The Last Stand of Awesome, robo_rob’s BotCon 2010 Report.

Wednesday June 23^rd : The end is the beginning is the end

The day started off hectic, with a failed trip to sell some scrap metal for extra BotCon funds and a hard day at work. The end of the day came and the beginning of BotCon began for me. Then went to Hooper X’s house to meet up with Brian Kilby, and finally get the chance to meet baby Felton. Kilby gifted me with an Animated Arcee, super win!  Hung out with Wendy, Hoop, Kilby, and Felton until it was time to haul ass back to my place with Kilby following.

We got there later than I projected, much to the dismay of Kristin (the GF). After some TV watching and toy collection playing, we all went to Waffle House and enjoyed the south’s finest food. I’m lying, we all went to the Waffle House and ate Waffle House food. However it was good food. Then it was a trip to Walmart for last minute BotCon and road trip supplies.

The night ended with last minute laundry, viewings of Billy the Exterminator, and my cat falling in love with Kilby as he crashed into a slumber on my couch.

Thursday June 24^th: The Trip to Orlando looms like a vast predatory bird

We woke up pretty early and after a quick breakfast at McDonalds, Kristin, Kilbly, and I began driving to Orlando in Brian’s Yaris. Somewhere around Tifton, GA Brian got a speeding ticket and I took over driving duties. Upon entering Florida, we ate lunch at Taco Bell and swapped back driving duties. Later, we swapped back for great justice.

Eventually we were in Orlando much later than planned. Kilby’s GPS began acting wonky and told us to take local roads underneath the turnpike we were on. Eventually we found our way to Disney World and got lost again trying to find the Dolphin hotel. Eventually we found it, dropped off Kilby and took his car to our hotel in Kissime.

We find the Destiny Palms no problem, and turns out it’s a pretty nice hotel. It was much nicer than the price would lead one to believe. However, Travelocity dicked up our reservations. After both myself and Kristin calling Travelocity, they finally faxed our stuff over and we were given our room. I can’t blame the hotel, Tony (the clerk) was nice enough and was going to give us our room regardless, he just needed the fax asap for payment info so he wouldn’t get fired. We went back to the car for our bags and Tony stopped us.

Travelocity didn’t charge us correctly and we had to pay 12 bucks to covers some taxes. I’ve used Travelocity countless times before and this was the first time I had a problem, which considering the extent of the problem, will be the last time I use Travelocity. They had two months to fax in the reservations and it took two separate phone calls and arguing with operators to get them to do it. Travel leaves little room for such errors and I can’t afford not having somewhere to sleep because of an idiot. I’m using Orbitz for now on.

So we finally get our room, and hey… it’s pretty damn nice. Big HD TV (bigger than mine). Marble counters, toaster oven and mini fridge. Not too shabby. We were ready to head out back to the Dolphin (albeit an hour late for registration pick up) and turns out the hotel did not have a free shuttle. Something Travelocity assured us they had…

GOD DAMMIT TRAVERLOCITY… GO TO YOUR ROOM!

So we drive to the Dolphin in a sour mood, since the design was to use the shuttle to save on parking. Not to mention, Kilby left his car with us to save on the parking. Double whammy, no money… no money… STOP! We get there and pleasant surprise, we get a discount for parking due to the con. Finally some luck.

I pick up my registration materials freebie Primus package toy, Star Saber’s bagged set (he done up and sent me the money to buy my bagged extra exclusive set and stuff) and my exclusive set, and buy my Souvenir exclusive toys to complete the set. I had intended to buy the t shirt, but decided to order it later off the club store, as I needed that $25 potentially during the weekend. The souvenir sets were pretty expensive and I had to do some major budgeting as I somehow was already over budget.

Met up with some friends, which was great as I missed BotCon 2009 (dammed finances) and sorely wanted to see some old friends for the first time since 2008. John Deluna, as always, was a pleasure to chat with. Talked some with LV and Suspy, and apparently LV had similar GPS issues.  Suspy showed me pictures of his trip to Epcot which featured a pretty neat Japanese store that sold Takara ROTF deluxes for $20. Saw Waspy and Dalvatron as well. There was some quick RFC business with Kiby and John Deluna before calling it an early night.

