BotCon 2001 - Dexius_R

Botcon 2001 was my first. I had a great time. It was fun.

I'll spare you, the reader, from details regarding the trip there. Let's get striaght to the goods.

I arrived in Durham just after 6:00 Friday evening, so I missed the early check-in for pre-registrants (which I paid for in spades with the monster line up the next morning). Being lodged at the Howard Johnson outside of town put me at a disadvantage for Botcon access, but I ventured into downtown Durham Friday night anyways to see what it was like. Dinner was in order, but no there wasn't much around. I settled for McDonald's even though I don't eat meat. Salad and fries are a weak substitute for a feast after a couple days on the road. As I suspected from the pictures I saw on the Botcon site, the Marriot and the surrounding area had some decent spots to skateboard at, so I got busy while trying not to attract too much attention to myself. Seeing as it was my first Botcon, I was eager to see the fat comic-guy types I'd heard so much about. I hid amongst some foliage to observe the line entering the Friday night Botcon dinner, but I was dissapointed by the lack of lard (although one fellow in particular made up for this the next day. Shouts out to the Caped Crusader!).

I got to the Marriot around 7:30 on Saturday morning. The line up was long. The wait was longer. Some guy was going up and down the line trying to get fans to buy a raffle ticket for a Punch-Counterpunch. At $1 the price seemed about right for a ticket, and I figured I might actually have a chance considering that there was barely any takers. Once the line finally kicked into gear (I think it was around 9:00 when I got in) I followed the general flow to the big dealer room. After I picked up my exclusives, I decided to browse around to get a general feel for dealers prices. BW prices seemed pretty decent, but G1 prices were steep. Before I had a chance to buy anything, it was time for the G1 voice actor panel. Best part by far was Michael Bell's colorful analogies. I looked around the room to see fathers with their kids present squirm whenever he said anything controversial.

Lunch was forgone for more time in the dealer rooms. The wallet drain begun as my purchases began to pile up. Being stuck at the Howard Johnson forced me to carry around a pile of toys all afternoon and made me feel like a dork. I met a bunch of people from #Wiigii! (albeit briefly) which was nice. The BW voice actor panel was next which was excellent. Garry Chalk and Mr. McNeil seemed to have no problem handling the masses. After that, I checked out the Art Room, where I got to see the Steelskin kitbash which I'm a big fan of, among lots of other goodies (other faves of mine included Robert Yee's diorama, Starsceam in coronation garb, and the Aerialbot and Seacon gestalts).

It was back to the dealer room for me before it closed for the day. Upon purchasing a couple more BW figs I needed, I realized that the Punch- Counterpunch raffle had been held a couple hours earlier. I went over to check my number with the winner, and by god they matched. $1 for a sealed Punch-Counterpunch seems like a decent puchase. Much thanks go out to Jake White and Casey Cartier for putting the raffle on. Now if I could have only had the same luck with Hydra's Grand Max raffle...

By this time I could barely see over the stack of toys I was hauling around. I met up with Gordon Ho who graciously allowed me to keep my toys in his room. We attended the Trivia Contest which was a good show. My money was on Tengu, Hydra or that kid in the blue Megatron shirt after his display of knowledge at the Japanese fan panel, but all failed to live up to my expectations... tsk-tsk. Now it was party time, Vince DiCola in concert. I put some extra hair spray in my mullet and I was ready to cut loose. Gary Falcone's vocals rocked my world.

I went to see TFTM Sunday morning, which wasn't as rowdy as I'd expected. This could be chalked up to the early showing I suppose. I was ready for some "God hates you" type antics, but oh well. MSTing of some episodes was next, and very enjoyable I might add. My favorite line: "Rumble get me a newspaper". Judging by the lack of context, I guess you had to be there. The cancellation of the Hasbro panel freed up a little snack time as well as some more dealer room browsing. Prices had dropped a bit, but no enough to warrant me buying any G1. I got a good deal on some original BW which was much appreciated (thank you Pete Sinclair). Next on the agenda was the panel with Paul Davids and Simon Furman. Great panel, it shed a lot of light on some of the G1 cartoon mysteries, at least for me. I missed the Art contest results, but 3H wrapped the 'Con up nicely with their panel. It was now time to cram all my toys into the van and hope they wouldn't get mashed on the trip home. The weekend went by pretty quick, and events begin to blur into one another in my memory. I can only hope next year will be just as fun.