Godspeed, sir.
Showing posts with label BotCon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BotCon. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
The Napkin of Revelation
Godspeed, sir.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Botcon 2011
Well, that was
fun. Fun and exhausting, but definitely with an emphasis on the fun. Jim has been bugging me about attending Botcon since we became friends so this year I decided to finally take the plunge and fly out to Los Angeles to hang out with Jim, his Allspark Almanac co-creator Bill Forster, and several thousand other Transformers fans.
Other sites will run a blow by blow breakdown of all the news, hints and exclusive toys from the convention this year but I figure it'll be more effective if I just give my impressions as a first-time Botcon goer.
Even given all I knew about the convention, I was not quite prepared for the sheer size. I attended Auto Assembly in the UK last year and, while that was highly enjoyable and will no doubt become a yearly event for me, Botcon was on a different scale.
We arrived to register and pick up our exclusive toys at six o'clock on the Thursday and the queue was incredibly long. The atmosphere was excited and lots of fans who hadn't seen each other for a long time, or were just meeting new people were having a great time. Even so - you could tell that this was going to be a long evening. I was very glad that I could get it out of the way before the convention began in earnest. Pleasingly, the unavoidable tedium of standing in a relentless queue was offset delightfully by an enormous fondue meal with Jim, Bill and some fans we knew from Auto Assembly.
How was the convention proper? Incredible wouldn't be too far off. For one thing, I had never been to the United States before, which was special in itself, for another, it was just all Transformers, all the time and, given that I am more into the fiction aspect of the hobby than the toy-collecting, having the con' in Los Angeles was fantastic because it enabled a great number of voice actors, writers and artists to come together in one place. (It also enabled me to stay with Jim, making things much more aff
ordable, but that's not especially relevant).
After a hearty breakfast we kicked off the Friday by attending the script reading session for the convention exclusive comic Transformers: Animated - The Stunti-Con Job, by Marty Isenberg. It was a very amusing script made hilarious by excellent performances. The ever-reliable David Kaye continued his sterling work as Animated Optimus Prime but really shone as the ludicrously fatalistic Dead-End. Neil Ross (G1's Springer) narrated the piece as a new character, Sideswipe, and brought exactly the right tone for a slightly washed-up police-bot on the verge of retirement. Greg Berger, usually heard booming out the voice of G1 Grimlock, showed his versatility by giving us an excellent interpretation of Cheetor. Unfortunately Jack Angel could not attend but superfan Vangelis stepped up and gave an admirable performance. Marty Isenberg's enthusiastic Sentinel Prime was also not to be missed. Morgan Lofting (Firestar, although most famous GI-Joe's Baroness) made what amounted to two highly memorable cameos as Drag-Strip and Strika. Special recognition in particular has to be given to special guest Abby Collins, daughter of the late, great Chris Latta (G1 Starscream) who put in a very funny performance as Minerva, an annoyingly persistent Autobot medic.
Moving on from that reading it was at last time for the Dealer's Room to be opened. I was blown away by the amount of different toys at Auto Assembly, so you can imagine how wide my eyes must have been when I walked into that hall. I'm not actually a massive toy collector, as space and money are
both concerns, but that doesn't mean I didn't want everything I laid eyes on - especially the five Autobot vehicles from the live action movie - all buffed to an otherworldly sheen. In addition to this you had artist's alley where numerous prints and original artwork from Transformers' artists could be found and various booths from Hasbro and their partners displaying current and upcoming products. This included stuff like Kreo - a line of build it yourself toys, and Transformers: Universe, an upcoming massively multiplayer game, among the more obvious new movie and Prime toys from Hasbro.
When five o'clock came we retired to a local Japanese Barbecue place for a wonderfully tasty all you can eat meal and, naturally, more Transformers talk.
