Recapping the BotCon 2010 Experience

Who has been at your fine naked -on microphone?

One more time, bug! I told you to move! All right,

all right. Don't get your knickers in a twist

there, lizard lips. All right, citizens, stand

back. I will say, you're listening to Geekcast

with pretty much everyone from the entire universe.

It's the Scott McNeil thing. We love you, bye

-bye! Be sure to check out All Things Transformers

with Steve Megatron and TFG1 Mike. The next time

we record one of these I will have a new PC because

this one is really kicking my ass and I'm about

to dropkick it. I just had to forward the scene

from office space to somebody where they take

the fax machine out into the field and demolish

it. Yeah, I didn't save this audio, but when

my computer basically shut... I don't know if

it's a power supply problem or what the hell

the deal is, but yesterday I was just texting

someone on Skype in a chat and all of a sudden

wasn't recording, wasn't talking, wasn't... Using

up so much, you know power on the computer all

of a sudden just shut down restarted and When

it restarted and Skype reloaded the font is like

ten times smaller and I can barely see it So

if you guys need to put shit in the chat don't

Cuz I won't be able to read it What has everybody

been up to Spada? What are you been up to this

week? Power core combiners and visiting my took

my toys are us on almost a daily basis Yeah Other

than that any luck I've got almost the entire

first wave of the power core combiners Voyager

sea spray legends ravage who is very very cute

I might add. Still no war for Cybertron figures.

No, I've got Bumblebee in Prime, but I'm looking

for Generations Thrust and Drift. Nice. Actually

saying those two in the same sentence is really

kind of disturbing. Talk about a drifting thrust

or a thrusting drift. But probably the greatest,

the thing that happened this week that Truly

truly broke my heart. I was transforming my transmetal

Megatron the you know the purple and gold dinosaur

Ripped both arms clear off of the ball off of

the Off of the pegs the metal pegs in there just

transform them and they both snapped like Did

that happen to get on a video at some point?

Damn because if it was You would hear. Oh my

god, it would probably have gone viral with the

number of swears. Oh damn That gold plastic syndrome

you gotta watch out for that. Oh, it's like soul

-crushing I mean this guy's one of my favorite

figures too from the lap from Beast Wars and

it's like Yeah, and it's a really flimsy figure

too because I've had two of them and had both

of the arm mechanisms Pop break right off and

it had to write it right it where those pins

are when you unfold it Yeah, it just like this

from not being used and then that's exactly it

It was stiff and then I just kind of I moved

a little bit and they both just snapped I mean

one shot across the room But it's like oh my

god I don't even touch mine. I leave it alone.

Yeah, so now I'm really afraid. I've got a couple

of repaints of that figure, so I'm afraid to

touch any of them now. Steve, what have you been

up to this week? Not much. I got a article published

in a local newspaper on Geekcast Radio podcasting

and so on. I've slowly been trying to compile

new blog entries on Geekcast Radio. Not really

been paying too much attention to Transformers

news as of late. Mostly in anticipation for this

show. There really hasn't been that much news.

No, not really. And for the most part, I'm interested

more for Cybertron, but not the $40, $50 price

tag for the PC edition. So I think I'm going

to wait. Yeah. Alright, and we all know what

Michael Wilson did this past couple of weeks,

so we are gonna go to him calling us from BotCon.

Hi, this is Bob Odiansky for GeekCast Radio Network.

Thank you for listening. Thanks, Bob. Any place

in particular? Fantastic! This is Matt Teager

from GeekCast Radio Network. Thank you. Oh. Thanks

for... Please. You got it. I was going to record

a little something for the GeekCast Radio Network.

In the front? I was recording for the GeekCast

Radio Network. Oh, you were? Yeah. Wow. I can

do that by my picture if you want to? Sure. Say

hello. Hey. Hello. Paul Lighting here. Actually,

it's Paul Lighting. Just have to... Thank you

so much. My pleasure, man. Very nice to meet

you. What's your name? Michael Wilson. Hey, Michael.

It's a pleasure to meet you. Stan, as long as

you're here as a captive audience, could you

say hello for the Geekcast Radio Network? For

the which network? The Geekcast Radio Network.

Okay. Hey, this is Stan Bush on the Geekcast

Radio Network, and you got the touch. Thank you

so much. You got it. Hey, Stan Bush. Good to

meet you. Michael Wilson from GeekCast Radio

Network. We did a podcast with you. I should

say Michael Blanchard, TFG1 Mike. All right.

Say, address this to him, to Mike. No, no, just

go ahead and sign it. Okay. Are you recording?

I am. Oh, okay. Hey, what's up? It's fantastic

to meet you in person. Oh, you too. Really good

to meet you. So, June 21st, 2010, Mr. Wilson

took a trip. Tell us about your trip, Mr. Wilson.

88 % humidity the whole time Yeah, it was grueling

and there's a sweat pouring off me and I'm thinking

to myself There's 2 ,000 geeks that are gonna

converge on this area. Yeah this weekend and

they're all gonna smell just like this You're

setting a wonderful scene for me come in a few

weeks when Oticon is going to be in Baltimore

Well, hopefully it won't be that bad. I mean

I took two showers a day I showered in the morning

and then I came back at lunch or you know after

lunch and showered again So it's like, you know,

I was very clean. There were some people who

weren't But that you know to be expected I suppose

But yeah, so Thursday night My wife and I went

out and had a nice dinner and then after dinner

we got in line for our BotCon registration. Now

normally at a BotCon registration, and when I

say normally it's like I've been going to these

things since 99, 2000 or so, but normally when

they have registrations, they split everybody

up by their last name. The last line is for dealers.

But the line before that is going to be your

R through Z. And that sucks because everybody's

last name starts with a T or an S or something

like that. And there's a lot of R's. And it's

really annoying because it's always the longest

line. I mean, the A's are A through D or whatever,

zipping through line. And we're sitting in line

because everybody's name starts with an R or

an S or a T or something. So this year was a

little different. There was a T. Well, there

was an R and a T line. And then there was the

S through T. U through Z. Yeah. Anyway, yeah,

so it was the rest of the alphabet, right? Because

I can't really do it. Yeah, so it was the rest

of the alphabet, and I'm a W. So I get in line,

and there's two people in front of us. Now, mind

you, there's probably about 30 people in the

lines to the left and the right of us, and we're

just marching to the front. In fact, I took a

picture of Chrissy at the front. I was at the

back of the line, or the back of the other lines,

I should say, and way in the front of the line

is Chrissy looking back at me and there's nobody

between us. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah, yeah. So

I mean, she's so small you can barely tell it's

her. It's like, whoa, you're way over there.

