Recapping TFCon 2012 10th Anniversary

You're listening to the Geekcast Radio Network

of podcasts. Cliffjumper, commence countdown.

Five, four, three, two. Listen in to the only

toy podcast you will ever need. You are listening

to All Things Transformers. Maximals, maximize.

I got better things to do tonight than die. Join

us as Toycast heads down the low road to join

All Things Transformers. As we present to you

the TFCon Toronto 10th anniversary post show,

I'm of course TFJ and Mike and joining me is

Steve Megatron. Hello. Hello. And of course the

goddamn Proto Man. Hello. Yo, how you doing?

So we were originally gonna do this on Monday

night, but Proto Man... Was wiped out. ...essentially

had his ass handed to him, yeah. Running a convention

is hard work people. I'll get into why that is

actually Yes, I remember seeing you running around

like crazy after your panel on that Saturday,

so So in the pre -show and in an episode 93 of

toy cast we essentially had protoman rundown

What the overall events were and schedule of

the convention and this were having run down

each of the days? as far as what happened on

each day uh... when we get to saturday i'm gonna

let steve go first to give his perspective because

he went for the saturday uh... all right so friday

what what happened on friday what kind of shenanigans

did you guys get into friday well uh... first

off like we had a humongous turn out for pre

-registration because that's essentially friday's

is registration pick up for your exclusive and

stuff and and we are proud to say that we were

able to Service 450 people give them their exclusives

their comic book and everything in 30 minutes

Yeah, that was and you know, it's funny because

we were almost joking about it because it was

like people would come it's like Okay, we need

one Shafter one garrison. We were like throwing

stuff around We almost had like a chain system

and it was flawless and was perfect and we were

very proud of that It was very well done That

was essentially the Fridays for also the dealers

to set up and stuff, but then there's the ceremony

stuff. We had the opening ceremony. Colin, who's

our head of staff, he gave the opening ceremony

and he pretty much posted a little video which

was all the guests that couldn't be there that

evening that were previous guests. In TF cons

history. They made a little video saying, you

know, congratulations for 10th anniversary and

that had Greg Berger and it had It had a Dan

Gilbertson Gary Chalk David Kay It had Michael

Bell. It had Michael McConaughey I'm just going

off at the top. There was a lot though. It was

there was a lot also Eric Bowser who's known

for Destro from Yeah, but they're going to be

telling a Transformers convention. Well, it's

because Eric actually came with David Kay. Right.

Because they were touring together. And then

it was like, hey, the 80s expo is on the Sunday.

So if you want, it kind of worked out in the

end. But it's just he was also a thank you, which

was nice of him. And Eric also worked with Derek

Wyatt in the past because Eric Bowser is Stimpy

from Ren and Stimpy, so a lot of people don't

know that. So they worked in the past together

too and so, you know, anyways, it's a long story.

But it was cool because you had those videos

and there was also just like little clips here

and there of the past from TFCon and how it got

started and everything. Just nice little opening

ceremony to celebrate the 10th anniversary. And

then it opened up to all the, like, random. And

the thing is, Friday, usually we open it up to

what we call as fan panels, which is these are

panels that are usually not run by staff but

by fans. So we had the trivia contest that was

ran by General Techno and Goober. And that was

an experience to be had, let me tell you, because

those are two very, to put it lightly, personalities.

Especially especially Goober. I would go the

other way, especially techno. No, Goober was

much more crazy, believe me. But you met Goober

and he's a cool guy. Oh yeah. Like, the thing

about Goober is that, like, he is literally energy

incarnate. Like, he is literally the living embodiment

of energy itself, but he's so fun. And I used

to live next door to him, imagine. So, like,

you can imagine. Like, this guy is, he's super

fun, and he made the trivia really fun and everything.

After that was, and this was a really interesting

one, it was the fan media panel, which was run

by evangelist Chris Ho and P .O. Benjamin Dole.

And they talked about how they make videos and

stuff. And what was really interesting about

that was seeing the stark differences between

how Vangelis makes videos and how Pia makes videos.

And Pia literally showed how simple his process

is. He literally just takes his iPhone, has a

tripod, records his video. Then he has a program

that he downloaded an app in his iPhone that

quickly edits the video and then he uploads it

from his iPhone There's literally he literally

does little to no editing and yeah, and and then

he goes but then look at his success You know,

so no, yeah. No, I mean, yeah, you know, I've

I've been watching him since Since 2008 that's

when I first found out about him was when i found

out about the shattered glass set from bot connolly

and i want to see the toys and yet he's come

a long way but at the same time his editing process

is just so simple record the video slaps and

titles on it and put it up and that's and he

was kind of showing like how or where vangelis

he does a ton of the footage a ton of this a

ton of that scan around shots, edit this, he

uses Final Cut Pro. Vangelis showed his complex

process and Piaud showed his process and how

simple it is. And essentially what they were

trying to get across is it doesn't matter how

complicated you do it or how simple you do it,

as long as you get the facts and the information

across and you have a little bit of personality

to you where you're not just like, you know?

That's what leads to success. It was a very interesting

panel. Especially for someone like me who does

video reviews, it's always nice to see how they

choose to do it. Me, I'm kind of a mix of both.

I like to do things in one shot, but do a little

bit of editing here and there and do B footage.

It was nice to see what they do and how it's

different from mine. I'm pretty sure a lot of

people in the audience either wanted to get into

doing that or were just curious how it works.

It was pretty cool. after that was the customizing

tutorial which was ran by Nemesis Predaking and

that's just it's it's the exact same thing like

just before but now it's for customizers so you

know all the little tricks how to get a good

like people who usually they buy paint in the

store and they paint a figure how come it doesn't

look as nice as some people on the websites so

you know they they pretty much talked about you

know how you could buy spray guns or you could

buy cans of spray that that get the the image

of a spray gun using gloss because they're transformer

toy They rub against each other how you could

use a finish on it It was all again more educational

stuff just for people who want to get into that

Then it was my panel which was the challenge

of convoy panel and I was offering up what the

what it was as I brought the as I said in the

last in the last podcast I brought the mystery

of convoy game for the Nintendo, which is ridiculously

difficult and As prizes we had that, I pretty

much changed it because I wanted to give away

as much as possible. I had it that if whoever

gets the furthest in the game, the first and

second place, if you will, the first person who

got the furthest in the second place who got

the furthest, I'm going to be giving away one

of 500 made of the BTS Asia Workaholic Constructicon

exclusives, which are like these Constructicon

drones that turn into tape cassettes. They have

weapons that work with Devastator. It was this

little set that was made that's really cool.

Then I had it that if anyone gets to level three

they get the grand prize, which is a one of five

made exclusively for this event BTS cassettes

of rat bats and Rumble but done in a plastic

that when you put it in the Sun they change colors

It was a nice little twisted third party thing

that was made just for this panel by BTS. And

that was really cool of them to do that for us.