Saturday was when the meat of the more formally timed events of the con' really began. We started off with a very interesting panel from IDW who laid out their (mostly spoiler-free) notions for the upcoming Chaos event and what they had planned for Transformers into the future. Current ongoing writer Mika Costa was in attendance as well as veteran Transformers scribe Flint Dille, who is going to be working on a new web-only Transformers venture: Autocracy. Also of note was the last goodbye from Andy Schmidt, who has now stepped down as Editor-in-Chief in order to go to work for Hasbro.
We remained in our seats for the next panel which was delivered by Hasbro and gave us hints and examples of upcoming Transformers products. Obviously there was a great deal of Dark Of The Moon but Prime was also featured, even though they don't intend to release until December - those toys in particular are looking great.
Hunger, and not wanting to be spoiled for an episode I had not yet seen meant that I skipped the Transformers: Prime script reading and went on an epic quest to find a burger - harder than you'd think in Pasadena but that was mostly my fault for being cheap.
We made it back in time for a lively panel celebrating twenty-five years of Transformers: The Movie with several of those who had been involved in its production. Flint Dille, Greg Berger, and Neil Ross appeared from earlier, Ross in particular proving to be an asset at his first Botcon with his warm but very dry sense of humour. Paul Eiding (the voice of G1 Perceptor) had been bussed in to replace the sick Jack Angel and the four provided a good mix of insight, witty banter and character voices. Naturally much time was given over for questions and the panel fielded fan queries and requests with aplomb.
Deciding to hang out in the hotel lobby we spent some time talking to various fans before very fortunately being given two and a half free pizzas by someone whose eyes were bigger than their belly. This provided ample sustenance before we hit a bar. As neither, Jim, Bill, nor myself had tickets to the Hall Of Fame event we went for a few beverages before coming back to the hotel and chatting
with other fans in the bar until it was really way past time for bed.
Once again we need to be at the hotel bright and early on Sunday to catch the first panel - an interesting one where the Collector's Club explained the development of the Stunti-Con Job comic. Writer Marty Isenberg and fan contributors Trent and Greg provided some commentary on the comic while Animated art director Derek Wyatt talked about the designs used in the story that were then translated into the con' exclusive toys, including fan-favourite Ironfist.
Straight up after that was a panel by the writers and producers of the Transformers: Prime cartoon that talked about the history of the production while giving us some intriguing hints as to where it might be leading. Questions were enthusiastically answered but with a minimum of spoilers. Still, the end of Season 1 and start of Season 2 seem like they're going to be a thrill-ride.
Almost as a sequel to the previous day's Transformers: The Movie panel we then went straight into a panel populated by G1 voice actors. Everyone from the previous day was there, minus Flint Dille, and Michael McConnohie (G1 Tracks), Morgan Lofting and Arlene Banas (Carly in the G1 cartoon) joined them. Once agai
n it was a very genial gathering with a group of funny and talented people who seemed genuinely touched to have had such an impact on such a large number of fans.
Rounding off the weekend as far as panels were concerned was Hasbro's second of the weekend, featuring only Aaron Archer and Rik Alverez. They discussed some of the challenges and rewards from being the custodians of Transformers continuity and showed the audience some exciting titbits of things to come as well as some highly obscure unreleased product - Actionmaster Cliffjumper got a big cheer. Most significant going forward were the hints about the Original Thirteen Transformers that were accompanied by some wonderful Warcraft style artwork that really spoke to the mythic nature of these entities. The panel struck a delicate balance between simply giving us Transformers history and leaving intriguing hints that stories can be told in. Exiles, the sequel to the novel Exodus by Alex Irvine got a pretty big plug and looks to deal with a lot of this backstory.
Less chronologically, but just as important as the official panels there were numerous entertainments for the Transformers-loving punter. A row of cars parked across the street had been decked out as Autobots, with a particularly impressive G1 Ratchet; costumes abounded, and ranged from the impressionistic to the fiercely accurate, with a movie Starscream that has to be seen to be believed. In general everyone was very friendly, fans and professionals and while the mingling of the two was not quite as pronounced as I experienced at Auto Assembly, everyone had time to chat and seemed genuinely pleased
to be there.
