Did a search for this...wasn't sure if it belongs in Games & Anime...thought I'd go for it...

Who's going to Otakon this year? Last year, they had a big-ass selection of Binaltech, Japanese G1s and World's Smallests up there. I'm planning to fork out some tender for a Galaxy Force Vector Prime if one is available - all y'all have convinced me that the Takara version is the way to go.

...but, other than that, I'm going because Otakon's f***ing crazy. Never in your life will you see more whacked-out crazy cosplayers dressed as some of the most random anime folks in the history of anime. It's like walking into a scene from Star Wars.  

If enough people are going, my fiance and I are thinking of sticking around after the convention - maybe we can get a beer with y'all.

 

I go every year. It's a great convention though I miss the MAT3K stuff a lot. If you thought they had a good selection of TFs last year you should have seen it the first time I went 4 years ago. Vintage G1s galore as well as reissues. The past 2 years combined have not had the kind of TFs they had my first year.

 

I'm going. This will be my fourth trip (consecutive and cumulative). Not terribly excited about the guests or the live performance this year, but in my opinion the only artist that can top last year's L'arc-en-Ciel concert is Gackt.

Although, Scott McNeil is cool. Though I wish I had an MIB/MOSC Transformer he voiced so he could autograph it.

Unfortunately, I still need to scrape together the cash to pay back some friends who handled registration and travel expenses. And on top of that I need money for the dealers room.

 

Woooooooooord booty. I think that's going to be the hardest part of the trip, right there.  

 

No kidding. Thankfully I can't think of anything ludicrously expensive I want. I have Predaking and MP Convoy, I can wait for the new Galaxy Force stuff when the Cybertron version is released, and I'm giving up on Perfect Grade Wing Gundam Zero in favor of the cheaper and better (so I've heard) Master Grade model.

 

Hi Guys
Whats the date of Otakon an who is this Convention ?

 

The convention is August 19-21 in Baltimore, MD. Otakon is the largest anime convention on the East Coast in the US, and one of the largest in the country. It got so big that this year they are capping attendance so it doesn't get too crowded.

 

I'm going again this year, I've been going since 96. I haven't been able to get a hotel
yet for under $100/ nite... last year I got a room for $67/nite in the inner harbor and that was with priceline booking on the 1st day of the con.

 

Wow, that is impressive. I think the least I have paid any year was like $115 or so a night. This year I'm paying like $150, though I did got for a somewhat nicer hotel then I usually do.

 

Ha. I'm not paying for a hotel room. My sister is sharing an apartment in Baltimore with some friends, so we're all spending the weekend there. I just need to make sure I have enough change for each $1.60 (   ) bus trip.

And what I owe people for registration and travel expenses has just decreased significantly. My parents are taking some stuff down to Baltimore for my sister's apartment the weekend before, so I'm going to go with them and spend the week with my cousin who lives in Welcome, then we're going up to Baltimore for Otakon. I just have to contact my sister's friend and tell her to cancel the $171 train ticket and that I'll pay her back the 10% she doesn't get refunded for cancelling.

 

Since you've gone before I assume you know pretty much everything in Baltimore shuts down pretty early in the evening. So if you stay late at the con you'll need more cash for a cab since there won't be any buses running.

 

does any one have an address for the show? or a web site that i could go to so I can get some driving directions. I be coming up from va beach. I will have all my spare gen 1 stuff with me. Maybe we could meet up somewhere at the show and get to know each other a little.

 

Actually I didn't know. The last two years our hotel was in walking distance, and the year before we drove to and from the hotel just outside the city.

Worse comes to worse, we use a car. At least two of us in the group drive.


gen1fan: the site for the con is www.otakon.com

 

My girl and I are heading up there early Saturday and Sunday morning - $30 for the four hours (total - one hour up and one hour down, Sat & Sun) is cheaper than $100+ for one night in Baltimore. Besides, Baltimore smells.  

Crow, if everything in Baltimore shuts down in the evening - I live in DC, so I wouldn't know - then I guess I'll have to retract my beer offer.  

 

You can probably find someplace to get beer. The parts that shut down are all the parts where the convention center, baseball stadium, and waterfront are, which is where all con-goers will be. All public transportation I know about shuts down relatively early too. If you hop in a car and leave that area it becomes less difficult to find someplace open.

 

does anyone knows how much with will be to just get in the show for either saturday or sunday. I would proably just look around for transformers parts I need and then head back to home.

 

I think they are only selling 1 pass for all 3 days this year, which is $55. Also, they are capping attendance and at this point I don't think there are going to be any tickets left to buy at the con unless they change their minds. Right now there are 2304 left.

If you are just looking for TF parts it is probably a waste of your time anyway. There won't be many. Most of the TF stuff they will have is newer stuff and reissues. There may be 1 or 2 dealers with G1, but the last few years it has been sparse.

 

For those of y'all who are going...my girl and I are heading up there now. I'm the semi-fat dude in a hawaiian shirt and sneakers. Or, for reference, look for these folks:


I'll probably be leaving Baltimore early, but gimme a holla if you see us. Calling out "OPS WAS A TRUCK!" may not get my attention as well as just saying "AARON!"

 

Just got back in from Otakon-- Boy was that dealers room a bit of a dissapointment. It was seriously TF light, with only a scarce few sellers with any TF. I didn't find any of the newer BT, and I only saw one seller with any of the re-issues on hand   Compared to previous years (with ironically less dealers) this year sucked for TF swag.

 

Well, the one dude who had GF exclusives was a real jerk to my fiance at Ohayocon in January so we stopped buying from him...I checked out his stuff but I didn't plan on giving the dude a dollar.

I bought a lot of little stuff - I figure I should probably do a "haul" thread in a few days - but I was THE MOST disappointed in this little ordeal: My girl and I kept trying to find Spike and Ed in the StoryImage figure boxes and we bought like 5...we got 2 Julia figures. Girl was in the series for like 4 episodes and uninteresting! AAARGH! FISTS OF ANGOR!

Did anyone see the folks selling Masterpiece Ultra Magnus for like $180? He was still there as of Sunday. Good luck with that pricetag, buddy boy...

...and none of the dealers would actually DEAL with me. I tried to see if I could knock 3 or 4 dollars off of some of the Alternators if I added some of the KT or WST figurines but everybody was rigid on price. That was frustrating; I would figure that, at Otakon, the biggest anime convention on the east coast, dealers would be selling well enough that they could barter in order to make another sale - wouldn't they be making their end-of-the-day profit and then some at a convention this big? Guess not...