BotCon!

[grail]

So i went to BotCon today...man was it groovy!

i'll be putting up a con report on Zen soon (hopefully), but to make a long story short, i got autographs from Pat Lee and SIMON *expletive deleted* FURMAN!!!! the guys who did the voices for the shows too!

and i got some very groovy new toys!

i know it's not Muppets, but i know at least Beaker is also a fan, so i thought i'd share...

 

[Rufus]

I'm a fan too!

When I went to Botcon back in '97, I got Simon Furman and Andrew Wildman's autographs, got Stan Bush and Vince DiCola to sign my TF:TM soundtrack (unfortunately, that was stolen with all my other CDs out of my car a couple of months later... ) and had Peter Cullen (ol' Op himself) sign my movie poster. Frank Welker was suppose to be there, which would have made it even more kick-butt to have Megs sign my poster as well. I'd love to go to another Botcon, but think I'm going to try and hit a MuppetFest first (here's hoping the next one's on the East Coast!)

- R -

 

[grail]

you met Peter Cullen?! that's so cool! obviously he wasn't there this year, nor was Welker, but the RiD Optimus was there. he was pretty cool too!

they also announced that next years will be in Chicago! so hopefully i'll go to that too...but you're right, i'm definately going to Muppetfest!

 

[beaker]

darn right im a tf fan! going on...lesse almost 20 years! I remember when I first saw those Takara import toys in a comic shop during the early Regan administration...oh yeah, been on cybertron ever since!

So Im curious....what size is Botcon? It seems like itd be small, as I just cant imagine a fairly large con about transformers.
I wanted to go to the one in Anaheim some years back tho.
My first con was Muppetfest last year, then my second one was Fanime(which was HUGE) this year. So I love me my cons!(I love how there are cons for all my favorite hobbies!)

So...is that Unicron in your avatar grail? IF so, are they gonna be making available sculpts of that prototype? That seems to be one of the highly sought after TF items ever.

Now some questions:

*what was pat lee and the dream wave team like?
I wont call that new TF anime toon on fox kids an abomination...but when one looks through the new TF manga comic in all its cgi enhanced color glory...one can only begin to imagine what a TF anime based off that would look like.

*what is the attendee estimates

*Is there any plans for a new TF anime movie?

*was TF your first entree into the kickbutt world of japanese animation?

*Did anybody cosplay as Transformers? I can imagien that would be the ultimate cumbersome outfit to put together.

*Oh yeah...any girls at that con, or 100% twenty something+ fanboys?^_^

...oh the endless glory of the 80's!

 

[grail]

okay, here are as many of the answers as i have...

Pat Lee and the Dreamwave guys were REALLY nice. i got a chance to talk to Pat for a minute while it was quiet. great guys all around! i was really surprised to learn how young Pat is...i'd guess he's maybe 2 years older than i am, max. he's definately not cracked 30 yet.

i havn't heard official numbers yet, though i did try to find out. last i heard though, there were 1400 people that PRE-REGISTERED. and there were a lot of people there that didn't have one of the (very cool) pre-reg badges.

okay, this is an answer that didn't come from BotCon. the rights are "no longer available" to make a movie. what that means is that someone has already purchased them. with the 20th anniversary of TF coming soon, the general concensus is that SOMEBODY is working on one, but no one knows who yet. they're keeping it a secret. unless they decided to announce it today, which i decided to skip.

it was indeed. my parents are about as normal as can be, so no anime exposure there, and i'm only 24, so when it came out, i barely knew what Japan was. TF was really the only game in town.

there were only two people that i saw. one was Arcee, the other was Mirage. i have pictures i can send you if you want. the Arcee pic is with Peter Spellos, who was the voice for Sky-Byte

there were more girls there than i expected. yeah, it was more guys than girls, but if i had to guess, i'd say it was approximately 70/30.

in other news, the guy dressed as mirage gave me a really funky idea, that some of my prop-building buddies and i may have to look into. heck, i'm the guy who can (seriously) repair video games with a pack of gum (don't ask...i dig my electronics), who knows where we could go with it!

how's that?

 

[grail]

i almost forgot...

yes, that's Unicron, but not a figure.

it's a full-body statue made by the same guys doing the TF busts. they also had the prototype for their next bust, Devastator! BTW, i asked, and their next full-body statue is going to be...Arcee!

 

[beaker]

wow, 1500+ for the con? not bad. Im scared to know what the final tallies at mfest were, as for the first ever muppet con there should have been an insane amount of people. but then again, maybe jhc is right about their small hardcore estimates.

it still surprises me there is a yearly con for transformers.
just seems surreal to me...maybe not as surreal as an alfest(sorry luke) but still.

surprised more people didnt cosplay, but then again these are big suits were talking about. other fans might not wanna hear this, but in my opinion i believe that the new dreamwave manga comic is the freshest thing to hit cybertron since the tf movie.

btw...is the general consensus that the new tf RID anime kiddy show lame? I think so, as I find it highly remenescent of the high jinks of pokemon...and doesnt have any of the cool tone the original did. Heck, I loved the cgi one better than this new one.
That new Shark character just kills the show.

Yep...Im 24 too. I didnt have cable, so I didnt get to see much of robotech/macross, voltron, or tranzor/mazinger z. but I did get to see virtually every episode of tf and consider that one of the best cartoons ever. that, muppet babies, and alf were my 3 fave cartoons of the 80's(a close followup would be th emighty orbots and fraggle rock animated)

 

[grail]

yeah, it seems there were not a lot of fans of the RiD show.

my theory is this; it raised awareness of the show among younger kids...young kids that will watch the NEW TF show and be simply AMAZED. and then 20 years from now, they'll have another set of 20-somethings for con attendance.

btw, here are my BotCon pics.

 

[beaker]

>>>my theory is this; it raised awareness of the show among younger kids...young kids that will watch the NEW TF show and be simply AMAZED. and then 20 years from now, they'll have another set of 20-somethings for con attendance<<<

theres an even newer TF show, newer than the RiD one?
I hope its closer to the Dreamwave comic in look than pokemon, heh.

 

[grail]

you don't know?

oh my god you don't know...

it's Transformers: Armada!! all the characters were designed by Dreamwave, and it's going to be on Cartoon Network this fall with the new He-Man. it'll debut in August!

i can't wait!