So that, apart from a quick pass of the dealer's room and a few conversations with some fans, was that. There is definitely a post-convention shell-shock to contend with. It takes a few hours of adjustment to realise that not everybody you see knows or cares about Transformers and when you get home and sit quietly, and realise you're not going to do it again for another year a kind of malaise creeps over you (except for me, WHOO! Auto Assembly in August!). This was the second convention I have been to and obviously the biggest. In terms of sheer information and things to see and do it is clearly unparalleled and I really hope I can manage to attend next (and every) year.
fun. Fun and exhausting, but definitely with an emphasis on the fun. Jim has been bugging me about attending Botcon since we became friends so this year I decided to finally take the plunge and fly out to Los Angeles to hang out with Jim, his Allspark Almanac co-creator Bill Forster, and several thousand other Transformers fans.Other sites will run a blow by blow breakdown of all the news, hints and exclusive toys from the convention this year but I figure it'll be more effective if I just give my impressions as a first-time Botcon goer.
Even given all I knew about the convention, I was not quite prepared for the sheer size. I attended Auto Assembly in the UK last year and, while that was highly enjoyable and will no doubt become a yearly event for me, Botcon was on a different scale.
We arrived to register and pick up our exclusive toys at six o'clock on the Thursday and the queue was incredibly long. The atmosphere was excited and lots of fans who hadn't seen each other for a long time, or were just meeting new people were having a great time. Even so - you could tell that this was going to be a long evening. I was very glad that I could get it out of the way before the convention began in earnest. Pleasingly, the unavoidable tedium of standing in a relentless queue was offset delightfully by an enormous fondue meal with Jim, Bill and some fans we knew from Auto Assembly.
How was the convention proper? Incredible wouldn't be too far off. For one thing, I had never been to the United States before, which was special in itself, for another, it was just all Transformers, all the time and, given that I am more into the fiction aspect of the hobby than the toy-collecting, having the con' in Los Angeles was fantastic because it enabled a great number of voice actors, writers and artists to come together in one place. (It also enabled me to stay with Jim, making things much more aff
ordable, but that's not especially relevant).After a hearty breakfast we kicked off the Friday by attending the script reading session for the convention exclusive comic Transformers: Animated - The Stunti-Con Job, by Marty Isenberg. It was a very amusing script made hilarious by excellent performances. The ever-reliable David Kaye continued his sterling work as Animated Optimus Prime but really shone as the ludicrously fatalistic Dead-End. Neil Ross (G1's Springer) narrated the piece as a new character, Sideswipe, and brought exactly the right tone for a slightly washed-up police-bot on the verge of retirement. Greg Berger, usually heard booming out the voice of G1 Grimlock, showed his versatility by giving us an excellent interpretation of Cheetor. Unfortunately Jack Angel could not attend but superfan Vangelis stepped up and gave an admirable performance. Marty Isenberg's enthusiastic Sentinel Prime was also not to be missed. Morgan Lofting (Firestar, although most famous GI-Joe's Baroness) made what amounted to two highly memorable cameos as Drag-Strip and Strika. Special recognition in particular has to be given to special guest Abby Collins, daughter of the late, great Chris Latta (G1 Starscream) who put in a very funny performance as Minerva, an annoyingly persistent Autobot medic.
Moving on from that reading it was at last time for the Dealer's Room to be opened. I was blown away by the amount of different toys at Auto Assembly, so you can imagine how wide my eyes must have been when I walked into that hall. I'm not actually a massive toy collector, as space and money are
both concerns, but that doesn't mean I didn't want everything I laid eyes on - especially the five Autobot vehicles from the live action movie - all buffed to an otherworldly sheen. In addition to this you had artist's alley where numerous prints and original artwork from Transformers' artists could be found and various booths from Hasbro and their partners displaying current and upcoming products. This included stuff like Kreo - a line of build it yourself toys, and Transformers: Universe, an upcoming massively multiplayer game, among the more obvious new movie and Prime toys from Hasbro.When five o'clock came we retired to a local Japanese Barbecue place for a wonderfully tasty all you can eat meal and, naturally, more Transformers talk.
