Subject: HooksX's BOTCON Report HooksX's BOTCON Report: Day One "Traffic" LA freeway traffic sucks. No, let me re-emphasize. It SUCKS. It is one of the worst things to ever happen to this world. It is the bane of all my hatred. It can take an hour and a half trip and turn it into a THREE AND A HALF F***IN HOUR LONG TRIP. It attacks you at the most unexpected moment, leaving you nothing to do about it. NOTHING. It attacked me. It attacked Bob Forward. It WILL attack anyone who gets in LA. And no one... NO ONE... is safe from its wrath. It made me let for pre-registrant check-in. It made me highly irritable. It made me drive with no shoes on. Damn how I hate that. With me lost in a building with a bunch of Transfans which I didn't recognize, I felt like I was about to give up. And then... I hear the words... "Hooks? Hooks!" Tengu. Tall. Thin haired. Big smile. The so-called "crow of death" is a man who comes up to me with a hand firm in place. I shake it. I am amazed. And then out comes the man who is of the ever-changing sig, and simply rules. ROB POWERS. "I believe you wanted to shake my hand," he said, sounding almost Silverbolt-ish (he does a mean Dinobot, though). Wow, Im not lost anymore. I know people here. Keen!! Then I meet Walky, LV, Grimlock, and Trix... the #cmtf gang. They smile too damn much. And Walky's too child-like. He's 19, and he jumps around like an eight-year old. I notice a Nightbeat calms him down REAL easily. :) I look around and see people glancing at me. Someone who I later recognized as Jason Canty (and talked with for most of the night) just had this glare at me and said "Hooks... ya...." Seeing all the freaks behind the monitors was an interesting experience. Moosey (great accent!), Richochet, Tony Davis, Hydra (the human FortMax), Skyflight....and DARCERIN!! She's short! She's got freckles!! And she's...getting a reference in season three!! Wiigii! (more on season 3 later... hoo yea...) Well, we finally get into the party place, I finally register (on my tag, it says HooksX: Sub Sector Hooks... its true. James is just a facade. Sub Sector is my REAL name). And the real fun begins. Especially when I see this tall, built guy with a backpack on who yells "Hooks!" and comes running at me. Who can it be? Duh. Its BOB FORWARD, man. And he has ALMOST as strong a grip as me. But he works out. That's good. :) Talking to him in real life is even nicer than talking to him on the computer. Its amazing. He always has a smile on his face. And something nice to say. Even though Bob and I, during the entire night, didnt even talk Transformers. What did we do? WE ROLLED UP OUR SLEEVES, FLEXED, AND TOOK A DAMN PICTURE. "The hills are alive with macho egos...." And then, someone else attacks me. Ben Yee. His grip... strong. Mustn't... give in. Holding hand...too tight! Ben's one of the nicest guys, too. You would swear he was a saint. You get this big Transformer vibe eminating from him. And you think... damn. I wish I were him. :) Scott McNeil saying "Dinobot has spoken. My rigid grill structure..." is a Godsend. Too bad God didn't send me a tape recorder. Damn. Gee... why is Doug Park talking to DiTillio about Starscream? Hmm... Okay, after the guests went up on stage and made themselves known to the world (Bob Forward: "Im no good without a script!"), they passed out the exclusives. Whelp, one is called "Vice Grip!" He was originally Power Pinch, nw colored blue/violet. He "serves as an advanced scout and conducts recon for Predacon intellegence." He is also a loyal and valuable troop. (How loyal? There was a joke about Megatron and him being LOVERS.) Oh, and all you people guessing the larger sized Exclusive would be a black Inferno. You're wrong. He isn't. SHE IS. Antagony (black kick ass Inferno) is an "unknown Predacon arriving under mysterious circumstances in the midst of the Beast Wars." She rules. The box-art by Wildman rules. Her "well-placed eyes" (think INFERNO as a FEMALE) rule. Damn it, this exclusive fraggin' rules. Too bad 2/3 of them are gone. :) Well, after the party was "over", Scott McNeil, Gary Chalk (whose voice IS Primal's, dammit), and Larry DiTillio stuck around and talked. And talked. And talked. And it was a damn good thing, too. Seriously. A bunch of us (LV, Walky, Trix, etc etc) talked to Mr DiTillio for at least an hour or so straight about Beast Wars, Transformers, season three (!), etc. And before you go and ask *again*, YES I DO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS AND WHAT DOESNT IN SEASON THREE. And YES I KNOW WHAT NEW TOYS ARE COMING OUT. But I am not at liberty to say until the convention is over. Maybe then, I can reveal some things. *What can I say? Urm... well, remember Bad Spark? Remember how Tarantulas was somehow alive in the next episode, when Rampage put him into stasis lock? Well, someone saved him. Who? That will be revealed. *Yes, Tarantulas was always planned to be a mole. And a Predacon Secret Policebot for a long while. As for his agenda? It will be revealed more into season three. (Wouldn't it suck to be pulled over on Cybertron? A crazy robot comes up to your door...knocks on the window... "License...and registration please!! HeehehHAhaha!" "Urm, what for?" "You...heHEAhahahAHah...were going 40 miles over the speed limit...heheeeHEhaaHAHahah!!" "But... By Primus! A 500 dollar fine??!" "HEeeEehAHAHAHAhaHAhaEheheEHEehHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!") *DiTillio would love to make an episode where there is a big battle, everyone dies, and at the end...coming from the ashes...the only survivor...WASPINATOR. Standing victorious, he would say "Waspinator rulez!!!" and then fade to black. The end. :) Oh, and dont worry Waspinator fans, no one on the creative team