TFCon 2011 Convention Roundup

Cliffjumper, commence countdown. Five, four,

three, two, one! We're listening to All Things

Transformers, version 2 .0. And now, Toycast,

with your host, TFT1 Mike. This is the TF con

toy cast all things transformers Roundup IMTF

you and Mike joining me is one of the Organizers

the goddamn part of man. He has been on the show

before. Hello, sir. How are you? How are you

doing? I'm great Pretty good. And we also have

one of the convention attendees This year jaws

dead eye. Hello, sir. Hey, how's it going? Pretty

good. Pretty good Alright, so this is basically

our every now not every now and then really I've

tried to do this since I've known proto man We

try to do a TF con pre -show and post show every

year this year. We can only get to do a post

show so What where do you want to start proto

man as far as talking about the 10th annual TF

con convention? Well, I can just say about all

the stuff that pretty much went down. I think

I'll just pull up the schedule, and then I'll

just go through just trying to remember some

of the crazy stuff that went down and everything.

Because it was easily the biggest show we've

ever had. Last year, we actually outgrew our

location. Because essentially last year, it got

to the point where we couldn't fit Any people

into the dealer room and the deal rooms that

the dealers themselves? We couldn't even fit

enough dealers. We had to put them in the hallway

It was it was it was getting ridiculous like

we because and we we were at that original location

for I believe eight years without a problem And

then last year something just hit a boiling point

where we just couldn't be there anymore because

the show got just too big. It got so big to the

point that we had to take over other rooms, move

panel rooms to areas that were so far away from

the actual deal room that it was making it difficult

that we were just like, we outgrew the convention.

We needed something that was bigger. And then

we moved it all to the Delta Middleville Resort

Center, which is this humongous... hotel with

water slides and everything, that just completely

fit our needs. And we had a deal room that was,

I think, 150 % larger. We had panel rooms that

were absolutely ridiculously huge for the first

time ever, because I like, I always wanted panel

rooms that were big, big, big, so that, you know,

when you talk, it echoes, it goes far. And that

would accommodate big -screen TVs so if you're

showing stuff people could see it no matter where

they are it just we got a really huge location

something that we've been needing to get for

a while and Since it was also our 10th show.

We wanted to not just you know expand upon all

those little You know technical things we wanted

to have more guests than ever before more exclusives

than ever before and just Completely go all out

as much as humanly possible And we pretty much

did that. We ended up with Simon Furman, Gary

Chalk, Paul Eiding as guests. Artist -wise, we

had Alex Millen of the Drift series. We had Matt

Moylan pop in quickly of Little Formers, but

he had to get out of somewhere because he was

busy. We had Dan Kahana of the Wrecker's fame

and then all the BotCon exclusive stuff and of

box art. We had Joe Nung, who worked with Dreamwave

for years and he worked with IDW with recent

projects. We had, who else was there? We had

so many, so many frickin' guests, it was nuts.

Oh, and on the 80s Expo, if you were, because

on the Sunday we do 80s stuff, we also had Smith

Hart, who's Bret Hart's older brother, for those

who are big wrestling fans, he came down with

a whole bunch of memorabilia and merchandise

from Bret Hart's career, and so that was pretty

crazy too. And on top of that, if you want to

even call them guests, we had the barricade car

from the 2007 movie, well, a replica of it. And

you had the bumblebee, the two bumblebees, no?

And a replica of the 70s bumblebee. That's awesome.

Both of them were in the convention center, not

just outside chilling like, hey, there's the

entry to the dealer room. Hey, there's the two

cars. You could pose with them and stuff. And

then on the Sunday, This was probably the most

awesome thing a guy showed up with I swear to

God almost dead on Tim Burton first Batman Batmobile.

Yeah, I saw that I saw the picture that on Facebook

and like that and so, you know just we went Absolutely

nuts this year like and I haven't even hit the

schedule yet like just just those little factors,

you know then Exclusives, you know first we had

the stronghold exclusive which upgrades your

your your onslaught into a I like to call it

a war within fortress maximus, which is like

a fortress maximus before You know, he became

that famous leader that we know today It we also

had the toxin snake exclusive which is a he was

a secret member of the Decepticon headmasters

who pioneered the clone technology which would

later be used for you know cloning reflectors

and making clones of seeker jets and stuff and

then with the final exclusive was again to tie

into that cloning of the reflectors and stuff

we had the night ops p .e. 11 Repaint team of

a reflector but done in in dark stealth colors

and Their name is bullet bullet shield and I

forget the last one, but they're like supposed

to be They're supposed to be toxins You know

minions that he created for himself when he made

clones of them. So three amazing exclusive sets

that Were a lot of the snake and the P11 the

camera those two sold out like in the first 30

minutes of the show but like those were nuts

I remember because I was doing autograph signings

for the comic book because I wrote the comic

and when I looked down to do some autographs

when I looked back up because the guy to the

left of me was the guy who was handling all the

exclusives like both of them were gone like and

I was like oh my god what happened to everything

it's like they're done I'm like you're joking

right And like it was it was crazy. It was absolutely

nuts And we were just talking I mean when it

was just talking before before we started recording

Someone I would not like to say who but someone

took a a toxin Exclusive the snake and put it

on eBay that same Friday night that the convention

started and it jumped to $400 and keep in mind

this figure cost 25 bucks to buy at the show

So and I was telling people like we have to think

about it this way you go to bot con and you buy

the box set for like 350 bucks and then you put

it on eBay and if you're lucky if you're lucky

You get a thousand dollars now a thousand dollars

from 350 is approximately. It's about a 250 percent

profit Margin, you know, which is good 250 percent

is a good profit margin, but buying a $25 figure

and it turning into $400 You can't even put a

percentage on that. That's ridiculous. And it's

not over yet, that auction. It's still going.

It started Friday. It's going to end Friday.

That's just silly. I don't want to toot my own

horn, but I really think that because we did

fiction related to those repaints, it really

drove people even more so to want them. Because

if they were like, you know this the snake toxin

head robot, it's been repainted in the past There

was even a bot con exclusive one mega toy fan.

