BotCon 2015 Experience

You're listening to all things transformers version

2 .0 Welcome to all things transformers version

2 .0 episode 50. I'm your host Steve Megatron

Phillips and joining me is And pecan court Michael.

Hey, how's it going? It's going it's going So

yes, this is the BotCon edition BotCon 2015 was

a few weeks ago Yeah, we would have done this

sooner, but I totally blew you off. I'm sorry

That's what she said. I don't need to talk to

these guys. That's just so not right. As long

as we're in different states, I can say that

with a straight face. Wow. My lips don't go that

far. Sorry. That's some bad beast unleashed humor.

Yeah. So, BotCon! Yeah, how about that? Let's

talk about BotCon. So this was Steve's first

BotCon, right? Yes. But you only went one day

because that's all you could afford. It wasn't

necessarily that. I mean, that was part of it.

But the other part of it was the fact that I

work during the week and I can't take it off.

So and I know that BotCon starts on like a Thursday

now, so. I don't know how long it's done that

I mean, I know that mostly it starts on Friday,

but I mean most necessarily I mean if you are

registered you can pick up your box set and stuff

on Thursday night But it's not it's not there's

nothing really happening officially I mean unofficially

there's parts parties There's you know gatherings

and stuff for people who know each other and

that type of thing But officially, nothing's

really going on. I did wish that I could have

stayed for the Sunday, but I had to drive back,

plus my kid was missing me, something terrible.

Oh. So he's like, where's daddy? Oh, he's at

a convention. And he's like, he's sleeping, isn't

he? Sleeping. We have Skype right last I checked.

I'm pretty sure see I Skype my kids like every

night and they're like Like hey buddy, you know,

and we we talked and it kind of killed the the

homesickness Yeah, after three days the homesick

was hitting pretty hard So Steve overall With

this being your first BotCon. What was your impression

for the convention in general? Um I really enjoyed

it. I wasn't sure what to think because I've

heard all the, you know, of course every convention

you're going to hear all the bad stuff before

you're going to hear like all the great stuff

that happens. But I was kind of going at it from

the experience of I didn't care if I hit all

the panels. Of course, Frank was the major draw,

but I really wanted to meet everybody that I

know online. and get to just put face to screen

name and kind of hang out with everybody for

a little bit. So it was kind of more of that

kind of meeting up and then just kind of experiencing

the convention itself and not really worrying

about anything. So that made it fun in its own

right. Cool. So who all did you meet there? Well

of course I met you. Yeah, I was there. You were

the first one I met. I did end up passing by

Proto Man. Oh, you say hi? No, he didn't want

to. He was having a long conversation. And Derek

Wyatt was supposed to be at the same table, but

he was nowhere to be found because I was just

going to go up and go, hey, how's it going, blah,

blah, blah. But yeah, he wasn't there either.

So I kind of kept going. Sell service was terrible

there. Yeah, it was awful. It was terrible because

like Yeah, where's it got I? Had to get closer

to the front and then go up against a wall just

to get service so that I could text you Yeah,

it was really bad and then Kind of went around

the booths kind of look at stuff my brother's

with with me And we were kind of just looking

around everything kind of comparing prices and

and kind of seeing well if we wanted to get anything

Looking at all the exclusives looking at all

the back on and stuff that people had gotten

in the past And then we met After we met you

Michael we met Jim Sorensen Yeah, briefly. Yeah,

I call them. Um, yep over here Just hilarious

still Jim's like who the hell is this guy? Real

nice, but he's you know, you could see in the

back of his mind like F is this guy? Who the

hell are these people? Well, you know, Jim is

in charge of taking, you know, the official,

quote -unquote, official photos for the fun publications.

So the pictures that show up on the website,

that's all him. Did not know that. Just imagine

Michael, if Dan Gilbertson was there, he'd be

like, hey, Terry! He called me Terry last time

I saw him. Well, yeah last time I saw him I talked

to him and I said hey, you know, we did that

podcast and he goes you're Terry Thanks for noticing

me exactly, but that's a different that's a different

convention But yeah, then I I met later on one

of the guys from our Fan dubbing thing that I've

been doing off and on for the last ten years.