Kilby being the awesome friend he is, let me use his car as needed. Brian Kilby is the patron saint of Toyota Yaris based transportation.

We arrived back in our room and decided to hit up the McDonalds in front of the hotel for some supper. Lucky us, McDonalds done up and had to close early because of stress. So we went to Walmart and got some cheapo groceries for our room. We used the lobbies microwave to cook our suppers and finally food was served. After finding the ice machine (I’m one of those weirdo’s who just has to have that bucket of ice at every hotel), I called it a night. As in she slept and I read the BotCon comic while taking a dump.

The comic was great, as was the whole set. G2 Redux mainly featuring late G1.5 European guys, an unreleased G2 guy, a new toy of the first BotCon exclusive, and SKY BYTE! When they said this set was revisiting a forgotten generation, they meant G2… but worked in another forgotten generation with magic. The comic was just great and fun, a nice way to work G2 into cartoon canon, and surprisingly witty. I was having a hard time mental digesting the story as I was exhausted. Laid in bed with designs to watch some King of the Hill, and ended up directly crashing into a slumber.

That was one comfortable ass bed.

Friday June 24^th:  Sweat baby, sweat baby, Disney is a  Florida drought, Me and you do the kind of stuff, That only Stich would sing about…

I know I went to bed with the intention of sleeping, however I seemed to have closed my eyes and entered a rift in time and space. I say this as right after I closed my eyes, my damn alarm went off and it was time to get up. I showered, did some work on my laptop (as in the laptop I use at work, which I brought to do actual work while on vacation) before raiding the hotels complimentary breakfast buffet for Kristin and I. I munched on a toasted bagel with cream cheese, a banana, and a ton of apple juice before heading to Friday and some damn BotCon.

Kristin spent the day in the nice hotel room sleeping. In hind sight, I wished I would have slept in, as I was tired as some kind of hell. Ended up having to park at the Swan and trek an unholy trek to the Dolphin and some damn BotCon. First off I went to the art panel entry desk with plenty of time before the Takara panel. I say this now, not realizing that the art contest entry process is more involved (consent forms and stuff) than the last time I had entered (the distant past of 2004). I had brought three customs to enter, but was only allowed to enter two (a rule I was unaware of). So Gut Cruncher sat the contest our while Orion Pax and Blaster entered.

Two robots enter, one nerd leaves.

I waited in line for the art contest entry guy to take me to the right place in the dealer room. Then waited to put my name and stuff on some more forms and was finally allowed to put my toys on a table and leave them for the weekend. Peeked at some of the other customs and they were great. Masterpiece Overlord and Powermaster Prime were awesome. There was a great Soundwave made from a Captain America Crossovers TF, with Ratbat made from the spare tire. 

Amazing.

Finally made my way to the panel room after some peeking at the Hasbro display and the Takara guy was great. Bob Budiansky panel was AWESOME. Turns out Ratchet was originally intended to be a girl (Nurse Ratchet, see what he did there) and he alternate name (if Ratchet didn’t clear) was to be either Cool Hand Lube or Greasefinger! Yes, there might have been a childrens toy that was a girl with a very inappropriate name! take that Takara and your gross Kissplay!

Next up was the first Hasbro panel, which too was great. Brian and Ender took off in the car to search for things to decorate our table with as I walked about and recorded people for RFC. There were some customized cars at the convention. A Cliffjumper, Ironhide, and one impressive Motormaster rig. Later a Bumblebee was added to the mix.

After talking with people and watching some fan videos, I hung with Wiigii for a bit waiting for the dealers room to open. Monocle! Ant! Walky eating tuna while sitting on the floor! That was kinda gross!

Dealer room opened and walked about a bit. Our table looked great, the guys had found some Transformers table clothes and a few feet of TF fabric to decorate it with. Not to mention some large Autobot patches taped down on table. We looked straight outta 1997 and were damn proud of it. Oh hey, Crazy Steve! Robert Baldwin! Stan Bush! I walked around for a bit before it was time to head back to the hotel for my Disney date with the girlfriend.