He had a You know the toxin not the toxin, but

the snake repaint as one of his dealer room Exclusives

that he was selling at the show and it did okay

and it didn't go for that much But this one like

something just was in the air. I don't know what

it was like Again, me, I'm trying to figure it

out. I think part of it had to do with because

me and Alex Milne and Josh Perez, both two really

talented people from IDW, because the three of

us threw together a comic book that really fleshed

out not only the Stronghold character but Toxin

and really put some story behind them and tech

specs and everything in this nice little package,

it gave a very strong connection to people who

were... coming to the show and they really wanted

to have it and since he sold out so quickly the

people who didn't get it still really wanted

to get it so you know they were willing to pay

large sums of money and it's it's nuts it really

was but it's very flattering at the same time

too now this is the first year that tfcon has

had multiple exclusives correct um yes well the

first time we've had multiple exclusives that

were toys yeah well yeah well that's that's what

i mean the toys This is the first time you guys

have had multiple exclusive toys. My question

is, is this going to lead to maybe a TFCon box

set next year? Well, I'll tell you this much.

We had a really successful time. with head robots

let's put it this way uh... in the past we've

worked with other third -party companies uh...

you know we were to adjust the toys in uh...

in two thousand seven when we had our uh... world's

smallest slag that was done in g two colors in

two thousand eight assuming two thousand nine

we work with fans project in two thousand ten

we worked with uh... with i get out i care I'm

trying to remember the company that possible

toys possible toys. Thank you that did that did

the night bird So we had different experiences

with with different companies and you know again

the most important thing is the process and how

willing and When we first did the stronghold

Toxin was actually a suggestion by them. They

were willing to make more exclusives for us.

They liked it So since since number one, they're

so great to these guys and very friendly and

very easy to communicate with and then also very

generous and Combine that with the fact that

they're all their stuff is also high quality,

which is very important Especially with the debacle

that happened last year with Nightbird I Again,

I don't want to say anything officially, but

I'm pretty sure we might be seeing more of them

in the future, you know Like if there would be

a box set I could see it personally again Don't

quote me on this, but I could see it if we did

have some kind of like let's say three pack box

set or something It would definitely be with

them because I see them being the someone who

would be willing to dish out multiples of merchandise

in order for it to happen like the PX 11 This

could be the P 11 camera. That was actually a

result of Some networking when the entire staff

went to BotCon that that year We all went there

and then we talked with the guys who were dealing

with uh with uh, I believe uh, who are the guys

who do the That's perfect effect. It's perfect

effect. Yeah You know with the guy, you know,

we were dealing we were talking with them and

we worked something out And that happened So

that was just like a last -minute string of luck.

So last minute though that let me tell you for

those who own the comic book um, the panel that

has um the three reflector night ops in them.

Those three spots that are the three reflector

characters, they were originally supposed to

be the Decepticon headmasters. Alex Millen actually

had to go back and change the panel and draw

them in instead, because when I found out that

we had them as exclusives for the show, I wanted

to include them in the comic somehow, so we had

to go back and change a few little things here

and there in order for them to be present. That's

awesome. As far as the scheduling, what was the

first big thing that you guys did this year?

After the registration and people, how it always

starts is the Friday people come, they pick up

their badges and their stuff just because they

want to get their hands on their exclusives and

everything early, get their comic books, their

t -shirts. specific people are there. We try

to convince them to sit down and do signing.

So I sit down and I do a signing for the comic

book. Alex was going to do a signing with me

for the art part of it, and because he designed

the box art for the toys, but he was really busy

that Friday night, so it was just pretty much

me doing only the signings. And then following

that, we have what's at, it starts usually at

seven or eight o 'clock, we have a giant opening

ceremony. And the opening ceremony was pretty

wild, actually. Pretty crazy. Yeah, essentially,

I don't even know. I'm pretty sure something's

going to be floating around later in the future

of videos. But it essentially started with me.

I don't know. How many people do you think were

in that room, Wendell? I think it wasn't full.

You would have a better vantage point than me.

It was full, though. I don't like to like a hundred

or two hundred something like that. Yeah, but

Like literally like a hundred or two hundred

people me singing The car robots theme from Transformers

car robots better known as robots in front of

everyone on the microphone blast in Japanese

As the TF con national anthem and everyone had

the rise for it. I was doing backup And I was

doing backup in in between And you know, we did

a lot of like skits, like joke skits in front

of the audience just to like, you know, get people.

And then we did a little, because it was our

10th show, we wanted to do a little like just...

uh... we had a video commemorating the the past

of the past ten years and a lot of it was actually

jokey stuff and you know all the funny things

that happened through the past ten years and

you know staff who have come and gone and we

commemorate somewhere some that have left staff

but still come to the show as an attendee we

wanted to get that get them to come up and commemorate

them and say thank you for all the work you've

done everything so it was more to just celebrate

the last nine years of uh... t f con and to just

look back and be grateful for that, you know,

how far we've gone from that simple day when

our boss, Colin, was playing hockey and he said,

hey, why don't we rent a room and sell some Transformers?

That's how it all started, literally. It was

just like, hey, why don't we rent a room and

we'll just set up some tables and I could get

rid of these extra Transformer toys I have. And

then it all ballooned from there, from those

humble beginnings. Anyways after the opening

ceremony There's also the parts party which because

the deal room is not open yet It opens the Saturday

but the Friday because the deal rooms not open

yet We open it up to the parts party, which is

just pandemonium more or less it's literally

just everyone just come with your freaking toys

and just go nuts and do whatever you can, you

know, and I mean there is ultra primal who had

like every bot con 11 11 exclusive in one quarter

and he had some guy who just had like See, you

know FAA graded minton box, you know g1 shit

and then you had one guy who was just like, you

know like all the really weird brave stuff and

then you had like you know there's a few guys

who come from the states and they go well I'm

going to the parts party and I'm coming from

the states so I'm gonna bring some stuff that

they only have in the states and bring it to

Canada and then I'll you know it's easy money

you know what I mean yeah like it like I think

the most common thing was space case I think

it was Dark of the moon space case because he's

not out in Canada yet So some guy came with like

five or six of them and he also brought those

Scout Star Wars Transformers the smaller ones

that recently came out. Yeah, so he brought those

and those like all disappeared Like all because

again, you have to realize like all these people

in can especially the completists. They were

just like Or like you bring like a Sentinel Prime

who speaks only English instead of you know,

cuz we also have that issue Oh, wait, the Canadian

version only speaks French? No, no, no. Well,

what they do in order to accommodate the French,

if it'll say, like, I am Optimus Prime, or, you

know, this is Starscream, bring me the AllSpark

or something, it'll just say the character's

name. and just add over and over, even if it

has multiple lines in the English version. So

Sentinel Prime just says, Sentinel Prime. And

when you put the gun in his hand, because with

Sentinel Prime, you have to push different parts

of his body, and he'll say different lines, but

he'll just say in the Quebec slash Canada version,

Sentinel Prime. Sentinel prime and it was the

same thing optimist prime optimist prime or instead

of this is jetfire was just jet fire jet fire,

so That's a problem a lot of the leader classes

It was a big big issue with a lot of leader classes

and so when people bring those dark of the moon

leader classes from the states and from target

or whatever they're more sought after because

they're the more Electronically complete ones.

