Man, the stories from this years BotCon ... most of them related to how poor this years BotCon was.
Starting off, Jon/Ultra Maverick's flight from Ottawa was supposed to connect with my flight in Toronto and then we'd fly down together to BotCon, share a cab to the hotel, etc. But Jon's flight from Ottawa got delayed. So, long story short, poor Jon had to wait like 4-6 hours for the next flight!
What's more, the hotel room was in Jon's name. Luckily Jon gave me the confirmation number. Otherwise I might have had to wait around the hotel lobby until Jon arrived.
While waiting for Jon, I was able to pick up my Primus Packages because, as mentioned in the podcast, I was a Golden Ticket holder. Slight hick-up there when I had bought 3 Primus Packages and they only had 2 on file. Fortunately, I had printed out and brought my invoices, so I eventually got all my stuff just fine.
The next day, Thursday, I get up bright and early and go off to the customizing class. Which was freaking brutal! It took me like 12 hours to "complete" my Shockwave/Longarm figure. I put "complete" in quotes because I finished as much as I could before more or less giving up. The worst part is that the figure is all pins and they all require a special tool or something that the staff there has to do for you. And there was like 100 people in the class. And there's only 2 people doing pins and stuff. So you've gotta get in line of 50 people just to get 1 thing done. Then you go back to your table grab a few more pieces and get back in line. It took FOREVER! And by the end of it, I was extremely frustrated. I barely had to time to do some painting and even then, I'm not satisfied with the paint I've done. I want to do some touch up painting before posting pics of my figure, but I can't seem to find the specific paint I need in my area. I can't even order it online because in Canada you can't mail anything flammable or combustible, which this and just about every other kind of paint is apparently.
After getting out of the customizing class, I rushed to get in line for the club store. Normally with the Golden Ticket I would have been able to get in line at 5PM, but because of the class, I didn't get there until like 6PM. Thus making that portion of the Golden Ticket worthless. So I go to the room where the package pickup is and they have a little Club Store there with just the souvenirs. I get in line and I get to the front of the line and the lady says I have to down stairs now. Apparently the only reason they had a little club store in the package pickup room was because they were having problems getting a signal on their credit card machine downstairs. But then I guess they fixed it and they closed the upstairs store. So then I had to go downstairs and get in line again. Not impressed. But eventually I get my souvenir exclusives.
Friday I can't even remember what I did the majority of the day. I didn't go to a single panel, and as mentioned on the podcast, the dealer room was crap. There was a lot of sad looking booths there. There was one that was basically just all Cybertron deluxe and scout class figures.
A pretty cool Breakdown costume though.
That night was the Golden Ticket dinner. When we were let in, there was a small buffet in the centre(sushi, kabobs, pop, water, and some salad), another table at one end of the room with brisket and dinner rolls, and an open bar on the other side of the room.
I quickly grabbed what looked most appetizing to me(the kabobs), and then looked around for a place to sit. Most of the seats were already taken and I didn’t see many special guests. Just Simon Furman, but the table he was at was already full. But sitting at a small table with a couple was my man, Optimus Primal himself, Gary Chalk. So I grab a seat there and we chatted for a bit until we both decided to go back for seconds. While perusing the buffet I noticed Dan Gilvezan had showed up. Quickly followed by Buster Jones. The guests soon met each other and it was about this time that everybody gave up on eating and just whipped out their cameras. Then Peter Cullen walked in and everyone shed what little decorum they had left and the evening devolved into a fervour of photo-ops.
Eventually David Kaye and Derrick Wyatt showed up and the staff gathered all the guests together for a group photo.
After that, more photo snapping.
And once everyone had their memory cards filled, the crowd started to dwindle. When you left you presented with a small litho with all the guests pictures on it signed by all of them except Peter Cullen who for some logistical reason was unable to sign them in time. So instead they had him sign a bunch of Bot Shot Optimus Primes and they gave that to you as well. There was also some kind of big cards or something that all the Golden Ticket holders were signing too.
I wasn’t too interested in signing it knowing FunPub’s reputation with credit cards, I wasn’t about to hand over my signature.
Saturday was basically more of Friday. Nothing worth getting in the dealer room other than free Kreo Jazzs and Mirages at the Hasbro booth. I did go to a few panels. Mostly forgettable. The Club showed off their upcoming exclusives. Scourge, Depth Charge, Ultra Mammoth, and Slipstream being highlights for me. Circuit is probably the least interesting. And I agree with what was said on the podcast, they should have used the Generations Jazz mold instead of the Animated one. It feels as though they wanted to do that, but they felt they had to have at least one Animated figure in there just so they could hit as many interests among the fandom as possible and Jackpot was the most logical choice to change. Hasbro’s panel was probably less interesting. Most of it was just FoC figures which I have very little interest in. Soundwave and Soundblaster I don’t really care about themselves so much as I hope this means we’ll be getting more Generations Voyagers. If I recall, Hasbro has expressed interest for years in doing original voyager sized Generations figures. And 2 of the ones they wanted to do first were Soundwave…and…Rhinox! Now whether this is just a coincidence or what. It gives me hope that we might see some new things in Generations besides G1 Classics and video game characters.
Also on Saturday they held a drawing to pick 100 people who would get the chance to have Peter Cullen autograph something for them. And I was lucky enough to have won a spot. And because I didn't have anything else for him to sign, I got him to fill in the missing spot on my Golden Ticket litho.
I don’t have much to say about the casino and Hall of Fame dinner night that wasn’t already said. It’s a little annoying that some people just refuse to dress night. And it was very hard to hear while the butlers were clanging around the Tupperware.
Sunday not much happened either. I only went to one panel: the Bee In the City 2. Constant mic problems and lack of any real story, honestly half the fans in the audience could have written more compelling dialog, made for a very disappointing panel.
After that it was just a matter of time waiting for the show to end. Probably one of the most memorable moments of that show was staying up all night in hotel lounge just listening to Hydra and Protoman talk about Kiss Play and "Blasty Zones" and stuff.
Overall, it probably the second worst BotCons I’ve ever been to. Worst one being the one in Cincinnati, primarily because of how rough the local area was. Dirty streets were filled with bums and people that seemed like they’d rather stab you than look at you. No easily accessible shopping or food either. Fortunately Dallas wasn’t quite that bad. But according to the hotel staff, all the restaurants and stuff was in one direction from the hotel and in the other was a prison! Also, the infamous Grass Knoll where President JFK was assassinated was right down the road from the hotel. We walked by it several times going to dinner each night. Hope that gives you an idea how sketchy the area of Dallas was that we were in. To echo Daniel, if I could have just stayed home and got all the exclusives through a friend who was going, I more than happily would have done so. This BotCon was one to miss, with or without the Golden Ticket. Even then, some of the exclusives I’m not too crazy about.