Yeah. Now, does Rumble change from red to blue

or blue to red? He actually turns from yellow

to blue. Ah, that's a cheat. I know. That would

have been awesome. But that's kind of how the

plastic works. And it's the same thing. Bad turns

from yellow to purple. So it was kind of cool,

though. But what was amazing about it was it

was such a social experiment. Like, I didn't

really know what was going to happen when I did

this. But how it turned out out was people really

aren't good at video games. And Vangelis, he

recorded a lot of footage of this because it

was hilarious. Because it was just funny seeing

people struggle because video games today are

so simple. They have tutorials and there's almost

no consequence for dying in video games today.

Where these old Nintendo games, three lives and

that's it, back to the beginning. So it was really

fun watching people like, you know, especially

there was like little kids who were like, they

were almost like talking trash, you know, like,

oh, this is too easy. It's for babies. And then

they get their butt handed to them. And it was

just hilarious stuff. But that was a really good

panel. And amazingly, two people beat the first

level. That was a big surprise for me. And Goober

was actually second place in that. So he really

showed his colors to use the term lightly. After

that was just party at the bar, like always.

And then usually what we call it the elite group

of people. We usually have a party like at 4

a .m. in our room and Scott McNeil crashed our

room and we couldn't get rid of him until 6 a

.m., so. Nice. But he was looking for free booze,

but that was it. So, you know, a drunk rat trap

isn't any other rat trap. So hilarious, too,

is that same night, Scott McNeil was smoking

cigars outside with a whole bunch of people.

And then. Usually outside the hotel, there's

these actual rat traps that are out there. You

know, like the ones that are against the wall

that a rat would go into. Yeah. So for some odd

reasons, Scott McNeil now drunk and a cigar in

his mouth. Someone convinced him to sign a rat

trap. Oh, my God. So he actually went up to a

rat trap and signed it. Now, if you go to the

Hyatt Hotel and find the rat trap next to the

entrance of the hotel, you're going to see Scott

McNeil's signature on there. I'm pretty sure

one of the workers are going to be like, what

the? But that was that was the Friday in a nutshell

a lot I mean it's it's it's condensed very quickly

by me, but trust me if you were there It's so

yeah, I mean you have to be there I mean, you

know if you went through because I know I think

it was last year the year before I forget which

year It was that we did this when you went through

one of the post shows you went through I think

it was last year with with Oh God, what's his

name? with Wendell Yeah, Wendell, yeah. Yeah.

The two of you went through it like it was nothing,

but it was like every single step of the way.

Oh, yeah. But yeah, this is just like a little

preview, kind of like a post -show of what kind

of experiences you can have at TFCon. And for

the first time ever, Steve got to go on a Saturday.

So tell us about your journey to TFCon. It was

a it was almost a long drive Yeah, I got up at

like I don't know it was like three or three

thirty in the morning and Headed out to Mississauga

and Of course I get there probably about quarter

after nine Pay get in and everything start kind

of exploring around walking around the different

rooms bumped into you, Proto Man, which was the

first person from online that I met up with,

sat and watched your panel of the history of

Cybertron. That panel, by the way, was an exclusive

panel thanks to Aaron Archer and Eric Siebeneller.

There was some exclusive images and footage which

were never shown publicly outside of BotCon 2010

and then there were some new stuff that was exclusive

to TFCon that was being revealed there and it

was actually a closed panel where no pictures

or video was allowed where we revealed two extra

characters of the original 13 Yeah, that was

very very interesting and enlightening So after

that that panel I hung around there and waited

for the Q &A with Bob Budiansky and That was

quite interesting. He had a lot of stuff up on

the slides like and I took pictures of everything

and posted it on my Facebook, but um It was interesting

to see the different formations of names of you

know Megatron almost wasn't Megatron and you

know Starship is old guitar. Yeah, I mean there

was so many, you know different variations as

far as that's concerned and it was it was very

interesting and then I think his panel ran a

little bit shorter than of course Scott's or

Neil and Wally's but that's just because I think

people kind of ran out ran out of ideas what

to ask him But yeah, that was very cool listening

him talk about all of the the work on the comics

and then the mythos work and all that So then

after that I I went downstairs waited in line

for his autograph and So I missed the the charity

auction ended up bumping into General techno

Chris and Gabe so That was pretty cool. That

was the Bob and Derek White autograph, right?

Yeah. Okay, I was there too. Yeah, you were down

there by Derek. I almost went over there for

his autograph, except I was trying to run back

up because by the time I got through the Bob

autograph line... Yeah, Scott's panel was starting.

Scott's panel had like five minutes before it

started. And so I bolted upstairs and I somehow

I managed to get front row seats every single

time a panel was starting. I don't know how that

is. I actually got my phone out and I recorded

the entire Scott panel. However, I must have

hit something on my phone because it only captured

nine minutes out of the 48. I was quite sad.

It was such good quality, too. But yeah, Scott's

panel was hilarious. Yes, Steve was telling me

all fair about And I have seen so many of Scott's

panels whether it's TFCon whether it's other

conventions But every single convention that

guy goes to at least one person brings him a

bag of food Only this time it was waspinator.

Yes Which was hilarious and then he's like, ooh

brownie and then you know, he just starts eating

right there and he's like, oh I got 80 OS Attention

definitely said, ooh, shiny. And his whole panel

was just hilarious. And then as soon as that

was over, I think I barreled through everybody

to bolt downstairs because I knew the line was

going to be long. Oh, yeah, his autograph for

sure. And I got down there and I'm like, oh,

I'm closer than I was for Bob's line. And I was

like, this shouldn't be long at all. And then

I ended up doing a live on location with Mike

at the time. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, it shouldn't

take very long. Yeah, I was there in line for

about two and a half hours before I finally got

to Scott. He talks to everybody. And I realized

that the longer I was in line. So it was quite

interesting, to say the least, when by the time

I finally got up there, I ended up bumping into

the owner of Iacon Hub. Cool. He happened to

be next to me in line. But then when I got up

there for Scott, I of course got his autograph

and then got a picture with him and chatted with

him and then of course said, hey, you're so insanely

difficult to get a hold of for podcast interviews.

And he says, oh yeah, blah, blah, blah. And then

I gave him some contact info and I said, yeah,

we've talked to all your friends. And then he

says, sorry for being the douche. And I was like,

no, that's all right. So yeah, and then I had

some stuff that Gabe had put together for the

Darkglass project. Yeah, the fan Darkglass video,

and I showed it to Scott, and he's like, wow,

those are great. He says, what's that? And I

said, the Darkglass video. I said, a bunch of

us are putting together this video. And he's

like, so who's playing me? And I told him, I

said, oh, Dan Ross. And he says, I'm going to

get him next time I see him. Like it is just

it was hilarious how that whole thing just played

out and then So, yeah right after that was done

I managed to make it up there pretty much five

minutes to the live script reading auditions

Unfortunately, I missed the the panel with Neil

Ross and Wally burr But um, they were at least

in the live script reading whereas Scott was

still preoccupied for the foreseeable future.