Yes. Yeah, exactly After the parts party well

while the parts party is going on there's that

there's two things that happen in the panel room

first There's a classic g1 trivia. That's ran

by J Alvatron and then falling that there's a

it's kind of a Precursor to then the deal room

opening up which is ran by a good buddy of mine

Decepticon army also known as Phil fellow podcaster

from Canadian slag He does a collecting 101 for

transformers, which is he gives you helpful advice

on how to approach your collecting and what to

do and how to think when you're approaching different

collecting angles. It's something to think about

when going into the deal room. He was pretty

much explaining, well, if you're someone who

wants Fortress Maximus, the difference between

buying an incomplete Fortress Maximus and getting

all the pieces one at a time, because some people

do that. They just buy the core body. Without

the head or anything and sit together slowly

throughout the years as opposed to buying it

100 % complete off of eBay and spending that

giant wad of money which pays off more What's

the difference and so he kind of goes through

where your head is at when you're doing that?

You know, what's important to you and your priorities

and so it's just one example of that But many

things he he does in the panel just kind of it

to help people Decide what they're gonna do the

following day in the deal room and the last thing

on Friday is also There's again fun stuff. So

there's a Transformers Pictionary that goes on

in the hazel panel room, which is a separate

smaller panel room What was the? Faction feud

this year the faction feud happens on the Saturday.

Okay, we'll get to that when we get to Saturday

I don't think I've ever asked anyone this but

What in the hell? I know Techno does it every

year. What the hell is the TFCon cookie? What

the hell is that all about? That's the general

Techno thing. In the past, when we were at the

DoubleTree, the old hotel that we were at, a

tradition that the DoubleTree does is when a

big conference or convention or anything, not

just... toy related or geek related stuff. If

there's a dental convention, if there's a boating

convention, if there's some kind of convention

going on at their location, if you go to their

hotel under that convention rate, you get free

cookies when you come. It's a silly little thing

they do, that they used to do. And because we

were switching locations, and this new place

obviously, it's a different location, didn't

do that anymore. GeneralTechno, I remember he

posted over Twitter something about he bought

a bunch of cookies for everyone or something.

I don't know. I'm not responsible for his actions.

It's first time I heard about that. I don't think

he's responsible for his actions sometimes. But

anyway, all right, so Saturday morning, what

happens to you guys first? The Saturday obviously

the big, big day. How it works is the people

who pre -registered, they get in a half hour

early into the room. The ones who didn't, obviously

they have to just wait until 10. Honestly, and

this is when I knew that this show was nuts,

it was the first time ever I saw Such a big line

like it was Bokan size the line for the dealer

room it like I couldn't describe it because you

weren't there, but it was literally Like I was

going to the restaurant to the bars Yeah, so

it went all the way to the bar. So we're talking

like Through the woods. Yeah. Yeah Well, that's

just say like it's hard to describe because you

don't like especially the listeners don't realize

how far away the bar is from the actual convention

but it's far you know so the fact that it went

that far it was like it was a bot con sized line

it was nuts for the dealer room it was absolutely

not i'd never saw anything like that all the

years i've been doing the show and i think it

had to do with the fact that you know it is uh...

a movie here for one so there's a lot of still

hype from dark of the moon in the air in the

blood of people still in theaters you know So

I think that probably was one factor. And also

because our last show was so ridiculously huge,

it was only a matter that if it was going to

be a movie year, that it would only be bigger.

And then when the doors opened, insanity ensues

and it was a lot of fun. Paul Eiding had a question

and answer panel where he pretty much... The

thing with Paul Eiding, what's great about him

is he was a Broadway actor first and a... And

a voice actor second and he's also very abrasive

Paul like he's the kind of guy who loves to tell

dirty stories and stuff because he's he's lived

a crazy life he really has and so and It's funny

because he has his wife with him and you think

when he has his wife with him. He's gonna calm

down No, he's making jokes at her expense. He's

he's great He really is and and like his panels

and especially at like we'll get into the best

part of what is TF con but like after the shows

uh... he's just one of the greatest like easily

i've met him at three different shows and every

time i've seen him he's always like like side

-splittingly funny because of that and you know

and this is preceptor you know like if that's

always ever done in transformers one of the most

boring characters yet to get the man behind the

microscope so to speak is Easily one of the funniest

guys in the entire in like in all of transformer

voice actors because of because of the stuff

that he's done in his life Yeah Then the next

thing we have we have a 12 o 'clock. We had the

the Hasbro product preview panel, which essentially

was Was the what was shown at San Diego Comic

Con? So there wasn't really anything new the

more so the whole point of that panel is the

it shows everything that everyone in San Diego

who didn't everyone who didn't see was from San

Diego, but It's more important for the Canadians

who have because Hasbro Canada is present for

that whole panel and they they're the ones showing

it off So they answer questions that normally,

you know would never be addressed, so people

who are from Quebec going, will this specific

store exclusive be at our location? Are we going

to get this figure? Are we going to get that

figure? It's pretty much to address those kind

of issues. How is distribution with that? Will

this figure have English language? Will it be

released at all? Little things that are asked,

they could be asked directly because head office

is right there in front of you. After that, There

was autograph sessions with Simon Furman and

Joe Nung Simon Furman brought something really

interesting with him that he debuted at TF con

He had the original scripts for the last two

issues of war within part three that never got

printed Because when he did war within part three

like the third installment age of wrath it never

got it never finished because dreamwave went

out of business and even Even the omnibuses of

War Within, I know Wendell, he bought the omnibuses.

