Without getting any sleep we were in line for registering at 10am and got our badge, right away we headed to the panel room. I set up my surprise for Jim, as I pulled the Leonardo head out of the suite case he was traveling around in and put him on the chair next to me, covered in a TMNT blanket. I set the other Turtle stuff out in sight, for him to see. The suite case blocked anyone from the chair that the Leo head was sitting on, which worked well for me, as it also made sure no one sat on my right hand side.
When Jim came in he was very talkative, he saw the TMNT stuff and brought up we have a Turtle fan. I laughed and agree, than asked him "When was the last time you saw this" as I pulled the blanket off of the Leo head, he looked in shock. "That's the real one! That's the original!" He said as he looked at it. Right away he started to talk about the Turtle movie a bit with me, that was so fun to hear him talk about it. As more people came in the room he turned his attention to them, asking everyone what they like of his work. If they didn't know who he was, he was still cheerful that they were interested to learn.
He started his panel, where he told his history of puppeteerering. From "The Great Space Coaster" to "Sesame Street". He talked of each show, and how much his heart was into the work that he did. How much he truly enjoyed his job, showing us pictures on his laptop. He even had some pictures from when he worked on TMNT 3! Once that part of the panel came up he had me hold the head up for everyone to see. He did not want to be video taped during the panel, so I respected that. After the panel I wanted to talk to him, though I knew what I wanted to talk about would take a little bit so I let everyone else go before me, I talked a little with his friend Joe (who also worked on "The Great Space Coaster" with him) and his wife. I did get him to sign a few things, though even during that other people were still talking so I waited.
When the panel room started to clear out, he said he was going to go down to his table we could talk there. I knew I didn't have much time and he didn't get to sign the Leo head yet. So fastly packed up my stuff to head down stairs. Though as he was about to leave some of the convention staff came up and asked him to come to their puppet show panel. He looked at us... "You've got to leave right?" he asked... as we nodded. He said he's sorry but as a Guest of Honor he's got to do the stuff the con asks of him.
As he went into the panel room, we started to walk. I'll admit my eyes teared up a bit as I headed to leave the con. Miki took notice to this and than asked if I got the head signed. I said no, but it's too late now cause we have to get the car back by 6pm. Miki had me stop... as she also realized I didn't get to talk to him either. She than offered to pay for the car rental for one more day so we could stay. Also during the panel he gave an invite to all con goers to come to the
Toonseum for free with their convention badge. I agreed to this.
Miki went into the puppet room to get us seats as I called my mom. When she got into there, someone grabbed her arm she looked down and there was Jim telling her to sit with him. Once I joined, I also sat down... Jim was between us. We watched the puppet show, he was called up front by the puppets to talk with them. During this time something sad did come up, they started to talk about "Beakman's World". Jim got so happy with that subject at first as he went on about Mark Ritts, and how good of a person Mark is. Than one of the puppets brought up that Mark died a few months back... Jim came to a stop and stared at the puppet... "what?" he said very shocked. "Mark died like back around November".... the puppets kept talking, but you could see the lost and sadness that wiped over Jim's face... as he stood there quiet for a minute.
He finally said sorry for being quiet, but Mark was a good friend of his. He joked a bit more with the puppets to keep face for the show, but did come back to sit down with us. He was so surprised and hurt by this news, he explained to Miki and I that Mark was a really good friend to him. He use to go to a costume shop that Mark's folks owned. So he knew Mark's family and all. (When Miki and I got home we did search up to make sure the puppets were right, he is gone he died in the beginning of December. For anyone who don't know, Mark was the rat in Beakman's World.. 2009 so many great people were lost.)
Jim left before the puppet show was over as he went to tell his wife what happened. Miki and I left as well as we never really were there for the puppet show. We went down stairs to where the dealer room was, it was a big room with the dealer room, artist alley and the art show all in one. They were split into their own areas. Jim's table was in the dealer room section, which reminded me more of an artist alley still. We walked over there to talk with him and his wife. He was selling autograph photos for $10, the money from the photos was for the Toonseum.
I talked with Miki, we decided to get a little more money off of the credit card so we both could get an autograph. She got a picture of Jim and Gary Gnu (Great Space Coaster) and I got one of Jim giving Leonardo High 3 on the set of TMNT 3. (I'll scan it and post it when I post the pictures). I brought my Leonardo head out to get autographed upon the strap where Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird and Matt Hill has signed. He signed it and we left it on the table, as more people started to come around asking about the head and the pictures of him with Leonardo started to sell out! He had to put a second stack on the table! He'd get the people started in how it was the real thing than point at me as the owner, we'd let people feel how heavy it was as long as we were there to hold it really... than I'd tell them about Mark Caso and how he was injured back in the 80's, to where the doctors said he'd never walk again. Though he went on to win some Gold medals and wear the costume for Leonardo for two of the Ninja Turtle movies!
Jim was so nice to us as we talked about a lot of different things, though it seemed as soon as this started it was about time to wrap up. We said our good byes and went out to the lobby where I sat in shock on how well the trip was going. But it wasn't over yet, as Jim is going to meet up with us on Monday at the Toonseum.
Miki and I went out to eat with some friends we met at the con, including Jim's friend Joe. Than we walked back to the convention center and hung out there till a little after 1am. We had to find some where to sleep since we did not have this extra night planned out... I located with my phone GPS a rest area right outside of Pittsburgh, so we drove there for the night.
- I'll post about the Toonseum meet up here soon -
