Botcon 2005: Sapphire's Report

Venue: Embassy Suites hotel, Dallas-Frisco

Dates: 22nd - 25th September, 2005

For years I've wanted to attend a Botcon but was unable to, because of the enormous costs involved in travelling from South Africa (which has a weak currency) to the USA. But once I moved to England it became a lot easier!
So I hopped across from the UK to the USA and stayed with my best buddy Miss Special until Botcon was upon us. Then we both headed over to Texas for our very first Botcon. We were worried about the hurricane, but thankfully it didn't affect us all the way in Dallas.

Thursday: We queued for an hour on Thursday evening for our Primus Package's 7-figure boxset. It was SO awesome seeing so many Transformers fans everywhere, and listening in on the geeky conversations. Finally, a place were we felt at home. :D While in the queue we got chatting to two fellow TF fans who we became friendly with and bumped into throughout the convention. Finally we were up to get our boxsets, which were magnificent. The figures inside were lovely to look at, particularly the big shiny one in the center (Deathsaurus). We were TOLD to check our figures before we moved on, so it wasn't out of impatience that we opened them. Then Miss Spesh and I queued to get our official Botcon t-shirts. There I spotted Ben Yee, who gave us order forms in case we wanted to get anything else there. (I met up with him later to properly introduce myself and my website to him, and we got along great and would continue to meet each other again and again throughout the convention). We queued for yet another hour and near the end of that wait I spotted Outtsyder and rushed over to give him a hug. I was lifted like a dancer in the air. O_o lol After that we got our shirts and as we were making our way to some chairs to wait for Hacker and Dragonsflayme, Beastbot sighted us and called out. We were glad to meet him and I was relieved he had found me, because up to that point I'd no idea what he looked like. We let Beastbot go to collect his TF stuff and then Hacker and Dragonsflayme arrived. Many hugs and friendly chatter followed.

That night we all attended the MSTFs, which were for the most-part amusing. Basically a panel of TF fans made funny commentary on the four episodes they played (all, unfortunately, G1 - we were hoping for at least one other TF show as well, like Beast Wars). However it was still an enjoyable evening and a fun way to kick-off the convention.

Friday: The next day we attended several panels. We got to see the Dobson brothers in the "So You Wonder How We Do the Voices?" panel. It was great fun listening to the talented brothers answering questions about what they liked about their jobs and what their favourite roles were. They're all extremely nice people and I had the privilege of being introduced to them by Outtsyder (before I even recognised them >_< lol) beforehand, and throughout the convention we bumped into them.

We also got to see some "special" Transformer toys in the TF Rarities panel/show. After that we watched the "Hasbro/Takara working together", which was informative and insightful. We skipped the comic panel and chose to watch it another day, for we were all hungry (having not had dinner the night before) and so we went across to the mall and grabbed some grub. We came back in time to watch the prelims for the voice acting contest. I wasn't intending on entering, but Miss Spesh was persuaded by Ben Yee, and so I was persuaded by Miss Spesh and so it wasn't only Outtsyder who attempted to get in. Although I was nervous, I had fun doing it. It was improvised, so I performed a scene between Rattrap and my femme character Myst (from my "Losing Face" series). It went well. Poor Miss Spesh was one of the firsts to go so she was not as prepared, but she gave a good effort (I chose to go late so I could rehearse in my head). Outtsyder did a whole spiel of characters, including Gollum. We would find out later who made it in.
Now it was time for us Primus Package people who had paid the most money to be there to get our privileged preview viewing of the Dealer room! I don't know about everyone else, but for me it was like entering a room in heaven! I've had dreams about walking along aisles filled with every TF toy under the sun! It was fantastic, and at the entrance to the room was a 16 foot Optimus Prime statue to welcome us! Within the first 5 minutes I'd gotten my paws on a BW Dragon Megatron. He'd be one of many toys and goodies I was to buy in that gorgeous dealer room. The whole place was eye candy, with dealers and stands offering so much TF goodness! While I was purchasing a shiny Optimus Primal card, the results for the Voice Acting tryouts were announced. Sadly, Miss Spesh did not get into the finals, but she seemed rather excited that I and Outty had made it. I was too preoccupied with buying my card to be too excited (I'm one of those people who sometimes gets delayed reactions to exciting news, lol) After that we went back to our hotel rooms to catch some much-needed shut-eye before the casino night.

After we had our dinner at a nearby Fridays, we came back to the convention center. We arrived some time after the gambling had started, but not too late. Not one of us had ever gambled before, nor did any of know how, so we decided Miss Spesh's suggestion of using the no-brainer slot machines was best. We dispersed a little after we got our coins and I watched Miss Spesh use the machine while waiting for one to open up for me. However, Brian Dobson came over and I started talking to him. We had a *long* conversation about all sorts of things, including how I got into drama and he into voice acting. He was very enlightening and encouraging and I got along with him exceptionally well, and was so pleasantly surprised that we got to talk for so long. I never did use a slot machine! He kept glancing across at his brother Paul, who'd been at a particular table, gambling away for ages, apparently. Brian wasn't sure if he was on a winning or losing streak, lol. Finally the gambling started to come to an end, and we regrouped and translated all our winnings (which turned out to be losings) into a measly 3000 Botcon dollars (which can get you virtually nothing at the auction). We waited for the auction to start and seated ourselves. (The purpose of the gambling was to use one's winnings to buy toys and merchandise at the auction thereafter). At the end of the row were seated in was Outtsyder and he was approached by Paul Dobson at the beginning of the auction. Paul asked how he was and Outty said were were all good, but had very poor winnings and therefore little hope of getting the shiny TM Rhinox we'd spotted on the auction table. Paul then proceeded to hand Outty his gambling winnings and said "happy birthday" before heading off. Well, it was obvious that generous Paul had been on a winning streak, for he gave us 68 000 bucks! We easily won the TM Rhinox, with enough money to buy Beastbot a toy he really wanted - Blue Binaltech Prowl (I swear I'll never forget that name, by the amount of times he excitedly repeated it). It was highly entertaining watching other TF fans enthusiastically bidding for all sorts of TF merchandise of varying values.