The omnibuses only contain volumes one and two

inside, which is the original War Within and

Dark Ages, which was the debut of the Fallen.

And they didn't include Ages of Wrath, issues

one and two because... the story never concluded

so it'd be silly to include them but what Simon

did is he brought the original scripts for three

and four and he was selling them and signing

them to anyone who was interested and so that

was really cool of him to bring that that was

like a little like unexpected exclusive if you

will that he brought to the show and Joe Nung

he just brought a whole bunch of prints and stuff

to sign it's just nice to see him and to see

him again since the Dreamwave days because he

came to our show I believe the last time was

2004 and that's when he came with Pat Lee and

all like the Dreamwave crew. So it was just nice

to see him again after all the smoke has settled

from all that craziness. There was also afterwards,

Gary Chalk had a question and answer panel, typical

Q &A panels, but the one thing that was great

about it, That was hilarious. And again, this

goes back to Paul Eiding. People were asking

questions to Gary Chalk, and then Paul Eiding

got in line. Well, he got into the back of the

line, and then he started trolling Gary Chalk.

What did he ask, Gwendo? Because you were there.

Well, he asked, he was asking in a weird voice,

a very familiar but weird like old man voice.

And he's like, what if Optimus Primal and Colonel

check off from Stargate and that character that

sergeant you played on in Freddy versus Jason

and Papa smurf and everyone's like wait what

Papa smurf and we're trying to look for him in

the crowd and What if who would eat the most

ice cream and everyone started laughing? And

so lighting and so Gary actually gets off from

the stage and starts looking for Paul. I think

he's like I would know I would if Paul lighting

actually kept the mic away from his mouth, I

wouldn't have known it was him. And then Paul

Lighting starts putting the mic in his mouth

like, would you want it this close? This close?

That was hilarious, because it loosens the mood.

And this is to the professional guests that we

got. It's so weird that Gary Chalk actually answered

the question. He said the Russian character he

played would eat the most ice cream. And Gary's

a great guy too. Gary's but everyone knows anyone

who's ever met Gary and Gary did our very first

TF con He was our first guest that we ever had

He's a very chill individual. He's very relaxed

and the scary thing about Gary is that his regular

voice is optimist primal So when he talks to

you when he talks about anything, it's not voice

acting. That's just who he is, you know, and

What was interesting is that? Gary's Agent was

with with him and on the Friday the agent had

these cards that he bought from There was there

was some artist in the dealer. I don't know who

it was If they hear this podcast, please post

and say who you were but there was an artist

in the dealer room that had a picture of Optimus

Prime like a drawing of Optimus Primal holding

a guitar and playing it And it's very it was

but done like in like the CG style of East Wars

right and and the agent from I was gonna say

like it was in guerrilla form and he was sitting

on a school and he had a Acoustic guitar at him

with a mic on him. Yeah So like just picture

that. And so the agent bought that and I was

like, oh, that's such a weird photo. And then

we later found out it's because Gary, despite

the fact that he's known as a famous voice actor,

is also an incredibly talented musician and singer,

like at a very good singer. Yeah, he is. And

so we were like, oh, wow. So when we found that

out. Because TFCon being TFCon, we just let anything

happen. We actually scrambled to try to find

someone who has an acoustic guitar. So while

that was happening behind the scenes, we'll just

go through everything else, because it leads

to something later on. OK. So then on top of

that, we had, OK, then Gary and then Paul did

their autograph sessions. And that was great.

And I know that Gary and Paul got interviewed

by a whole bunch of TV studios that came down.

I know CTV and two websites came down to interview

them. uh... there was also the costume contest

uh... which this every year we get crazy costumes

the the best being missus talent for a sauce

notice that asa who's easily probably one of

the best cosplayers in in all of the transformer

community most most you know her out of of the

uh... dead on black arachnia animated black raki

animated uh... bubble we that she's done in the

past and so this time she came as a g one optimist

prime and it was absolutely gorgeous as a treat

for all of us, in costume, as G1 Optimus Prime,

also a person that we didn't know was so talented,

she played the piano. Oh yeah, that's pretty

awesome. Yeah, and it was funny because she's

playing the piano like a grand piano, like a

big grand piano. Oh wow. And there's G1 Jazz

just like leaning on the side of it like, yeah,

yeah, like someone dressed her up. And it was

just, and again, just like one of those like,

you know, like it's a photo op moment, you know

what I mean? Like that's something that you like,

you put a poster of on the side of your wall

or something. Really cool stuff. And then the

last thing was in terms of contest was the art

contest of the 3D stuff, like, you know, the

custom guys. This year, and I was one of the

judges, this year was ridiculous. to figure out

who was going to win because some like usually

we have some of the like clear cut this guy's

going to win situations but this year incredible

talents came out of nowhere and there was there

was chan formers he brought his classic style

Overlord from Master Force, which is just it

was ridiculously huge It was like a head and

a half above the size of a Scorponok toy and

it fully articulated combined and likes like

Overlord and everything and then you had Nemesis

Predaking Stu. He brought his classic style heart

half shell, which was a pretty much a classic

version of King Poseidon from Beast Wars 2nd,

but just like his half -shell component and you

had Freedom Gundam he made a power -up armor

for animated Optimus Prime that turned him into

Galaxy Convoy like just the most insane Customs

I have ever seen Showed up at the show this year

and it made it so impossible to pick who was

gonna win Because everything was some kind of

like original engineering talent. It wasn't just

some straight Repaint with like it would change

hands or a head. It was just somewhat like scratch

-built gorgeousness and Anyone could have easily

gotten gold in my opinion anyone could have but

in the end The half shell one because a lot of

staff because originally the judging was just

me and and GM fan But then we had to get other

staff in and then we had to actually ask some

attendees and volunteers their opinions too Because

it was just so split down the middle how great

all the stuff was Because it was always like

okay this guy should win, but this one's good,

too You know and it was yeah, and then is the

same thing that the 2d art contest. It was a

little more cut and dry but One that stuck out

at me was someone did a portrait of internet

personality Vangelis. And submitted it, like

an actual drawing of internet personality Vangelis'

face. And I think that was hilarious. That person

didn't win, but the fact that they did, it was

hilarious. What else? Simon Furman had a Q &A

session. It was pretty straightforward. A lot

of the questions were stuff that he couldn't

answer because a lot of people were asking about

G -181 that's coming from IDW. The only thing

that he really talked about that was of interest

that I could mention was who his favorite characters

were and why he used them so much. And then he

explained his understanding of his own Furmanisms.

