BotCon 2000 - Recharge

Well, I'm back from a fun fun trip. I'll try to hit my personal high points and observations, as the important official stuff (what there was of it) has already been covered.

Day One: Reverend Dumbass and the Master of the Universe

I started this as a vacation a week prior to Botcon. I spent a week in Southern Illinois at a friends house prior to his wedding (missing the actual wedding itself for Botcon). I left the Bachelor party at 3 am quite happy for the train station in Carbondale IL.

Amtrack is pretty nice. It was my first time taking a train, and though it was only 4 hours and I was sleeping, I never had a better nap in a moving vehicle. I arrived in Kannakee IL to meet Backsight, who was driving a rental car down from Ohare. As I was standing outside the incredibly small train station waiting area, a person who worked next door came up and warned me to be careful; that somebody got mugged there yesterday. Great. I still had another hour and a half at least. Luckily, nothing happened and I watched Backsight pull up right on time (pretty great timing considering she had no idea where she was going). We drove and talked to Ft. Wayne, switching off the driving as we were both pretty tired.

I have to say, Indiana sucks. At least their roads do. The speed limit was 45 most of the way there from IL, with a few patches of 55. Plus the last 20 miles before Ft. Wayne had road construction which slowed us down considerably. Backsight slept through all of this as I was about ready to put my fist through the windshield.

We arrived at my hotel, which in turn required me to find an ATM. Not an easy task in this town! The main source of ATMs seems to be gas stations. I passed five churches and no banks looking for one. I thought maybe I'd accidentally driven to Salt Lake City. I dunno, maybe they use clamshells for currency here or something.

Finally got in my room, freshened up a bit, and went to the convention center. Backsight dropped me off and went back to her room. I didn't see her again till the next day. Since we ended up arriving late due to traffic (am I the only one who had this problem?) there was no line for registration, which was nice. Got my package, shirt, and name tag. Bought that cheap ass lanyard, and immediately realized I shoulda brought another chain (silly me, I was thinking it was going to be a sticker type badge.). Went outside to smoke a cigarette and look around for familiar name tags. Talked to some girl who bummed a smoke off me who was apparently really out of it. Her friend came and led her away after five minutes of conversation.

Went back inside and upstairs, where I saw a large throng of people waiting for the video rooms to open up. Immediately recognized Rob Powers for some reason; went up and said hi. Immediately saw about another half-dozen #wiigii!'ers milling about, including Hooper X, who I had met before from the Atlanta congent.

Me, Hoop and Rob waited for the rooms to open up, and then went in to watch Scramble City. Hoop had seen it before, we had not. Not bad, but not great either. Talk about your long form commercial.

I cruised various rooms and the convention center after that, met several people and ended up back with Wiigii as we began practicing what would become our trademark for the convention: blocking traffic areas and causing a fire hazard. Seems almost everywhere we stopped was in a high traffic zone. Heh heh. At some point we went to Leozack and Hooper X's room to read the mad rantings of an anti toy preacher, who desperatley needs and editor at the very least. Went back to the hotel again to stand around. Mad Max MFP said Robowang was around in a Megatron Luau shirt. Said he looked like a fat Andy Kaufman. Sure enough, I saw him and he DID! He was flattered at the comparison. Alex Bunchanumbers is really quiet. He stood beside me for an hour before Max pointed out he was there, after I lamented he couldn't make it!

As people started getting ready for the dinner, made my way to the bar with Trentulas's friend, Tim. We were the only two drinking.

After the dinner, everyone came back and we gaped at the exclusives. The comic book rocked. Walky was in tears. Met Bobbi Carothers somewhere in this mess. Complemented her on her fanfics and berated her for not coming into #wiigii!. She ended up with us for most of the weekend anyway, I believe. Trent and Tim were staying in the same hotel room as I and they had a car, which turned out to be a blessing. Went back to the video rooms just in time to see The Immobilizer. And Chip stand up to catch something (which prompted me to yell "He's not crippled! He's just lazy!"). Also watched City of Steele and Atlantas Arise, and I think one other. Watch Trents great home CGI video and caught on to one really lame pun Trixter pointed out (Jen 'Won?).

