Recently in botcon convention Category

Botcon 2009 - Day 4

| 6 Comments

Now I mentioned before I was smoking cigars on Friday.

Ugh!

Being nicotine free for so many years and then deluging myself, even with cigars, make Saturday morning a horrid thing.

It wasn't that I was hung over or anything but I had inhaled a bit more than I planned it just ripped up my guts. (My lungs seemed to be ok... well... except for the future cancer and all.)

Giga was out doing all kinds of alumni stuff on Friday and Saturday so I was solo.

Paul and Rob (I think I got that right) came into the Camille's where I was recovering and I ended up walking back to the con with them.

Let's just say the walk-in traffic was massive. It was a steamy room of geeks, nerds, kids, nerd girls, and all other kinds of bad crazy shit.

Botcon 09 Day 2 -

Honestly, it was great to see so many kids there! So many TF geeks forget that these are toys for kids. And to see kids totally going apeshit over people in costume was just great.

Botcon 2009 - Day 3

| 2 Comments

Friday morning was spent driving out of Pasadena to nearby Monrovia (I think) for breakfast with Teresa and Colin. Teresa grew up in these haunts and took us to Mimi's Cafe, and odd mix of upscale restaurant, diner, and Denny's.

No doubt she'd have been a far better tour guide of the area than Captain Obvious from the previous day.

Friday was pretty much the day I did most Botconny things.

Waited in line with Woozy and sorta kinda met a few new people. I hate the fact that my intrinsic Polish introversion prevents me from introducing myself to more people. Now I'm fairly certain Joevill was sitting next to me assisting in picking on Woozles. And I think the other guy was Demonicfly from the TFClub boards. (Picking on Woozy is also an enjoyable waiting-in-line Botcon past time.)

Botcon 09 Day 2 -

I spent a couple of hours wandering the Room Of Money Wasting.

Botcon 09 Day 1 -Tom's Optimus Presley

Tom's awesome Optimus Presley should have won in the one art contest. My photos don't do the center Optimus justice.

The LED sign also took it too 11.

It was great to finally have new dealers. There were a ton of dealers that I've never seen before. Yeah, there's only so many people into this thing of ours but it gets old and somewhat predictable with many of the others. Especially if you are a major online robot crack store. I mean, for my own problem, I'd likely have already bought from them online.

Botcon 2009 - Days 1 and 2

| 3 Comments

Day 1 - Italian and Line Waiting

Botcon 09 Day 1 - Arrival

So I arrived in Pasadena on Wednesday afternoon. One of Giga's radio peeps was nice enough to pick us up from the Bob Hope Airport.

We had quite a decent Italian dinner with SpectroScott and NeoSpark.

Thankfully, we were able to register that night and grab our shit. Why they can't even reduce the next day's lines even more by letting us by the add-ons right then and there is utterly beyond me.

Then again... nothing really ever improves with Botcon. The same old problems are carried over from year to year. FP doesn't sink any extra money into infrastructure or anything. At least if they do, it sure isn't noticeable. Could a couple of extra phone lines for credit cards really hurt your bottom line that much?!?!

Back from Pasadena

| 7 Comments

Back from Pasadena.

Not much in the way of photos. Why take photos of the same old shit a thousand other people are taking photos of and posting on the internets.

And honestly, seeing my friends was the only great thing and pretty much the only reason I come to this any more.

Briefly spoke with the Crazy Steve one day.

Met a great couple from northern California.

Met and briefly hung out with some Non-Greater Cowland Yet Still Cowlanders from Indianer.

Suffered through a Hollywood tour that was just plain boring and awful.

Ate great sushi.

Had a great time at the Paramount Party with everybody but had to deal with the dated melodic stylings of Stan Bush. I think he played the same song like 10 times.

Based on the fact that nobody I know, including myself, could sell off our Botcon 09 sets, I'd have to say that the generally feeling I got was that it was a massive dud. Some of the add-ons being the only thing of real value and want.

