A Closer Look at the Models of G-FEST 2026!

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I now interrupt my G-FEST (Godzilla Festival) diaries for an interlude on the event’s model room. This has always been one of my favorite aspects of the weekend. There was one year when I actually participated in this contest and won “People’s Choice.” It was my first model and depicted Biollante. I used the wrong type of glue and the wrong paint (this was obviously pre-YouTube), and it looked terrible. Not wanting my kids to think I was a quitter, I ran to the Michaels craft store and bought a bunch of fake plants and Sculpey clay. I then proceeded to cover up and embellish the mess I made. How it won anything is still a mystery, but one thing is for certain – it could never compete with this year’s selections, which were absolutely unbelievable.

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Wrapped up in activities at G-FEST Friday!

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G-FEST 2026 coverage continues…

6:15 am Friday, July 10th 2026 – My son, Luke, and I wake up and get ready for the first official day of G-FEST (Godzilla Festival) 2026. One of the hotel’s house channels is playing Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (1999), a pretty good kaiju film, and we each watch snippets while the other gets ready.

6:40 am – We head downstairs for the Hyatt Regency O’Hare’s breakfast buffet. The buffet is $25 per person, but we learned that the best way to conquer a full day at G-FEST is to indulge in a “lumberjack” breakfast since we always skip lunch. The food is decent, and they have a chef on hand who will make you an omelet on request. My only gripe is that they used to have really tasty pork sausage links but have since replaced them with chicken sausage, which tastes horrible!

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Thursday is the new Friday at G-FEST

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10 am Thursday, July 9th 2026 – My youngest son, Luke, and I pick up my eldest son, Alex, to kick off this year’s G-FEST (Godzilla Festival) 2026. Technically, this is G-FEST XXXI, but it seems the Roman numerals have been dropped. It makes sense, since COVID screwed up the whole numbering system anyway, but I’m kind of surprised they didn’t do it last year instead of actually going forward with G-FEST Triple X. We kicked off the event by visiting a Japanese market in Arlington Heights, Illinois, called Mitsuwa. I’ve been there before, but this was their first visit. We picked up some Sake’ (this is probably a good time to mention that my kids are all over the age of 21), some Japanese imported snacks, and sushi for dinner. Before leaving, we enjoyed beverages in their food court from a place called Releaf. The kids loved Mitsuwa, and both agreed this should be our new G-FEST tradition – especially since they also had a bookstore with a Godzilla section.

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Visiting “Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash” was a Religious Experience

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Jason and I met back up in the hotel lobby around 4 pm that Saturday, eager to get out some fresh air. We took a 30-minute drive from the New Jersey Horror Con in Iselin to the city of Red Bank. Our destination was Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, the comic book shop owned by the actor/filmmaker/writer Kevin Smith and featured in the AMC reality show “Comic Book Men” from 2012 to 2018. I’d visited them about ten years earlier and remember one of the guys from the show, Ming Chen, manning the register as I bought my youngest son, Luke, a Godzilla. It was a really cool place for a comic nerd like me.

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Peter Criss: The Unlikely Elder Statesman of KISS!

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I can’t say how many people attended the New Jersey Horror Con last May, but judging by the number of KISS shirts I saw, it was obvious the majority were there for Peter Criss. As a proud member of the KISS Army, I came all the way out from the suburbs of Chicago to attend, though this would not be my first time meeting him. That moment took place back in ‘94, when my friend, Jason Lucas, the man who indoctrinated me into KISS, brought me with him to a Chicago convention. This was before the band’s big Reunion in ’96 and at a time when KISS’ estranged original drummer was, by my observation, NOT in a good headspace. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that, back then, he was something of a jerk. Even before the days of social media, stories swirled among fans about Criss’s cantankerous nature and his animosity towards his former band. Jason told me a story about how when one of his friends brought a KISS item for Criss to sign, he wrote on it, “F— You! Peter Criss.”

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I almost had to ‘Runaway’ from Lita Ford!

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The seeds for attending the 2026 New Jersey Horror Con were sown back in March and after I saw the original KISS drummer, Peter Criss, would be in attendance. My friend, Jason Schoolcraft, in Rhode Island, isn’t so much a KISS fan but has done Flashback Weekend and Days of the Dead (Chicago and Indianapolis) as well as Horrorhound Weekend with me. Since he lives closer to this event than I do, I thought it would be a nice opportunity for us to meet up. The last time I saw Jason was when he flew out to Chicago for Flashback Weekend 2024. He agreed, and I started making plans.

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