So that was fun. There was like three people

in front of us and we got up there and we registered

and they gave us our box set. and our slicer

figure. And then we went over to sit in the Hasbro

store, or I should say the, not the Hasbro store,

but the - The VodCon store. Yeah, the VodCon

store line. And that was a little bit longer.

But I mean, we made it through in about an hour.

It's not bad. No, it's not bad. There's been

years where I've gone where it's been two, two

and a half hours. And at one point they even

said, maybe you should all come back tomorrow

morning. Now, do you think that because of the,

I guess even though it kept getting delayed this

year, but do you think because of the online

registration that it was more fluent at the actual

convention because of not having to fax things

in or does it really not matter? No, I think

that the online registration made the reporting

a lot easier and that made getting through the

registration line a lot quicker. Granted, my

line was not existent, but just getting to the

desk, filling out my name, getting my box and

walking on was very quick. The lines are so long

because it takes a while to get up there and

they have to fish through all of the paperwork.

I want to say, and this is something Christy

line is manned by old people who are like they're

volunteering and they're the slowest old people

on the face of the planet Our line had some guy

I don't remember his name exactly but you know

some some guy probably my age or so and He was

a little bit quicker on the draw. He got us through

the line pretty quick Mm -hmm, so you can't complain

there now online registration has nothing to

do with the BotCon store So no, I was just asking

as far as the actual box set line as far as the

actual registration lines That's a little quicker.

Yeah compared to other years with you know fax

-based registration and old people volunteers

It went by pretty quick Awesome. Yeah, so can't

complain there But yeah, we sat in line for about

an hour. We got our box. We got we got our pieces

You know marched out of there. I did run into

Thorazine. Yep And I mean he was just hanging

out. In fact, he didn't even realize he was standing

next to Brian Kilby And I marched up and I'm

like, hey Brian I'm like Brad take our picture

and he's like, okay, so he takes our picture

I'm like Brian take our picture and Brian took

a picture of me and Thorazine. He didn't realize

that was You know Brian Kilby. He knows who Brian

Kilby is. He didn't realize he was standing next

to him, which was just funny. At the time, I

didn't realize I was standing next to Ender.

Oh, damn. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't actually meet

him until the next day. So it's like, yeah, we're

all hanging out. Took some pictures, and then

we got out of there. There was also a parts party.

There's a guy on the TFW boards named Megamus.

And apparently they have a toy store called Mega

Toy Fan. So it's the Mega Toy Fan. This guy literally

got another room for his toys. He had his family

set up in one room, and then in the next room,

which was the corner room, so I guess nobody

complained. Yeah, but the next room was the corner

room and he literally had the entire room filled

with shelves with toys And he had a lot of stuff.

I mean a lot of good not nice stuff He had he

had two rooms in the hotel now mind you these

rooms are 140 bucks a night and That's that's

before they ding you with ten twenty dollars

in fees and shit. So which I didn't know about

until we checked out, but that's a different

story. So we go in there, and he's literally

got the whole room, everything. I mean, the dresser,

the beds, the TV is pushed back. They did have

War for Cybertron on the TV, which was kind of

cool. And I think it was his son that was playing

it. But eventually he turned it off so he could

play Lego Star Wars or something. Which was still

kind of cool, but regardless this guy has set

it up so that they got an exclusive toy specifically

for their parts party And these the exclusive

toy was a head robots head one of those little

cobras and He was selling it's clear red plastic

and he was selling them for 20 bucks So I was

like cool, you know, so I picked one of those

up. I got some parts while I was there Honestly,

I think I got a little reamed as far as the price

goes But I went ahead and bought him anyway And

I say I got reamed a little bit because on my

way back from the parts party Actually, I want

to say I left I was waiting for Thorazine to

come out So we could you know go get a drink

or something But the line to talk to this guy

was so long and he was busy talking to everybody

at once Yeah, it was just a clusterfuck in this

room so Thorazine never came out so I eventually

just left. So I'm heading back to my room and

there's a guy, two guys actually, that literally

have suitcases open in the lobby and they're

full of toys and parts. And I took my parts list

up to the guy and he looked, gave it to him,

he very quickly looked through his stuff and

handed me a bunch of stuff that I didn't have

yet for like 10 bucks. Now mind you Megamus just

charged me 75. No Yeah, and this guy's like,

oh, yeah here take this and take this and here's

some more of this and and Literally, it wasn't

expensive at all. I mean I probably I want to

say I grabbed some parts from him. I got the

parts to finish off my Micro masters countdown

set. Mm -hmm, you know and and then I got some

guns and some stuff and then I also picked up

a What is this this is a one of those UK predator

jets He's missing his gun. I think this is scorch.

I forget his name, but he's missing a gun He's

a little dusty. I gotta clean him, but I pick

one. I think I gave him all of like 20 bucks

And I'm thinking well shit, you know, I'm kind

of wishing I'd come here first Yeah, but anyway,

so neither here nor there I went to the parts

party met Thorazine met Brian Kilby headed back

to my room I went to sleep. The next day, and

this is what kills me, is that there wasn't a

whole lot to do. It's like you wake up and you're

thinking, all right, I'm all set. Let's go. Let's

do the botcon thing. The panels didn't really

start until 9. For me, it really didn't start

until 10, because the 9 o 'clock panel was like,

the Collectors Club comic. And I'm not really

invested in the Collectors Club comic. I don't

really care about that. 10 o 'clock, yeah, I'm

looking at the thing now. 10 o 'clock was the

Takara Tomy panel. And I wanted to see that because

Yoki -san was there. And that was kind of interesting.

But the thing about Yoki -san is his English

is a little slow. And so people would ask some

questions and he would be slow to answer and

it wasn't a whole lot of information really coming

out Yeah, but it was so cool. Cuz it's like hey

This is the guy who's had his hand in every transformer

that's ever been made all the way back to diacron.

