By Dathan Kazsuk |
For the second year in a row, I found myself wandering the colorful chaos that is GalaxyCon Raleigh—and at this point, it’s creeping into my top-tier events of the year, right up there with the NCRLA Chef Showdown. Instead of foie gras and fancy plating, it’s lightsabers, latex, and lines of people hoping to get a photo with the third Stormtrooper from the left.
GalaxyCon is, in short, what happens when your childhood Saturday mornings, your teenage VHS marathons, and your adult obsessions with retro toys and cult movies all come together. It fills an overly air-conditioned convention center with cosplayers, collectibles, and celebrity encounters. It’s Comic-Con with Carolina charm. Maybe it has a tad more anime.
Over the years, GalaxyCon has attracted some notable names, including William Shatner, Henry Winkler, Ron Perlman, Danny Trejo and Jason Mewes. This year? Michael Rooker (a madman in the best way), Juliette Lewis, the cast of Beverly Hills 90210, and a wrestling lineup that made my inner 10-year-old body slam with excitement.
And the cosplay? On another level. I saw Ben Grimm fist-bumping Johnny Storm, a Darth Vader removing his helmet to get through the security checkpoint (there goes the mystery), stormtroopers in tuxedos, and a blur of multicolored wigs and enough spandex to stretch from here to Charlotte. Toss in enough foundation and glitter to stock a Sephora warehouse and, yeah—GalaxyCon is a walking makeup tutorial with a lightsaber.
Inside the exhibit hall? An absolute treasure trove. There were hundreds of vendors and thousands of collectibles. Funkos. Vintage toys. Original art. Weapons. (Fake ones, I think). I was like a man on a mission, searching yet again for my white whale. That is, the elusive Sleestak Funko Pop! from Land of the Lost. For those not in the know, Sleestak was also the name of my late cat—a tuxedo menace and my soulmate.
I’ve been chasing that vinyl lizard for years now. Usually, no luck. But this year, first night, last booth—I ask: “Got any Sleestaks?”
“Yeah, we have it,” he replies, as if it were just a common item. $75 later, I was both broke and fulfilled. Some people buy art. I buy reptilian nostalgia. To top it off, I got to chat with Wesley Eure and Kathy Coleman, the OG Will and Holly from Land of the Lost. We talked Sleestak. We bonded. I smiled like a total dork. It was glorious.
If you’re a nerd (or just nerd-curious), GalaxyCon fills the void. I sat in on a Q&A with the 90210 gang and listened to Juliette Lewis drop stories about Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, and her punk band, Juliette and the Licks. Michael Rooker’s panel? Pure chaos—just Rooker storming through the crowd like Yondu doing stand-up, answering fan questions with his signature sarcasm and zero filter.
I even had a completely unsolicited chat with Barry Bostwick about his underwear. (Yes, you read that correctly. And yes, I have photo evidence.) He was delightful. I also came face-to-face with wrestling royalty—the Hardy Boyz, Kane, Jerry “the King” Lawler—and got flat-out denied a photo by John “Bradshaw” Layfield. Not sure what his deal was. Maybe no one being at his table had him feeling salty?
Derek Mears, who’s played everyone from Jason Voorhees to Swamp Thing, casually walked past me. Dude’s a skyscraper. I also got close (but not too close) to Ben Schwartz, aka Sonic the Hedgehog himself, whose line was capped off due to sheer popularity. I’m not even a Sonic fan, but I do love him in Parks and Rec. And that many people in line can’t be wrong.
In the end, GalaxyCon is just plain fun. If you’re into collectibles, comics, horror, sci-fi, anime, pro wrestling, vintage TV shows, or random conversations with washed-up-but-still-iconic celebrities, this is your playground. And most of the celebs there? Genuinely happy to be talking to fans, signing merch, and snapping selfies, which makes it that much better.