Yes. The live script reading was hilarious because

Wally was nitpicking everybody. Well, of course,

it's Wally Burr. What the interesting part was

is he started out, I think with like Cheetor

or Quickstrike or something like that. He started

out with two of the Beast Wars characters first

before he ever got there. There were seven characters

to be cast and he's giving everybody like eight

to ten different Attempts or tries at these characters.

So he pretty much ate up the entire audition

round by critiquing everyone and They eventually

had to cut him off and told them you can't critique

anybody else We we have to cast these people

because it was like quarter after six and oh,

yeah He was he was deaf like I remember even

staff was like, oh my god while he's taking for

ever because usually how it was in the past was

the the judge was the current voice actor that

we had present, and usually with whatever staff

member was with them at the time. In this case,

it was Phil Gervais, also known as Decepticon

Army on the boards. But since we had Wally this

year, we were just like, well, who better person

to be the judge than a voice director who hires

people in that same position. But we didn't expect

that he would do he would do that process exactly

as if it was a job interview where it's like

do this line like this do this line like that

we're in the past just like the person gets the

one shot at the line maybe twice if they screw

it up and then thank you next and then we did

kind of decide on that but it was like one person

and it was oh i know and he did it to everybody

for for the that entire character so it was it

was hilarious to watch i mean some of it was

very enlightening hearing his experience and

ideas of what could be thrown at you, voicing

a character, so I really did enjoy that. It really

seemed like that's exactly what he would have

done if this was a serious scenario and it was

like it was for... because he was taking it very

seriously. It was almost like he wasn't even

joking about what he was doing. It was clearly

like it was like as if this was an actual audition

for those characters. Maybe next time you guys

have him back, you should have TF con go from

Thursday to Sunday and Thursday, you know, there's

no, hold on, hold on, hold on. Thursday be check

-in. Thursday be registration. Friday would be

Wally Burday. We are so like, well, I'll get,

I'll get to that at the end. Okay. But yeah,

that, that was quite hilarious. And then finally,

uh, Decepticon Army had to tell them, okay, we

gotta speed this up. You can't talk anymore.

And Neal's sitting there laughing and poking

fun at Wally and giving out helpful suggestions.

It was hilarious because people would still,

they were telling people, stay back from the

mic, don't puff on the mic, don't talk extremely

loud. People were just reading it, interpreting

it whatever way they wanted. Weren't even taking

into consideration anything Wally or Neil was

saying like some people were but most of them

didn't or they would forget by the next person

So I was just sitting there laughing my ass off

But then when they finally got to the script

reading Then they of course had to obtain Scott

from the the bellows of the hotel and Then they

went through that and it was pulled off very

very nicely Yeah, and then I stuck around for

a little while for the transformers the movie

and of course Through the the live script reading

we were able to cast or actually recast a particular

character for our dark glass video me and Gabe

kind of headlined them and snagged him so that

was kind of cool too and Unfortunately, that

was the end of my my TF con experience this year.

However, I do plan on returning because it was

I was so busy between panels that day, I didn't

have a chance to eat at all. I was, I literally

ate at like four in the morning. Did you go to

the dealer room at all? Um, no. I was in all

those panels all day. I was in the panels all

day. Like I was bouncing panel to panel to panel

and autograph things and I didn't get to eat

until eight. And Steve's not one to buy the toys.

He's, he's just... Not normally, like... You

would probably go there to see if any cool Megatron

stuff would be there, but you're not someone

that buys and collects. I'm not a completist

by any means. I'm more of a select type thing.

Plus, I'm not really at liberty to display them.

Otherwise, I'm sure I would have more than what

I do. Next time I plan on hopefully being there

the entire time and being able to check out everything.

But yeah, I just I was so busy that day running

between stuff food was the last thing on my mind

Well when we did the live call -in It's not in

the live call -in which is on YouTube and all

I'll link to in the post here in the episode

but When we did the live call -in after we've

seen it before after we finished it I told him

I was like dude You're running between all these

panels and autographs You use your Megatron voice

all the time. You use it at work having arguments

with Starscream. You should have used it to your

advantage running back and forth between all

these lines. I'm Megatron. Get the hell out of

my way. I actually did use my Megatron voice

while we were sitting there before the live script

reading auditions. Which is why the one guy when

he went up there for Roadbuster used Beast or

his Megatron. Don't know if that's the exact

reason but I I They were comparing their Megatrons

and I just couldn't listen to it anymore. I had

to speak up and I went up them but Yeah, that

pretty much stopped that but I I was so parched

too because I didn't have anything to drink that

I just couldn't do the voice when I got up to

Scott when you're doing that stuff I that's one

thing I'd recommend If you're going, bring a

backpack with water. Lots and lots of water and

something to snack on. We actually give water

for free all over the hotel. Yeah, I did notice

that in the main hallway around the panel room,

which I constantly hit up whenever I went by

there. when you're down in there for two and

a half hours waiting for an autograph that's

not exactly accessible. And I was like, do I

want to get on a line and get watered or do I

not? And I'm like, no, I've been waiting here

too long. So, but yeah, that was my pretty much

my experience with TFCon. I loved it. I definitely

would go back. I loved how fluent everything

was. It seemed very, very streamlined. Definitely.

We're obsessed with that because that was one

thing that we learned from Bakhan was that we

try to have that you're not missing something

if you're at something else. It's very rare.

Or if you missed an autograph, you'll get another

opportunity later. And I noticed that, too, which

was nice. And the beautiful thing, at least with

this year, as far as I can tell in any time,

especially Scott is at a convention, Scott is

all over the place. I know you guys have designated

times for autographs, but as you already said,

you can walk outside and he's out there smoking

a cigar. All the guests. Wally Burr was at the

bar constantly wearing Scott McNeil's hat for

some reason. If you missed an autograph opportunity,

I think the only one, Neil Ross was around too

on the Saturday, but he was the least present,

if you will, in public. But Scott and Wally,

you couldn't get rid of them. They were all that

was hilarious. Like when I was waiting in line

for his autograph and I'd been in line maybe

10 minutes and obviously the lines not moving

because he's not there yet, but he got down there

with a backpack and he just cuts in front of

me in front of the group in front of me. And

he's like, Hey, can I cut here, man? And then

like he started cutting in front of everybody,

which somebody has on YouTube now. But I was

talking to Mike at the time. I'm like, holy shit,

dude. Scott just asked if he could jump in line

ahead of the guys in front of me and then just

kept doing it. And then finally, he gets close

to the front and somebody tells him no. And then

he gets upset and he walks away throwing a tantrum.

And then he goes over there to his seating arrangement.

