Canadian Transformers News and Discussion Forum

[Stormrave]

James Roberts was great.

Peter Cullen was a great guest too. I was glad for the opportunity to meet him and overall the signing ran smoothly and it was good to have episodes to watch while we waited.

Cheers Ian did a great job with my photo.

My only frustration this year was having my PC signing back to back with the voice actor panel. In past years the voice actors have given second panels on the Sunday. That didn't happen this year, so I missed my chance to see them because of my PC signing.

I didn't know, when I picked my PC signing, what I'd be giving up. It was frustrating, given that there was nothing I'd have minded missing Sunday morning when the third signing was. I realize it's hard to tell at the time of the sales what the schedule would be, but it was just frustrating to have something as big as the voice actor panel happening just once, in a conflicting timeslot. I would have chosen Session 3 had I known.

I'm grateful that James Roberts wasn't in a conflicting timeslot for anyone. That was a good decision.

That was the only sour note in the con for me. The PC panel was great. I liked choosing questions in advance to avoid mike hogging and uncomfortable questions. I also liked the variety of questions.

James Roberts is lovely. You can invite him every year.

I appreciate the Con Menu in the hotel bar and the specialty drinks. The restaurant this year as in past years seemed understaffed, though not as badly in past years. Still, my group had to flag down waiters often and orders got forgotten. One year, my bill got forgotten (I tried to pay it, but was told there was no record of it anywhere! I even emailed the hotel after the con....nothing.) Good food, good drinks, more staff?

I like the dealer's room. I don't think everything has to be 100% Transformers. My friend likes Gundams, I like ponies, I've bought Monster High and She Ra in the past. A focus on TF is important but TF shouldn't be the only thing in the dealer's room, just the majority, and I think it was.

I like the way fan sales are supported at this convention.

I like having the charity auction on the Friday night. This works a lot better than in the old days when it conflicted with panels.

This year there were some open times in Hazel McCallion that could've been filled with fan panels--costuming panels? art or fic panels? history of obscure Transformers? prototypes, cancelled toys, or Japanese Transformers 101? Obviously stuff like script reading, voice actors, comics artists/writers, cosplay contest takes priority, but this was the first year I remember when there was nothing slotted into that empty time. (On the other hand, I recognize some people were at PC signings during this time, but if people want more fan panels, these would've been opportunities for them.) (EDIT to add that if people want fan panels, they need to let the staff know they're willing to do one, and the panel needs to be of decent quality. There used to be good fan panels on Friday night, but now this is the charity auction and I think the charity auction should take priority).

The script reading is always a lot of fun. I appreciated that there were multiple female parts this year.

On lanyards: I bring my own, now that my local Spencer's offers a stylish and faction-appropriate all-Decepticon insignia lanyard for me to clip my con badge onto. (I think there's an Autobot style too, for you Bots out there....)

I had an amazing time at this year's con and am already looking forward to next year! Thanks again to everyone whose hard work makes this possible.