BotCon '96 - Greg "M Sipher" Sepelak

I'll cut to the chase. Here's what the hell I went through at this year's BotCon...

The Trip Up

Drive, drive, and drive some more. My father came up with me, and ended up just hanging around Chicago/Rosemont the whole weekend. Passed Mount Pilot, vaguely-kinda-mythical site of many an Andy Griffith Show. Somehow majestic, yet somehow not. Ended up spending Thursday night in the parking lot of a Roy Rogers/TCBY/rest stop... hey, we saved $40/$50 by not staying at a cheezy motel. Large expanses of NOTHING occupied most of Friday's drive....

I did notice that there are a LOT less billboards for "adult" clubs up north than down south... I did see one for a place called (I swear I am not making this up) "Bare Assets". I'm sorry, but I think that if you name a club something that lame you should be legally prohibited from calling it a "gentleman's club"....

Actually, we made great time. We passed through all the major population centers outside of rush hour(s), construction wasn't too bad... we arrived at the hotel at roughly three.

Friday

The sullen woman behind the counter tells me that my room isn't ready. I later develop a rather nice dislike of this woman... any rate, I burn some time exploring. I run across a bunch of people in one of the presentation rooms, the Nixtr among them. We get to listen to a band called The Decepticons... kinda wish I had gotten a copy of that tape. Pretty cool, kind of a Devo/TMBG/Weird Al/kinda/thing.

Finally get the damned hotel room! I stuff my junk beside the bed save for a few choice articles, and go hunting down some people. I find that the Dealer room won't be opened for dealers until later than I expected, so I make my way to Raksha's room after some inquisitions, where there's a fair number of folks (and a snake that was hiding under some stuff. Hi, Avatar!). Get a look-see at Stan Lui's cheezy Aerialbot ripoff... man, I no longer consider the G2 Aerialbots gaudy-looking. I coudn't properly focus on the friggin' thing...

Raksha gets the artwork and three of the four home-grown comics I'd promised her (for ConQuest and in trade for ConQuest). I then remeber that I forgot to bring her the See & Read TF video I copied for her, and head back to my room. I run into Dad, who tells me that they're registering the Dealers now... feh.

Video in hand, I make my way down and stand in a pretty fair-sized line of Dealers (a few scary-looking individuals there). My turn finally comes up, and they pick THAT time to switch the guy checking names to somebody who has no clue. Feh. I get my exclusives (well, mine and severeal other peoples'), and run into Joel Boblit, who I was sharing a table with. MIB's wonderful organizational procedures (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAAA...) made Joel buy his own table, when I had already paid for the both of us... we had TOLD them that we'd be sharing... feh AGAIN. Joel gets refunded, we grab our stuff, and then they finally let us in the foyer. And then we wait. And WAIT. And WAIT. Things are already not looking good. Pretty soon the dealers are already selling a few small items to each other... I spot a few poeple who appear to have no Transformers whatsoever. I laugh inside and continue to talk with Raksha, Stan, and a woman who shared the table with Raksha who's name I can't remember I'm sorry please forgive my crappy memory...

At About Friggin Time O'Clock they let us in, and tell us where to set up. Joy. Joel and I end up in a corner near the podium (good view), some jerkwad dealer to our left who was selling a loose Fort Max for $390 (MAN I hope nobody bought that), Tony Preto across the aisle. I only have one box of junk to sell, so that gets set up real quick, and I check around. I meet up with Hex, Robert Jung, and John Ngo (who I have given a lot of money to in the past). I also start buying already... I get all four Rescue Force TFs (red weapons), ha ha! Tony Preto's crew is swearing up a storm because MIB has let a large number of people in to buy before they're set up... hell, their fault for not setting up earlier than they did. But I gotta admit, it DID seem awful early for that number of non-dealers to be in there...

I see a Bumper, and the guy's selling it for $25... I if on that for several minutes while I look around some more. When I get back, it's gone... I kick myself a lot over the weekend for that.

Near the end of the night, a duo of Japanese guys start setting up... and they have some NICE stuff. Sadly, their English is not the greatest, and they're not ready to start selling, so they try (in vain) to fend off the people asking about prices ("Not today. Tomorrow.") Eventually, they just make a little fortress out of some boxes... heh heh. More on these guys later...