Little things like that. and then at they had

the uh... revenge of the video games panel which

was ran by me and uh... what that was last year

i did a video game panel and it ran for an hour

twenty minutes around twenty minutes longer than

it was supposed to i was pretty much covering

every transformer video game ever made ever i

remember seeing that on youtube and so if you

watch at the end of the video When I start talking

about the armada game I got a signal from one

of the staff members going like wrap it up because

we got to do something else So I actually had

to leave out a lot of stuff this time around

I got a chance to Put that stuff that I left

out and do some little bonuses for for the people

this year. So I talked about the Tiger Electronics

LD game from Generation 2. I talked about the

animated LD game like the LCD games. I talked

about the Mugen fighting games which are done

by Hong Kong community. I talked about a lot

of the hacked games like Super Autobot Brothers

and everything. A lot of stuff. Didn't you do

a live playthrough of the Japanese G1 game? Well

I did a live playthrough recently on Google Hangout.

Oh, okay. No, I thought you actually did that

at the convention. Oh, no. To beat Mystery of

Convoy, you need to have a good three hours.

And something to bite down on. Like, no, what

I did was I essentially I was showing people

different scenes and I played through a majority

using save states of. The Dinobot Brothers the

return of Unicron which was a it's a essentially

they took the game Super Mario 2 and They turned

it into the Dinobots And it's a great like again

that footage is gonna show up somewhere online

just like how Vangelis did the first one and

People listening find it your guys are gonna

laugh like crazy soulfury who's one of the head

moderators of TFW 2005 he actually was doing

a play -by -play like Like what they do with

San Diego comic -con where someone like a blog

a blog cast or something like a blog cast or

whatever Where he was literally doing a blog

cast of the entire panel be any like I was really

I afterwards went back And I read it all and

he was like I don't know what I'm watching, but

it's absolutely fucking insane Like he was just

he couldn't even describe what he was seeing

because it was I brought a lot of crazy stuff

I just I like I really wanted to Whenever I do

my panels, I want to do something that like people

leave it and go. Oh my god Did you see that like

that's what I wanted not just like document but

like really show them crazy stuff And the last

thing was the live script reading and again true

to what I said before we wanted to do something

bigger than we've ever done before It was the

first time we did a script reading with two voice

actors instead of just one so we had again Gary

and and Paul Eiding together doing a script reading.

And the story was... When G1 Starscream was in

the Beast Wars timeline and he was going through

time and space He accidentally caused a ripple

when he escaped which caused Perceptor to get

sucked back into the Beast Wars timeline And

I didn't watch the whole thing because I was

really busy, but it's essentially it's an event

It's it's Perceptor stuck in the Beast Wars timeline

and an adventure that ensues and a lot of fans

got to Audition and play as specific characters

that would appear namely Beast Wars characters

So that was pretty awesome. And then to cap off

the last thing that was done in that room was

they played the original 86 movie because this

year was also the 25th anniversary of the original

86 Transformers movie. So we wanted to celebrate

that. And that was fun because watching it on

the big screen with a whole bunch of people,

especially the people that I was sitting with

who were seeing it for the first time. That was

really fun because I was like young and old Yeah,

yeah young and old there You know there was children

in the audience who were seeing it for the first

time and laughing at Wheely and laughs laughing

at the the junkie ons and stuff and you know

That's the new generation of fans, you know So

it was really cool to see you know people who

were seeing the movie for the first time and

laughing at you know Excuse me, you know, it's

it's always nice to take to have that first experience

and relive it through other people Because I

mean, all of us, we've seen it only a billion

times. Yeah. So to see it to see it through the

eyes of like as me, I brought some friends from

Montreal who were toy collectors that collect

anything but Transformers. But they were seeing

the movie for the first time. And it was kind

of my way of saying this is what I like and how

amazing it was. You know, like when that Optimus

Prime scene happens, you know, it's like I would

turn to my friend and go, see, this is what I

am. This is this is it, you know. this is how

amazing it is and it was that time to shine and

it was really cool. I don't want to go off on

a tangent here but I have to say it's all Hot

Rod's fault. Wendell, didn't I yell something

because I was actually horrible because during

the entire screening of the movie I would yell

at certain parts of the screen. The only one

that caught everyone off guard was towards the

end. When he starts using the Matrix, that threw

everyone off. Yeah, because what I did was, I

yelled just before Hot Rod's about to interfere

with Megatron, I yelled, Hot Rod, don't do it!

Yeah. And then just when he's about to grab the

Matrix off of Unicron, I go, oh, this is it!

Yeah. And I yelled, like, extremely loud from

the middle of the room, and everyone's just like,

what the jump? Yeah. Because I'm staff and I

could get away with that kind of thing. Normally

I wouldn't do so because again, I love that movie

to death and if it not for that movie I wouldn't

be where I am today I think so and then the last

thing of it all was the faction feud and the

faction feud this year because one of our previous

staff Aaron off Mike he retired from the show

we got Vangelis to host the faction feud and

for those who aren't familiar with the faction

feud is the faction feud is Is essentially transformers

but done in Family Feud style. So we we asked

them a question like, you know name a Decepticon

headmaster and then what we do prior to the show

is we pull a hundred transformer fans and we

see how many of them You know when you say name

a Japanese headmaster, I mean a septic on headmaster

What's the first one that comes to mind? You

know what I mean? And so that's pretty much how

Family Feud on television is. It's the same thing.

