Hi all, here's a fast BotCon report, sans full details.
Thursday
-We arrived in Cincinnati by 7:15 pm and proceeded to registration pick up. Unlike last year's BotCon Thursday, this year's line-up was abysmally dis-organized.
Many folks waited 1 hr in slow lines.
-The extras line was a bit better and I picked up the Meg/Rodimus pack and a matching BotCon 2007 backpack cheap for my wife.
Yes. I AM that romantic.
-Shared a hotel room with Guber, Protoman, and Code of Honor and enjoyed waking up to my Galvatron alarm.
Friday
-The 4 morning panels didn't conflict with anything, so it was an easy schedule.
-1st panel was Transformers Idol. Unlike the TFcon voice auditions, this was highly unstructured and a last-minute improv. But we witnessed some really funny and talented folks I must say!
Guber's audition made you bust a gasket!!
-Next was IDW comic panel. This was great mainly for Simon Furman, and Alex Milne seemed to enjoy being there.
-3rd panel was TF:Animated producers. The head designer is a genuine huge TF fan! Marty Eisenberg is a great herald of information and I didn't know he was co-commander of Beast Machines!
I and several others thanked him for his BM stories; although I felt some of these thankers may have just exited the BM closet.
-Lastly, the Voice actor panel. David Kaye was awesome as usual and Tara Strong seemed to enjoy her character. Bumper Robinson is new to the convention world, but seemed to ease into it as it went on.
ALL 3 played off each other in amazing entertaining Q&A's.
I discussed Steve Urkel later with Bumper and thanked him for his role on Family Matters.
-The dealer room opened at 2pm. Hasbro had great displays and gave away TF:Animated post-it notes
! Mix of merchandise including extensive clothing and some art tables.
As usual, Wayward had a very social booth which served as a meeting ground for many. I took advantage when she left me in charge by boasting of "My" great artwork, Tee-Hee!
-Onto Voice actors autographs. I brought a Ben 10 for Tara to sign and discussed her on-screen roles in the Sabrina movies. David was coolio and acted for my camera.
The best was filming my Urkel moment with Bumper
! (thanks Oasis!)
Friday Night
A full fun roster indeed.
-1st was the Board wars trivia. Quite disorganized; both technically and the many flawed questions weren't checked
.
Grammar even, i mean Kickback is spelled with a capital K; he is
NOT k.d.lang's brother.
This audience-heavy event was fun once they finally got moving. They chose to call Cybertron.ca (Dak, Aernaroth, Guber, Protoman, JLvatron) as "Team Canada". We beat TFW2005 and were leading the semi-finals until TTC beat us.
Still they were great folks to go up against and we had won over the American audience.
-The fan Film fest only had 4 entries but they were amazing! Our own Guber submitted a hilarious video called "Bumblebee goes to School"!
-Next, we saw the sneak preview for the TF:Animated ep with Weird Al Yankovic. Very funny and Full of G1 and movie homages.
-We later partied at the hotel pool hall/resto-bar. Couldn't believe at this point we were still only Friday...
[edit to add]
Doltfully, the BotCon organizers dis-allowed recording the panels, cheating us of a basic convention right.