The Dealer room closes an hour later than planned, due to its late opening. From what I hear, already MIB has run out of cheap sticker name tags, and is just using torn strips of paper... sad, really. Once it's closed, I am sooooo glad... I find that I really hate sitting behind the table. I have a lot of respect for Joel and his (brother? partner?), who stayed at the table... I haven't the patience. I run back up to the room to stash a few items, yet hold on to Rescue Force... I meet up with Diana Calder in the elevator. We head down to the showing of the Movie, back in the same room I was in earlier in the day...

There's cake, and WATER. WATER. Wouldn't pink lemonade be more appropraite? (Get it?). MIB forgot to give us forks. Feh. I juggle my clipboard, Rescue Force, cake, and cup of water... a real big photo opportunity that many missed, plus kinda representative of my fanfic/game design/comic writing...

The Movie is shown on a big-screen TV. NOT a projection screen... a 40-inch TV. REALLY sad. Dennis Barger hops onstage and makes a big todo about a TFTM cardboard stan-up display, and a never-been-opened copy of the Movie. This shameless attempt to endear himself to us falls flat when the tape ends up being replaced with one whose tracking isn't screwy.

Now, on the subject of watching the Movie... anybody who knows me knows that I am a real big fan of MST3K. I constantly add my own snide remarks to whatever I'm watching... so try to understand how hard it is for me to ask that for just once, CAN YOU PEOPLE SHUT THE FUCK UP AND JUST WATCH THE DAMNED MOVIE?!?! This was easily the most embarrasing display of immaturity I've seen in a long time... cheering on deaths? Sweet Jesus in a kayak... the only reason we stayed in there for any length of time was due to the sheer coolness of the Autobot city battle. Once Prime starts running over 'Cons, Diana and I ditch... while I won't speak for Diana, I was disgusted.

Any rate, MIB is setting up a table to set up the Unicron prototype... the small one. Apparently, the big one is at Takara HQ in Japan... Diana and I stick around to see the setup. And yes, what everybody says is true... Uni's a big ol' letdown. While the transformation of the head and legs does seem somewhat consistant with the movie, tha arms appear to form the ring in planet mode. All in all, you end up with a ball with thin legs sticking out of one end, and arms that don't wanna stay put. His voicebox has been disconnected, and he has some blinking red lights around his main body...

It's really early time to preview the TF Battlecards! I don't play any Magic or any other cards games of that sort... Illuminati looks to be pretty funny on the whole, and the only reason I even *look* at Magic cards is because I LOVE Phil Foglio's artwork. That aside, I must say that the TF Battlecards, even in the early prototypes, look rather cool. I know *I'd* buy them, even though I'd never actually *play*...

I *think* that about that time, I pack it in. It's roughly midnight, and I'm not thinking straight, even for me. Off to shower & bed... normally, I could stay up *much* later, but I've been getting up awful early...

Saturday

I get the wake-up call at 7. And then I get up at 8.

Back to the Dealer's room! Shameless consumerism! Kendrick and Jameel! Well, whaddya know! I don't even begin to wonder how they got in... getting into BC looks about as easy as invading France.

I take some time out to walk to the nearest ATM. MISTAKE. It's a good mile away... for once, I agree with MIB in being pissed at the hotel... their ATM isn't even set up. Subsequent trips, I drive to it.

Remeber the two Japanese dealers? Well, they've been joined by a third guy, whose English seems better. I like these guys a lot. They have some truly GREAT items for decent prices, plus they're willing to cut deals! I bought Ranger (the Japanese version of Joyride), and upon opening him up, found that he lacked his gun. I brought this to the new guy's attention, and he refunded me $10... I spent a LOT of money at these guys' tables. Admittantly, the prices for some of the small items are beyond too much... they wanted $110 for some of the Japanese-exclusive HeadMaster heads. $200 for the Japanese-exclusive cassettes. OW. But the bigger stuff seems VERY reasonably priced...

Hey, Mr. Steve Stonebreaker! Where's the FAQ! Ha ha!

