John Schneider and Tom Wopat at a local toy show in Pittsburgh

Over the weekend I was with John and Tom at a toy show/comic con in Pittsburgh.  It was a blast.  I took a lot of pictures.

Neal Clayton owns the beautiful General Lee used for the show.  He had his car at this show back in 2010 when John was here.  Since then Neal has made many improvements to the car.  The car is a beauty. 

Neal made his General a replica of Lee 1.  It is a real show stopper of a car.

Neal's family got to hang out with Tom and John during the show.

John and Tom were great and really appreciated the work Neal put into his General Lee.  

  

Neal pulled out this plastic Mac Tools sign and I loved it.  John was a spokesman for Mac Tools during the show's run.  There is a mug out there with John's face on it, but I've never seen anything else from the campaign.  Neal said he had a family member that worked at Mac Tools who gave him this piece.  It was originally on the side of a truck.  It is in great condition.

John loved the sign.  I'm jealous of Neal for this one.  It is a great piece.  

I met Jim through Neal leading up to the show.  He lives nearby in Greensburg.

He also owns a great looking General Lee.  It's good to know some local friends with Generals.  

Dave and Melsssia Dewitt also made the trip.  Dave brought the door to his mobile museum to get signed by John and Tom.

Tom really enjoyed seeing the pictures of the museum.

Now that Tom and John signed the door, it is complete.  I'm sure Dave and Melissia are very happy to have all the signatures of their beautiful creation.

  

It was great to hang out with Dave and Melissia.  They're really wonderful people.  Dave was trying to get me to trade with him for my swimming pool, but I don't think that is going to happen.  Dave also helped me out of a jam over the weekend.  They are true friends.  Hopefully I'll be seeing them again soon in Sperryville.  

Our good pal Rush Pedder was at the show too.  The best part about this show being so close was that I got to see all my Dukes friends.  I met Rush's wife and we had a good time catching up.  Rush might be writing another guest post for this ol' blog sometime soon.  I'm looking forward to that.  

I also spent some time with my old buddy Chris Dunlap, though I didn't get a picture with him. Chris, of course, restored the awesome DK General Lee bicycle  that I featured on here about a year ago. He also built my Jeep model that is one of my most loved possessions.  Looking back over the weekend, I spent a lot of time with great people.  It really was a tremendous time.  

Remember Harry and Mary from nearby Waynesburg who I met in Nashville last year?  Got to catch up with them too.  The are getting married later this year.  Hope they have a great wedding!

Fans at the show could purchase a pro picture which was a picture taken by a professional that was printed on site.  These types of pictures have become the norm at comic shows.  Me and Neal hung out inside the "booth" during the pictures.  

It was a cool experience to be a part of.  The time with the celebrities is quick in this situation, but the picture you get is really nice.  

After the photo shoot, you pick up your picture and cherish it forever.  I laid out my DukesCollector business cards around the photo table.  Of course.  

I love seeing the items people bring to get signed.

New friend Chris is in finance in the Army.  Seems like a cool position.  He has a '69 Charger but doesn't think he is going to "General-ize" it.  He got the Duke Boys' signature on the visor just in case.  He is hoping to make it to the new Cooter's Grand Opening in May.  I hope we can meet up again, Chris.

Someone brought an AMF metal pedal car to get signed.  John and Tom really enjoyed it.  The rare items like this really make a splash.

This custom guitar was really cool.  It had great little details like the tuning knobs were vector wheels from a General Lee model kit.  A very cool creation.  

I loving meeting young Dukes fans.  Many of us fell in love with the Dukes at a young age and I'm very happy CMT is showing the Dukes so often that new generations can fall in love too.

This dude had a great creative way of showing his Dukes pride.

Love the wrist bands!

These two really loved the Dukes.  They worked hard on their shirts and did a great job.

They said they stayed up all night on Saturday night to make new ones and they were glad I noticed they were different.  I, and the Dukes world, appreciate your efforts!  Keep loving those Dukes!

Hulkamania shirt and Dukes hat...Perfect!

I don't think I've ever actually seen Dukes of Hazzard cos-play.  Well here is my first interaction with it. These girls pulled it off great.  Luke and the General Lee make great cos-play costumes.  When Dukes of Hazzard and comic cons come together, you get some great results.

This guy did a good Boss Hogg.

This was an unexpected result.  This fella put a lot into his costume. He really surprised me with his Dukes knowledge.  He was a Dukes fan, that's for sure.  We talked a little about Neal's Lee 1 replica, collecting, the Georgia episodes, and a few other Dukes topics.  There are lots of  Dukes fans out there, and I like discussing Dukes with all of them.  

This wasn't just a Dukes show.  There were a lot of great costumes.  The woman on the right is a professional make-up artist.  She did some really cool zombie make-up.

I hear good things about Big Hero 6.  This costume was a fan favorite at the show.

This Agent Carter costume was great.  I really enjoyed that show.

A movie specific Shredder costume!  I love it.

That's a heck of a Thor hammer.

This was cool.  I don't really know what it was all about, but it was cool.

This Delorean has a hover board and Flux Capacitor.  I hope the owner is going to complete the whole thing and put the additions on the back.  

Another fun comic con addition to the event was a Q & A panel.  This was similar to the panel I hosted with Catherine Bach last year in Nashville.

John and Tom seemed to enjoy the session.  It was a lot of fun.

There was a big crowd in attendance.

They had a panel for every guest at the show and the same host for each one.  He did a good job of letting the stars be the focus and basically just found audience members to ask  questions.

The fans had some good questions about Dukes, Smallville, Auto Trader, and several other topics.

I asked Tom what his favorite episode was.  Turns out it is "Ghost of the General Lee" just like John's (and mine).  John said initially he was upset about filming Ghost because it was a take on Tom Sawyer, one of his favorite books.  But the result changed his mind and the episode has become everyone's favorite.



Toward the end of the Q & A, someone asked the Duke Boys to sing the theme song.  They obliged by belting out the last verse.  The crowd loved it.  Enjoy.

Throughout the event, I got to hang with the Duke Boys at different times.  I took my poster print that my mom surprised me with at Christmas.  John and Tom really seemed to enjoy it.  It almost looked like it belongs on the trunk of the General Lee.  They both signed it for me and it's ready to be framed.

In my mind, Bo and Luke are discussing who looks better on the poster.  In reality we all were talking about the show and some of the fans.

I snagged a pro picture with the boys.

And also grabbed some candids.

Tom and John were busy all weekend, but they always take time out for me and I can't thank them enough.

I also spent some time with the other star of the weekend, Niel's General Lee.  It was a long weekend, but I had so much fun.  I spent time with so many friends and made a bunch of new ones.  It was a great time.

I even got to spend a little time with Noah Wyle of ER fame.  He was a great guy,  Heck of a weekend.