Subject: Botcon 98 impressions From: cmq Date: 1998/06/22 This was only my second Botcon, but I thought it was a very fun event and am looking forward to next years...3H Enterprises apparantly is willing to host the event for the next two years (till 2000, finacial concerns permitting and mulling over five unknown cities for next year) and is looking at the whole thing as an ongoing saga spread over four cons.... It was going to be difficult to top last years con, what with voice actors from both series, the musicians from the movie, a concert, two exclusives, etc...but I think this years convention was still great! The two exclusives were very nice...I was surprised that they sold out so quickly...at the Q & A wrapup at the end of the con, 3H said they ordered 600 like last year, since about 300 were left over and sold via the internet after last years con...but this time the toys were gone within the first hour! They definitely said the volume would be increased for next time...As an aside, they asked that you register early, if possible, to give them a better impression of how many people are planning to attend, and to avoid cutting things from the show if the budget looks like it's going to be a problem when too few sign up...This time around, about 80 people sent in last minute registrations...the total attendance was said to be about 850 people, up from 750 last year... The video room was great...projected onto the wall to be about the size of a motion picture screen, the Beast Wars CGI looked slightly fuzzier due to the projection, but strangely more interesting to see (it must be my little 9 inch tv screen that doesn't do the show any justice) and a glimpse, perhaps, at what a CGI Beast Wars movie might look like on the big screen... The voice actor panel was THE highlight of the convention for me...not to take anything away from the script reading, which was a treat in and of itself (perhaps too short...), but to see the comraderie of the actors Chalk, McNeil, Kaye, Parker and director Blu in action together was priceless! There was a very loose and relaxed atmosphere as questions serious and not so serious were intersperced with line reading requests, ad libs and general playing around by all. Highlights for me...when Susan Blu was asked which cast was more fun to work with and the four male cast members sitting on either side of her leaned in and waited for her response...Scott McNeil and his incredible repertoire of voices...Gary Chalk always saying "Let's not go there..." when talk about McNeil's increased pay due to his extra vocal performances came up...Doug Parker being teased that his character was dead...I highly recommend buying the Botcon 98 highlight video from 3H if you are at all curious as to how much fun it was. If they only have half of the funny asides that were in the panel, it'll be worth it! Like last years con, some future Hasbro packaged product was on display for preview...Transmetal Rampage, Depthcharge, and Optimal Optimus were in large, dramatic vertical rather than horizontal packaging...Andy and Jen from Hasbro talked about the line, since the two designers were in Japan on business...Jen is optimistically hoping to offer exclusive Transformer merchandise from Hasbro. She was really impressed with the Takara LeoConvoy toy from the Japanese Beast Wars II line and said she would love to be able to offer that toy via the internet or otherwise...I got a kick out of the ten minute video they brought chronically the highlights (and lowlights!) of the Transformer line as advertised on tv...we got to see the original animated commercial for the Marvel gen1 comic #1, assorted gen1 commercials (including Dinobots, Head- and Targetmasters, Pretenders, Power-, Micro- and Actionmasters, the rap gen2 commercials, and early Beast Wars ads) It was a very nostalgic experience! The comics panel with Simon Furman and Andrew Wildman was expanded to include editor Rob Tokar and a hilarious story about an April Fools joke comic story they tried to slip by the ever-watching Hasbro checkers...it was a story which started with Megatron falling out of the sky and landing smack onto a lady with a baby carriage and Megatron looking at his foot and going "Ewww!" and featuring robotic sheep, a 50 foot nun and mass death, destruction carnage...another reason to get the Botcon 98 highlight video if this makes it onto the final cut! Bryce Malek, one of the story editors from the gen1 days brought along the gen1 bible, filled with all the necessary backstory and character descriptions/pics needed for the writers to create stories...a lot of fans gave him their email address, presumably to try and get copies of the bible... The Q&A session to conclude the convention was most informative...among the other choices 3H mulled over for the exclusives was a ninjay black and purple recolored Manterror named after the sport Jai Alai and a Spittor recolored to look like a poison toad which was half-jokingly under consideration to be called Lickme! The budget for this year was considerably less...about 25% I think they said...They tried to get Frank Welker again but his scheduling just didn't permit it...the comic and program from last year wasn't mentioned enough by people from last years con, thus no comic and a lower quality program this year (a shame...I thought the color TF Universe pages on Fractyl and Packrat were great in last years program! I guess all the other great stuff happening made everyone forget about that stuff)... The variety of fanmade art was great...I wish I knew those lego transformers really transformed, otherwise I would have voted for them before I turned in my ballot! (It just didn't dawn on me that anyone could possibly make TRUE transformers out of lego)...THe yarnmasters were back, and yarn vehicle banks made in the image of the tractor trailer characters (OP, gen2 OP, Motormaster, Rodimus, UMagnus, etc...) and a cool courtroom diorama of alligator Megatron suing for custody of the name Megatron and a jury full of regular sized Beast Wars toys being presided over Transmetal OPrimal holding one of his clubs as a gavel! I sold one piece of b&w art (gotta recoup for that toy spending somehow!) and got a 2nd place prize for another piece in the contest...all together I had a great time and am looking forward to whatever and wherever the next one is happening! cmquan 1