Canadian Transformers News and Discussion Forum

[Super_Megatron]

Originally Posted by Gumby

Whew, I'm finally able to sit down and give my thoughts on what seemed to be the biggest TFCon to date.

THE GOOD: The staff and volunteers were, as always, great and the price of admission just can't be beat. An excellent variety of both vendors and merch this year and having the second room was a welcome addition.

I know we just had him, but please bring Michael Bell back- if not for TFCon, than for one of your other shows. He was incredibly warm & friendly and shared some really funny stories. I spent $90 on him and would happily spend even more than that the next time.

THE BAD: Arthur Burghardt. I'll be G-rated and just say that he was an absolute jerk. I watched as he berated a 16 year old kid to the point that they left the table near tears. Burghardt then proceeded to be belligerent to the woman working his table and to another staff member who had kindly brought him some food- ("I don't *want* soup, I want *coffee*!").

Right out of the gate he refused to do our photo op which was supposed to be included in the price (he started doing them again later in the afternoon).

I've been working on two cast signed pieces over the years and have been lucky enough to add quite a number of names to them including rare ones like Welker and Cullen. Well, Arthur decided to ruin one of my items. First he *insists* on writing something even after I told him that just his name was fine. With his autograph freshly written on one side of the G.I. Joe footlocker, he flips it over and scrawls an inscription on it that not only takes up an ungodly amount of space, but isn't even connected to or close to his signature! On my next item, he wanted to give up halfway into signing his name and leave it "Arthur Burg" as he grumbled and complained that it wouldn't fit in the allotted space. After a bit of pleading, he finished his name and yes, it fit perfectly fine.

Our business done, I thanked him and took a few steps away but the whole rigmarole really bothered me, so I turned back to say something only to be met with "What?! What didn't I do for you people?!" when I approached the table. Seeing it just wasn't worth it, I told him he'd been a ray of sunshine and walked away a second time.

I have never met a more pompous, disrespectful and self important actor in all my years of going to conventions. Please do not bring in any other guest who has such disregard not only for people's personal property, but for the staff and attendees as well.

We have been very fortunate over the course of 15 years of TFcon to have so many guests that have been so great with the attendees. At some point there was bound to be more difficult situations that would arise. The people behind TFcon would never knowingly want to cause a negative experience for anyone, and in booking guests TFcon in many cases does not deal with the guest directly but rather an agent so could not anticipate this. That said sorry to hear you had a less than positive experience but hopefully over time the stories you can tell will make the interaction worth it.