So you'd say Scorpionok and that gives you 60

points as opposed to if you said Weird Wolf or

Mindwipe. Yeah, exactly. So we did stuff like

that and that was really fun and I believe the

team that won that was the Furmanisms and second

place was the Ninja Consultants. A lot of weird

teams, but very impressive. I was the judge for

that one. Just so in case if people question

stuff, I could settle it. But that was really

fun. And then the last thing was the TFCon after

party for the Saturday. The TFCon after party

was the thing that was crazy. And what that was,

and what I mean by crazy, was going back to finding

a guitar for Gary Chalk was, first of all, and

this is where TFCon is awesome, We had a bar

that was reserved for us and the bar for the

convention made transformer drinks. So if you

went to the bar and said I want an Autobot or

if you wanted a Decepticon, you got a specific

shot glass of a specific brew that was colored

red or purple. So there were some people going,

I want three Autobots and two Decepticons. So

wait a minute, what if people wanted three Maximals

and four Predacons? I don't know, I guess yellow

and green. Yeah, yellow and green. We didn't

think that far ahead. Maybe at the Beast Wars

anniversary. But it was funny because Gary Chalk

had three Autobots, three Decepticons. And so

when he downed those and we gave him the guitar.

He started singing and I'm not talking like he

just did one song He literally did like seven

songs said I guess so more than that Gary sung

like and we're sung. I think I'm not over exaggerating

here. I think like 15 different songs He just

kept going and like he sung What's the song from

Watchmen in the intro? I? Have no idea You know

that the I didn't see watchman. I'm sorry. Yeah

Okay, I read it. I read it. I did the more important

thing. Well, he he sung a lot of classic um 60s

and 70s and like blues songs and blues songs

and I know he did he did muddy waters. Hoochie

coochie man. I remember that muddy water like

he was singing like these like word for word

and very because his voice is very good And he's

very good with the guitar too. He was singing

all these songs and I swear Mike, you had to

be there. It was literally a humongous crowd

around him. You had Paul Eiding, Perceptor, like,

you know, nodding his head and singing along.

You had Simon Furman, you know, there, too, with

his wife and everything. Also, like, you know,

tapping his toe. And then, like, literally, like,

30 to 40 fans just gathered around him like it

was a campfire. Just every single word. and everyone

just going nuts at the end. And it was great.

It was surreal. And people like Pia and people

who have been doing bot cons for years who were

there. And I was so happy that that happened

because all these guys that saw... That we're

there for that. They're like I've never seen

it I've never felt anything like that in my entire

life because just I get it's so hard to describe

but the atmosphere of that moment It was just

something that you would never get from any other

transformer convention in the world and I don't

want to insult BotCon and auto assembly and slag

icon and and all the others but Honestly, nothing

will ever match what happened that night. Like

it was it was Insanity, it was absolute and say

it was like it was spiritual what happened that

night where with gary singing and just everyone

gathered around him and not just like fans but

like like celebrities too within our fandom gathered

around also and all enjoying it you know it was

unbelievable that night yeah i mean you know

we're not here we're we're here to talk about

this year's tfcon but i i just have to say you

know the last two bot cons i've noticed that

because of social media Everyone that every one

of the people that I know that have gone last

year and this year have had a really fun time

but still BotCon is It's not segregated, but

it's it's in clicks. You have the TFW people

over here. You have You have those fans over

there, you know I mean it it's like going into

a high school cafeteria and seeing the jocks

the nerds the math geek, you know Also, I find

with BotCon I've been going for a couple of years

It's very corporate. Yeah. Well, and that's the

point of BotCon because it is the official and

it is there for you to go and unfortunately stand

in line for seven hours to potentially get an

autograph from Colin. See, what's funny with

that, too, is because the BotCon that just passed,

Paul Iding was there. Right. And it's funny how

Paul was handled so differently at BotCon than

he was at TFCon. And even Paul Not Paul, Simon

Furman pointed it out. When he was at the bar

with all of us and we were all sitting together

and talking and stuff, he was saying how, because

this was his first time doing TFCon, he was saying

it was unbelievable how different an experience

it was for him, because he just was not used

to that. Because Simon, all he's ever been doing

is Transformer shows, but that being said, the

only Transformer shows he's ever done... were

bot cons and he's he felt that he's been carted

around like a peat like cattle you know and he

never had a chance because you guys are you know

essentially i mean compared to bot con because

you guys are essentially smaller yeah it's more

personal it is and it was it was Unbelievable.

It really was like just I can't wait until people

start posting those videos of what happened that

night because Like we even me I was joking about

it But I really want to find someone who really

recorded a good audio of it and I want to like

make a CD I want to like like Gary Chalk unplugged

from TF con Are you still have that a picture

you took Daniel? His back and then everyone around

him basically Yeah, like I took it like I took

a million photos But one photo that I took a

really good one was it was from behind Gary Chalk

like from behind him Because like everyone's

gathered around him literally like like a campfire

kind of thing and it's just this beautiful spread

of just everyone's eyes just focused on him with

the guitar. And in that shot, you see Simon Furman

and Paul Eiding also. And it's just absolutely

gorgeous. It was the first time everyone in that

room was on the same page. It was so incredible.

And then on that note, we move to the Sunday.

This is the first year you guys had a customizing

class, wasn't it? No, it's not the first year.

We started the customizing class in 2009. Okay,

yeah. Was this just the first year that you had

it on a Sunday or did you always have it on Sunday?

