BotCon '97 - Dark Angel

Hi to everyone!

Well, as many of us stagger together as a group once more, let me tell you a story, a story filled with magic and unexpected surprises, a story with laughs and great sadness. Let me tell you about:

Yes, that's right, I traveled to Rochester, New York to find out for myself how good BotCon can actually be. And I certainly was not disappointed in the least...Nooo!

We gathered together the night of the 18th, dressed up to the nigh. Adorned in a creme flowered dress, ruffled at the bottom, with a matching scarf to go around my neck, I waited in the long line patiently, and talked to the first friend I made that weekend, Ivan. Although he hadn't pre-registered, he still got in, how, I still don't know.

The dinner consisted of a little opening ceremony by Glen Hallit to welcome us, and introducing us to our dinner guests, which included Stan Bush, Vince DiCola, Simon Furman, and Andrew Wildman. Peter Cullen was feeling under the weather, David Kaye, Venus Terzo and Bob Forward, were stranded at Chicago International because of huge storms and wouldn't be there until sometime Saturday. Dinner was your choice of beef, chicken (which I chose), or pasta for the veggietarians out there.

After dinner, we got to see what we couldn't buy until the next day. I.e, the t-shirts, the CD, etc. I could barely stand the wait, so I got a picture with Stan Bush (I swear he looks exactly like Judd Nelson in "The Breakfast Club"!) Then I went back to my room to get as much sleep as possible, because I had a feeling I wouldn't be doing very much of it the next two days.

I was right! Saturday morning I was up with the traffic 10 stories below at 7 a.m. I got dressed, threw a couple things into my huge canvas bag and practically threw myself into the elevator. Once downstairs, I raced out to the skywalk, being careful not to get caught in the the escalator (those things can be tricky!) and met up with -- TADA!-- a huge line of people! Guess excitement was contagious! I went over to where the opening ceremonies were to be held, met up with a few friends, namely Rob Jung, Helgi Thorvaldson, Doug Dlin, and Phil Zeman (Mr. Doogie Howser look alike himself!). We all waited as patiently as someone who's expecting the unexpected can. Suddenly, music came over the loud speakers! It was the new Tranformers theme song! We listened as that played, then a few more songs that are only on the BC CD exclusive. Then Glen came out welcoming us to BotCon'97 when suddenly he was interrupted by static and...

No joke! Megatron told us he was ready to blow us (the puny fleshlings, except Peter Cullen!) and our little party away to atoms before he was intercepted by -- you got it!-- Men In Black! Now, considering this has two meanings for us since the new Will Smith movie came out and MIB held the BotCon convention last year, I'm guessing it could possibly reference the movie. Ohhh! And then Soundwave (Raksha's heart throb!) interrupted Megatron, sounding a little like Dr. Claw, and wanting desperately to put his two cents in. Megatron finally let him speak and what did our favorite Decepticon tape player have to say? "Don't eat too much bacon!" Must be an inside Decepticon joke or something. *Shrug*

Anyway, Megatron (and Soundwave) left us in one piece, and Glen told us what was up. Apparently out of the blue, he, Jon, and Karl Hartman had received a tape the past week (what color was the tape guys?) from Frank Welker himself because he, unfortunately, couldn't make it to BotCon. But he sent it with all good intentions and we loved it! Then Glen introduced the guests who would be there that day. Peter Cullen, who's panel was first, Stan Bush, and Vince DiCola. Venus Terzo and David Kaye still hadn't arrived and weren't supposed to until later that day.

