting products, I would buy his for several reasons. He uses standard rca connections for his wires. No specialty crap, that by itself is huge. You can easily wear his leds and power them from a small pack.

2nd Class
Intermediate Programming

This was another product demo. This only pertained to 1 specific product, their product so unless you were going to buy this controller, this class wouldn't help you.

So I left the class after 10 minutes and jumped over to

Thanks again for your comments! I have made a note about the signage for the Friday registration. I had a sign in the lobby of the Hyatt for it but I guess I need more.

I had a feeling that the lighting class would turn out that way. That class was a last minute change because of a cancellation.

While I am on that topic, the track that I always struggle filling is the "prop" classes and especially those classes that have home haunter appeal. If you, or anyone else, are interested in speaking, or know someone I should try to recruit, please let me know! MHC is always looking for new presenters and topics. I start filling the classes in November and try to have the schedule posted by February. If you are interested, shoot me an email to barry@midwesthaunters.com and I will put you on my email list.

Thanks again,
Barry

Thanks for the reviews! Look forward to hearing more and checking out the pics when I'm on my home PC. I've been considering going to MHC one year. I'm hoping someone will post some nice video that's more than a few minutes.