Botcon 2006: Optimal Optimus's Report

Venue: Rhode Island Convention Center, Providence, Rhode Island.

Dates: 28th June - 1st July, 2007

 

My 2007 BotCon weekend began at about 11:00 am Thursday, June 28th when my mom, brother, his fiancé and I took off and started our road trip from eastern Pennsylvania up to Providence, Rhode Island with our luggage and my drawings in tow. We immediately hit congestion on a major highway but pulled through and didn’t hit any other delays until we were on I-95 in Connecticut. I don’t think I’ll ever travel on that highway in that state again! We wasted about an hour or so on I-95 crawling and stopping the entire time but there were no accidents and no construction. Frustrated and annoyed with the traffic, we finally drove through Connecticut and made our way to Rhode Island.

We finally rolled into Providence about 6:30pm, checking into our hotel, which was the Courtyard Marriott, dropping off our stuff at our room, and then walking over to the hotel next door, where the BotCon was being held to pick up our pre-registration packages, and found tons of props that they set up inside and outside the hotel. After that, we decided to drop off our packages and all their goodness back at our hotel in our room and grab our movie tickets for the special charity screening at 10:30pm. We left our hotel again to find a place to eat at the large mall that was attached to the hotel where the BotCon was. After finding the food court that was just below the theater, we ate dinner and then made our way up to the theater to wait for the opening.

Some decorations:

Excited to finally see the new live-action TransFormers movie, they began calling our theaters by our respective numbers (ours was theater 15) and we all piled in to grab our seats. While we sat there, we chatted with some fellow fans talking about message boards, Transformers in general and toys, and where we were from until we noticed a tall blond fan stumble in with a flashy red Autobot shirt, a black trench coat and finger armor. Everyone bugged him about his awesome shirt that lit up, asking him where he got it and telling him how great it was. I would learn later that this guy was Beast Wars International’s comical and creative Aussie called SilverfromOz and feel retarded that I had no idea it was him sitting a couple rows behind me in the theater. LoL It wasn’t until about 10:45pm when the movie’s executive producer Brian Goldner, actor Tyrese Gibson and actress Rachael Taylor stepped in to say hi to everyone and to hope that we would enjoy the movie. It was a pleasant surprise! After that, they finally released the movie on the big screen and everyone cheered as soon as we heard Peter Cullen’s voice. The entire time was a blast and it was the best time I’ve ever had in a theater. It just can’t get better when you have a full theater of die-hard Transformer fans watching the new movie together. We cheered and applauded whenever we heard the old jokes and lines from Generation One or heard the old transformation sound and saw each Autobot and Decepticon appear on screen. It was simply awesome. The cheering was never distracting and stopped quickly as soon as the movie moved on with dialogue.

When the movie was over, we walked out of the theater and bumped into a cameraman with a young interviewer asking some people what they thought about the movie. He caught my brother’s fiancé and asked her what she thought with a microphone in her face and the cameraman standing off to the side with the camera rolling. Then he asked me and I jokingly said with a serious tone, “I thought it was terrible!” He said, “Really? Well you might not want to say that so loudly around these fans.” I laughed and added, “I’m just kidding. I thought the movie was great, and it was simply awesome to hear Peter Cullen’s voice on the big screen as Optimus Prime.” Well, I’m paraphrasing because I can’t remember –exactly- what we said but it was close to those lines. Then we headed back to our hotel talking about the movie and finally got to bed around 1am.

Friday, June 29th

Friday started with David Kaye’s (Beast Wars, Armada, Energon, and Cybertron Megatron) first question and answer panel at 9:00am. My brother, his fiancé and I showed up about ten minutes late because we couldn’t find the slagging room where it was being held but when we got there it was a lot of fun to see David again and hear his jokes, stories and voices. I took pictures and video taped what I could. Since my mom was really late to show up, she said she had accidentally opened a door on another floor that the actual semi-truck rig that they used for Optimus Prime in the movie was sitting in this large room. We looked at her with our mouths drooling in astonishment. Afterward we set off in search of breakfast at the mall but I grabbed a sneak peak at the truck and said that it was awesome.

David Kaye's first Q&A panel:

Sneak-peak at Optimus Prime:

At 12:00pm was another David Q&A panel, so we attended that one and I took more pictures. But this was also when I –finally- caught up to the Beast Wars International crew. It was such a pleasure to finally meet some of the group! Sitting beside Dragonflayme, I had the honor to see her artwork that she had brought along. I loved it! Then during the panel, David called on Omie’s hand and she asked him to hug Starath. He called Starath “Squeaky” and she sat up with him at the table the rest of session. Poor “Squeaky.” I mean Starath. It was a lot fun. Some people asked about Garry, which made me a little sad because he wasn’t there but it was nice to know that fans would’ve wanted him to have been invited.