So… apparently I told her I would leave the con around 2, and somehow thought I said 2:30… eep. Well, we went to Disney and used our convention special after 4 tickets. Kristin wasn’t prepared for how large Disney was. Like, we parked… then took a shuttle… to a boat… to the Magic Kingdom.

Disney is really big, ok?

Disney was great, aside from the sweltering hot sweat hole that is Florida in June…or whenever really. Lots of walking, lots of tired, and lots of hot. But hey, we had something called fun in between the walking, hot, and tired. So fuck yeah. Haunted mansion was great; they had updated it since my last visit and despite the constant stops due to ‘prankful spirits’ (pain in the asses who think ‘the no flash photography’ thing doesn’t apply to them).

Pirates of the Caribbean was great, despite the addition of forced Johnny Depp. The Davy jones thing was badass though. Oh hell, Johnny Depp robts were cool too. We rode Splash Water falls and Kristin had no clue about Song of the South and the characters. More than once her mouth was wide open due to shock.

Walt Disney was a racist, btw.

We rode this awesome Stich ride, where we sat in seats and Stich magically jumped on our shoulders and burped in our faces. It stunk. Tea Cups, Winnie the Pooh, and Snow White too! Kristin didn’t care for Swiss Family Robinson, but loved the Safari Boat ride thingy!

After Disney, we went home to our amazing hotel and enjoyed some more microwave cuisine before crashing into a slumber.

Saturday June 26^th: it’s hot and I really got to poop

So Saturday once again magically appeared the minute I closed my eyes and another shower and breakfast buffet raid. This time they had waffles. I ate and brought sleeping girlfriend some food before beginning my drive back to the Dolphin. As I pulled in, I discovered parking was full (turns out there was like a billion conventions going on), I was directed to Hollywood Studios to park. I would have been mad, except for the fact that parking was free today as an apology. There was steady buses running to take us back and forth, so no worries.

BTW, where is Hollywood Studios?

I finally find it and park… and walk roughly 5 bazillion miles to the waiting area for the bus. About that time, my stomach hit nuclear and I really, really, really had to go asap. FYI, waiting in a really hot parking for a bus all while doing the potty dance… that’s not fun.

As it turns out, the old guy behind me in line was from my town and he was bringing his grandson to ‘That Transformers show while we’re at Disney’. That’s kinda awesome for a kid. All my Grandpa ever did was buy me fireworks.

Bus took me to the hotel for urgent bathroom business, and hey… turns out people on the bus are following me… I point them in the right direction and keep looking for porcelain poop thrones and an old lady asks me where the Red Bull convention was.

They have Red Bull conventions? Old women drink enough Red Bull to go to conventions about Red Bull? I’d like to see that art contest.

I finally found the bathroom and made a whole lot of brown before getting to the Hasbro media panel a little late. Oh neato, TF Prime is a giant G1 fanwank that looks like the movie. Geewunners will never be happy! HOORAY FUCKERS!

I found a seat with Kilby and Ender shortly before the Hasbro marketing panel. Neat, Powercore Combiners. Neat, Hunt for the Decepticons. Oh… War for Cybertron toys… sure haven’t seen those designs enough to scream bloody murder, nope not me. Question time, redundant and good questions mix like a salad from Golden Corral. Headmaster Don didn’t ask about a headmaster Arcee (he assured me he would ask at the designer panel), Sean Long technically asked something, and Hasbro asked him what about 20 times before blowing him off with a “Bumblebee and Optimus toys are on the way’ answer. Even Hasbro had no time for his tom foolery.

I still have no clue what he said, it was like a thousand voices mumbled all at once and were silenced.   

He wears sleeveless trench coats also. Perhaps he had some form of heat exhaustion? It was summertime in Florida after all.

