Peter Cullen to attend Botcon 2012

Discussion in 'Transformers News and Rumors' started by G1Wheeljack, Apr 6, 2012.

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  1. Bogatan

    Bogatan Well-Known Member

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    Pah! I met Stan Lee 2 months ago he signed 40 items just between 10 of us (we werent being greedy they told us he was tired so wouldnt be able to chat as long as planned so we could have extra signage). And that was just a meet and greet before the London Comic Con, I dare not think how many he signed over the weekend.

    But yeah its not fair to expect anyone to sign more than they are comfortable with. Plus from experience Peter Cullen (and most of the VAs) want to talk with people or at least let us talk to them if we want. There has to be a balance between as many as possible and making sure people felt like they got to meet him.
     
  2. Autobot City Comics 2008

    Autobot City Comics 2008 Botcon S_T_A_F_F

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    What the hell did I miss u guys have gone ape shit WTF
     
  3. Jumpstart17

    Jumpstart17 Legacy of Bumblebee......

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    I am not disappointed so much as to how many he will be signing, but as to the fact that it is going to be a lottery with not ability to opt out for those who have received autograph items/ met the man before.... I have 2 friends who have met mr. cullen and gotten his autograph before, they are not intrested in seeing him again, it is not top of the list for them. My 7 year old little girl's birthday is that week during the con and this is all she has talked about since she found out he was going to be there (all she wants is to hear optimus tell her happy birthday). Lucky for us those 2 friends have promised to take her up there if they get picked and we don't.... it took me a hour (with a lot of tears from her) to explain that he can't sign stuff all day and they are trying to make it fair for other adults (and kids). I don't fault them for trying to be fair BUT adding that extra opt out addition could've made the world to a bunch of people. This is probabily the ONLY botcon we will be able to attend because it is so close and taken us THREE years (we've had 4 layoffs and lots of stuff go crazy in those 3 years) to save for this and had it not been so close we still probabily wouldn't be going. KUDOS to botcon for setting this up and annoucing it in advance, but that one extra step would've counted a lot
     
  4. Lumpy

    Lumpy Taylor Swift Action Master Super Mod

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    ah, it's okay... i did too at first...

    posting your opinion is just fine... posting your opinion and calling someone out who's old and can't sign all day long because of "his ego" is ridiculous. like Pete says below, this is what Cullen said he could do, so that's what we get...

    awesome. I'm torn between my desire to see him and my desire to see the panels at the same time... really wish they weren't at the same time... also, Pete, if you've seen the thread, there's a number of people who would like to opt out, for individual reasons. Is that a possibility at all?
     
    Last edited: Apr 18, 2012
  5. videriant

    videriant Well-Known Member

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    He's signing autographs for an hour and a half or 90 minutes. That's 43 seconds per person.

    Are you saying that he should sign faster? Or that he should put more time? 1-2 hours has been the standard autograph time as far as I know. How long do people sign autographs for at other conventions? How many registered guess are there?

    P.S. Botcon has 3,000 registered attendees?

    P.S.S. Should the number of registered attendees affect how long a person of age comfortably feels signing autographs?
     
    Last edited: Apr 18, 2012
  6. Jazzfan0217

    Jazzfan0217 Resident couch potato

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    yeah i can see that it is fair to only do 125, i can imagine signing autographs all day would get pretty tiring, especially since everyone probably wants one. i would have worn my '07 Optimus Prime helment to have it signed. i'm sad though because there is probably already well over 125 registered people, so what's the chance of me getting picked, i don't even got tickets. i was really looking foreward to seeing him. i live in Texas so Dallas is probably the closest place to me botcon will ever be. oh well, if any of you guys see him say hi for me.
     
  7. [Wing_Saber-X]

    [Wing_Saber-X] Takara Fanboy Collector

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    hey you don't EVER diss the Cullen! :gen069: 
     
  8. kibble

    kibble Seeker style, yo!

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    Just an assumption, but I'm guessing you'd be permitted in this scenario. I think they just want to avoid scalping of the spots...

    Back to the topic at hand, though...the biggest issue with this is I'm not gonna know if I need to wash my GD balls or not. Don't wanna have to wash them for nuttin'...
     
  9. videriant

    videriant Well-Known Member

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    We don't have enough information to know. You can do a walk in. As long as you want to get other signatures you can buy the signature tag and get entered into the Cullen drawing. Be warned though, Cullen is the worse but the other autograph lines also fill up fast and most people are there about an hour before it even starts. If anybody can think of a better way to handle this, Pete does read these boards.
     
  10. Simes

    Simes Well-Known Member

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    I think what has bothered people more is the surprise of the announcement more than anything. Last time the limit was 150 (whether this was at Peter's request or his agent isn't clear) but in their defence I'd say that it wasn't Botcon's. From my dealings with actors over the years, they all have terms and conditions in their contracts when it comes to autographs - some will have policies on charging, others will have limits on how many they will sign freely per person and others will not sign items unless they are personalised.

    Firstly, in future (obviously it's too late this year) I think there needs to be advanced clarification of terms and conditions regarding autographs once guests are announced so that would-be attendees who book tickets based on the opportunity of meeting a particular guest know that they may / may not be able to meet them / get an autograph.

    In terms of other conventions, they are now reaching a size where autograph sessions are becoming unmanageable for organisers and impersonal for guests. Fans are queueing for ridiculous times (not just Botcon but events like SDCC and other large scale conventions) and something needs to be done to deal with this. If actors are only able to sign so many autographs, perhaps an advance ticketing system needs to be done for every actor / guest but done from the start and people get these tickets (with details of the dates and times of their autograph sessions) in their registration packs on arrival and make these tickets fully transferable and retained by the convention once redeemed.

