The Transworld Haunt Show in Las Vegas was definitely quite an experience.  Upon my arrival in "Sin City", I could tell it was going to be an expensive trip, based on the short $25 cab ride from the airport to my hotel.  Food was also expensive, with entrees in most of the hotel restaurants averaging $50.  But hey, it’s Vegas, right?  You’ve got to live a little!  There were a million things to do while I was there.  I could have stayed twice as long and still have hardly scratched the surface of all the Vegas shows and activities that were available. 

While all the shows, gambling and other activities gave Transworld attendees a lot of options, socially it was a drawback for Haunters.  With the distraction of all the after-hours Vegas entertainment, everyone seemed to go there own way. There wasn't a costume ball and there really wasn't a central place for Haunters to congregate, like the Crowne Plaza in Chicago.  This made the Haunt Show less enjoyable for me, personally.  I missed being able to get together with Haunters, seeing friends in the Industry who I only get to see once or twice a year.

Not only did Vegas lack a Haunter hangout, but it definitely didn’t seem to be as Haunter-friendly as Chicago.  About a month before the show, I made some phone calls and found out that the hotels on the Las Vegas strip don’t allow costume-related face make-up, for security reasons.  With casinos inside every hotel, implementing such a policy is understandable, but it seemed to put a damper on some Haunters’ plans to get into costume.  From what I could see, there was a drastic reduction in the number of attendees in costume on the show floor, compared to previous years.  In fact, the entire time I was there, I only saw a few people dressed up.    

I don't have the official numbers, but it appeared that there was a dip in attendance at the Haunt Show this year. Perhaps this had to do with the remote location?  Actually, from an attendee’s point of view, a smaller crowd was pretty nice. I didn’t have to fight my way through a sea of people, plus getting pictures of props & displays was a snap (no pun intended). Unfortunately the Haunt Show portion of the convention was tucked back into the far corner of the show floor, so you had to walk through all the rows of wholesale vendors, in order to get to the haunted house props, which is what I was really interested in.

I was really impressed with the new props that a lot of companies brought with them to the show. The new Bodybag Entertainment costume was outstanding! It was entertaining to watch people’s reactions to an actress running around in the "Fetus Flinger" costume, swinging around a creepy-looking fetus by its umbilical cord!  The highly-detailed Spookywoods FX full-body skeleton suits were great, too.  I also liked the Gore Galore larger-than-life costumes. The "Tree Beast" was my personal favorite. As usual, the Dark Zone was dominated by the Scarefactory. My favorite Scarefactory props were the "Animated T-Rex Skeleton", the huge flying "Angel of Death" and the animatronic "Feeding Wolf".  Screamline Studios had a great new line of weapons.  Fright Props and Ghostride Productions both had gruesome prop line-ups, too.  There were more new props than you could shake a stick at.   Even with the apparent drop in attendance, a number of the Haunt Vendors I spoke with told me that they did pretty well order-wise, and many said they would consider exhibiting again if Transworld came back to Vegas.   

On the show floor, there were a lot of signs posted, indicating that Transworld would move back to Chicago in 2009.  In addition to that, Transworld Exhibits Inc made an official announcement at the show, stating the same thing.  Even though an official announcement had been made,  by the last day of the show there were already rumors circulating about the Haunt Show possibly moving to Texas instead.  After a week or so had passed, I found that all of the rumors were without merit.  About that time, Transworld Exhibits sent attendees an email confirming the show will indeed be hosted in Chicago in 2009.  At least that was the official word at the time this overview was written.  I guess we'll have to wait and see if they decide to change their mind later on. 

Well, I hope you enjoy the overview!  Navigating through the different pages, you will find more than 300 pictures taken on the show floor, at the haunt tour, haunt auction (including the new Unit 70 props!) and at the IAHA Awards Banquet.  Many of the pictures taken on the show floor are labeled with company names, with hyperlinks to their websites, so you can find out more information about the products these companies have to offer.  After looking it over, let me know what you thought of the overview.  Did you like it?  Did you hate it? Feel free to send me an email with your feedback.

Happy Haunting,

Adam Drendel
Webmaster of HauntedIllinois.com