Mm -hmm Exactly After that was Bob Budiansky,

which was cool because I've never actually met

him before and you know he I've read transcripts

from his panels before and he basically said

the same thing he's always said you know the

whole story of oh you know they they basically

Hasbro basically came out and talked with I want

to say I know the guy's name and I can't remember

what it is right now but he's like Jim something

Jim shooter Talked with Jim Shooter at Marvel,

and Jim Shooter came up with some ideas, and

then he was looking for an editor to do it, and

the fourth editor down. He went to one cube,

and the guy turned him down. Went to another

cube, turned him down. So the fourth guy was

Bob. And Bob said, sure, I'll do it. And he hammered

out 26 bio cards and renamed half the guys in

a weekend. It was Thanksgiving weekend, and he

just hammered it out. And then he turned it in.

And they were so happy with it. That they had

him do the next batch and the next batch and

then they had him edit the four Issue comic book

and then after a while he's editing and writing

and even doing art art cover like the car wash

of doom That gets his cover. He drew that himself.

It's funny You mentioned that TJ Omega from TF

the TFW podcast actually had Bob sign that comic

book Yeah, I saw that. Yeah, I actually saw TJ

Omega at the Saw him there and I was looking

I'm thinking I recognize that guy from somewhere

on YouTube, but I just can't place him I don't

recognize him. Yeah, and it was weird because

I saw him. Okay and then the the store opened

At two okay, so from like noon to two I got nothing

to do and then there was the Hide a key Yoki

bub buddy ask you an Aaron Archer autographs

session that I completely missed because I was

in the sales room I did get in line for Stan

Bush and Paul Iding and Scott McNeil Yes, we

have a bone to pick with you about the Scott

McNeil thing, which we will also be bringing

up on beast unleashed Okay, you could have found

him later to ask him for an interview. Damn it

Do you know how hard it is to actually get next

to this guy? What you got to do is go outside

where the smokers are. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah.

So anyway, here's the deal. The line was supposed

to end at 5 o 'clock. They were going to close

the place down at 5. What they didn't do, which

would have been smart, they've done this in past

years. They have two separate lines, one for

Scott and one for everybody else, because Scott

likes to talk. Scott will talk to every fan and

until that fans done talking and then they move

along and the problem with that is you'll have

Everyone's suffering to talk to Scott and then

you've got Paul lighting and but buddy ask you

behind him like hey Can you send that guy over

here, please? Because it's kind of sitting here

on my ass What they ended up doing they still

had it count to be five o 'clock and they still

have this huge line so they started taking people

out of line ten at a time and bringing them over

to Stan Bush and Bud Budianski, and saying, here,

sign these guys, and then putting that tent back

in line for Scott. Wow. And so eventually, everybody's,

I mean, that's why I got to stop and talk to

Stan Bush. I got to stop and talk to Paul Eiding

for a few minutes. I got recordings from both

of them because. there was no one else in line

behind me. I was just there. I find it very funny.

I find it very funny. I'm sorry to interrupt

you, but if the Stan Bush recording, you had

said something about, you know, we just did an

interview over at GeekCast right now. Oh, yeah,

Mike, is this for him? You want me to sign this

for him? Like, no, don't do that. Yeah, I'm like,

no. That fucker ain't getting nothing. Yeah,

I already got my Stan Bush signature. Thank you

very much. Well, I was going to come back when

he did autographs. Aw, can't I have one? Get

your ass to ModCon. Yeah. It's not in California

next year. Don't feel bad. I still don't have

one either, so. Oh, yeah. No, it's Sam Bush probably

isn't that hard to get, to be honest. You could

probably mail him shit and he'd send it back.

Yeah. But no, he's a really nice guy. He is.

He's awesome. Yeah. And I will digress. Back

before, you know, there was the interview with

him you guys did. All I knew him by was he wrote

that crazy song that won't get out of my head

and it pops into my noggin while I'm taking a

shower and I can't help but sing it. Bring me

the head of Stan Bush. But now that I've heard

the interviews and talked with him myself, he's

just a really nice guy. He is. He very much is.

Yeah, I dig him. You know, I talk to them, so

I get back in line with Scott McNeil, and they

came, they, when I say they, I mean like the

Botcom people came by and said, wrap this up

quickly. We don't want to be in line all night.

You know, we have, this room was supposed to

close at five, it's 5 .30 already, you know,

let's go. At six o 'clock, and mind you, Scott

is still talking. Six o 'clock they took us all

out of the dealer room because the dealers are

like can we go now? They took us all out of the

dealer room put us in the hall up front and put

Scott out there and and he's still signing he

would Chrissy came To pull me out of line at

like 615 because they wanted to go to dinner

and I'm holding all the credit cards so At that

point I am recording Now, I think I recorded

like three minutes of Scott McNeil. I was only

able to send you guys the end of it. Do you have

the rest? I'm trying to get it. It won't come

out of my iPhone. I don't know how to get it.

But the rest of it's mostly just, hey, Scott,

big fan. I'm with Geek Unleashed and Beast Unleashed

and blah, blah, blah. And then at the very end.

There's Chrissy, and Chrissy's like, it's Scott

McNeil. And Aidan's like, is he a good guy or

a bad guy? He's both. Yeah. So I said, I think

he's a good guy, buddy, as we walk away. Because

Chrissy's like, are you done yet? And I'm like,

yeah, yeah, come on, let's go. But there was

still another dozen people in line behind me.

And I'm sure he went on to like 6 .30, 7 o 'clock.

Yeah, but this guy will not leave until he's

talked to everybody. Yeah, I mean, that's not

a that's not a bad thing I'm not condemning it.

I mean the guy is a class act. It's you know,

he's there for the fans He's gonna work it until

every fan is happy If we get an interview with

him, I can pretty much guarantee you It'll probably

be the longest interview we've ever done because

I'm pretty much betting it would be over two

hours long Yeah, I told him I said we've been

trying to get in touch with you on Facebook and

he's like I know but I get so much Facebook stuff

and it scrolls by so quick and It's like yeah,

I can understand but we got a hookup and he's

like, yeah. Yeah, we will we will Yeah, so I

mean that was interesting And then the next day,

I was supposed to be in line early for Peter

Cullen. Peter Cullen's signing started at 9.