All I really bought was the Henkei Thrust and Dirge since I got 'em both for $120. I managed to find a few of the JUSCO exclusive candy-colored Car Robots Spychangers.

That's about it.

If anybody wants a 2009 Boxed Set for $295 + shipping let me know. That's what I paid for it. And also, I sent in the wrong form and it was the one with the f'n loose set on it. If anybody wants a loose set I have one for $190 + shipping.

I had to ship all the shit to Cowtown so it will be here later this week.

Shelf Topper

| 1 Comment

Wow!

Good job on the packaging.

Too bad the contents doesn't elicit the same excitement.

Yes. At lunch with Evebird and Mr. and Mrs. JackOfAllGeeks I once again came to the realization I really wish I wasn't going to Botcon.

However, if I can't dump the box set, at least it'll look decent on the top of one of the shelves.

Ugh!

| 5 Comments

Can this be any uglier?

How can you go for the original concept of her from the first movie to this?!? That animated version so has to be made!

At least there's one toy Botcon toy I want.

In other news, the guest list for Botcon may be more underwhelming this year than any previous year I've gone.

While Weird Al is at least fresh, the others are really not. And is there a demand for all those IDW people? Um.... hmm... it smells more of padding than anything else. "See... we had all these guest! The most guest ever!"

How about getting Fred Willard! Now that would be different! John Moschitta? Cree Summer? Phil LaMarr??

And yes... I'm complaining about Botcon before it has even happened! Why? Because I've learned that any hope I have for this being fresh and new pretty much doesn't exist.

Any of you out there far more in the depths of robogasms than I am have any idea what the hell the attendee figure will be?

Obviously it'll be a repaint of something already in the set but I haven't been paying attention enough to have caught what it could be.

So I'm interested in Gregg Berger since I've never heard him speak before.

Of course, I pretty much know how that panel will already go since most voice actor panels are the same thing over and over.

And once again, I can't see how either Stan Bush or Vince DiCola can be considered draws at all.

With less than 1 month until Botcon I'm back in a typical oh-so-great pre-Botcon "How Mediocre Is It Going To Be This Year?" mood.

Last year turned out pretty great with at least 2 new voice talents.

Plus, I had my awesome little non-TF moment with Tara Strong.

However... I was very happy to hear that Crazy Steve will be making another appearance this year.

He emailed me some info about that Convert-A-Bot Non-Shockwave I recently acquired. Apparently, it is something I should be happy to have.

Crazy Steve deserves billing on the Botcon site! I mean... his contributions to the geekery exceed just about everything out there.

Then again, the historian in me can appreciate his efforts from a perspective many probably don't see.

Just an FYI... I'm not going to be buying toys at Botcon for people this year.

Having to ship my own stuff back is already a pain in the ass with all the additional cost and having to add other peoples' stuff to it is just more hassle than I want to take on this year.

In fact, I'm going to try and dump my Botcon toys with dealers as soon as possible this year. I should have got the toyless package.

Of course, the big problem is that there is absolutely nothing I want to buy so even that possible credit won't do me much good.

I can't say that those 2 Energon Starscream repaints are something to get excited about. And I'm wondering what the hell the attendee figure will be. Have they even shown that yet?

I figure there's regurgitate more of their Scourge figures as "Sweeps" too and I can't really see buying those.

Why am I going to Botcon again?

I. Am. Stupid.

| 15 Comments

And I got the Primus Package again for what reason?

This is why there's a con in the con.

You end up having to register early without seeing what you are getting.

Once again, I've been burned with shit I could care less about.

Of course, you can tell by my oh so frequent posting how much I care about these robots anymore.

About this Archive

This page is an archive of recent entries in the botcon convention category.

botcon is the previous category.

car robots is the next category.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Categories

OpenID accepted here Learn more about OpenID
Powered by Movable Type 5.03