We set up the RFC broadcasting equipment at the table and spent the day podcasting from our table. Crazy Steve popped by and showed us his awesome 80’s toy fair catalog scrapbook and original Gobots magazine art. Several old people thought we were the local TV station. Hellbat stopped by and did some chatting. Ant hung around and displayed awesome. An interesting young man hung around for a bit. It was clear we were his new heroes and he wanted to give us some G2 Gobots, which we declined. Because dude… awkward and hold on to your somewhat hard to acquire toys. That and we kind hoped he would leave after starting to rant about Rodimus’s Primes tentacles.

Hearing about Transformers and naughty parts is the stuff of nightmares and eventually the Deviant Art kids will stop drawing it.

We really had an awesome time, at the table. After all these BotCons, it was a new and different way to enjoy the convention and fandom. Jim Sorinson and Bill Forster (The same Bill who was on that tattoo show getting a Transformers tattoo also) came by and gave us an awesome interview. Their new book is a must have, and really, so is their former books.

At some point, among the normal onslaught of costumed folks arrived a 15 ft Starscream costumed fellow. Dude was walking around on stilts and had a speaker system for super talking action. It was rather neat, and even had cape and crown.  

By the time 4 came up, I needed to get myself back to the room. So I packed up and rode the bus back to the car. I interviewed a guy on the bus, and then drove back to the room. After getting ready for the dinner, Kristin and I headed back to the Dolphin to get our awards dinner on. First up, we found some Wiigii folks. Talked with John Deluna and his wife for a bit, and then chatted with Momzo for awhile. The wait was intended to be a cocktail party, but turned into a line with beer.

The doors for the dinning room opened and the floodgates of hungry nerds spilled into the dinning hall. Kristin, whose feet were still hurting from the Disney walking, led the way to an empty table. Soon later we were joined by Kilby, Monzo, and Momzo. Food was decent, and surprisingly edible. Desert was kinda bland, but looked neat.

The Transformers Hall of Fame ceremony and had some fun videos and touching moments from inductees. Peter Cullen looked absolutely smitten with happiness. Oh hey, fans choice winner was DINOBOT!

BotCon next year will be in California again… dammit. Here’s hoping I can afford to go this time (but hey, probably wont again. California= expensive ass trip).

Yay, Beast Wars got a damn nod! In all the awards ceremony was pretty classy and we were all given our neat plaque things to commemorate it. Kristin didn’t want hers so now I own two. Score one for this cool cat.

Dear god, I just quoted the N64 Beast Wars game.

After dinner, we headed to the Tformers room to record a quick wrap up podcast. Kristin and I headed back to our hotel, but stopped at one of Kissimie’s odd gift shops. The store had a large wizard on the roof and pretty much looked like a van mural circa 1978. It was awesome and full of discount theme park gifts. Disney shirts from 2008 for like a dollar and such. Oh hey, bootleg wrestler toys! Random Transformers pins!

Oh hey, had to poop again asap and wizard store had no bathroom. We stop at a nearby Walgreens so I could shit and Kristin could buy a candy bar. I think the water in Florida had some adverse effect on me or something. Oh hey our room! Oh hey, our bed! Oh hey, exhaustion. I learned later that my friends found Stan Bush singing karaoke. Part of me wishes I would have seen that, the other part enjoyed sleep and wizard store with girlfriend.

Sunday June 29^th: Sunday, BotCon Sunday

Upon waking, Kristin and I checked out and went to the Dolphin for the last day of BotCon. I showed Kristin about for a bit and we went to the Hasbro designer’s panel. Holy shit everything they showed us I wanted! G1 Legends FTW indeed. Powercore Combiners Dinobots FTW your mom.

After the panel we went back to the table. I managed to snag the 3 kabaya model kits I had been wanting from Captured Prey, thanks to a donation from the lovely Kristin. A dealer tried to hit on Kristin by giving her a Ravage in pretty decent condition. 15 foot Starscream made another appearance, as did the Animated Blurr costume from Saturday.