I got there around, a little after 8, thinking,

45 minutes is good to get early in line. The

lines were cut off. And not only were the lines

cut off, but everybody who was in line by 7 o

'clock in the morning got a wristband that said,

you were in line. And anybody who didn't have

a wristband had to get out of line. Oh, no. Got

there they were just letting people well I got

there and I'm looking around like what the hell

What am I gonna do and they started letting people

into the room early? So I because the dealer

room opened at 830 autographs didn't start till

9 Yeah, so the dealer room opens they start letting

people in the dealer room to get in line in the

corner I Steak in I'm hanging out at the end

of the line. I'm like whoo -hoo check my shit

out. I didn't have to sit in line Then they start

checking for wristbands Oh And everyone's like,

well, I got a wristband. I got a wristband. And

I'm like, I don't have a wristband in there.

And my first thought was, I don't think they

gave me a wristband. And the guy's like, sorry,

you have to get out of line. He's like, ah, damn

it. So yeah, I didn't get to see Peter Cullen.

And I was kind of bummed about this. And at first,

it kind of bothered me. But then I had to. There

was a second line at 930 for Bob Budiansky and

it was a really short line So, you know, I looked

around the dealer room for a little bit and I

finally come back and I was still bummed and

pissed off That I didn't wake up at 5 a .m. To

see Peter Cullen And I'm thinking to myself if

my wife were here She would have woke my ass

up at 5 o 'clock in the morning to get in the

line But instead she's out with the boys at the

park Because she's much more responsible than

I am So I'm kind of bummed out. So I'm in line

for Bob Budiansky and I What would happen here?

Oh, I'm watching the people walk out from talking

with Peter Collin cuz I can see Peter Collin

He's 10 feet away. Yeah, and there's this long

ass line to Peter Collin still there It's been

running all morning and the people who are what

they're actually television cameras They're filming

people as they walk up and get stuff signed and

walk away and the people are so excited to see

him. One girl is hyperventilating and one girl

is getting her stuff signed and her parents are

standing next to me and they're like, oh, she's

so happy. I've never seen her so happy. She's

so excited to meet Peter Cullen. And I'm thinking,

I'm almost glad that I'm not in line because

I've met the guy twice before. I've got all sorts

of stuff signed by him in the past. These people

haven't and if I had taken one of their spots

in line, I probably wouldn't have felt very bad

So I'm kind of justifying it to myself this way,

right? And they're all I mean these people are

just very very excited and I'm kind of feeding

off of that thinking well Hey, this is this is

still kind of cool. This is nice You know, it's

fantastic for Peter Collin to come out and do

that I Still made it to the panel, you know to

hear him speak and I recorded some of that too,

which was neat So, I mean, it wasn't a total

wash, but, you know, Peter Collin, hey. And I

got to talk to Bud Budiansky, and while I was

standing there, they, right next to the signing

booth, they had the War for Cybertron booth.

They had, what was it, two, four, probably about

eight, six, seven, or eight giant screens set

up. And when I say giant, I mean, like, oh, I

don't know. I don't want to say 50 inch, but.

maybe 40 to 50 inch screens, flat screens set

up and everyone was playing War for Cybertron

and it's awesome. So I'm standing there and I'm

thinking I'm going to record with Matt Teager

because he's the project lead, right? And I'm

going to interview him. Well, he's talking to

somebody so I'm waiting patiently and it occurs

to me he's talking to Hideki Iyoki. Was Yoki

-san right? Yeah, and I'm like, holy fuck So

he does this thing and he's showing him the game

and I'm looking at the game and I'm looking at

Yuki and I'm looking at the game and He is done

and you know Matt Teaker says Arigato and they

say Arigato and they turn around and I'm standing

there and I said You know Yoki -san and he's

like, oh hello, and I said, you know, how does

it feel? I thanked him for being there and said,

well, how does it feel that the things that you

made 25 years ago are now moving and breathing

on the screen like this? And he said, it's again,

very slow English and I'm not entirely certain

I understood everything he was saying, but he

said, it was like a dream come true. Like his

imagination has come to life. And I was like,

wow, that's really neat. And I thanked him. And

I'm thinking, does nobody else realize that this

is the guy who created Transformers and he's

standing right here? Nobody else seems to realize

that. There was a guy who saw me talking to him

and he was coming out of the Peter Cullen line.

He had a G1 sealed Optimus Prime and he had Peter

Cullen sign it. And then he saw Yoki -san and

had him sign it. And I'm thinking, ooh, wow.

He is going to make a mint on eBay with that

one Exactly, and I couldn't tell if it was a

reissue. I mean it was that Toys R Us reissue

it may have been you know, like You know 2005

New Year's or whatever. I don't know but He had

one in the box and they've signed by Peter Cullen

and Yoki -san so that was kind of You know, oh

and I did after Yoki -san left and I thanked

him I did talk to Matt and I got a little recording

from Matt. I think I sent that over. Yeah I don't

know how much of it. I said it was a longer one

Not no, it wasn't very long actually what you

sent over but it was two or three minutes And

he was given the whole spiel. Yeah about You

know, oh, I mean, he basically gave the same

spiel that I've seen a thousand times in there.

You know, I didn't really ask him any questions.

I think I asked him like, oh, so is this the

multiplayer or the single player? And he's like,

no, this is a single player. And he was he was

explaining it and how it works. And then and

then he showed me how to play it. I turned the

recorder off at that point. So he showed me how

to play. And then we played for a little bit.

So that was kind of cool. So I got to play War

for Cybertron with the project lead. Awesome

stuff. Yeah, it was all excited. Yeah, so at

that point I'm not feeling nearly bad about missing

Peter Cullen, but I passed on the next autograph

thing and I went to the panel, I went to the

Activision panel and they talked about how they

built the game. And Aaron Archer was there, they

talked, I'm presuming Aaron Archer was there

basically to make sure that Matt didn't leak

anything important or anything secret. So they

talked about the game and all the collaboration

that went into it, how things started. And they

said, Mike, you and I had talked about, oh, I

think you were mad because you couldn't play

as Shockwave in the single -player game. And

he explained why that was. He explained all about

the balance and everything. And he said at one

point, that we had jets, like Skywarp, and we

wanted Skywarp to be able to teleport. So in

order to teleport, you could temporarily turn

invisible. And then we wanted to also have Thundercracker

be a sharpshooter, so we gave them the sniper

rifle. And then we wanted him to also be like

Starscream, so the jets could also be, they were

literally the fastest players in the game. So

we have... The jet class of all these jets, the

fastest in the game, they can turn invisible

and they can shoot you from a while away. So

it was like ridiculously overpowered characters.