    At Auto Assembly we adopt a completely informal system where all our guests (comic guests and actors alike) are free to come and go as they please in a guest area and spend as much or as little time as they want signing autographs. Despite having guests like David Kaye, Garry Chalk and Scott McNeil over the last few years there has never been a massive rush for autographs and our attendees have paced themselves out over the weekend knowing that there will be ample opportunity to meet and chat with our guests and our guests also love the relaxed atmosphere that has created. Because of this, we get actors continually wanting to return to the convention and recommending us to their fellow cast members. We may not have as many attendees as Botcon (we're expecting around 1,000 this year), it's a system that works for us as a convention, works for our guests and most importantly, works well for our attendees.

    From an age point of view, we've had guests of all ages and our system has also meant that they stay in our guest area for times that suit them and they can just wander around the convention doing whatever they want and enjoy the weekend and most of them will spend time in the bar with attendees, listen to other guest panels, watch videos with attendees and generally join in the convention with everyone else!
     
  11. Pete Sync

    Pete Sync Well-Known Member

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    That's great. However, if Peter Cullen came to Auto Assembly his terms would be the same as they are with us.

    Nothing ever stops a guest from hanging out and doing other activities. We have had Scott McNeil a few times. We all know Scott will talk and socialize with fans for hours...

    But it depends on the guest. Last year Paul Eiding just showed up to BotCon, not as a guest, just to hang out. He even sat in on a panel. So again, just depends on the guest...

    We require all guests we bring though to autograph for free to registered attendees. We understand how important that is to the fan experience...
     
  12. Simes

    Simes Well-Known Member

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    I have to agree with you regarding your stance on free autographs and we insist on the same from all our guests. I've been to a lot of events where actors have charged for autographs and if actors feel the need to charge to sign something then I feel that they are there for the wrong reasons - just to make money and are not there to meet the fans.

    The problem we had with Scott McNeil when he joined us a couple of years ago was that he socialised a bit too much sometimes... I know he was in the bar until around 4:00 am some nights and I think he struggled getting up the following morning! Not that we had any complaints as we were asked to bring him back pretty much straight away...
     
  13. Omnius

    Omnius Guest

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    You can blame the infamous Marcus for that one! :lol 
     
  14. Big Filipino

    Big Filipino John 3:16-17 says it all

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    Not sure if it adds all that much more time but here's a suggestion for the lottery: perhaps people's names for the Peter Cullen lottery can be collected during Thrus or Fri registration pick up. That way people can opt in or out. The club staff will already be checking ID anyway so they can simply ask if they want to be entered and maybe just have them fill out a card or something while they go assemble the items the attendee is picking up. The attendee will likely just be standing at the table doing nothing anyway.
     
  15. Chris McFeely

    Chris McFeely Well-Known Member

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    The more I think about it, I can see why they've gone with an all-inclusive lottery, as an opt-IN lottery is an even worse idea - the number of people who will be complaining there and then on the day because they never heard anything about having to do that would be astronomical. They just need to arrange an opt-out element so that a new guest number can be drawn if a guest is chosen and they decided to opt out.
     
  16. Powersa

    Powersa Car Robots

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    Never mind. It's all good.
     
  17. Lumpy

    Lumpy Taylor Swift Action Master Super Mod

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    oh, autographs are free? i love that... i've been to a few cons here locally, and i know these guys need to get paid, but it's a bummer to pay $30 just to have someone who was in a movie/tv show sign a picture of them. i'd feel much better if it was a lower price, say $10. The show should bring the guests and pay them, and then the fans should be able to enjoy and see who they want. that probably means you're paying a bit more to get in to cover the costs of paying those guests, and i'm sure people who don't want to meet celebrities could care less and would rather pay less...

    i agree... an opt-IN would be a bad idea... opt-OUT though, makes far more sense... I don't even know if i have anything i'd want signed by Peter Cullen... i'm sure i could find something though...
     
  18. VAwitch

    VAwitch G1 GeekGirl

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    I actually like this. Works much like most of the celebs @ Dragon*Con's Walk of Fame - aside from when they'll be on panels speaking, it's often a crap-shoot as to who is in their spot in the Walk - so like you said, helps avoid too-massive a lines well in advance of the star's presence.
    And I've found that despite being you & about 40k of your new best friends, most of the celebs are still quite happy to take a few moments with each person, and if the line isn't horrible, to genuinely talk especially if the fan isn't uber-gushing over them, but talking to them like the human being they are
     
  19. VAwitch

    VAwitch G1 GeekGirl

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    Bear in mind though, that depending on the convention - often the celeb gets none of their expenses covered by the Con (at D*C, unless you're like the 2-4 Major Guests of Honor, you don't a dime covered by the con), so the charging for autographs makes sense.

    What burns my bacon there, is when you charge me the same price for signing the cast / duet photo I've been carrying around the country/for a couple decades, vs grabbing the solo one on your table. Used to get like $5-10 discount, but seldom get that anymore :( 
     
  20. mykticon

    mykticon Well-Known Member

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    Well, if I'm not lucky and I am not one of the few chosen, look for me as I will have my extra MISB FE Optimus for sale :lol 
    Getting Cullen's signature was the only reason I got an extra sealed one.
    *Crosses fingres*
     
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