Oh, okay. It's just that the only first time

with this customizing class, what it was, was

in the past, Dac Duncan. he was the one who ran

it in the past and Duncan he was the BotCon 2008

custom champion like he won the 3D content so

we had someone who was a really legitimate guy

when it came to customizing on our staff who

was in charge of the customizing class and in

2009 we did a universe rev based off of the RID

character SpyChanger in 2010 We did UK Flash

using the Aveo Swerve mold. So we took Aveo Swerve

and we turned him into a homage to the UK Flash

figure. But this time around, because Duncan

was not able to participate because he had a

job doing some other stuff in the United States,

we got two very talented customizers. within

our community to come on down and help with it

and this year we had a universe 2 .0 downshift

based on the Omnibot mail away and it was absolutely

gorgeous how that turned out. Reprolabels helped

out with it again this year giving us stickers

to give that final pop to the character and it

was a gorgeous figure. I'm actually jealous because

I was not able to be in the customizing class

because I'm staff. I do hope that we will have

some made for staff afterwards. Just for those

who wanted, we used the Prowl mold from Universe

2 .0 or whatever. Interesting. They did so many

little things here and there that changed it

to make it look like Downshift. Now, granted

Downshift is a white car and so is Prowl, but

the little... In nuances that were thought about

that separate the two characters on an aesthetic

I call it a silhouette you know like if you saw

just a silhouette of both characters from g1

the little things that you could do to it to

change it to make one look like the other and

They were very clever with that the final like

the images are on TFW right now. So yeah posted

theirs, but it's absolutely gorgeous There's

a new face now was there is your old customizing

class kind of like the same as bot cons where

yeah, it's the same as bot cons where when the

registration goes up online, it's literally the

first thirty people and that's it. Well, no,

that's not what I was going to ask. I was going

to ask as far as constructing the figure where

maybe it's, you know, the same mold as the Prowl

but it's a different head. Well, you see, the

difference between us and BotCons is BotCons,

what they do is you get, similar to how the Chinese

factory is, where everything's on a tree, BotCons

is more like you're assembling a model kit. Because

okay, you're literally building the figure from

scratch from from the trees You're snipping it

off the trees and then gluing them together and

screwing them together Okay, and then you apply

a few paint and a few stickers and bang There's

the custom class figure for for BotCon What we

do instead is we give you the assembled prowl

because what we do instead is we get donated

from Hasbro, Canada We get donated a large amount

of figures of the same one. So this year we got

donated 30 prowls So we literally take them off

the bubble because they're in the package. We

wash the figure first because you clean the oil

off of the surface that comes from the factory.

You disassemble it completely. And then again,

I wasn't there for the entire thing, but then

the process begins. Usually the new head sculpt

is something that's done by third party. We have

a guy named Venksta who works in the community

and he helps with with Impossible Toys with some

of their stuff. And he's also a third party guy

who does his own little things on the side. He

was the one who was responsible for all the heads

and everything. So he usually casts the head

and repro labels They cast us stickers and then

they throw throw together some final product

with painting and everything and again Go online

and take a look. It was at a very beautiful final

product People on the boards are being very silly

with it too because they were looking at it and

go Oh, there you go. Now. We're screwed. Now.

We're never gonna get a universe 2 .0 downshift

And it's like, oh, come on, guys. What are you

stupid? They were taking it seriously. Because

we all know when we got Overkill in 2007, we

never got an Overkill toy. Yeah. The reason why

I was asking about it is because you said the

nuances that were added to just customizing the

figure to make it look completely different.

The reason why I was asking about that was because

the first thing I thought of was how at BotCon

this year they took the RC mold and just completely

redid her as Minerva and Dragstrip and that's

what I was kind of comparing the transformation

from Prowl to Downshift to... Oh yeah, in the

case with Bakon where by just disassembling RC's

head and putting in the antennas and then reassembling

it... Completely changed the silhouette of the

character not to mention. Yeah, you know they

had repro that well They didn't have repros,

but they had stickers that they attached to the

the RC that helped give that Minerva pop to it

It was the same thing well in this case. It was

more so you know down shifts original g1 toy

has a form of I wouldn't call it shoulder missiles,

but he has two missiles on the side of his head

He's g1 toy so they applied that mentality because

Prowl's G1 toy has two missiles on his shoulders.

And so they tried to work it to have that similar

aesthetic look. Working with that and painting

with that and you know again you have to I gotta

want to spoil to it I want people to see it and

really figure it out themselves But it's real

like it's it's looks gorgeous. It really doesn't

the face really helps a lot, too Yeah, I'll let

you know if you send me the link. I'll I'll put

it in the website for the podcast Before we kind

of move on from whatever else on day as a window

What was your favorite part of the convention

this year? It was seeing like people I haven't

seen in I guess a year mixing and mingling with

people even in the the dealer room the the panels

Paul lighting panels I'm speaking with Simon

Furman and ask him what he thought of TF con

on a personal level I remember one thing that

was really funny was I was in the elevator with

a friend of mine And so we're going up and Gary

chocks in the elevator with us. And so this is

the Friday night. And so I turned to him and

he was doing a part of a trivia thing. to see

who gets into the faction feud. And I turn to

him and I say, so how was the, how did the trivia

go? He's like, oh, it went really well. And so

I kind of turned to my friend and I go, that's

Gary Chuck. And she looks over at him and he

introduces himself and says hi. And he gets off

the elevator because he's like two floors below

us. And she kind of turns to me and smiles and

goes, maximize. Had a little geek out there.

I'm surprised he didn't just do optimal optimist

lines all weekend long. He was very professional

about it too. People were asking him a lot of

the typical how to get into voice acting kind

of questions. He was being very honest in how

to go about it and what he did to get to where

he did in his career. But yeah, is there anything

else we left out of Sunday's activities? Oh,

there's there's a few other things for sure.

Okay Let me just pull it back up here because

I was getting you the the downshift picture So

on top of the cost of custom class that was going

on a majority of the time Simon Furman also ran

a panel because just like how people always ask

how to get into voice acting, Simon ran a panel

how to write comic books, the whole process and

how it even works and how to break into it. And

so that was really cool of him because there's

people who could draw, there's people who could

act, but now here's an opportunity for people

who could write. and he was teaching that whole

process. If you're a really good writer and you

want to do comic books, you want to do this,

here's what you got to do to break into the industry

and who to contact and what to contact. That

was really cool of him to do a panel like that.

There was also the 80s costume contest where

now it opened up to not just Transformers because

one thing I have to stress, the Sunday of the

show, to be nice to our dealers, we give them

the opportunity on the Sunday to also sell non

-Transformers merchandise. because you know like

if we have a big bad toy store and they only

bring transformers usually by the time the saturday's

over a lot of their stock is gone so as a deal

what we tell all our eighty our guys on the sunday's

you could bring anything you want afterwards

and that's what kind of evolved to the sunday

being known as the eighties expo because now

it's transformers still but now there's a spin

on everything else now it's he bad g i chose

star wars marvel dc and all of that to cut you

know to to work incote you know coefficient with

that we have uh... the eighties costume contest

is similar to how we have the transformers costume

contest and so we have people showing up as ghostbusters

and batman uh... saw scarlet from g i joe was

one person There was an ultimate muscle. Oh,

yeah, that was a great one There was a guy dressed

as a Kenneco man from the muscle like, you know

muscles, you know millions of unusual creatures

working everywhere You know, like that was great

Like the guy was literally in just a leotard

and the whole thing like leotard face pain and

a big fin Yeah, the big fin for a head. I was

thought that was that was my favorite one actually

You know just just stuff like that There was

also again there was a panel how to get into

voice acting by Paul and Gary and they were being

honest like how to break into the voice acting

industry and Gary I think the bet the most important

thing that Gary said was he said about you know

before he got into the voice acting he literally

listed every job he ever had before he became

an actor just to give people an idea of You know

how the road is sometimes not that you know,

you know not not not that smooth It's always

kind of bumpy and the one job that he used to

have Before his first job, wasn't it? Well, yeah,

I think it was his first job He said he used

to be a guy who would deliver telegrams and stuff

dressed as a gorilla The absolute irony of it,

you know, and so like just Yeah, and then he

said he at one point he was what was it? He was

Ramondo the kissing Ed Eduardo the kissing bandit.

