That's Screamer, she has awesome Wheeljack and Soundwave Costumes too.

 

Were the Hasbro guys ever doing free sketches?

 

I only saw Eric sketching. But that whole area was mobbed. Not just with people trying to get sketches but people picking up the free toys, asking them questions, etc.

oh well

 

Bill Rawley was sketching, too. Watched him do a sweet movie Devastator for somebody.

 

Here's what I can remember off the top of my head... I'll add more later if I think of anything...

The Good:

--STAN BUSH!!! I got my picture with Stan, and got him to sign "Shine" for me, since I already have "TF:TM" and "In this Life" signed by him. And oh my god, I marked out like CRAZY when he performed "Never Fall Again" and "I Got a Thing for You" at the Paramount Party. Yeah, I'm a Stan Bush fanboy. Sue me.



--Michael Fucking Bay. I'm still shocked he came out. Absolutely amazing.

--ROTF Preview was spellbinding. Devastator's formation is one of the most incredible things I've ever seen on-screen, and the Bumblebee battle was wicked and brutal. Just as cool if not better than the first movie's Prime/Bonecrusher battle.

--Weird Al/David Kaye panel was hilarious and a big highlight. I thought Weird Al would dominate, but the two were fantastic together.

--I thought the Hasbro Panel was pretty kickass. BLUDGEON!!! The remaining animated toys were great, Masterpiece Skywarp was a nice surprise, and it was just a very good showing overall. Bludgeon just kicked ass though.

--Con add-on toys were super-cool. From Banzaitron to Leozack, I marked like a little bitch for these. Love 'em!

--Veggieburgers at the Paramount Party. Thank you, Fun Pub! They weren't the best ever, but at least vegetarians got to eat.

--Walky sat in front of me at the IDW Panel! I didn't talk to him--at all--but it was cool to sit behind the Shortpacked creator.


The Bad:

--We were on the bus that got lost on the way to Paramount, so we got there extra late and all of the dining tables were already taken. This wouldn't have bothered me near as much if the day before we hadn't been on the worst tour ever... but more on that later...

--Dealers room was packed, and I didn't see any real deals there. Henkei Red Alert was sold out in the first half-hour as far as I could tell, and most all the prices I saw were above ebay's. Why bother?


The Ugly:

--The Peter Cullen panel was an embarassment. My wife wanted to get up and leave after the 3rd or 4th person got up there and asked Peter Cullen for a hug. One of the show staff should've put a stop to all of that timewasting garbage instead of condoning it, and perhaps that would've curtailed the jackass at the end of the panel.

--They advertised a Paramount Tour as part of the Paramount Party, but by the time the tours began and those of us with blue wristbands got back to the party, the line was already too long for most people to get to take the tour because Paramount staff told us they were closing the tours promptly at midnight. Lame!

--The line for add-ons was INSANE Thursday night. I had to wait close to 3 hours in line to get to the club store, and the scary part is that *I WAS ON THE TOURS SO I GOT TO GET IN LINE BEFORE REGULAR ATTENDEES*! Selling the movie toys at the club store turned out to be a huge, pain-in-the-ass mistake from Hell.


The Ri-God-DAMN-Diculous:

--My wife and I were on the *REALLY* unlucky bus that had John Daugherty (yes, I'll remember his name for all-time) as our tour guide. You would think when half the bus groaned and stayed on the bus when he decided to stop at Rodeo Drive, Mr. Daughtery would realize we wanted to get home. But nope! He made half the bus wait for him, and THEN proceeded to leave a tourist behind despite being told everyone wasn't there. Commence the bus having to go back and wait for said lost tourist, causing us to get back to the con an hour and a half after the other bus. From describing in detail churches, schools, and lampposts (yes, you read that right--lampposts) to constantly prodding...errr, "inviting" us to come back to Los Angeles again, John Daugherty has to be the worst tour guide to ever live.

 

Yeah but no Hawaiian shirt this time  

I was on the same tour, and yeah it was frustrating as hell. Didn't get off at rodeo and was pissed about how late we got back

 

Concurrence. I don't think people sometimes realize the costs involved just to get set up to take cards at all. Nevermind taking them in a physical store, and even worse at a transient show. A lot of work and cost.

 

^break given, and if i hadn't spent all my moola i'd have gotten a sketch of my wife as Grimmy. Woulda been epic.

 

The Good:
Meeting quite a bit of you peeps
Being from the Area, the cost is quite low for me!
Great Condition G1 Powerglide for less than $10
My Friend Driving home with a Movie optimus prime mask on the whole way

The Bad:
MASSIVE Lines!
Missing Hasbro panel by 10 Mins!
Not picking up Banzaitron  
Running out of money
Leaving Early
Camera Running out of Battery within 25 mins (forgot to charge the damn thing and had no back up batteries)

The WTF:
Kids Screaming and crying due to Beehive right where the line was forming
Alternator Skids for $100?! really?!

uhh that's it i think nothing too big on my end

 

The Good:
-Meeting up with some old friends, and making new ones
-Being back in Pasadena again. Lovely place, even the guy with the leaf blower was friendly.
-Michael Bay introducing the ROTF footage; resounding chorus of "Holy shit! "Holy shit!"
-Not a bad dealer room at all.
-The Hasbro "booth" was freaking MASSIVE!
-ToyArena being back at Botcon for the first time since 04. This let me snag some Brave.  
-WEIRD AL!
-Weird Al, Stan Bush & Vince DiCola all wishing me a happy birthday (Vince even stood up and shook my hand warmly while doing so. That man is an absolutely class act, he really is   )
-Good food at the party. Utterly unexpected, that was.
-Sharing a room with DMK & HiQ was a riot.
-Island Burgers. Awesome food at good prices, and every single waitress there was hot. Winner.
-Thursday night TFW drinking at the Sheraton. Awesome night was awesome!
-I NOW HAVE A JAYNE HAT!