Saturday:

We had to get up early the following morning for the finals of the voice acting contest. After a small delay due to our shuttle driver not understanding English, we got there in time and were paired with fellow voice-actor wannabes to read from scripts given to us by the judges (one of the judges was Wally Burr). I got some tips from Wally and tried my best to make a good Flamewar (who was the star of Ben's comic) but I didn't win. Outty also did his best but didn't make it. Still, it was good fun and it meant that we could relax before and during the awards dinner and watch the entertainment instead of being in it.

We got to see the costume contest as well. Sadly only two people had entered this year, once dressed as Perceptor and the other as Shockwave. Their costumes were really good though and they just stood around and posed while everyone took photos of them. I believe it was Sockwave who won (the winner sounded Australian). We then watched the IDW comic panel and heard exciting things about the upcoming Beast Wars comic, that was started by Dreamwave before it went under. I got to see who was doing colours and to my delight it was the person I'd hoped it would be, (Josh Buchanum (I'm sure I misspelled his surname)) who I also deviantwatch. We were all very excited about the BW comic and can't wait for it to come out!

After that we wandered around the dealer room some more and bought various things. I wanted to find myself a season 1 Rattrap toy. I told Ben about one I'd spotted which was terribly expensive. He agreed that it was overpriced and we should hunt together to find a decently priced one! Well we went all over the dealer room and didn't find one under 40 bucks, which Ben said was too much to pay. I thanked him for helping me look. Then a bit later Outty found me and passed on a season 1 Rattrap, which Ben had given him to give to me! It turns out he approached the seller of the expensive toy and discussed the price and so he got it for much less! I was, of course, thrilled and very thankful. After that Miss Spesh and I headed back to the hotel room to gets some R&R before the awards dinner that night.

That evening we all met up again and returned to the convention center to see a loooong queue for the 'dining room'. Fortunately Dragonsflayme (who was staying at the Embassy Suites) had saved a place for us in the line, near the front. We didn't wait too long before we moved in and found a table. The tables were large and round and had a wrapped up red present in the center. We weren't sure if it was decorative or had something in it, but we would find out at the end of the evening. We had salad for starters, vegetable and beef for the main meal (which was pretty good!) and some yummy cheesecake for desert. Finally it was time for the awards to be handed out. Thanks yous were said and awards presented to winners of the art contest. Then the night's entertainment began, with all the voice actors and the winners of the contest performing on stage by either reading from scripts or improvising. It turned out one of the scripts had words deliberately deleted out, so the speakers had to make up substitutes on the spot! This produced some hilarious results. We were treated to Transformer commercials and at the end the Dobson brothers broke into song. They sang "In the jungle, the jungle planet, the Beasties sing tonight!" which made us Beast Wars fans very happy. It was highly entertaining and everyone was clapping and cheering. It was then announced that there was indeed something in the box on each table, and we were all given numbers. Numbers were then called out until all tables had a winner. Outty won the nifty Alternator toy within. After the 'show', we caught up with Ben Yee for a group photograph and then had some fun posing with each other for more pictures before the end of the evening. We also thanked Paul for his casino winnings and had him sign the Rhinox toy we'd won with it. We went back to our hotel rooms in high spirits.

Sunday: There wasn't much to do the following day so we occupied ourselves by doing some last minute shopping. At the end of Botcon I'd bought a Dragon Megatron, a TM Megatron, a TM Cheetor, Silverbolt, Rattrap, two prints of BW fanart, plus a signed print of Tarantulas fanart, signed by none other than the spider himself - Alec Willows! I also bought a key chain and some other bits and pieces. Miss Spesh got her paws on a Depth Charge and three Silverbolts! One for her, and two for her two siblings. We also met with the Dobson brothers for the last time and the other VAs. I got autographs from Wally Burr and Michael Chain. Miss Spesh asked Michael Dobson to write out an autograph to her little brother, who's a fan of Bionicle (Michael voiced a character in the film). We watched one last panel; "Designing Transformers", which was very interesting. Then we headed to the mall to buy some food and stuff, and came back in time for the final event of Botcon - the prize drawing. Two lucky people (none of who were from our group, sadly) won tickets to next year's Botcon. Shortly after that we started making arrangements for leaving. Dragonsflayme and I were staying on an extra night but the others were heading back that evening. We parted with Beastbot, who I'd been chatting with a good deal of the afternoon. Before we all left, however, Outtsyder managed to squeeze in a phone call to Scott McNeil! I finally got to talk to the guy who voiced my favourite character, and he even did Rattrap and Dinobot's voices for me! The phone was passed around the group and everyone laughed at Miss Spesh's bashful handling of talking to Scott - she even called him her hero! All good things have to come to an end, however, and after the phone call we said our goodbyes and parted ways.

All in all, Botcon was fantastic and several people I spoke to who had been to previous Botcons said this was their best yet. I for one had a great time and I really hope I can attend again next year.