Saturday was when the meat of the more formally timed events of the con' really began. We started off with a very interesting panel from IDW who laid out their (mostly spoiler-free) notions for the upcoming Chaos event and what they had planned for Transformers into the future. Current ongoing writer Mika Costa was in attendance as well as veteran Transformers scribe Flint Dille, who is going to be working on a new web-only Transformers venture: Autocracy. Also of note was the last goodbye from Andy Schmidt, who has now stepped down as Editor-in-Chief in order to go to work for Hasbro.
We remained in our seats for the next panel which was delivered by Hasbro and gave us hints and examples of upcoming Transformers products. Obviously there was a great deal of Dark Of The Moon but Prime was also featured, even though they don't intend to release until December - those toys in particular are looking great.
Hunger, and not wanting to be spoiled for an episode I had not yet seen meant that I skipped the Transformers: Prime script reading and went on an epic quest to find a burger - harder than you'd think in Pasadena but that was mostly my fault for being cheap.
We made it back in time for a lively panel celebrating twenty-five years of Transformers: The Movie with several of those who had been involved in its production. Flint Dille, Greg Berger, and Neil Ross appeared from earlier, Ross in particular proving to be an asset at his first Botcon with his warm but very dry sense of humour. Paul Eiding (the voice of G1 Perceptor) had been bussed in to replace the sick Jack Angel and the four provided a good mix of insight, witty banter and character voices. Naturally much time was given over for questions and the panel fielded fan queries and requests with aplomb.
Deciding to hang out in the hotel lobby we spent some time talking to various fans before very fortunately being given two and a half free pizzas by someone whose eyes were bigger than their belly. This provided ample sustenance before we hit a bar. As neither, Jim, Bill, nor myself had tickets to the Hall Of Fame event we went for a few beverages before coming back to the hotel and chatting
with other fans in the bar until it was really way past time for bed.Once again we need to be at the hotel bright and early on Sunday to catch the first panel - an interesting one where the Collector's Club explained the development of the Stunti-Con Job comic. Writer Marty Isenberg and fan contributors Trent and Greg provided some commentary on the comic while Animated art director Derek Wyatt talked about the designs used in the story that were then translated into the con' exclusive toys, including fan-favourite Ironfist.
Straight up after that was a panel by the writers and producers of the Transformers: Prime cartoon that talked about the history of the production while giving us some intriguing hints as to where it might be leading. Questions were enthusiastically answered but with a minimum of spoilers. Still, the end of Season 1 and start of Season 2 seem like they're going to be a thrill-ride.
Almost as a sequel to the previous day's Transformers: The Movie panel we then went straight into a panel populated by G1 voice actors. Everyone from the previous day was there, minus Flint Dille, and Michael McConnohie (G1 Tracks), Morgan Lofting and Arlene Banas (Carly in the G1 cartoon) joined them. Once agai
n it was a very genial gathering with a group of funny and talented people who seemed genuinely touched to have had such an impact on such a large number of fans.Rounding off the weekend as far as panels were concerned was Hasbro's second of the weekend, featuring only Aaron Archer and Rik Alverez. They discussed some of the challenges and rewards from being the custodians of Transformers continuity and showed the audience some exciting titbits of things to come as well as some highly obscure unreleased product - Actionmaster Cliffjumper got a big cheer. Most significant going forward were the hints about the Original Thirteen Transformers that were accompanied by some wonderful Warcraft style artwork that really spoke to the mythic nature of these entities. The panel struck a delicate balance between simply giving us Transformers history and leaving intriguing hints that stories can be told in. Exiles, the sequel to the novel Exodus by Alex Irvine got a pretty big plug and looks to deal with a lot of this backstory.
