Quote:
Originally Posted by Robimus
I wasn't in attendance but stuff like 3rd Party panel and Flint Dille doing commentary for the audience while watching Transformers 1986 seem like really solid events.
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Yeah, I'll wait for a more general feedback thread to go into detail, but I just wanted to vouch for the panels having been *spectacular* this year.
The voice actor panels were entertaining (Mr. Corlett and Mr. Byrnes were chock full of snappy banter), with some seriously intriguing revelations and anecdotes coming out of the Dille/Gilvezan panel, in particular. I was actually going to suggest some kind of contingency plan for panels like that to go into overtime (if the guests are up for it... which Mr. Dille definitely was, in this case). As I recall, only about five people actually got to ask substantial questions.
It was also great to see the resurgence of more fan-generated panels this year. Ninjatron's panel of anime history/influences blew me away. It was like a full-on history thesis seminar-- a very thoroughly comprehensive chronology with a light sprinkling of WTF moments (I'd seen the Spider-man stuff before, thanks to Cracked, but some of those toy commercials were *bonkers*). I only caught a bit of the Eastern/Western comparison panel on Sunday, but it also seemed well-put-together.
... and yeah, the Welker panel and Dille TFTM commentary were awesome beyond belief. I mean, I'm sure everyone expected watching Mr. Welker's vocal mastery up close was going to be cool... but he definitely pulled out all the stops. And seeing Mr. Dille go through the movie scene-by-scene, and reveal all the original story ideas and the origins of particular lines was without a doubt the best 'Con event I've ever attended (having been to 3 Botcons and 4 TFCons)...
So for fans who tend to focus on the fiction, it was a dream come true. I guess for fans who are just into the toys, there weren't a lot of non-dealer-room options... should there be more kitbashing workshops? Do those still happen?