And they said, we just couldn't have that. So

we switched it up. We had to give some powers

to other people. We couldn't have just... One's

class of characters with all this power and that

you know, let alone let those Characters play

in the single -player game, you know because

it's all about Balance, you know you the game

is not going to be fun to play in either version

single -player or multiplayer Unless it's balanced

I guess but I just think you know still you know

and I'm not gonna really get too much on us because

it's a tangent and we need to keep this you know

and to keep this episode kind of tight but my

thing is if you're gonna have a store exclusive

for a game like a Code or whatever it is to get

this exclusive character. You should be able

to use that character throughout every single

mode of the game That's just my opinion on it.

I understand that they need to balance things

and everything else, but If you're going to have

some sort of incentive to buy from GameStop,

or to buy from Best Buy, I think you should be

able to use that character in any mode of the

game, not just specific modes. That's just me,

and that's all I have to say. I totally agree.

Yeah. Well, when you're playing the game, it's

part of the story. And Aaron Archer had basically

said, as of Friday, the Transformers canon has

been rebooted, starting with this game. Yeah.

This game comes out, that's the new canon. And

Aaron Archer, he talked about this a little bit

on Sunday, but basically said he has been reimagining,

like, who are the original 13 Transformers? Where

does that come from? Who are these people? What's

their story? And there's like a whole line of

comics and books and all sorts of things that

are coming out that are going to feed on this

new mythos that they're recreating. Very closely

related to earlier stuff, but you know, a whole

new canon, basically. And it started with the

canon. Yeah, but as someone who's been playing

through War for Cybertron, I'm finding that this

whole thing with Dark Energon makes no sense.

It's like, oh yes, we have this mystical Dark

Energon that nobody has ever been able to control

except now Megatron can control it. It's like,

what? What? Yeah, and he's gonna... You know,

turn the planet into a war planet. But they introduce

these new concepts like Zeta Prime. Well, we

have to inform Zeta Prime, and Optimus Prime

says, you know, oh, Zeta Prime's kind of dead.

I'm, you know, accepting field command or something.

And they kind of explain, they explain things

like how Optimus became the commander, how Optimus

met Bumblebee, how Megatron met Starscream. And

I saw these, and I'm like, wow, this is really

interesting. You know, I mean There's a lot of

new concepts that are coming out and then kind

of obliterating some older concepts like who

the hell zeta prime things like that Nobody zeta

primes. They're just there Well, yeah zeta prime.

I thought was the the leader of the Autobots

before obvious Yeah, not for long. Yeah. Well,

I think at the end of the I think at the I'm

assuming I didn't see this but at the end of

the The Decepticon campaign, I'm assuming that

Megatron kills him. Just assuming, I don't know.

I've made it through the end of the Decepticon

campaign and there are some good things about

the game and there are some real bad things about

the game. But this whole Zeta Prime thing, I'm

reading through Transformers Exodus right now.

Zeta Prime hasn't even been mentioned and I'm

halfway through the book. Sentinel was there,

but there's no mention of this Zeta Prime at

all. Yet. They're already fucking up the canon.

So what we need to do is we all need to play

the game and then come back and have a game podcast.

Yeah, at some point. Play the game and maybe

read some of the book. Yeah. I'm definitely going

to be getting the book. I read the first four

chapters on the Hasbro website that they put

out and I want that book. It's it's actually

those first that first chapter is a kind of through

me because I was like wait a minute They're moving

a little bit too fast here, but then the rest

of the book is a much more even Distribution

not even pace sorry even pace and it's a lot

better and There is a hell of a lot of like philosophy

in there. Yeah. Yeah, I mean there's a hell of

a lot They're getting deep. Well, again, Aaron

Archer, he's kind of got another promotion. And

now he's not designing figures anymore. Now he's

designing the Mythos. Is he officially the brand

manager now? Yeah. OK. Yeah. So that's kind of

him, which is cool. Good for him. I went to the

panel for Paul Lighting and Scott McNeil, and

Scott was gracious enough to let Paul talk a

little bit. And Paul was like, hey, I didn't

realize, this was his first convention. And he

was like, I didn't realize that anybody cared

about Perceptor. I had no idea. There was a guy

in the back of the room dressed as Perceptor

and he's jumping up and down. And he's like,

oh my God, look at that back there. There's a

guy dressed up as Perceptor. Yeah, so there was

a guy also dressed up as Dinobot Transmetal Yeah

Yeah I didn't see too many cosplayers this year

and like in all the pictures I've seen of the

entire event there weren't too many cosplayers

this year Normally, it's a bot cons like the

last two years. There's been you know an army

of cosplayers all over the place this year I

didn't see too many I don't see more than a dozen.

Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, in this year, I made

a point to take pictures. Yeah. Yeah, like Nitro

Streak was there. She was dressed as Sunstorm.

Yeah. I got a picture of her. There was a 12

-foot -tall Starscream there. Got a picture of

him. And he's like, Starscream, now that you

have conquered the universe and you're the king,

you know. How was the Hall of Fame dinner, what

was that all about? It was nice. I was going

to preface that by saying before that we went

to the Peter Cullen panel. And that's when he

announced that he was no longer Eeyore. just

said he's been informed that he's no longer Eeyore.

Because they asked him, what would it sound like

if Optimus Prime met Eeyore? And he said, well,

that's kind of funny, because I'm no longer Eeyore.

And the clip is in there. Yeah, yeah, it is.

But that drew a big cheer. Everyone thought that

was funny. And they asked him, the guy in front

of me, in fact, I think got up and asked him,

how do you feel about Optimus Prime taking people's

faces You know and he said oh, you know, I thought

that was I thought that would hurt, you know

It's like he's ripping your face off. He said

but I don't think optimus prime has changed.