LUNCH!!! Kendrick, Jameel, Stan, I, and roughly a dozen others whose names I either don't recall or never knew in the first place trek down to the corner McDonald's! Several silly photo ops under the overpass. We take up a good corner of the McDonald's and make a lot of noise. I'm severely dissappointed in the McD's... the McNuggets taste really bad, and they have no super-size drinks. And NO DR. PEPPER. This should be a shooting offense.

The rest of the time the Dealer room is open, I'm either buying stuff (mostly Japanese stuff from the Three Great Guys) or generally ignoring the panels. Kendrick is right... the Hartmans may be great guys, but they can't present for spit.

IT'S KENNER TIME! The two guys from Kenner whose names I sadly do not recall get onstage, and start answering questions... I like THESE guys a lot too. I severely doubt they read this group... so I was even more impressed to hear their plans to do a TF line that runs almost exactly like my TF CLASSICS idea. Most of the good stuff I'll just touch on briefly, as many others will be pointing them out...

- 35-45 new BW figures projected, and only 3 repaints...
- BW gestalts! Triple changers!
- TF "Generation 3"!!! YES!!!
- A consistant continuity from the toy creaters THEMSELVES. This is very promising.
- The return of classic characters in forms that will (hopefully) remain true to the characters... while Soundwave may not be that small cassette player anymore, he won't be a mere repaint of some other toy that doesn't match his personality at all...
- FEMALE TFS! Arcee!
- A game for the Playstation & N64! I actually knew about this a week or so before the 'con... but I sat on that info (confidentiality agreement... ). I asked the game question in order to spring the news "officially".
- The TF storyline will be treated like a true sci-fi story... more maturely handled, yet simple enough for the kiddies to comprehend. There are scriptwriters from Babylon 5 on this...

Well hey, Mr. Doug Dlin! Glad to mettcha, glad to see you made it...

The Dealer room finally closes down (not soon enough for me). Kendrick, Jameel, and a few others bug out early and head home. Shame. Doug, Diana, Robert, Raksha, Stan, Raksha's partner (what was her name? I'm sorry!), Hex, Lizard, Nixtr, Skyjammer, I and roughly a half-dozen others (again, I apologize for my spotty memory, I hope nobody's offended) hang around the hotel lobby trying to organize (HAHAHAHAHA) dinner. We pile into four cars and end up in an empty parking lot behind a Dunkin' Donuts. (A policeman actually goes through the drive-though. While I normally eschew cop/donut jokes, it was RIGHT IN FRONT OF US...) We spend a fair amount of time there waiting to figure out just where the hell we eat... we head to the Little Ceasar's in the K-Mart across the street. FUN. MUCH FUN. I eat my Crazy Bread, we all chew our over-greased food... and then we terrorize the toy aisle. There are no BW toys there... and I guarentee you it's because some dummy dealers gobbled them up... but lots of fun is had by all.

Oddly enough, the store security doesn't throw us out. We leave of our own accord. We head back to the hotel lobby to figure out the next move... Doug has a tape full of clips from post-TF Takara TF-like toy cartoons... *I'm* interested, as I have a few toys from one of these lines. After we find we can't get a VCR at the convention hotel, half the crew goes to the other hotel where BotConners are staying... the rest of us head up to Robert Jung's room, where we poke some fun at the physique of the Arcee resin model kit... I had actually taken a closer look at the kit earlier in the day. Kinda neat, yet kinda sad...

Doug and crew show up a little later... the other hotel was charging WAAAAY too much for a VCR. Doug breaks out the post-TF Takara toys! Lizard got Donuts! Interbot and Tony Preto jokes fly left and right! Silliness abounds!

Later, we tromp down to the Dealer room foyer, where they were showing some TF cartoons, and Doug pops in the cassette. A combination of VERY cool machines and some VERY silly foes. Once the tape winds up, I pack up... again, the length of the day has taken its toll.

Sunday

Back to the Dealer's room... I am really not looking forward to it. I doubt I'll sell anything. But hell...

I do believe it is "Ranma 1449" (right?) who brought the Nintendo 64... I had seen a demo of this earlier, but never got to play it before.

Nintendo is going to make SOOOOO MUCH MONEY ON THIS...