The Bad:
-The queues. Oh GOD, the queues. Queueing for over 3 hours to get Weird Al's autograph was expected, But over 2 hours to pick up a few movie toys? WTF? The credit card line was moving FASTER than the CASH line. I have heard of some people being in that line for 8 hours. Holy crap.
-Box set quality control. Again. HiQ went through THREE Landsharks before he got one that was alright. Not good.
-Sales tax. A general gripe, this one; coming from the UK, I'll never get used to it. Fortunately for my brain, a lot of dealers weren't bothering (or had already factored it into their prices, or whatever).
-FP need more art contest categories, and they need to pay better attention to what gets entered in each. That is all.

The ugly:
-Embarrasing fanboy panel inquisitions. "My next question..." SIT DOWN, YOU PILLOCK.
-One female passerby's attitude towards convention goers. Rude, pissy, and insulting, Unfortunately for her, I gave better than I got. Hint: don't use stereotype based slurs against people with brains. The responses WILL hurt.
-Making deals with 2 board members, only to have them not even contact me. I lugged stuff all the damn way from the UK for these people, and they didn't even have the decency to contact me or reply to my PMs. One STILL hasn't contacted me. Left me over $700 down on funds, took up valuable luggage space for nothing, and nearly ruined the second leg of my holiday over here.
-Hmm, lemme see... I'm going into a crowded room, full of really expensive toys. I think I'll take a fucking great big stroller on there! HINT: YOUR 1 YEAR OLD IS NOT GOING TO ENJOY WANDERING ROUND THE DEALER ROOM. AND NEITHER ARE ALL THE PEOPLE YOU SMACK THAT DAMN THING INTO, DICKHEAD.

 

I got him like 3:00 on Friday from the dealer across from Prime's right wheels. For $40.

 

That sucks  

To try to give people the benefit of the doubt - most of us don't have internet access (or time to look at it at places like the lobby) at BotCon. However, you're easily recognizable, so you'd think they would've spotted you at some point. I would say you should've swapped phone numbers, but my UK roommate gave me his number, and I don't even know how to dial the damn thing.

Sorry they ditched on you man, maybe at least they'll still buy the stuff from you and pay shipping. I had 3 "done deals" before getting there, that I took care of - at least I hope I didn't forget anyone.

Ya know, I had thought as others - I was disappointed that the sketches all cost money. But I thought you guys were there on FP's dollar. That changes things. Hopefully in the future FP up their game and at least give artists some free booths (although you may not have room to lay out all your prints).

Ah, cool. I got an Animated Galvatron head sketch from him last year. I pretty much stayed away from the Hasbro booth all weekend - way too fucking crowded, I couldn't get in there at ALL.

 

Put 44 in front of it, and drop the first 0 in the number.

 

You did see her. She was the second from the right on the panel.

 

Probably should have clarified.

A bunch of the IDW artists were charging. I remember when the random IDW artist, even at their own table, would just sketch something for ya. Nothing overly complicated, just a really quick head shot.

I saw you were there at your own table so I'd expect you'd charge. Plus the amount of detail and coloring involved was way much more than a basic head sketch.

 

Sorry I don't know her, if you say it is her then I believe you as she was being escorted by the twins

All I know she is the only woman who I have wanted to put her shoe on me while I lay down and got a photo of it.

I will have to post a photo of it up when I get it saved to my PC

P.S

The hell it was this screamer chick, this one was beautiful

 

And that caused you to have a negative experience of the convention? Might wanna work on that sense of entitlement, and consider that a lot of us at that booth came from far and expensive distances too. IDW can re-coup their costs by selling comic books that feature our work. We don't get a cut of that, nor do we get our flight and accommodations covered.

I don't blame anyone for charging at all.

 

The Good: Getting out of the general vicinity of someone who has halitosis.
The Bad: The guy who had halitosis wouldnt quit talking despite everyone turning there back to him.
The UGLY: Lingering halitosis in my nasal cavity for hours after I even left the convention center.

I know halitosis is a medical problem but you would think something could be made to cure it or lessen its intensity.

Other than that this was my best Botcon ever and Ive been a faithful attender since 1995.

 

Not sure where that one came from.  
It was a surprise to me since in the past they were always free so based upon past experience my expectations were altered. No sense of entitlement there. It was still cool talking to them and admiring their work. And really it saved me a ton of time not waiting in line.

Seems like someone "else" is a bit chippy about the whole experience. That person not being me.