But that dude is a trip to go by through the

entire convention. I guarantee you if we got

him for an interview on Beast Unleashed Podcast,

our Beast Wars Beast Machine show, I guarantee

you that would turn into our long... Right now,

Robert N. Skeer is our longest interview ever

at like two hours one minute. I guarantee you

if we got Scott for an interview, it would be

three hours plus, guaranteed. Well, and the funny

thing about Scott is he's really passionate and

loves Beast Wars. Yeah. He doesn't much care

for Beast Machines as stated in his panel, but

that was quite interesting. The one thing I find

interesting is everybody asks all the voice actors

about the Darkglass video, or Darkglass script,

and none of them know anything because obviously

it never made it past the script stage. Yeah,

it never made it past the script stage, and no

one really knows what happened to it. I know

two people that know what happened, well actually

four. I know four people that know what happened

to it, but... but it never made it past the script

stage to be in an episode, so it's lost to the

times of Cybertron. Well, until the fan version's

ready, but anyways... Well, you can't... We'll

talk about that off air. Well, talk about that

off air. Okay. Anyways, so yeah, that's pretty

much my experience with it, and you can take

it away, Protoman. What else happened on the

Saturday as far as the convention side program?

There was the third party product preview panel.

Now, one thing I want to stress, Hasbro was at

the convention. Even Steve could attest for this

because it was right next to the panel room.

They had a nice big table with all the latest

toys and a lot of stuff that wasn't out yet.

Oh yeah, that was really cool. I went over there

and hovered over there for a good 20 minutes.

So imagine next to the panel room where the third

product preview panel is happening Hasbro was

there with their two lovely representatives that

they send every year and tons of new Transformers

Prime and Creo and Botshots merchant like the

stuff that's not even out yet on shelves So and

what was cool was at the end of the day Some

of the stuff that they, it's like they would

bring, like there's the new figure Optimus Maximus,

where it's this Transformers Prime Optimus that

also turns into a base. They had one in the box,

and then they brought another one in the box

that they opened. And at the end of the day,

they gave it away to a fan. Oh, sweet. Yeah,

but they did that with a lot of items, because

they would always have stuff that was in the

package, and then they would have the same thing

in the package, but they'd open it up so you

could mess with it. Which is one really cool

thing that we have also over BotCon, is that

we have new toys on display, but you get to mess

with those. You get to go up to Hasbro and go,

hey, can I play with that Optimus? Can I play

with that Jetfire? And I remember, like it was

a notorious story, TFCon 2008, we got all the

new Classics toys and the Gener8. Generations

toys and there was the iron hide one and by the

time we got to it odd like the Saturday evening

Someone broke the arm off. I Don't know how like

so again Typical fans, you know, just I can't

transform this worst toy ever but it is And but

it just you know, it was really cool having Hasbro

there and being super game Like, you know, there

were so many stupid rumors that people were spreading.

Oh Hasbro's coming down on TF con now No, they

weren't look what they did. They showed up and

they had just as much a great time The only thing

that they did not do this year was an actual

panel And like I said, if they would have done

that panel, it would have been just the SDCC

panel that everyone already saw. So it would

have been nothing new. It would have been for

that one guy who doesn't have the internet that

didn't check TFW that weekend of SDCC. That's

it. The whole point really for Hasbro to be there

and why we used to do panels in the past was

more so the talk about Canadian distribution.

Because now we have Target coming. But in the

past, it's like, OK, this Target exclusive, is

it going to find its way into Canadian distribution?

And then they would tell us, yes, this Target

exclusive will show up in Zellers, which is a

chain that we have in Canada. So that was kind

of more so the point of the panel. But now that

they have their table and both the representatives

are there, you could just go up to them and ask

them. But most people were too busy having fun

with the toys anyways. They had masks, they had

everything. It was so great. They were super

chill as always and very supportive of what we

do and always there. They were there both days,

both days, not just one day, both days, very

present. Anyways, going into the third product

preview panel, we revealed a lot of stuff. There

was a lot of stuff that was front page news in

this panel. Third Prodi Predaking coming its

way, Menasaur, We showed the new designs for

Hexatron, which is the third party super crazy

six shot, which we also had in the glass display

case. And then we showed the two repaints of

it. They're going to do a Shadow Maru and Great

Shot from Transformers Victory. We we showed

the biggest third party toy to be made so far

Nova Lord, which is it's BTS's overlord attempt.

It's gonna be 21 inches. It's gonna have light

and sounds. It's huge They sent us images and

video of the transformation Tons of stuff planned.

Let's let's just say a lot of people felt their

wallet screaming when they were at that panel.

Because there was, I mean, I'm just naming a

few, there was tons more stuff that was revealed,

but those were some of the big reveals that were

there. And there's so much more to come. There

was also the costume contest, which was hosted

by Vangelis. And I believe the winner, and you

could find video of her online, she's literally

like the grand champion of cosplay at TFCon,

is a girl named Vanessa. In 2009, she showed

- She wanted Blackarachnia. No, in 2010, she

was Blackarachnia. Oh, OK. In 2009, she was Bumblebee.

She came as animated Bumblebee, and it was a

dead -on to show model Bumblebee. In 2010, she

was Blackarachnia, and she was a dead -on amazing

Blackarachnia. And then in 2011, she did a -

I'm trying to remember who she did in 2011. She

did something else, but I don't know, in 2012,

yeah, it was 2011. In 2011, she was Optimus Prime,

but she did a very thin, streamlined Optimus

Prime, not a very bulky one that usually, because

she's a thin female, so her Optimus was a lot

more thin, but it was very nice looking. And

then this year was her magnum opus. Because she

wanted to do something with the 80s Expo and

the Transformers, she did a Transforming DeLorean.

I saw her. Yeah, and what was crazy What was

crazy about yeah, and she had she had her a friend

of hers cosplaying as Doc Brown to follow her

around What was crazy about that cosplay was

not only did was it it transforms perfectly It

goes from a DeLorean to you're walking around

in the outfit it transformed like an alternator

toy But she had lights in the headlights which

were breasts if you will that lit up and she

had lights LEDs that were in the back of it because

the back of the DeLorean it has the boosters

right so those were also they lit up and she

has an extra bonus when she's in car mode the

hood opens up and It's where she stores her head

her actual head and it's where her head gasket

is which is a funny joke there It was just it

was so what she obviously got first place like

every year she she kills because she's she out

does herself every year second place went to

a guy who he actually made a transformer cosplay

based on the buses in Toronto which to me I don't

know what those look like but apparently it was

really awesome the way he did it. There was also

The animated swoop from BotCon was there. Yeah,

the animated swoop from BotCon was there, which

was done by Wayward. There was a family that

had all these face paint of Prime characters,

and what was ironic was the baby. And there was

literally like a three -month -old baby had face

paint of Bumblebee on it. And his sucking suss

had the Autobot logo on it in his mouth. Oh,

that's funny. It was really cute. And like, you

know, just it was really nice to see those. That

was the costume concept. That was really cool.

There was the art contest Unfortunately, well

I voted on it. I don't know who won But I'll

tell you why I don't know who won the 2d But

I do know who won the 3d who won the 3d because

I voted for the overlord it wouldn't know it

was the TFP optimus 3d art Shirley Chung. Oh

Kish that. Oh, yeah her plushie there. Yeah her

giant giant TFP optimus. Yeah I got third place

on mine, okay, but I guess that accounts for

something then. Well, you're a staff member.