Yeah like he was these guys you know that you

would hire to like go to your party and he'd

wear a lot of like makeup on his mouth and stuff

to look like a fake mustache and when he'd kiss

you would rub off on your face. Like he did a

lot of like little jobs you know to survive.

He said to always perform, to always keep performing.

Yeah, so his jobs, while they were not the best

paying jobs in the world, they were jobs that

still kept him in an acting kind of situation.

Then another panel that I did, this was a back

-to -back, and this was the big one that for

a lot of people, was the third product preview

panel. This was the first time this... this of

anything of it has ever been done before, where

just like how Hasbro at BotCon and at TFCon have

their product preview panel, we wanted to do

something for all the third party guys that they

could show off their stuff that they're planning

in the long run for everyone to see. And so me

and GMFan ran this panel together and we pretty

much debuted all the stuff that's being planned

for iGear, Mastermind Creations, G1 uppers, around

how a kiss everything like a whole bunch of stuff

whole whole bunch of stuff and That was all over

like TFW's front page where they were dog like,

you know, like we debuted Mastermind Creations

have plans to do a classic style up like six

shot, you know Awesome. Yeah, like like a modernized

six -shot design and there was also like they

were showing more of the future eye gear has

plans to do like the seeker jets and to do a

Two scale because the thing is that recently

all masterpiece toys are they've been downscaled

like to match that Rodimus Grimlock Starscream

size so they're doing a whole bunch of of masterpiece

toys that put, you know, the Megatron and the

Optimus to scale with those other sizes. And

then, you know, upgrade heads and different colors

and new trailers and all kinds of just wacky

stuff. I could go on and on. There was I think

the only other really interesting one was Mastermind

Creations also. At least that caught my eye.

They have plans to do a Hearts of Steel shockwave.

Oh, interesting. And that one supposedly is going

to be leader class size and it's going to be

huge. So that one is going to be nuts. After

that panel though, I did another panel which

was called Transformers in Pop Culture where

I pretty much tried to find the wackiest cameos

and appearances of Transformers throughout history

in pop culture. That no one knew about like,

you know, I could have easily just shown like

the family guy clips and robot chicken stuff

But I didn't want to show those ones I wanted

to show the ones that no one knew about like

there was an episode of Miami Vice Where you

have like all these drug dealers there, you know,

they're guarding these this cocaine den and you

know They have these counterfeit bills and everything

and you know, it's all it's all you know It's

all like very tense and everything and the cops

are about to come and then there's this one guard

He's just playing with a g1 shockwave You know?

And it's just like he's trying to figure it out,

you know? And just tons of scenes like that,

like Flight of the Navigators, Top Gun, all kinds.

There was a movie called The Professional with

Natalie Portman and Jean Reno, where Natalie

Portman's character would watch SOS Dinobots

over and over on TV, you know? I'm not saying

in the background, it was predominantly featured

that she was watching SOS Dinobots over and over.

Just little things like that. Then the final,

final thing that we did was the organizer panel,

again, to celebrate now 10 years of doing this

show, but also to just... you know thank everyone

who who worked on the show and for anyone to

air any opinions complaints or comments that

they would like to say and all of you know most

of the comments were uh... were just you know

positive stuff uh... i think the only one that

was a negative try to remember what it was uh...

we got because i would like there was a lot of

like just people really dug the show I think

it was something about the exclusives need to

be more numbers, but yeah Something like it because

they're like a lot because literally like ever

like there was 50 of the snake and the first

50 people in line Got the 50 of the snake, you

know, so Like it was kind of a no -brainer No

one skipped out on that. Uh, I'm trying to remember

if there was any complaints, but just it was

it was an it was an insane show It was absolutely

great. And I mean, you don't even have to take

my word for it. I'm waiting for like the likes

of Vangelis and Piaw and all the other guys who

run YouTube channels and do big reviews. They're

gonna do their big videos about this and they're

gonna sing their praise and then you'll just

be hearing a repeat of what I've just been saying

and what a lot of people have been saying for

years about TFCon. I think the most common thing

that I always hear about TFCon is that TFCon

is a lot like BotCon was when it first started.

Where, because it was run by the Hartmans and

later Hallett came in, Glenn Hallett, there was

more of a community to it. But the thing is,

the people who have been to BotCon those early

years, they're saying that, well, BotCon lost

its edge after ten years. I know, BotCon lost

its edge after seven years. After seven years,

BotCon then became very corporate. and it lost

its edge and it wasn't the same anymore, where

TFCon after 10 years, it's still as humble and

amazing as it's ever been. And I think that's

where we've never forgotten what we came from,

from again, those humble days of, hey, after

the hockey game, let's just rent a room and sell

some Transformers, you know? Like that was our

beginnings and we're still, we still hearken

back to those days and still keep it real, I

guess is the best way to put it. But yeah, I

Don't know what else to say Very very very cool

Wendell do you have anything you want to share

before we kind of close this off? I thought this

it was really fun extremely well attended I remember

going into the dealers room is really packed

The opening ceremony was a very big surprise

for me very fun very light -hearted and a very

good time of reminiscing and seeing silly stuff

going on in the background and everything. So

I had a lot of fun. I really, really did. That's

it. All right. Awesome. All right. So that has

been TFCon 2011. I am TF2 and Mike, joined by

The Goddamn Proto Man and Jawsdeadeye. And that's

going to do it for us here on All Things Transformers

and Toycast. We will catch you next time.