BotCon '97 - Chris Dilloway

My Botcon Field Report for all those who couldn't make it. Hope this makes you feel a little closer to the action...

Botcon 97 opened just a few minutes late but opened with a bang. Most everyone went to watch the opening ceremonies, but I and a few others, decided to be first into the dealer rooms, so we waited at the head of the entrance line.

And as soon as they gave us our packets, it was off to the races. I was one of the first into the dealer room, and it was pretty spectacular. Lots of boxed stuff, both new and old. And a lot of parts of things. Got my first look at B'Boom. All the Beast Wars combiners in the place sold out, and quickly. The dealers were left searching local stores for more supply.

But after a quick round through the dealer room, it was off to find the exclusives. There were coupons included for those who pre-registered, which brought the cost of each item down to $30.00 each for the two-piece toy set, and the 2-CD set. The two figure pack includes Predacon Geochemist Fractyl and Mamimal Thief Packrat. The packaging is top-notch and is reminiscent o the G1 original packages. Also included inside is a limited-edition Beast Wars comic by Simon Furman and Andy Wildman. The two-CD set includes songs by Stan Bush on one disc, and Vince DiCola on the other, including "Unicron's Theme." The CD also features art by Andy Wildman.

Also in the exclusives room was LA Records, and BMG artist Stan Bush, selling some of his CDs. I was fortunate to get the ones I bought autographed personally by Stan right then and there. This was a great prelude to the concert later in the day, but more on that later. Then it was off to spread some cash around, but I'll save you the details.

At ten was the Peter Cullen panel, which was very interesting and fun. Peter is a great man and a great voice actor, and he did a wide range of voices, including several Prime/Ironhide conversations. The questions varied from how he got his start to what it was like behind the scenes and more. The session was finished up with autographs.

Beast Wars story editor Bob Forward was next in panel-land. He talked a lot about the show, where they've been and a little bit about where the show is going. He showed the Beast Wars video that was also at Transcon. Bob also discussed some of the origins for the characters' personalities and such. And so far for the next season he confirmed the presence of Airazor, Blackarachnia, and Waspinator. He also said that some of the stuff Doug Parker said at Transcon is probably true. He also, with a little help from Ben Yee, confirmed the Fuzors and their names as were previously reported.

Andy Wildman and Simon Furman followed that, with a panel about the G1 and G2 comic book series, as well as the possibility of a Beast Wars title. They described some of the story threads and the reasons for them during the comics, such as why they killed so many characters in G2. And I finally found out why the robots Andy Wildman drew slobbered so bad and were covered in loose wires and panels and spit and teeth and such.

Also got to play the new Beast Wars Playstation game. My brother finished his stage, but I got killed. But it was fun, if only there weren't so damn many buttons on the controller!

Later that night, Stan Bush and Vince DiCola rocked the house, and put those sad, sad WuTang fans to shame (there was a WuTang concert upstairs). Vince did a couple, then turned it over to Stan, who did an acoustic set of recent songs. Then Vince came back out and did a few more songs, including the "Death of Optimus Prime." BTW, "Unicron's Theme" opened the show. Stan came back and jumped right into the rock with "The Touch," which received a rousing standing ovation. He did a couple more numbers, and closed with the Botcon Theme, a song called "Ground Zero." The last song of the evening was a fan fave, "Dare," which also received a standing ovation and shouts for more.

Special thanks to the people who organized this spectacular event. Hope this helps for those who could not attend. You missed THE show.

The final day of Botcon began early for all, especially since there was some Wu-Tang-fan hi-jinks the night before that involved the fire department and the police. David Kaye and Venus Terzo (Megatron BW and Blackarachnia) were pretty much on-time for their appearance. They were very entertaining...yes. They told us about a lot of stuff, but nothing about Season Two.

Stan Bush and Vince DiCola's panel followed, which was also very entertaining. After rocking the crowd the night before, the two musicians were up to the challenge of an early-morning appearance. The two expressed an interest in putting on a tour with the two of them, similar to the Botcon '97 concert. Cool!

There also was a MST-3000-style showing of Transformers: The Movie. This was mega-cool! Special mentions to all three of the players. Robert Jung was one, and I don't know the other two. But special congrats to you three for a great job.

Now, for what everyone's been waiting for. Hasbro's reps, the only two US people to work on the project, one a designer, and one the engineer, brought some neat drawings of dropped G1 and G2 designs. The showing of these precluded any photos, although a few people may have gotten some "illegal" shots.

They displayed the rest of the 1997 line, including K-9, Spittor, Powerpinch, Snarl (not G1) and Transquito. The rest of the line will be phased in over the next few months, followed in January with the 1998 line.

Okay, okay. Enough procrastinating. They did confirm the Fuzors, although they were both kinda shocked that we all knew. There will be some higher-price-point items, such as bases and large robots. There will also be some more Ultra-level-type robots, and beyond (a new level). More combiners are in store. Possibly more Machine Wars, but all they could say is that they are in negotiations with another division. Since these two work for Beast Wars only, they didn't know a whole lot.

And they showed us the first of a new sub-line of Beast Wars. There are going to be three sub-lines, one the Fuzors, one still classified, and one called Transmetals. This line will start at the Deluxe level. And they showed us one. Cheetor. Basically, this line is Beast Wars turned inside out. Cheetor's outsides now look more metal-like, and he has an intermediate transformation mode. But he still has his spots in robot mode. Most of the robot is similar, although the hands are different. The cheetah mode looks kinda like a Voltron-type lion figure. Maybe someone got a "illegal" photo of it and will post it, but all I can say about it is that it looked pretty cool.

And they mentioned that Bob Forward, who was in the room, has been working woth them on the details of including some of these in the show. Can anyone say new Optimus Primal!!!

And the reps also said that they, with the help of Ben Yee, will include more references to G1 stuff, possibly including more cross-overs like Grimlock.

Also, we now know that Dinobot is still in Season 2 of Beast Wars, this said by David Kaye talking about some of the upcoming episodes.

Hope this whets all your appetites. It's the best I can do. I left right after the Hasbro reps were finished becasue I had to get home.

Thanks to everyone for their feedback, this is simply a service I provided to all of you who couldn't make it, so that you would all feel like a part of the action still since most of the rest of the attendees probably won't be able to post until Monday at the earliest.