You're not supposed to enter the art contest.

No, no, no. The staff are in charge of voting.

Oh, okay, okay. Each one of us goes, who do we

think is first, second, third? And then we tally

that up in a point system. Like, if you got first

place, you got three points. Right, right. If

you got third place, you got one. I put her as

third on my... There was, me personally, there

was an overlord there. Some guy took... some

guy took universe 2 .0 silverbolt and Completely

re -engineered it to make it like a separating

like Overlord. I don't know that one was impressive

to me on a on a design level so that I don't

know that was me personally, but Then like we

talked about the rice life script reading there

was the family Steve do you stick around for

the 86 movie at all? I did stick around for I

think the first half of it. Okay Like and that's

that's always been a staple at TFCon Every year

we always make it like a thing to play the 86

movie on the big screen in the panel room and

I'm telling you you have not seen Transformers

the movie until you've sat with a good hundred

other fans And I'm telling you, like, if you

would have been there for that opening of The

Matrix scene, you'd just hear me, whoo! Yeah,

like, I always go nuts. Well, when I was in there,

I was sitting in the back area because we were

still discussing, like, recasting, but we were

sitting there quoting the movie word for word.

Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, and like I said, you have

not seen the movie until you've sat down with

a bunch of other fans and blazed through it.

And it's also an excuse every year to watch it

and just to refresh your mind on that piece of

history. And it's such a good movie. After that

was The Faction Feud, which was hosted by me

and Vangelis. And if there's any photos online

of that, we both had quite elaborate costumes

for that. Pretty much Vangelis informed me the

weekend before the convention that he was going

to have a cape with epaulettes on it. And I was

like, are you serious? For those who aren't familiar

with what epaulettes are, they're kind of what

a medieval king had back in the day with those

little tassels. Anyways, he got a cape commissioned

for him. And I was like, are you serious? So

he was like I want you to dress up too and I'm

like I don't cosplay I don't do that kind of

thing and then I sat around I was at work and

I was thinking about I'm like, you know what?

I have I bought because I buy official merchandise

of Mega Man stuff constantly I have they they

when Mega Man 10 came out They did this like

cloth like beautifully well done proto man helmet

That like when you put it on it looks like proto

man's helmet And it even has like Velcro shades

that go over your eyes and everything. And then

something that I've always owned my whole life,

I own a yellow scarf that says Proto Man on it

and bras, and I've always owned that. And so

I was like, you know what? I'm going to bring

that. Let's just say we made a grand entrance

as King Vangelis and Proto Man. There's photos

online and it is ridiculous. I'm gonna try to

find one and send it to you guys, but it was

just... I think I had seen that picture somewhere.

Oh yeah, we're both posed and a million snapshots

going off. Then it was back to the bar after

the winners by the way of the faction feud were

a new team that came this year a bunch of Americans

that teamed up together called the super links

and They were they even had a costume it like

they were all wearing the same shirt and the

shirt was actually making fun of BotCon it on

the front of theirs on the front of their shirt

it said because like the Peter Pete Sinclair

when he was always talking hyping up a con this

year. He always put the hashtag for Twitter best

set ever and Of course, obviously it was not

the best set ever So their shirt on the front

said best set ever hashtag and on the back of

their shirt It said stealing credit cards for

two years now All four of them wore that shirt

the entire duration of the faction feud. They

were an interesting bunch of Americans that came

down and they won. They kicked butt. They did

a very good job. They beat last year's champions,

the Furmanisms. So that was really cool. So props

to John and I'm trying to remember who the others

were on his team But props to them for for doing

a great job and winning and they got prizes and

stuff after that was again Back to the bar now

here is the cool thing about the bar Starting

at the beginning of the Saturday was that the

bar actually had custom -made Transformers related

drinks all the bar waitresses had Autobot buttons

on them and all kinds of stuff there was transformer

related music playing at the bar. Like they just

completely changed the bar for us. So like you

could get the waspinator, which was like vodka

with this and that, you know, and it was like

a green drink. And then you could get what was

called the energon juice, which was a virgin

Kool -Aid, meaning like it didn't have alcohol

in it, but it was blue, you know? So that was

for the people who didn't want to drink alcohol.

There was still something for them, too. Someone

actually took a photo of the bar menu. And to

a lot of people, it was a souvenir because it

was this hard stock menu, the TFCon drinking

list. And it was from the bar. And it was crazy

stuff. Another cool thing that we had. And at

the end of the Saturday, Derek Wyatt, Scott McNeil

crashed our room. Tons of fun. for everyone.

We didn't go to sleep until six a .m. And I'll

regret that because that's going to go into the

Sunday and what happened. So I got I got to bed

around six or seven. I get a now I I didn't have

actually a panel officially until like one o

'clock. I was doing signings with Derek Wyatt.

So that was all I if I had any obligations. I

had to be up at one. Granted, I wanted to still

be up early because the deal room was going to

be the Sunday, which has a lot of crazy, fun

stuff in it because it's the 80s expo. But at

the same time, I was kind of kind of I was hoping

to sleep in till nine. I got a phone call on

my cell because it was an emergency from Colin

and it was like to come down. And so I came downstairs

and I was I was in a daze. I was literally like

completely out of it. Colin comes up to me like

Jim Sorenson. who was supposed to be doing the

Transformers Legacy panel at 11 o 'clock, his

plane got delayed. Yeah, I remember Jim saying

something about that on Facebook. Yeah, and he's

saying a blown Transformer. And I'm like, are

you trolling? Like, are you serious? And I look

at my watch, well, my cell phone, and I'm like,

but his panel's in 15 minutes. He's like, I know.

I need you to come up with one in 15 minutes.

And I'm like, are you serious? I'm like half

asleep and my brain is still in bed. And he's

like, just do something. And so I'm like, OK,

OK. I had my portable hard drive that I brought

with me for my other panels with me. And luckily,

on it was all the panels that I've done in the

past. Half asleep with no material, I redid a

good chunk of it, not all of it, the Transformers

video game history panel. So for the people that

missed it in 2010, they got a chance to see it.

And amazingly, a lot of people didn't see it

in 2010 because there was a lot of new people

this year. So they got my half asleep. I literally

didn't even walk around. I literally sat down

like half asleep and go. Okay so Commodore 64

did it and people liked it though because they

were laughing and the footage was great but it

was just me like apologizing going like oh I

am so sorry I am so tired I did not expect to

do a panel. Jim was supposed to be here but it

was great nonetheless. Then there was autographs,

so I had to run and do that. It was Bob again

and Derek, so we did the autograph session for

a bit. While that was happening was a really,

really good panel that unfortunately I missed,

but I saw video footage of it and it was hilarious.