I also pick up Turbo Lander and Drill Lander from him (actually, his little brother), and then pick up a fake Mach Lander... for me, this completes the four-bot Land Bison team from one of the post-TF Takara lines (don't remember which one... Doug?). I got Big Lander over a year ago, and I'm glad to have the gestalt complete now...

Actually, a few items do sell, and that helps fund a few minor purchases. Diana's back, so I talk with her for a while. I check back in on the Great Japanese Guys (I wish I had gotten their names)... and I get BUMPER!!! $10!!! WHEEEE!!!! I injure myself with a victory dance.

Eventually, I just start chucking the remaining stuff through the room. MIB start trying to sound like good guys by announcing out loud what they're getting rid of at really low prices (mostly junk)... but they're still charging $22 for a Minispy. (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...)

One last run to the art/prototype room, where I get to play with the Sky Saber team (I have a ripoff of this team)... and finally get to see first-hand the ultra-cool Pegasus Saber, the only equine TF-like toy I know of. (Actually, the bodyform is a centaur, but "Pegasus Saber" does sound a little better than "Centaur Saber".) I thank Doug immensly for this.

Raksha's dissapeared, and Lizard's holding onto Avatar, who's getting a mite active. The art contest winners announcement is put off until she shows up. Dennis Barger makes the VERY dumb move of asking (over the PA even) if Raksha'll auction off Avatar... I immediately get an image of Raksha giving him an impromtu bare-handed appendectomy. I hold onto that lovely image for several minutes.

Okay, so I didn't win. Big whoop. I didn't need another Onyx Primal anyway... at least I didn't lose to that picture of Megatron's girlfriend... (not Nightbird). Hey, it was a well-drawn picture, and I liked the drawing style & technique... just the CONTENT. I thought nothing could out-do the Pretender Dominatrixes from last year's contest (from what Raksha told me of the artist who did that, I have every reason to wonder about 'im)... but seeing Megatron on his knees, hugging a mechanical horse, just left me feeling really crawly. I'd say it scarred me, but my psyche is already pretty well scabbed-over...

(I hope I dind't offend the artist. I really like your work... the ConQuest cover for the BC issue looks GREAT. You draw Megatron VERY well. I just couldn't handle the horse thing... especially after Doug Dlin's little story about the guy from one of the Furry conventions... wugh. Yeegh.)

Actually, that reminds me... I never got the latest ConQuest.

Okay, why didn't Robert's Circuit Breaker win? Okay, the Headmaster Megs was neat (a nice kitbashing job!). But it's JOSIE...

The auction for the rare stuff begins. I take a look at the four unreleased Go-Bots... and realize that YOU CAN STORE THEIR GUNS IN THEIR UNDERSIDES IN CAR MODE. Oh MAN I wish they had released those...

Hey Rob! Didjya win anything in the auction?

The auction is too rich for me, and it hasn't even begun. I decide that it's time to bug out. Grab my Shockwave pic (let Raksha keep the Nightracer). Pack it up! Get the hell back home!

The Wet Trip Back

Once we hit Chcago, it rains and rains and rains and rains and rains... ALL Sunday night. Again, we sleep in the car at a rest stop (hey, it saves money!). Rather uneventful, really... all the neat stuff we saw the way up is obscured by rain. Monday, it rains off and on the whole way home, definately remnants of Hurricane Bertha. Finally get back to home at around 3-4 in the afternoon. Time to unpack. Catalog the BotCon booty. Get to work on those charicatures for the Pretenders comic... (by the by, Diana, one of you is getting the glasses...) Start on the fanfic techs for the Micro Six-Teams I got and the Rescue Force...

Well, there it is. Hope somebody found something of interest in this post... to summarize...

- MIB should never be trusted with another convention.
- The future of TFs has never looked brighter, hope Kenner lives up to the expectations they've given us!
- Interbot never showed, or at least never announced who he was. And I personally don't care.
- I WANT those Action Master vehicle prtotoypes...
- I no longer have a reliable sense of date or time.
- Or any money in my checking account.
- Glad to have some faces to plaster on the screen names...

Okay, I'll be relatively quiet now.

M "We Could Stare At Passing Cars And Make Them Swerve Off The Road" Sipher