I don't think that Yeah, he said I don't think

optimus prime has changed and everyone else is

like I think he has you know there's kind of

a murmur across the audience like I think he

has yeah very much so yeah, but no he didn't

think so and he's basically standing on his point

that no optimus prime still stands for truth

and justice and dignity and and He's just a little

bit more violent Yeah, it's just a stone dead

killer now who puts bullets through demolish

his head without so much as asking him Who the

hell the fallen is? Yeah, so I mean, I understand

that, you know, Peter is getting a paycheck and

he can't say certain things, but come on, man,

you know, come on, come on. And he did plug the

hub, you know, he's like, oh, and the hub, you're

going to love the hub and hub is amazing. And

it's like, dude, we understand you're getting

paid. You know, at least Scott is going to come

out and say, I'm a whore, you know, whoever's

going to pay me. I'll say it. Not to say that

Peter's a whore. We love Peter, but he's getting

the paycheck. We understand you have to plug

them. You could hate the hub. You could completely

despise the PR guy for the hub, but you get the

paycheck, so you can't say that. That night,

we went to the... Awards dinner we went to the

cocktails first and we taught me Christy and

I walked around and mingled a little bit and

talks to people who looked relatively normal

I ran into David Willis and he wasn't wearing

the orange shirt. So nobody else recognized him.

Wait walkie. Yeah Walkie was there He wasn't

wearing the orange shirt. Yeah, so I said He's

wearing it to eat conventions that aren't transformers.

Yeah. Well, that's his thing. Everybody knows

him because he's orange. I went to a BotCon a

couple years ago, and my hair was still growing

out long. And I had the No, I'm Batman shirt

on that I bought from Willis a few years back.

And somebody stopped me and said, are you David

Willis? And I'm like, no, no. He's wearing an

orange shirt. You'll recognize him. He's the

only guy here in an orange shirt. So this year

I got a haircut before I went, so I wouldn't

be mistaken for a walkie. But yeah, so I saw

him there and he was wearing a black collared

shirt. And I said, hey, David Willis, I didn't

recognize you without your orange shirt on. He's

like, oh, I own other shirts. Yeah, you clean

up well. And he kind of looked at me and said,

he's like, yeah, I clean up sometimes. And I'm

like, what are you drinking? And he's like, I'm

having a rum and coke. And I'm like, oh, well,

don't get hammered. And he's like, oh, I intend

to. Yeah. So yeah, I didn't see him the rest

of the night. But I saw him then. And Christy

and I were mingling again. And I pointed out

Stan Bush. And I'm like, see you over there.

That's Stan Bush. And blah, blah, blah. Because

Christy was getting drunk, basically. Was getting

drunk and was hanging on me because she was afraid

that these fangirls were going to attack me on

mass And it's like no, that's not the case, you

know, they could care less about me Anyway, so

each inductee had had a little video that explained

who they were and what they did and Each robot

had a little video that explained who they were

and what they did and the funny thing is each

robot had a theme song And this is what kills

me. This is kind of bothered me and I'll tell

you I kind of felt the Stan Bush got snubbed

here because bumblebees theme song was The karate

kid theme Well, you know you've talked to Stan

Bush and he basically said that dare or maybe

the touch or maybe both of them. What he really

wanted for them was to be a montage in an 80s

action movie. I think he said Cobra, but literally

this was the Karate Kid theme song. This was

the montage in an 80s action movie. And they

used it as Bumblebee's theme song and they didn't

use like the touch. I think people would have

freaked out if they, I mean like standing ovation

if they had used the touch. And the touch should

have been for prime though. Well prime oh god,

what was primes theme song they use Metallica

a couple of times Really? Yeah, they use a couple

Metallica songs in there for Megatron Maybe I'm

not I can't remember offhand, but there was definitely

at least two Metallica. I think Soundwave got

I love rock and roll When he reaches up to touch

the tape deck to eject And they kind of like

ran that forward and back a couple times. So

it looked like he was pointing to himself. And

he's like, I love rock and roll. He's pointing

to himself like I do. It was funny. And these

were fun. And they used clips from the movie.

They used clips from the TV show. They used clips

from animated when they could, from Bumblebee

and Prime. It was just very well done. And I

really liked it. They used Welcome to the Jungle

for DinoBot. That's appropriate. Yeah, exactly.

Oh and they use the for Grimlock they use the

Godzilla theme song It was funny I enjoyed it,

but yeah, it was very well laid out, you know

kind of music video esque But I kind of felt

like Stan got stood up because it's like wait

a minute. You're the best around, you know, they

couldn't They couldn't go with a more appropriate

80s montage song. And then Dinobot won fans'

choice. And you know David Willis is freaking

the shit out. I didn't see him, but apparently

he was standing up in his chair. Everyone gave

a standing ovation. Scott McNeil was not asked

to say anything. They didn't say Scott you're

standing over there at that table ten feet away

Why don't you come up and accept in Dinobot's

voice? Which would have been very satisfying?

But nobody said anything sounds like they'd drop

the ball on that one. Yeah I felt bad for Scott

and I wanted to ask Scott the next day. It's

like hey, do you feel like he asked you he I?

would bet you that they either they drop the

ball or If he does that Dinobot voice, I wonder

if they would be forced to pay him. Ohhhh. Because

if you do... Well, I don't know if he's a member

of SAG. You know, he had been doing the Dinobot

voice all night and nobody paid him. That's true.

So I don't know. I'm not entirely sure. I think

at the convention he just does it for fun. I'm

sorry Steve, say that again? I was saying I think

at the convention I think he just does it for

fun. I don't think he's... really considering

he wasn't on the main panel. Yeah. Well, I don't

know. So I felt bad for both of them. But, you

know, hey, they were just there to sign shit,

I suppose. But then they weren't like, it's like

Peter Cullen was up there. Yohi -san was up there.

The other guy was the other Japanese guy who

actually created Sunstreaker, the first Transformer.

And he stayed in Japan. He couldn't make it.

And Bob Buddyansky was out there. And Bob basically

said the same thing he said in his panel. He

basically went up there and repeated it again.

It's like, Bob, I've heard you say this five

times already. But yeah, a lot of cheering, a

lot of happy people. We ran in, I, Christy and

I ran into Elizabeth Nightmax's mom. And you

know, that was very nice. We ate dinner with

her and it was two other couples at our table.