Every year we do the how to getting into voice

acting. Last year... was extremely informative

and in my opinion still last year was the best

if you really were serious into getting into

voice acting because Gary Chalk and Paul Eiding

just gave information that in my opinion was

crucial. This year it was Scott Menil, Neil Ross

and Wally Burr explaining how to get into voice

acting. Unfortunately, you could censor me on

this but the shit hit the fan with them. They

literally went crazy and started doing all kinds

of wacky stuff. At one point, Scott McNeil was

under the table while, from the perspective of

the audience, it looked like Neil Ross and Wally

were bludgeoning him to death. And then at one

point, Wally Burr steals Scott McNeil's hat and

wears it for the duration of the panel. which

then was followed by Neil Ross going, why are

you wearing that? You don't know where that's

been, you know? And like, it was just, it was

like, obviously there were still tough, like

everyone told their story and how they got into

it. So it, you know, it makes it more human and

people understand that there's a process to becoming

a Scott Neil. You know, where he was just a guy.

Like one of Scotty's first jobs was the Ruby

Spears Mega Man series, which is what I love

for his Proto Man depiction and Dr. Wiley. That

was one of his first jobs. And Scotty was like

Ruby Spears, you know, in the spectrum of voice

acting jobs that you would want to get. Ruby

Spears to a lot of voice actors was kind of the

bottom of the barrel. You know, you wanted to

get into WB, Hanna -Barbera, you know, one of

the bigger companies, where Ruby Spears was kind

of this company that was just surviving, you

know? And then, oh, look, they had these three

properties, Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, and

Mega Man, that they recently got the licenses

to, and they needed voices for all three of them.

And so Scotty was lucky to snag voices on all

three shows. Or he did Ken for Street Fighter,

he did Proto Man and Dr. Wily for Mega Man, and

he did... Lord Raptor for dark stalkers, but

you know he was telling like when he first started

like he just was hungry He wanted to get anything

he can and you know don't be picky Don't say

I don't want to do that girl character because

that opens doors for you Like and he was it was

him too. It was informed before again the shit

hit the fan and then it you know everything went

crazy After that was again an autograph session.

Then there was the 80s costume contest and these

were amazing, these ones. For some odd reason

a couple who was dressed as Spike and Carly showed

up on the Sunday and they looked really good.

There was a guy... that came as the Incredible

Hulk, but he had a bodysuit that I swear was

like eight feet high. And people asked him how

he was doing that. He actually took two foot

stools and inside his costume they were like

sewn in crazy glue to the feet. So he was actually

standing on two four foot foot stools and that's

how he was. And it was this humongous thing.

Also because... the Legion 401 was there, which

is the Star Wars cosplayers, they brought their

remote control one by one scale droids of like

R2 -D2, R242, and so they were constantly walking

around, like you would be walking around the

convention and you turn around R2 -D2 is following

you. You'd be like what and you don't know where

it's because you don't know who's controlling

it and so like it was funny because this guy

he had all these voices and sound effects so

apparently him and Hulk had a scuffle and then

r2 is like You know a lot of like, you know TF

con moments if you will and then you had Derek

Wyatt doing the robot with goober with the droid

so a whole bunch of funny stuff Then there was

a really awesome panel This was again one of

those closed panels And this was a this was something

that Derek Wyatt and me kind of threw together

It was instead of doing a panel that's always

let's talk about season four animated and all

that We talked about Derek getting into you know,

the business of TV, you know, TV show development

and just all the process of all the different

stuff that he's done throughout the years. Ripping

Friends and, you know, Ren and Stimpy, Teen Titans,

Ben 10. And of course, he obviously did touch

on animated. But what he did this time was he

brought stuff from the Cartoon Network archive

that were never supposed to leave the archive

ever. And he said that, like, chances are you're

going to be seeing this today and then you will

never see it ever again. I hope somebody's video

of that. You weren't allowed to record it. The

reason why he said he didn't want to show it

was because he was embarrassed by it. A lot of

it was crazy stuff. I could talk about, obviously.

There was one footage that they shot, which was

they were going to ... It's kind of one of these

things where they go around the office interviewing

everyone that worked on ... Like that, you know,

Transformers animated Teen Titans. It's the same

crew. And Derek was a part of that. And when

they were interviewing people, each one of them

would do something stupid. Some guy was in the

bathroom taking a piss. Derek's playing with

toys. And there were so many bloopers and very

funny stuff. And Derek was just like, I'm so

embarrassed by all of this. And then on top of

that, Derek also showed all the shows that he's

worked on in the past. He actually made cameos

in all of them. in some shape or form, and he

was showing how in Ben 10 all the Transformers

and mask -related cameos that no one caught.

And the reason why he didn't want people filming

was that if he openly admitted, yeah, hey, this

character is directly based on Gurren Lagann

or whatever, he runs that mild risk of getting

sued. But if it's just hearsay from me right

now or a fan, you know, unless it comes from

his mouth and you see the actual footage and

point out that's that character. You know, he's

OK. But he showed like he actually based a character

in Ben 10 off of Crasher from the GoBots and

even got the voice actress who played Crasher

back in the 80s to come and do that character.

Oh, sweet. Yeah. So there was a lot. And again,

I can't point out what that character was. But

if you're if you know Ben 10, maybe you know

who I'm talking about with Arlene. But it's just

he showed so much footage, so much stuff. Colors

and concepts that never happened. Season four

characters that were teased, which were palette

swaps that never came, which was the mirror universe

idea because there was an episode that wasn't

this was before shattered glass was invented.

They were doing an idea of a mirror universe

and then what the mirror universe Autobots would

look like in their colors. And it was just really

interesting stuff. Megatron had like Ultra Magnus

colors. Optimus was obviously like a purpley

kind of thing. Bumblebee was like Bug Bite colors,

which was also like a kind of white. They did,

what was Prowl? I'm trying to remember what Prowl

was. I remember that Bulkhead was... Action Master

Thundercracker, which is like those ugly like

pinks. And again, these were the first time these

character models were being shown. He was showing

characters that were supposed to be in the show

but got cut out because, you know, there was

that kind of superhero theme going on with Transformers

animated. So there was one episode that was going

to have a like a Batman -esque kind of character

who was an African -American. Again, it got cut

from the show, but he wanted to put that in there.

He like even said like, you know, in the mirror

universe there was going to be a mirror universe.

Oh my God. What's the name of the police officer?

Fan zone. Fan zone. There was going to be a mirror.

I love machines. Yeah. He was like, I wanted

to say that line, you know, and he showed like,

you know, the designs for that, all kinds of

things, all kinds of stuff that just a lot of

it that just was never surfaced at all. And then

he was getting into Teen Titans and he was showing

that stuff and ripping friends and just what

a great panel and it's so sad too because his

panel was literally the last hour before the

deal room was closing so a lot of people didn't

catch it like it was still pretty packed but

at the same time like a lot of people who like

missed out on it like were totally depressed

about it afterwards when they heard what was

actually in it like I like you know they showed

like the development stages of Black Arachnia

in anime, the development stages of Prowl, which

that one was public, the Prowl one, but Black

Arachnia at one point, she had her original Beast

Wars colors, and she had a more Beast Wars -esque

design, like inspiration. And just so much stuff,

and it was so great. That was such a good panel,

and I'm honored that I was able to do that with

him, because I was kind of there to be next to

him to also remember the homages and where they

came from, because he doesn't remember everything,

but sadly somehow I do. Even though he wasn't

on it. Well, you are obsessed, I mean. Oh, yeah.