After waiting an hour in line, I raced to the panel room where Peter Cullen was about to start speaking. I got there just in time. To describe my favorite voice actor, he was about my height 5'0, give or take an inch, wearing a ten gallon white cowboy hat and genuine cowboy outfit, minus the boots (I think.) Most of the stuff he discussed ranged from what he's doing now (listen closely to the new Batman & Robin, Spawn and Air Force One movie ads! You got it! It's him!) He also did Eeyore in "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh". When asked if he got along with any of the voice actors, he said he and Frank [Welker] were really good friends, and he was really sorry he couldn't be here. The next question, the one, I think, was all hanging over our heads, was about Chris Latta. When that question was finally asked, the room became absolutely still and uncomfortably silent. After a minute of silence, he answered: (taken from the transcript on Unicron2k5's BC page) "Chris was... out there. He was a talented guy with a lot of energy and... God bless him, you know. There's an old line about Hollywood that Johnny Carson came up with once, it said "Hollywood is the only town in the world that devours its young" He was a victim. Sad... geez... say something cheery!" Here he got teary-eyed and that was the end of that discussion. I think we all knew the answer. The room remained very quiet until he himself asked US a question. Where were we all from? We all called out, Annapolis, Sydney, Germany, and so on. I've never seen a more genuine look of surprise than the one on Peter's face. He was astonished that so many of us from around the globe would come to this.

I got to ask a question! Little old Dark Angel! I asked him what does it take to be a voice actor and he told me: (I was there, but I vaguely remember the answer, I was too concerned that he had picked ME to ask a question! This is coming from Unicron2k5's transcript)

Finally, it was time for autographs and pictures. I absolutely treasured the moment I got both of mine, and I won't ever forget I was in the presence of the legendary Optimus Prime. (Pathetic, aren't I?

Then I headed over to the TF:TM (not serious) showing. It was so funny, I walked in right where Prime lands at Autobot City and we see SunStreaker. Then a couple seconds later, we don't see him. And everyone in the audience is shouting: "Where's Sunstreaker?! We want Sunstreaker!" It was terrific! I didn't stay long after that.

I missed part of the Bob Forward panel, slag it! Someone switched the times on me, and I didn't find out until I wandered in. *SIGH* Anyway, lots of stuff about the Furzors was talked about, and next season, but I'll let you guess what's gonna happen...

The quiz show was up next. Interesting how little I know. I'm no diehard like a lot of ya'll out there, but I couldn't believe I didn't know what PM Prime's gun looked like! Geez, I know I'd seen it before! Anyway, it was a good game although I think someone on ATT was correct in saying you need qualifications for that type of thing! Some of those questions were hard!

I had absolutely had no interest in the Wildman/Furman panel, as I had never read any of the comics they did. (Sue me, I'm only up to number 32 in the G1 series!) But I went to their panel anyway, tried to understand what they were talking about and noticed the hate they had for Death's Head II. That's about all I remember. Sorry.

I did not go to the serious showing of the movie as I could watch it at home seriously.

Let's see, Saturday night, Rob picked me up at my hotel and we went over to Ben Yee's room, but not before we stopped at Rob's. He generously gave me his dinner exclusive toy because I hadn't handed in my money in time to get one! Thanks so much, Rob! You're the best! I guess we weren't the only ones who were hungry for pizza because a few hundred or so of us TF fans gathered in Ben Yee's (AKA Wonko the Sane) room to eat pizza and act like idiots! Well, things didn't turn out as planned. Vulcana, the very cool lady with a hot temper, who was ordering the pizzas by phone, and after screaming at us to shut up, told us Domino's put her on hold so she simply hung up and at Rob's suggestion, headed for the elevator and went to a little Chinese restaurant where they had an all you can eat bar. Pretty neat for 8 or 9 bucks apiece. I sat right next to Sarai Ferai and didn't know it until I got an e-mail from her on Tuesday saying: You were sitting next to me at the Chinese restaurant, weren't you, with the guy named Sean? I couldn't believe it! Sarai and I had planned to meet and we missed each other by this much! Oh well, guess it was fate, the yin, the yang....

But the concert I did not miss...Noo! (I think I need a good dose of Beast Wars right about now...)

Before I begin to rave, I would like to thank Rob and company for putting up with me. I was a tag along because I really didn't know anybody there, as this was my first BC. And to make up for it, I found us great seats for the concert. Not bad for a DARK Angel, eh?