Second David Kaye Q&A Panel:

After that, David was asked if the BW Int. group could join him for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. My brother and his fiancé decided not join so my mom and I went along and had a hard time finding the restaurant while we were in the mall looking at the directory. Here it was located just outside of the mall and thankfully some of the BW Int. group was just as behind as we were because they had the idea to step out of the mall and walk through the parking garage where one of the entrances was for the Factory. Phew. Upon our arrival, I had the privilege to meet more of the group while they loitered outside at another entrance with David waiting for a table. What a treat! After getting our table and ordering our food, David got up and politely introduced himself him to everyone individually. When he got to my mom and I, I said we had already met him back in Chicago in 2003. He said he knew we looked familiar but he couldn’t quite place it. No problemo. You can’t expect these busy guys to remember all the faces and names they meet at these functions.

Lunch with David and the BW Int group:

When my mom and I were done eating, we had to leave a little earlier than the rest of the group because I wanted to submit two pieces of artwork into the art contest and that had be done before 5pm. Leaving the Cheesecake Factory, we walked all the way back to our hotel, grabbed my artwork, then walked back to the BotCon hotel and submitted my painting of Megatron called “A Bad Influence” and my drawing of “Transmutate.” I saw some of the other artwork there and thought, “Wow. I have no chance!” There were some great pieces! Oh well. It was my first time entering the contest at any convention so now I know what to expect next time if I decide to do it again. The winners of the categories would be announced at Saturday’s concert and cocktail party.

At 4:00pm the dealer room finally opened and we caught up to a nice dealer we’ve happened to bump into at every convention we’ve been to so far. We strolled around and checked out all the great merchandise and toys, and then I wandered over to the art contest set-up and looked at it with my mouth agape. They also had the new Transformers game running on a couple game systems in the dealer room. I was watching one player running around as Scorponok on one TV which looked awesome, and the other player on the other TV was driving through a city as Optimus Prime. I automatically new that I had to get that game for my PS2 because it looked schweet! LoL

A large statue in the dealer room:

Some costumes were roaming around, like Wheeljack:

David’s first autograph session (along with Stan Bush and Daniel Ross) was at 6:00pm, so we got in line with our items and waited patiently for them to arrive. My brother had two rubber duckies; one to give to David and one for David to sign. He got a kick out of them and put his ducky of doom on his shoulder. My brother’s fiancé brought along a couple of photos that had some of David’s characters from other shows on them. Because David can’t remember all the characters that he has voiced, he had a laugh with some of those photos too. I gave him his drawing of Megatron, matted and framed, and he signed the copy I made of it along with the rubber ducky I brought. After he laughed at the rubber ducky in the drawing, he asked why I wasn’t in animation and I told him that I’d have to move to find any decent work for any kind of drawing and I can’t afford that yet. His compliments made me blush but he was really grateful to have the drawing.

My brother shaking David's hand with the rubber ducky he gave him on his shoulder and his "Crackberry," as David calls it, on the table:

David and I with his "award," the BW Megatron drawing I gave him:

With Stan Bush, I asked him to sign my old TFs movie soundtrack insert and he was very happy to oblige. He was very sweet. I already had Gregg Berger, Michael Bell and Jon Stephenson sign it from 2001 so I figured it was appropriate to have one of the musician’s sign it as well.

Stan and I:

Saturday, June 30

This was a big day for almost every fan attending. It began with Peter Cullen’s first autograph session at 9:30am. We got there at about 9:00am thinking we’d be earlier than most people, but the line was already about 2 hours long, weaving around in another room. We didn’t think it would take very long but boy were we wrong. XD Peter actually showed up at about 9:15am and started autographing right away. David had another autograph session starting at 9:30am as well. After catching some BW Inters that were ahead of us in the line and chatting, they had finally cut off the end of the line when too many people were in it for Peter’s autograph. Then, when the four of us had already waited for two hours with our items in tow, they cut off the line and gave us tickets with numbers on them so we could be ahead in line for Peter’s next session that was at 3:30pm. We were pretty upset since we wasted two hours of our lives just standing in line with our feet aching but at least we were guaranteed a spot in near the front next time. I took off over to David’s table while my brother grabbed us some breakfast and had David sign a copy of a drawing that Renegad_Artist drew since she couldn’t be there. He loved it!