Did the Hunt for the Decepticons nerf game, which was neater than I expected. After standing in line (after getting a fast pass, to still stand in line) for a while, a random dork wearing a Power Rangers belt buckle started loudly yelling anime crap and ‘Falcon Punch’ at some kid in the line. It got so obnoxious that the Hasbro people (who were acting like military folks) told the guy to knock it off a few times. Eventually he set sights towards me, which resulted in me asking if he was going to give me a ‘faggot punch’. I hurt his feelings and there was much laughter in the line. Hasbro military guy was thankful and gave me a hard time for my efforts. Which was fair enough, he was clearly having fun with it and so was I.

The game was a ‘simulation’ which was basically walking around a room and shooting cardboard standees of Decepticons with a nerf gun. I was walked through with another Hasbro military guy who took delight in my shooting Megatron in the crotch before the standee fell down.

I picked up my art contest entries, and no surprise I didn’t win. I however did get Participant ribbons so hey… I can feel special too!

BotCon was ending and we had to take down the table and get the hell out of dodge, as it was transforming into another convention. We loaded up the car and said our goodbyes to friends whom were still around. The drive was a little overcrowded as we were dropping Ender off at the airport.

3 guys + 1 girl + a lot of luggage + inside a Yaris = I can smell my armpits.

After dropping Ender off at the airport the lengthy drive back began. We made a pit stop for CiCi’s pizza as we were all hungry. Brian ate roughly 20 slices; poor dude was living off meal bars all weekend. I at least had some ramen.

The drive back started rough as more GPS issues had us lost for a bit before back on the road to Atlanta. At some point we stopped at a gas station that featured severed alligator heads and aborted sharks for sale. Oh yeah, they also had honey. A little while later, I saw a billboard that consisted of the definition of rape. Few minutes later, another billboard that deserves its own paragraph.

The billboard featured two bears attacking a screaming black baby with the text ‘Abortion kills 3 out of 5 black babies… WHY?’ No really. Bears are apparently aborting black children in Florida. It didn’t take me long to figure out after the two billboards that we were in a bad part of town.

Abortion bears.

A little later on, while it was my turn to put gas in Kilby’s car, I decided to do some math to keep up with how much I spent. I must have hit an extra button or something on my phone’s calculator, because suddenly I had only a dollar in the bank. I nearly had a panic attack and tried to check my bank account on my phone. Sadly Sprints mobile wasn’t working so well, luckily after doing the math again I discovered I was wrong. I re-did the math a few more times and big relief.

Later down the road while switching driving shifts at a gas station, Kilby surprised me with the gift of Mtn Dew Livewire! Apparently Mtn Dew brought it back and dude remembered my missing of the soda. Kilby is not only an awesome friend, but also the patron saint of obscure soda.

We eventually arrived at my house around 2;30 am, with Kilby sleeping soundly. We all went to sleep fast upon entering my house. I have nothing clever to say, we were fucking tired as hell.

Monday June 28^th: For me it never ends, until the end and I just have to accept it

We all slept pretty late. Around 11 am, Kilby rose from the grave and headed back home so he could beat his wife home. That and I’m sure he was tired of me by then. Kristin and I spent the day together before she had to go home as well. It’s always sad when BotCon is over.

BotCon haul-

2010 BotCon Exclusive set with:

Spark

Clench

Breakdown

Streetstar

Sky Byte

2010 BotCon Exclusive Attendee Freebie:

Slice

2010 BotCon Exclusive Souvenir set 1:

Double Punch

Scorch

Shattered Glass Ravage (who could be Glit)

2010 BotCon Exclusive Souvenir set 2:

Rapido

Cindersaur

2010 BotCon Exclusive Souvenir set 3:

Sharkticon clones 3 pack

2010 BotCon comic and convention materials

Animated Arcee

Kabaya G1 Optimus Prime model kit

Kabaya Classics Optimus Prime model kit

Kabaya Star Saber model kit

TF War for Cybertron lanyard

TF War for Cybertron poster signed by the game’s producer

TF Powercore Combiners poster

Random paper stuff from nerf gun thing

Two art contest participant ribbons

Handful of TF stickers gifted by a RFC fan.