Now to rave...It was awesome! The first song was "Unicron's Theme" -- the whole room was vibrating and it was like you were IN Unicron! And the song was only the warm-up! And it got even better with "The Touch" (standing ovation, natch!), a telephone ringing in the background as Mr. Bush and co. performed during one song, and the concert ended with "Dare"! Standing ovation again and demand for an encore! We didn't get the encore, but we were let out the same time as the Wu-Tang concert above us on the third floor, apparently a drug bust or fist fights or something like it had taken place from what I heard later on. Anyway, the street outside the convention center was filled with police and the like, and needless to say, most of us TF fans, not wishing to spend a night in a jail cell, quickly scattered to our respected rooms.

Sunday morning came more quickly than any of had planned. I slept in until nine, then raced out of my room to more BotCon! The David Kaye/Venus Terzo panel had been moved until a little later, so I went to watch some Japanese Headmaster episodes. Very cool! Although I *did* wonder why Daniel could survive with out an exo-suit (Arcee's head) in some parts. I found out later that Rebirth was never part of the Japanese continuity.

I'll go through the rest of this stuff briefly. The Kaye/Terzo panel was terrific, and Ms. Terzo even did her "Black Arachnia, TERROZIZE!" bit! Of course, we all loved it! I'm going to be really vague here, because I did NOT get enough sleep the night before. But everything was great. I think that's vague enough...

Ahhh, the Bush/Dicola panel. Now that was fun! We all love them and they are a terrific team! The best part was when Stan Bush interrupted himself midsentence and asked: "Is that a SNAKE?" Naturally, all eyes turned to the guilty party, Raksha and Avatar. That was hysterical! Anyway, they talked a lot about how much they cut up the music for the movie, what they thought of the movie, when and if they would ever go on tour...

I ran out of there and into the TF:TM MST3K showing which was put on by Rob Jung, M Sipher, Phil Zeman, Doug Dlin(?) and someone else who I cannot recall. Anyway, that was great too! The joke I loved the most was:

Rodimus: This is the end of the road, Galvatron.
Doug (?): Not to mention the end of the movie!

Tee hee! You guys come back next year doing something on Divide and Conquer and I'll be throughly satisfied!

Oh, the Hasbro panel turned the tables on me! It is not I who was being vague, it was them! They were tight-lipped about everything, rushed for time, and wouldn't give us one hint about what was to come -- except for the transmetal Cheetor (who looks really, really awesome!), and stuff about TF's that made it to the drawing board, but not the toy shelves. Also, someone in the audience (Doug Dlin?) mentioned the Fuzors and the look on the reps faces was HYSTERICAL! I remember they're exact words on this: HOW DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THEM?!! Poor person in audience (Doug??): "Uh uh, uh, we, uh, learned about them at another convention." Good answer! Anyway, that's about all we learned between the "No comment", "maybe", "We can't answer that at this time" on what we asked. Geez guys, you could have done an itsy bitsy bit better than that!

The charity auction was awesome! Although I had almost NO money left, it was still fun to watch an original Megatron, MIB, shoot up to 200-300 dollars. My friend Phil got Bumblebee, MOC, with Dan Gilvezan's signature on it! Sigh, now I wish I hadn't blown all my cash...

Sometime between Saturday and Sunday, I aquired several TF's for my collection, including Wheelie, (Not one word from you Wheelie-haters!), Grimlock, Optimus Prime's cab, and I think, Chase? He's red in car mode, with a gold face when in robot mode. I was thinking of repainting him for something in the art contest next year. I also got a movie poster, a BC'97 hat, BC'97 shirt, a BC CD (do you see a pattern here?), a TF Find Your Fate Book, read along with the record books...I think that's it. Not bad and all for 200 dollars! I learned the hard way that you need more cash to attend one of these things if you seriously want some great stuff!

I'm gonna skip over the art contest results. All I remember was Raksha won a few awards and the awesome "Snapshot" won first place by a landslide! Loved that picture!

I missed most of the closing ceremonies as I had to run to meet my mom before heading up to Niagra Falls. Yes, even a Dark Angel needs a little culture. Hugging Phil Zeman, shaking hands with Tengu, I stood up, waved to Wildman, Furman, Glen, Jon and Karl, and walked out of BotCon with a great sense of achievement and self esteem still running through me.

See ya next year!