At 1:00pm was a Q&A panel for IDW, which was before Peter’s Q&A panel. Since my mom and I got there early, we sat down in the back during Activision’s Q&A and waited for seats to open near the front. When Activision was done, we scurried up to the front row for IDW and enjoyed their session. It was very informative and laid back. The artwork for the comics is absolutely spectacular and I loved every bit of it.

IDW Q&A Panel:

Now came the “big” part that filled up the entire room. My mom and I were not losing our front row seats for this one. Two o’clock and it was time for Peter Cullen’s panel. I took pictures, of course, but I didn’t think cam-corders were allowed because of them saying that at David’s second panel. Fortunately, my digital camera can take pictures –and- record some video. So I did a little of both although the audio isn’t so great on that camera and the video gets pixilated but it’s better than nothing. I wish I had video taped the whole thing, though. It was a fantastic time. Peter was very grateful to be Optimus Prime and to have the opportunity to voice the Autobot leader again for the new movie. He loves his fans and is very down to earth and very kind. Instead of him calling on people in the audience for their questions, they were lined up in the center between the two groups of seating and asked their questions over a microphone in the front. I think that certainly made everything easier for Peter and it didn’t take so long as it probably would have doing it the other way. Peter talked about the movie and other roles he played on other shows. He did some voices, some that surprised me, and it was just great to hear him do Prime’s voice in person. His stories were entertaining as well.

Once that was done a little after 3:00pm, we scooted over to where Peter’s next autograph session was set up for 3:30pm. Again, people were already in line but we used our tickets to get ahead and waited for the voice actor to arrive. Once he did, we all had something for him to sign. I gave him his drawing of Prime, matted and framed with my signature, and he thanked me with his nice blue eyes studying it and was very grateful to have it. He added it to his collection of gifts next to his chair. I asked him to sign its copy for me as well as the “fly paper” movie Prime that I had picked up from Wal-Mart and a photo of Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh that my brother’s fiancé gave me so I could I get it autographed for my best friend back at home who has know idea about it yet. XD I’ll give it to her for her birthday.

Peter and I:

The next thing we checked out was the room that was officially opened with the Optimus Prime truck. It was schweet! Everyone could go up to it and take pictures and crawl on the steps up to the cab. No one was allowed inside the cab, though. It’s a really, really nice rig! XD The paint job is superb and I especially liked the Autobot emblem on the front of the grill. In that room they also had a trailer set up with some movie stuff and there was a set up to buy the Pepsi Prime toy, Transformers Monopoly and a bunch of other toys and merchandise.

Now it was time to return to our hotel to relax a little and get ready for the cocktail party. We weren’t sure of the dress code anymore but my mom and I decided to dress really nice anyway. So we slipped on our dresses, updated our make up and walked down the street in our heels bumping into a nice guy who couldn’t believe we were Transformers fans. LoL He was on his way to the party as well. Stepping in to the hotel, we ran into Dragonflayme and stood in line with her until they opened the room for the party. At the entrance, they were handing out goodie bags that had full-sized movie posters (Prime – Protect and Megatron – Destroy), Boston Globe TFs movie character cards, a t-shirt, a post-card sized card of Stan Bush, and the “Bee-otch” car air freshener exactly like the one in the movie that was hanging from Bumblebee’s rear view mirror. Stan Bush was already playing a song or two when they were letting people through. When my brother and his fiancé finally caught up to us, we looked for food and stood around for a while chatting with fans. Then we separated and aimlessly wandered about the floors of the hotel that had something going on. The cocktail party and concert were happening on one floor while above was Bingo and the lounge. I bumped into most of the BW Inters again which was a blast and then later found out when the art contest winners would be announced. I was just in time when they started but it didn’t matter because I didn’t even make third place in the two categories I entered. Oh well. I wouldn’t have been able to spend the prize anyway because I was leaving Sunday morning. I had tough competition.

Me for the party/concert:

Before Stan was finished with his concert, and when my brother and his fiancé were done playing Bingo, the four of us were all tired and headed back to our hotel to call it a night.

Sunday, July 1st

My mom and I woke up a little early to get packed again and eat breakfast at the hotel. Since we were extending our vacation up to Maine and Nova Scotia, Canada, we had to leave the BotCon early and get started on our very long road trip to the north. My brother and his fiancé picked up my artwork from the convention and left around 11am to go back home. I was sad that I didn’t really get to make a formal goodbye to my friends from BW Int, and that I missed David’s panel on Sunday but it was a very fun-filled weekend and I’ll never forget it. Thank you, everyone!!! I typed all of this to the best of my weak memory, so if anything seems off… well, my bad.