Well, that's it. So, you know, I did the panel

with him and that was really cool and it was

an honor and it was so awesome. And then it was

funny because the second he finished that panel,

we both scrapped like I pretty much brought him

around the dealer room because he wanted to get

all that crazy toys and stuff. And let me tell

you something, the Sunday was amazing. The amount

of like the amount of stuff that was there was

mind boggling. Like it's just I mean. Don't know

if you'll ever get to talk to people like in

the future like like on the pockets like PR or

something But get like just talk to other people

who came this year and they'll tell you the same

thing like it was just Unbelievable this year

how packed the dealer room was And and the last

thing I'll get to was just we had the convention

organizers panel Which was the last thing we

do at the end of the show right and we were because

the show was so big that Right now, what we're

thinking, we're not even sure if we're gonna

do it. We need a bigger location. And we got

this location because it was a bigger location.

But it's just, the show has got, it got ridiculous.

The Sunday was nuts. The Sunday was just so much

stuff, so many great deals, so many great prices.

You gotta love. You know the guys who show up

with bins of junk, but that junk is gold You

know like it's just and it's like quarters and

two dollars and so much stuff like and then and

80s properties and 80s toy lines that you've

like never heard of but like you remember that

one commercial of Back in like during glooney

tunes. It's like snail eons, you know like mad

balls and well like like barnyard commandos.

Yeah and body wars, and the really obscure 90s

and 80s toy lines that just no one remembers.

I'm trying to remember what others I saw there.

Pooch Patrol. Just really off -the -wall stuff.

It was so great. It was such a great ... Anyone

who was following Twitter ... That that those

like days after the show everyone was saying

the same thing jeremy gog -dog from the tfw podcast

who's gone to many bot cons Even ones that were

in his backyard in Florida in 2010 and he even

says it was the best Transformers convention

He ever went to in his entire life. It was because

it was so alive. It was so friendly It's so tight

-knit. There's you know, when you go to BotCon,

I don't know if either of you ever been to BotCon,

but BotCon is very segregated. It's very That's

what I hear about it though, too. Well part of

the thing as you're kind of wrapping up What

happened at TFCon 2012, the 10th anniversary?

One of the things I wanted to get into before

we wrap the podcast up is that, you know, I love

Octobotomus to death, but I gotta throw him under

the bus. Throughout the entire weekend of TFCon,

you know, he's making remarks, he wasn't like,

you know, saying, you know, he wasn't like...

Saying you guys sucked, but he was saying like

oh, that's the TFW meetup and this that and I'm

like dude No, it's not at all. I know and again

like I said before to be fair a lot of people

look Jim Sorensen Who is gonna and I'll even

mention another surprise to surprise guests to

all mention afterwards Jim Sorensen He's an all

-sparker and even before that he's an AT tier

and another surprise Rick Alvarez from fun publications

came right out Yeah, well, see, this thing is

like... Publications of BotCon, you know, Rick

Alvarez was there. We'll see, this thing is like,

okay, I've known different people, I've known

different people that have gone to BotCon since

2009. I've known a few people that have gone

2009, 2010, and 2011. And I've known people that

have gone this year as well. The last three years,

2009 to 2011, Everyone that I had talked to or

everyone that I had seen or all my friends that

had gone to it had said they each were all good

conventions for different reasons. A lot of people

say 2011 was the best at that point in time,

and I can agree with them, but since I've known

you, since I've known Techno, since I've known

Pia, since I've known everybody else, TFCon is

the fan convention. BotCon, as you said, is very

segregated. but on obviously is a fan convention

and you know you have all these different people

meeting up in but at the same time for those

of us who might be going there for the first

time it's like i want to talk to you i want to

go get in line for peter collins autograph rowing

it's very difficult to break the ice that's the

thing that you have time because i being a newcomer

to it Everybody in line was willing to talk to

you everybody you're sitting next to is willing

to talk to you Just it didn't matter you were

just you're talking about it's a very Chillax

environment everyone is super friendly like it's

a shame You didn't get to stick around for the

bar Steve like you'll see like it's just it's

just this giant cornucopia of people gathered

together For the love of the same thing and it's

just it's it's it's it's all in good clean fun

And and that's it's just not and having Scotty

at the bar and having you know Wally burr at

the bar Derek Wyatt and Josh Perez sitting at

the bar drawing doodle of everyone and handing

them out. It was so fun. You can't manufacture

an experience like that. that we have at our

show, and that's something that's unbelievable.

Like I said, all you had to do, the evidence

was just that weekend and the days after it,

just sit on Twitter and look at all those tweets.

Follow Gogdog, follow General Techno, follow

Cheersian, all the guys that were tweeting photos

constantly, constantly, and Pia, constantly tweeting

photos and posting stream videos of stuff that's

happening in that moment and tweet videos. You'll

see just this craziness that was going on that

weekend was absolutely unmeasurable, unequal,

and the beauty is, and this was the best part,

which was Vangelis did a live recording of WTF

that weekend, and he proposed the question to

the audience, how many people here? It's their

first time, and a lot of people raised their

hand. And I would say honestly, of that crowd,

it was about 50 % of the crowd raised their hand.

It was their first time doing it. And then on

top of that, and this was the shocker to me,

how many of you people are Americans? And about

50 % of the audience raised their hand. And that

was good because for the longest time, TFCon,

back before the movies, I would say like post

2007, TFCon really was a Canadian Transformers

convention. This year... we became an international

transformer convention. This year we had people

from the UK, Australia, Israel, tons of Americans,

tons and tons of Americans. It was unbelievable

the amount of Americans that came this year.

It was such a pleasure to be with all these people,

to have them come down. and to shake hands and

to share ideas and to just have a good time.

It was so amazing. I'm so proud to be part of

this show and everything that we accomplish and

that we do and all the little things that we

create together and the guests. Dan Kahana and

Josh Perez said it the best, because usually

both of them, they went to BotCon and they were

artists and both of them were like, it's nice

to be an artist and feel like you're like a guest

of honor because we treat all our guests like

gold. We treat all of them great. We give them

their tables and we constantly send staff or

volunteers to them asking them if they're hungry

or if they need something. It's such a great

show and anyone who ever, and this is again whoever's

listening, if they're gonna do TFCon next year,

get every day. Do the Friday, do the Saturday,

do the Sunday, leave that Monday morning because

you're gonna have an experience that is gonna

make you never wanna do BotCon ever again. I

plan to. Well yeah, have you ever done one before?