Less chronologically, but just as important as the official panels there were numerous entertainments for the Transformers-loving punter. A row of cars parked across the street had been decked out as Autobots, with a particularly impressive G1 Ratchet; costumes abounded, and ranged from the impressionistic to the fiercely accurate, with a movie Starscream that has to be seen to be believed. In general everyone was very friendly, fans and professionals and while the mingling of the two was not quite as pronounced as I experienced at Auto Assembly, everyone had time to chat and seemed genuinely pleased
to be there.So that, apart from a quick pass of the dealer's room and a few conversations with some fans, was that. There is definitely a post-convention shell-shock to contend with. It takes a few hours of adjustment to realise that not everybody you see knows or cares about Transformers and when you get home and sit quietly, and realise you're not going to do it again for another year a kind of malaise creeps over you (except for me, WHOO! Auto Assembly in August!). This was the second convention I have been to and obviously the biggest. In terms of sheer information and things to see and do it is clearly unparalleled and I really hope I can manage to attend next (and every) year.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
The Ark Addendum - Hound's Holographic Driver
Do you recognize him? This is Hound's holographic driver from More than Meets the Eye, part 2. (When I say that outloud, I'm thinking of a computer file that he uses to interface his holographic projector with his main OS... hehehe.) The page was a bit light so I repeated his vehicle mode. I looked for one with the driver seated inside, but couldn't find one.
I kind of wonder where Hound got this image. Did he pull it out of the airwaves? Did he happen to encounter someone who looked like this? Did he extrapolate from the very few humans he had met by that point in the story? Not that this is a critical plot point, just something that gave me pause.
So, back to BotCon. I'm not going to be speaking on a panel this year, what with me not having a new book out, but you'll still see me wandering around the con and attending most of the panels. If you see me and you read this blog, please come up to me and say hi. I don't bite (unless you're a particularly nubile female). It's a great con, so if you're anywhere near LA try to make an appearance. The door-prices are quite reasonable, though expect to stand in a line to get in.
Monday, May 2, 2011
BotCon, Original Artwork, and you
So, BotCon is just around the corner and I'm super psyched. Why wouldn't I be? This year is celebrating Transformers: Animated, on of my favorite continuities of all time. Not only that, but it's in Pasadena, a stone's throw away from my North Hollywood domicile. Yes, good times will be had by all.Those who regularly read my Transformers comic reviews will no doubt be aware that I'm a big fan of the original artwork behind the comics. I just love to see the black and white illustrations, love the whole PROCESS of making a comic. Some of the highlights of my collection are up on Flickr. (My all-time favorite is the original to Transformers #78.)
Sunday, June 27, 2010
BotCon 2010: random ramblings
Thursday: Time zone differential between LA and Florida means that I have to take an 8:00 am flight to get there in time to register. That means a 5 am wake-up time. Grrrr.
Meers Shuttle is $33 round-trip, not terrible but not great. Takes well over an hour. Bill was texting me from the registration line with info on the exclusives.
Registration line went much faster than usual. F.P. reshuffled the alphabet so now it's Q-S. Breaking the S from the T == great idea.
Toy line went SUPER fast this year. Not sure what they're doing but keep it up, guys!
The convention theme for this year is bitchin'! G2 for the win! I just wish they had G2 Ramjet / AM Thundercracker in the classics seeker mold. As an army builder, I heartily approve of the Sharkticons.
Got my first taste of BotCon socializing in the registration hall, catching up with Bob Budiansky, M Sipher, Trent Troop, Walky, Thylacine 2000 and many more. Had dinner with some of these folks, hamburgers all around. Borrow Exodus from Walky.
Watch one of the new Futurama episodes with Bill. It's hilarious.
Sleep.
Friday: Lines restart. Panel lines are different from registration; they're completely static, then they almost immediately dissipate once the doors open. I spend time with some #wiigii! folks on line, till they ask me to get the line moving. I do so, and they are suitably impressed.