is thinking about trashing ol' Waspy. He's a keeper for season 3. In his original form (they wanted Transmetal, but the Powers that Be felt different. Im with him, Waspy rules as he is.) *CONFIRMED: No vehicles, no returns to Cybertron, no space adventures for season 3, despite what the story editors wanted. (long story.. let's not get into that). *Everything else that was confirmed and not confirmed (including the toyline) will either have to wait till after the convention, or wait till they come out. Im not saying a damn word. Other than "spark." :) Well, after DiTillio had his little conference with everyone, I talked with him privately for about half an hour. VERY informative on the writing industry (since I plan to be one). "Its tough, but you have to have determination." Great advice. I learned a lot in that half an hour. :) Well, that's just about it for day one. Traffic was good on the way home. Only 75 minutes. Thank Primus. :) And I went home and went to sleep. :) Before I go into the second day of BotCon activities, I leave you with a final thought: IS THERE ANYONE ON THE BEAST WARS STAFF THAT DOESN'T SMOKE?! Thank you. :) _______________________________________________________________ HooksX's BOTCON Report: Day Two "Another Day, Another BotCon...yea right" Traffic was good. There is a Primus. Today's events of BotCon were very informative and entertaining. Informative for the people who wanted the inside info, entertaining for the people who got to see the BW cast in action. Damn, they are funny. What was even funnier was watching two guys trying to figure out what Ben Yee and I were talking about. And no, you will NOT find out what we were talking about it. ;) What you WILL find out, however, is a lot of info. Confirmed info, denied rumors, and the like. And this time, instead of dancing around the facts, I will get straight to the point: BEAST WARS SEASON THREE Episode List 40- The Agenda Part Four (Bob Forward) 41- Deep Metal (Larry DiTillio) 42- Changing of the Guard (Evan Sommers) 43- Cutting Edge (Ian Wier) 44- Feral Scream Part One 45- Feral Scream Part Two 46- Proving Grounds 47- Dark Glass (Christy MarX) 48- Crossing the Rubicron 49- Master Blaster 50- Closure (Larry DiTillio) 51- Nemesis Part One (Bob Forward) 52- Nemesis Part Two (Simon Furman) Are you freakin happy now? No? Fine then. Just to please the masses... CONFIRMED CHARACTERS IN SEASON THREE Optimal Optimus (new incarnation of Optimus Primal, NOT Optimus Prime in any shape or form) Depth Charge >>>More to Come!!<<< Oh, worried about your precious little water scenes with Depth Charge? Well, FOUR EPISODES will feature UNDERWATER scenes. And the CGI will be beautiful. There you have it. Don't care about the new characters? Okay, let's go over the past characters and see what will happen with them (at least, what I am allowed to say): Dinobot- DEAD...staying dead...will remain dead...no matter what the timeline changes are, DINOBOT IS DEAD. Tigatron and Airazor- "They're DEAD!!!" in the words of DiTillio. Which means... there WILL be a closure on the fates of these two. And the aliens. And possibly... quite possibly... we'll see what they look like. AND NO, THE QUINTESSONS WILL NOT BE INVOLVED WITH BEAST WARS WHATSOEVER!!!! Terrorsaur and Scorponok- "They're DEAD!!!" Anything else on any of the other characters would be too much info. Well, except for a few tidbits-- *Silverbolt and Blackarachnia's relationship will grow... in what direction, who knows? *Prime's dead. :) *Waspinator rules. Everyone loves Waspinator. You'll be seeing more Waspinator. Why? Because he rules. :) And the episodes start in NOVEMBER. Okay... enough of the Beast Wars show. Now, onto the toys... ...well, Hasbro didn't reveal much, did they? Well, they plugged very extensively their new collector's site opening on October 1, 1998. If they weren't chicken and talked about the toys that are supposed to come out, maybe the general public would know. IMO, the new series of toys coming out will be great. Dont worry, you will not be disappointed. :) The voice actor session was a whopping two hours long. Amongst the hightlights: *Scott McNeil did the "Dinobot has spoken..." line. :) :) :) *Gary Chalk does NOT like to talk about how much $$$ Scott makes from doing extra voices. *Scott does not like talking about Dinobot. The guy's dead. :) *Gary wants Optimus Primal to have a GIRLFRIEND in some point in the series. He's lonely. But at least Ian Corbett ("Cheetor") stands next to him in recording sessions. Hmmm... maybe they'll form some sort of relationship? *oh gawd... I cant remember... I was laughing too damn much. :) Speaking of laughing, you guys missed the best damn Script Reading I've seen in my life. There were some great lines in here. The script was written by BOB FORWARD, and he did a great job. I would love for some of these lines to be in canon. Such as... Well, what have we here? Waspinator see many body parts. And none of them are Waspinator's. Oh happy day!!! --- And who, my dear decastating ant-shaped damsel, might you be? I am your doom! I am your destruction! I am your worst enemy! ...Raksha? --- --lots of dialogue about searching for Megatron to no avail-- So how DID you find me then? I checked Ben Yee's web page. What!? You have betrayed me for the last time, Wonko the Sane! **BLAM!!** Oooo. Can Waspinator shoot audience member too? No. Awwwwww.... --- ***Firing on Primal*** An excellent display of destruction, eh Waspinator? And it still not happening to Waspinator! Yayy!!! --- Overall, it was a damn good day. And yes, LioConvoy and DragonGalvatron do indeed rule. Tomorrow, I get to see BWII... see ya around!! (X) "Kill em all. Let Hasbro sort them out." --Bob Forward, regarding season finales. 1