No, this was Steve's first invention. You'll

be able to compare. That's just it. The thing

is, there's people like Pia and Vangelis and

Gogdog and Aaron and so many people that have

done bot cons and then they've done TF cons and

they almost don't want to do bot cons anymore

because it's just unbelievable the turnout and

how much of a good time people had and the tears

of joy and the laughter. There's not enough YouTube

footage online that could sum up what we did

this weekend. That's just fucking awesome So

I know because I know you guys don't plan until

obviously next year But do you have any teasers

for us for next year? I'm not like anything big

but if I had to say a teaser If I had to say

one, yeah, we have a really good relationship

with I gear right now Okay party guys and again

no confirmation But if I had any influence, we're

going to see a lot more of them in the future

in terms of exclusives. But that's just me. But

it's a possibility. Any final thoughts, Steve?

I definitely plan to return. I really enjoyed

it. I really enjoyed meeting up with people that

I know online. Yes, I definitely plan to next

time. Maybe 2014. Could be some shattering of

some dark glass you never know If they are you

know if the animators get their asses in gear

anyway Alright anything else you guys want to

bring up anything you want to pimp out part of

man? Just check out my Twitter for the latest

information at protomanx at protomanx. That's

about it Aside from that. I guess if I had to

mention if you're in the Toronto area in November

There's gonna be the action figure expo, which

is it's run by the same guys who run TF con We're

just running a small show of action figure based

stuff and if you're in the Montreal area There's

gonna be the The Montreal Comic Con, which is

September 14th to the 16th, and we have, I don't

know, William Shatner and a whole bunch of guests.

Just pick that up on MontrealComicCon .com. So

yeah. All right, so that's going to do it for

this episode of Toycast. There's only five episodes

left of the show. We're closing out on episode

100. The next two episodes, 95 and 96, is going

to be a two -parter with David Duvall from ToyWorldOrder

.com. It'll be out in the next couple weeks,

so we will see you then. Don't shrink butt! Got

a pair of belly bombs here with your name right

on them! Eat them and weep! Aloha everybody!

Wow! Well that concludes our panel. Thank you

everyone for coming in here! So are elves outside

trying to get those cars to transform? It's hard.

Super hard. Just saying. Oh, this is not like

the real world at all. Could you stand up, please?

Rise, flanger. In love. That's unbelievable.

I don't see anybody in a giant red suit out there

anywhere. I know, I know. Shut up, red shirt.

Uh, hi, everyone. My name is Scott, and I'm a...

Oh, okay, I have a few cards. This is like karaoke.

I'm going to turn this into a rampant Q &A because

I, like most things in my wonderful little ADD

world, have nothing. Ooh, shiny, wet compared.

So if you guys have questions, do not hesitate

to throw your arms blindly into the air. I mean,

don't actually throw your arms into the air,

because that would hurt probably like hell. And

then they have to come and get the arms off the

ceiling. It stinks. Just weird. The camera is

terrible. Okay. Point to self. Never try to out

-stare a camera. They don't blink at all. If

it did, I would be weirded out as like, dude,

I just totally beat a camera at staring. We have

moved the microphone over here, so you can all

bask in his glory. If you have a question, come

on up. I've been informed that no question is

too stupid, no question is too interesting. I

want you to close the doors now and pump in the

interesting gas. Soon you will all feel very

relaxed. Your first question is a really question.

Will you accept this offering? Is that a puppy?

Ooh, it's a clock! It's ticking! Sugar! The ultimate

durian experience. Homemade cupcakes. They're

so beautiful. I'm going to eat one. Only a head's

for a cheese. Don't! I'd like to do that horrible

one sitting here. That's enough, believe me.

Oh my god, I'm good. What was the white thing

in the middle? And how come it's moving? I'll

have to try to keep it moving all day. Not on

a bram muffin cut, anyway. I did mention the

ADD, right? ADOS. Attention, deficit, ocean!

Yes, are you ready? I'm ready. We meet again,

because... You probably don't remember this,

but like seven, eight years ago, it was my very

first day in the Unity North, and I ended up

putting a triple -barrel giant golden BMP at

you. Yes, I still have the bruise. And finally,

after all those years, I finally have a question

that I figured out. Alright. What is the strangest

role you've ever been cast as, and if it's not

your role from The Ultimate Teacher, I will be

very surprised. What was The Ultimate Teacher?

It was the one where you played some teacher

who turns out to be, spoiler alert, is a mutiny

cockroach turned into a human who's been sent

to some delinquent school to try and set everyone

straight and ended up having a fight with some

teenage girl. I think you just answered your

own question. I just wanted to confirm that.

That's not clearly weird. Thank you. If you put

red food powder in it, they can't even tell this

is cheating. I did play some weird ones. I mean,

the very first anime I ever did, I played not

one, not two, but three different women. I did

a show called Sushi Pack, where I played a solid,

tiny little blob of crime -fighting wasabi. We

never spoke. That was my job. That's why I studied

it. Red can't stop staring at green bugs. Am

I interesting, indeed? Okay, let's do this. Well

known when you did half the cast of East Wars.

When you say, I did half the cast. Excuse me,

you're telling me. I'm just making sure we're

all on the same page. You've always half the

cast, let me just say. Uh, and not only do a

lot of these characters have to interact with

each other, which is, you know, hard enough,

a lot of them were openly antagonistic to each

other, and I'm wondering what the hell that was

like. Welcome to the inside of my head. Until

we're suitable, strong, proud, brave, and you've

probably already seen this before, smart like

a bag of hammers. That's the inside of my head,

and that's just a few of them. That's the beauty

of being a cartoon guy. I get to take the policies

from me and Dad, and put them on the outside.

If you think about it, I spend most of my day

in small, padded rooms, sleeping. And I get paid

for it! Yes? Hi. Hi! First off, you're awesome.

Oh, you're awesome! Okay, so my question is,

how do you get your inspiration for all the characters

of choice? I drink. They come from all sorts

of weird places. Susan Blue, who, well, you guys

would know, she was RC, and she directed all

of Beast Wars, and she's... There's Wally. She's

one of my two favorite directors ever, and she

taught me something when I first started working

with her, like 25 years ago, about just any sound

here, and I'm not so much talking about creating

characters, but just coming up with places where

voices live. And just like, you know, if you're

closing your car door and you hear this strange

squeak and you suddenly go... That's right, Waspinator's

thrown off as a squeak. Particularly to Beast

Wars, Doug Parker, who played Tarasota, was also

the one responsible for casting the show. You

know, everybody went in and auditioned for everybody.

And, you know, old bad guys are all here, we're

the huge bad guys, and old good guys are good

guys. And Doug went, like, when I got him to

Waspinator, he went... You know, do your bubble

voice. And I went, what? I mean, you may have

heard this story before, but, you know, so I

had this good character that was like, oh, I

want a present. And I go, yeah, this dude's a

bad guy. He's like, yeah, good point. Thank you

so much. And then as we started to do it, we

realized soon what an idiot he was. And the writers

went, this is awesome. He's an idiot. So is the

character. Dinobot was, I had the privilege,

under the tutelage of Wallyworth, of playing

co -commander. Don't screw it up.