The panels start! Yoke-san was terrific to hear from, and I got a photo with him. Normally I don't go in for that sort of thing, but I figured he's worth it.Bob's panel was also cool, and he gave me a shout-out. Random thought: He started with Transformers Thanksgiving weekend 1983. We did our Ark collaboration Thanksgiving weekend 2006, 23 years more-or-less to the day later. Fun.
Dealers room opens! I am disappointed to find no character models, though I'm happy to pick up All Hail Megatron Coda. I also nab a couple of Zods. Yup, GoBot Zods. KNEEL BEFORE ZOD! Still, relatively weak haul for me.
Said hi to Marcelo, Alex Milne, Matt Moylan, Chris Mowry, Casey Coller, many many more. Introduced myself to Carlos Guzman, who seems like a really easy guy to talk to.
Caught up with Eric Seibenaler. Gave him back some Hasbro assets that they lent us for Almanacing, which was a relief. (I take NDAs and custodianship of that sort of thing EXTREMELY seriously.)
Dinner with Bill, the Italian place at the Swan. It's fantastic.
Attend Seibertron party, meet some great dudes. Agree to an interview tomorrow (Saturday.)
Bump into Marcelo and Aaron Archer at the bar, talk about the new Almanac for a bit.
Read about half of Exodus. Then sleep.
Saturday: Go looking in the dealers room for something for my wife, some sort of souvenir. Find very little.
Panels restart. Hub panel is quite exciting. The phrase "rightfully huge" is coined. I do some networking before/after. Bumped into Brian Kilby, who gets me to commit to a live interview. NERVE-WRACKING!
Hasbro panel was great, as always.
Voice actor panel, quite entertaining.
Skipped the Cullen panel to catch-up with the wife.
Roundtable panel, they WANTED to do AM Thundercracker. Alas, was not meant to be. G2 Ramjet, though, is coming.
IDW Panel, with some last-minute slides from me. (I fight hard to promote my stuff!) Casey is full of info on Ironhide, a great mini-series. Read it if you're not doing so already. I get just a couple of Almanac II questions, which is slightly disappointing. The response to the three page preview was pretty great, though.Watch the second new Futurama episode. I love Zapp Brannigan, but it's slightly weaker than the first episode. Still hilarious, though.
Hall of fame dinner: surprisingly awesome. Kudos to everyone who put it together. Yoke-san is humble, Bob seems a bit taken aback, Cullen seems emotionally overwhelmed. Fan favorite Dinobot beat out Grimlock, Soundwave, Shockwave and Jazz. I expect some, if not all, of those other bots induced next year. While we're on the subject, I expect to see Furman and Welker inducted too. Just my guesses. Dinner is tasty, but portions are small. Got to spend it with Dan Khanna, which is fun.
BotCon 2011 in Pasadena, CA! That's 25 minutes from my house. Awesome. (It's also a VERY smart place to hold it, since so many of the folks involved in making the cartoons live out here.)
More #wiigii! hanging, this time with more booze.
Finish off Exodus, then sleep.
Sunday: Running on fumes. One last pass through the dealer's room, finally find something my wife will appreciate.
Hasbro spoils us with their design panel. Seriously, guys, you are too cool for words. SOOOO much cool stuff coming out next year.
Do the Hasbro combat training scenario. Surprisingly, get 7/8 shots in. Have fun yelling "SIR YES SIR!"
Find Walky, give him back his book.
Last minute socializing, goodbyes are said.
Head to the airport via shuttle. Fail to get on an earlier standby flight. Use the opportunity to finish out the new season of Doctor Who. (Am still synthesizing an opinion on that.) Get delayed a bit by a storm. Have to rush to make my connection. Take ANOTHER shuttle home, very slow. Get home, unpack, am pleasantly surprised to have not forgotten anything.
Wrote this blog post. Am chagrined to find that Hasbro hasn't put up my photo from their combat training, and Bill hasn't sent me any of his photos. This situation eventually gets, at least partially, rectified.
That was my experience; how about yours?
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
BotCon!
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