That I didn't get their names, but they were

they were nice and we mostly we talk with you

know Elizabeth and Max was there with his toys

and he actually hit a D on And he tore the arm

off it You know and I'm like I'll fix that for

you So I'm sitting here fiddling with Deon for

like five minutes straight trying to get this

damn Deon is just such a So poorly made took

me I mean I've had legs pop off before but never

an arm and the arms socket is not like a ball

joint. It's Is he worse than the actual hot shot

mold? No, same as the hot shot mold. I mean the

hot shot mold didn't fall apart on me when I

took him out of the package. That figure is just

a terrible, terrible figure. I fixed him. Made

Max happy. Elizabeth, very lovely. She, you know,

kind of like Willis, cleans up well except prettier.

And that was nice. So we hung out with them.

And, you know, pretty much promptly got out of

there and went back to our room. I think we were

thinking about having ice cream afterward, but

it was just like, oh, I'm tired. And I just went.

So did the boys get to experience any of this?

Because I know this is Gavin's first BotCon,

and is this Aidan's first as well, or is this

his second? This was Aiden's second. The only

part of this he really got to experience was

when Christy brought him to to drag me out of

the Scott McNeil lines So Aiden got to meet Scott

McNeil very briefly And Aiden's like hi and Scott

McNeil's like hey, how's it going? You know and

Yeah, if I ever get it if I ever if I'm ever

able to send you the full clip from Scott McNeil

You'll hear that too, but that was it. We didn't

get him a minicon pass Uh, Chrissy had basically

intended just to take the boys to Disney World

all weekend. Yeah. And they did. You know, uh,

Sunday, um, Sunday after Botcom, we kind of lounged

around the pool instead. We decided not to go

back to Epcot. Uh, we just hung out. We did walk

over to the, uh, uh, to the Disney's boardwalk

and watch the Epcot, uh, fireworks at nine o

'clock. And then after that, we went back and

went back to bed. But yeah, other than that,

no. No, the boys really didn't attend the BotCon

this year. Yes. Let's see. We're not really going

to talk too much about the box set and the exclusives

because Michael and I are going to do a Toycast

exclusive episode for that. I got the box right

here. I know you got the box right there. And

you are hereby deemed over the next however many

toys there are over the however many next. 10

episodes of Toycast, you have to talk about each

one each episode. So that's your assignment this

time. Any other highlights from BotCon that you

want to bring up? Well, Sunday was short and

sweet. I think I did say hi to Vangelis when

he passed by. Basically, I was waiting for 3

o 'clock to roll around so that I could get cheap

toys. And I waited till like the last second

specifically to buy anything. And there was a

dealer out of Canada, who basically said, I don't

want to take any of this shit home. And he gave

me a really good deal on some older stuff. And

I picked up a couple headmasters and a target

master. And you may have heard me complain about

this, but I put all this stuff back in my bag.

And when I got back to my room, the gun on my

target master, not my target master, the gun

on my power master had bent a little bit. Now

I have this, a little stress mark on the gun

handle. And it's like, fuck, I just dropped 80

bucks on this guy. And now his gun, which normally

sells for like 25, has got a stress mark. It's

damn near broken. That sucks. Yeah. So it's like,

I missed out on Peter Collin. I just dropped

80 bucks on a toy that's now busted. Christy

called me while I was... My god, I was in the

dealer room. She called me and said oh that gray

car you have in the room it broke and And I basically

I was afraid I found one dealer who had one dealer

in a whole room who had alternators camshaft

Oh, and he was selling it for 55 and I'm like

shit. This is gonna sell he's gonna be gone I'm

gonna buy it now so I want that was the only

one that I bought before Sunday and Chrissy was

trying to pack it up and the It goes back on

I'm not sure if it's supposed to be removable

or not, but it goes right back in I Shit myself

though. I'm like, oh my god. I'm gonna forget

that you said this until later Yeah, I was like,

oh my god, you know So basically I've got two

toys here that are now busted before I even get

them back to my room Like you know what I don't

want to do this anymore It's like I got to wake

up at five in the morning to meet people and

I miss my wife. The whole time I was missing

my wife. Normally when we go to these things

I have my wife with me. The last time we went

she had Aiden with her so we drug Aiden around

a little bit. This time I was kind of lonely

and it bothered me. This is the first year that

I've actually talked to people. I ran into Brian

Kilby a couple of times. We actually sat down

and recorded a little bit. I don't think any

of it came through because the overhead speaker

kept coming in and talking about bullshit like,

oh, the raffle is starting now, or the signature

panels are stopping now, that type of thing.

I don't know how much of it came through, but

me and Ender basically sat and talked about You

know the unicorn trilogy and and how it compared

to Power Rangers for like 20 minutes And it was

nice, you know, we just had fun and You know,

I wasn't really doing a shopping at the time.

Anyway, I was trying to get over the fact that

Chrissy broke my camshaft So yeah, so basically

it's like this is the first year that I've actually

tried to talk to people I've never talked to

anybody before I've seen people there year after

year after year and I say, you know, like Ben

Yi I know Ben Yi is I see him every year. It's

like I've never said hi to him. Maybe two or

three years back, I finally said hi to David

Willis for the first time. And this year, I'm

meeting all sorts of people. We met Thorazine

and Rachel Bott, Callie, who makes the Puggle

Formers. I met her. And she actually just opened

up her site to commissions and got a buttload

of commissions in three minutes and had to close

it off. And she's all excited. And it's like,

you know, I saw the Puggle Formers. If she had

had a bag of them there, I would have bought

one or two easily. Yeah. Yeah, I told her, you

should have a bag of these here. People would

buy these. And she's like, oh, I don't know.