Day Two: All God's Chilluns Got Yellow Shoes

Next day, all three of us arrived late (again). Missed the opening Madd Rush (f**k that guy anyway : ) but the room was still packed when we got in there. Trent and Tim immediately snatched up rediculous amounts boxed toys making several trips to the car. I hooked up with Rob, Hoop, and Max again. I ended up buying a complete Blitzwing in good shape for 20. Not bad. Bought a nice piece of Con art and a Megatron sticker too. Hung out around Raksha's table, where I ended up meeting most people. Got a picture of Avatar, didn't get one with me and Avatar though. Maybe next year. Skyflight is a surprisingly soft spoken guy, for someone who looks like a bouncer in a biker bar : D. Met and hugged Nightwind, who stopped by briefly. Heard a fast talking guy talking a little joking trash to Raksha and without even looking knew it was Rob Jung. Talked with him a bit about the MST3K presentation and his fanfics. Went to the Jon Moschitta panel. Very cool guy, lots of stories. Met a billion people I knew, including CoolSlider, Straxus, Superspy, M Sipher (briefly, he looked hurried and paranoid), his evil twin Xiphos, among many others. Met back up with Backsight and another ATLer, Erik Larson, who didn't recognize me at all. Went to lunch and another ATM run with Backsight and missed the Voice Actors panel. Oh well. Hung out with Lithrael at the broken toy bin, where she managed to buy a G1 Scorponok arm. She walked away with a bag of Megatron parts (I mean bits and pieces!) and scattered pieces of Sixshot (near complete when rebuilt, actually). Strange but funny. Mad Max walked up with a toy called The King Kong Sliding Puzzle (something like that), which was a knockoff Pretender Jazz. Funniest knockoff name I've ever seen. We went to another toy bin which had some of the nuttiest action figures we've ever seen. A singing blue cowboy and some large green army men who all looked like they were disco dancing. I think we spent more time with the Bin of Misfit Toys than at any table.

Went to the Hasbro Panel, which nothing of importance was revealed, except for the fact that God Hates You. Standard stuff, Headmaster Arcee (why can't anyone want a regular Arcee? Fuck Daniel!), bring back G1, Beast Mutants suck (and God Hates You!), S2 Spoilers toys by Christmas, etc. covered in other reports. Somehow missed hearing that outtakes of the movie and the PSAs were going to be shown afterwards. Rats. Hopefully they'll be on the DVD. Also missed hearing Hoop have WARenfeld paged. I think he had a longer line for autographs than the BW VA's did. Now his head'll really be swelled.

Wiigii did a mass McDonald's break, and Quez said "Hey You! Move!" to me, which is pretty cool to get a royal order or something. I think her and Swifteagle were joined at the hip. But not as bad as Walky and Windy (bleah).

Went to the Movie afterwards, when Hellbat showed up in his newly aquired Ramjet costume he got from Robowang. I wished I had some toast to throw. Sat up in the balcony, and White Dove herself sat a few rows in front of us. Told everyone jokingly to watch the Wheelie jokes. She smiled. Then when someone cracked some rather nasty ones, saw one of the coldest stares ever. Lots of applauding, I think Wreck Gar got the biggest actually (What is with Sci Fi fans and Monty Python?). The big moments of course were applauded, and nice to hear some "Newsgroup" moments appluaded/yelled at, IE Brawn's Death and Magnus infamous line "I can't deal with that now!" Much better detail on the big screen. Never noticed Megatron was drooling in the Shuttle/Unicron scene.

After the movie, went to the #wiigii party eventually, stopping briefly to play Micromasters with Rob P. and talk to Nightwind again. Came in and watched some dubbed Headmasters eps, which I have but they're so much funnier with an audience. We all went back to the video rooms later and watched Lithrael's Staying Alive video, which was mostly clips of Megs beating Screamer (and their's a LOT). They went to do a WWFF reading, I got consumed watching Nemesis with Backsight. Oh well, I'll hear the tape eventually. Went downstairs and talked to Robowang, Raksha, and Magic. Robowang said Straxus was passed out in some room; we discussed shaving his legs but no one wanted to loan a spare razor. Backsight later drove me back.

Day Three: ActionMaster Orgies and the Secret of the Universe

Next day got going even later as Tim and Trent woke up late and Tim takes an hour to shower (I'm not that bad!). Didn't miss much of the MST3K show, thankfully. Funny stuff. Got to watch City of Steel again, but it was better this time. I mean, its still a gross episode, but those guys make it funny. Went back and watched the dealer room die down to closing time, then went to the Hartman panel. Nothing big to put out either, though they'll be screening questions at the panels next year. We tried to convince them to make next year's exclusive a redecoed Big Daddy, but no dice. BIG DADDY!

Lot of our group started leaving at this point, and as the hours dragged after the convention closed, it got sadder as all our friends started to leave. Megatron33 left, and I barely even talked to him. We went to eat at Taco Bell, and on the way back discovered the secret of the universe. But we gave it back to the Hartman's cause we're nice people. We met a nice kid in the lobby that night and we regaled him with stories from WARenfeld. I think he's scarred for life. No one should have to take that much Echowarrior stuff at one time. Finally met Ravestrike, whou joined us around midnight, at which they were few of us left. Tonyfitz, Monocle and I arranged action master in various lewd poses for fun. Finally called it a night and took a cab back, which was a pretty penny. Only managed a few hours sleep, and I'm STILL tired.

I left out a LOT of stuff, but this thing is way too long as it is. Sorry if I left anyone out who I had a good time with, but I'll see you next year!