And oh, yeah, yeah. So yeah, I met a lot of people

and hung out with some of them. And some of them

just wanted to say hi and scurry off and do their

own things, which was cool. But again still felt

kind of lonely wishing my wife was there I think

I had more fun during the dinner Wait, didn't

you didn't you bring like two or three family

members along so you could have your wife with

you? Wasn't that the whole point of bringing

the rest of the family along? Yes, they wanted

to do other things yeah, basically my mother

-in -law came and Chrissy's little sister came

and You know that was nice, but they had their

hands full with the boys at this point Gavin

wants he doesn't want to sit in the stroller

he wants to run and either that or he wants to

be held and carried so one of the two would had

Gavin in their arms the whole weekend and yeah

I mean they babysat while Christy and I went

out to dinner and Christy and I had some alone

time we went out and you know went went to Magic

Kingdom by ourselves for a little while and that

was nice but you know Don't I don't think it

would have been feasible for Christy to hang

out with me at BotCon the entire weekend. Yeah

Yeah, so yeah, I you know, I basically missed

my wife. I wanted my wife to hang out with me

Next year at the Awards Center. They announced

that next year's is gonna be in California again

again The only reason why that is is because

the movie comes out a month before the convention

or month after the convention The movie comes

out two weeks after the convention. No, July

1st. July 1st is when Transformers 3 comes out.

June 2nd to 5th is when the convention is. Well,

I have a feeling that they're going to do the

same thing they did with the last movie. They're

going to have people who already live in Hollywood

come visit in Pasadena. Yeah. Understandable

I mean maybe they can get weird owl to come out

or you know Tyrese Gibson or Michael Bay or whoever

else is already in Hollywood at the time to come

in and do guest stop spots and that's You know,

that's all well and good But at the same time

it's like they know full well the problems they

had last year which were there wasn't enough

hotel space the hotels already booked a Day the

next day everybody bought out the hotel. So now

you can't stay at the Sheraton Apparently, there's

no other hotels in the immediate area. You're

going to have to take a cab no matter where you

stay. I was talking to Brian Kilby, and he said

that one of his friends got mugged and beat the

snot out of while he was there. And I'm thinking,

why would they? It's dangerous, and it's cramped,

and why would they put it? there again why not

do San Diego why not you know a little bit open

a little bit more open a little less likely to

get mugged maybe you know just pick someplace

else where you haven't already been and yeah

so I don't know Christy basically said hey we

haven't been we haven't been to Disneyland You

know, and I don't know how much different Disneyland

is from Disney World, but Chris He's basically

saying why don't we stay in Disneyland and you

can rent a car and drive the 25 miles in the

Pasadena? Yeah Fuck that. I don't know if I even

want to go back to BotCon Because it's such a

hassle and and I'm gonna miss my wife again,

and you know, maybe there'll be more friends

there I don't know. Oh Which reminds me I also

talked to Proto Man We will save that for the

toy cast talk Yeah, next time we run into Proto

Man we'll talk after TFcom when he has more time

we'll recap but Actually, I'm gonna announce

this now we will have Two toy cast specials in

the month of a month of July one with Michael

and I for the BotCon toys just an overview and

then uh... next wednesday uh... the seventh of

july i will be recording with proto man andrew

i didn't for a rodimus special all things hot

rod rodimus prime every single thing so that's

going to be one hell of a long -ass show He's

got a lot to say. In fact, they just announced

that the next masterpiece was going to be Rodimus.

Rodimus, yeah. I'm sure he knows. I'm sure he's

freaking out. Yeah, there's a picture floating

around. There's a picture floating around where

he tried to steal the protector armor. But anyway.

Alright, so we're gonna cut to the Colin audio

that Michael grabbed for us. Thank you very much

Michael for all the audio that you did grab and

That'll do it. We'll come back with a quick outro

and that'll be it no longer Eeyore. And what

would Eeyore say to Optimus Prime, and what would

Optimus Prime say back? real scared. And I was

never afraid of guys that pump it up and do,

you know, evil things. None of that stuff scared

me. So I wanted to be scared of myself. So, Fender,

for example, I just try to make them really evil

and really scary. Compared to an iconic hero,

I much prefer to be the hero. It does so much

more good than it does any other hero. I don't

know whether I answered your question or not,

but there are some times to play an evil character

and play him as a ham. And now that's fun, to

do a real ham, but to do a serious evil character,

not on my list of favorite things to do. That's

a... The only Trump sounds I could make were

an 18 -wheeler, you know? Well, that's not...

Too many words. But in the breakdown of the character,

that was ultimately the goal was to achieve what

the authors had intended and the iconic character

consisting of integrity, honor, courage, dignity.

These are some of the greater attributes that...

every real hero should have and they were included

and they were there and I was very hopeful in

my audition that I had accomplished all those

ingredients and put them together. I thought

that I had and the story is that I based Optimus

Prime on my brother Larry who was a captain in

the Marine Corps at the time and he retired and

we were... Sharing an apartment together, and

I was on my way to the audition when Larry told

me in his voice He's only 13 months. We're only

13 months apart. He said Peter Just don't go

over the top. Just relax Don't go crazy Okay,

you are My name is Optimus Prime. Okay, it works.

Thanks, Larry. I would like to say this, and

I think people have met me before, but now I

tell the truth when I say... how grateful I am

to you, the most tenacious and loyal group of

people that I acknowledge my success to for that

tenacity and fighting for me to get me back as

I was born. And from my heart to all of you,

I say thank you and I love you for it. our minds

touched. And with the mothership of Hasbro, a

protector, with the geniuses Tashkentan and Bob,

who are here with me tonight, we have taken that

journey and here we are again for the second

time today. where I'm saying thank you. I want

to thank you from the bottom of my heart. I want

to thank Hasbro for being the protector, for

being dedicated to make this possible for us

over all these years to define the creative dedication,

the support, and the courage to keep it going.

so that we can share this incredible experience.

With that, I just want to say one more time,

thank you, and I love you. Alright, we'd like

to thank you, Michael, for getting us all the

BotCon audio. I'm sure it seemed like it was

a very fun trip. a lot of fun and anything that

I failed to mention you can probably find on

YouTube by now I know evangelists has put stuff

up and TJ Omega has put stuff up and a couple

other people a lot of people have put YouTube

videos up so you can find most of it there yes

and I think that's gonna do it for all things

Transformers I am TFG1 Mike and I have been joined

with Michael Wilson Spada and Megatron closed

the show negative Okay, see you next time folks!

And you wonder how You gotta take control The

time is now You know you can't be strong You

remember the time When you had it all together

Try to put you down, but you gotta believe In

yourself when you are feeling like they're trying

to deceive The heart of you, even though you

feel a pain You never give up because the hope

remains You stand your ground, you're fighting

fire with fire You're coming out on top, it's

your only desire