Okay He runs he's the the current guy running

the headmasters dub Okay, so I met him and then

he kind of introduced me because When I was actually

standing in line for the picture of Frank, I

bumped into John Bailey. Oh Yeah, yeah on my

way through the line and He's a He's having a

conversation. I go up to him. I'm like, hey,

how's it going? Blah, blah, blah. And he's like,

who the hell are you? Just not really saying

that. It was funny, though. He's like, hey. And

then I just kind of introduced myself. And he's

like, OK. And then he just went back to his conversation.

I don't know who the hell that guy is. Kind of

incises you up and go, yeah, yeah, I don't like

you. So it was kind of funny. Yeah, which I don't

expect him to know who the hell I am. Like I

don't Well, you just expect people to be friendly

in general, you know Yeah, you expect people

especially people who I don't know, you know,

who's whose livelihood it revolves around people

liking them I guess it would be good to be friendly

That was the awkward conversation to begin with.

I did end up meeting him later because Derek,

which was the name of the guy that does the fan

-dub stuff, he reintroduced me to John and to

Frank Todaro, the guy that was doing the panel

with Frank Welker. There are also guys that have

done the fan -dub stuff. So I was familiar with

them and I knew them online before but So, you

know Frank Todaro? Yes. Okay, cool. Yeah, I did

not I did not know Frank and Ended up talking

to him later after you know sometime Sunday and

I was like, oh hey, you know really good job

on you know, the talking about the Script reading

panel It's a really good job on the script reading,

you know, that was fantastic And I said looks

like you got the lion's share of the voice work

and he's like, oh, yeah, you know I totally didn't

plan it that way. That's just that's just this

way. We got it I said no, no, you were awesome.

I told him I took the video from like the front

row and he's like, oh, that's awesome You got

it You got to send me a link to that as soon

as you get it and he gave me his card and you

know I let him know as soon as I got it uploaded

Yeah, I was far enough back that I couldn't really

Couldn't really get a good quality one and and

John Bailey's was pretty good, too But yours,

I think was the best one that I saw out there.

So I was like, I'll just watch this one Yeah,

no, that's pretty good. Like I said, the guy

next to me had a tripod I was like, dude, you

should put this online. He's like, oh, I don't

know Like seriously you kind of obligated. Yeah,

if you're right up front like this, you really

Yeah, exactly. Well, I'm like, well, mine's not

gonna be that great because it's kind of it's

shaky cam, you know It's kind of wild. I tried

to stay as still as I could But this guy, you

know had a tripod. I didn't have a tripod But

yeah, I mean when it when we sat down with John

Bailey cuz like they were all you know This they

were all kind of hanging out by the bar after

Walker's Panel and we were sitting there and

just kind of BS and then my brothers joined us

and then Frank's like, man, he's like it or not

Frank. John Bailey is like, wow, it looks like

I'm doing character select through Grand Theft

Auto. Oh, yeah. Between me and my brothers, because

I had the shortest hair, like facial hair and

hair on top of my head. And then like as it went

younger and brother, the facial, you know, the

more hair. And so he's he was kind of ragging

on us and. Then he started doing all of his anecdotes

of people he's done voice dialogue replacements

for. Basically, Jeff Bridges is a slowed down

John Madden. He says, you know, ever since True

Grit, he's gotten that in his voice and just

kind of never lost it. So he says, yeah, I get

to do replacement for him. I was like, that's

cool. Um, but yeah, I kind of sat there for a

while, but yeah, it was, I met quite a few people,

so it was kind of cool. Well, neat. Yeah. I didn't,

uh, I didn't hang out at the bar very much. Um,

yeah, I hate to compare it to like, uh, TFW in

Chicago, but you know, the, the, uh, TFCon, TFW

is the website, not TFW, you know, TFCon, you

know, the one we were just talking about, but

on that particular one, they, they had a really

nice bar and everybody went to it. And here it

was kind of like they had like a little corner,

part of a corner that you had to walk through

to get to the convention area, had a couple of

tables. It was real weird. It wasn't a very well,

you know, honestly, the whole place was like

a rat warren. You know, I mean, you you you had

to kind of wiggle around down this little side

tunnel in order to get to where the restaurants

were. And. No half the people there were like,

I don't know what they're supposed to be a restaurant

here I really don't know where it is and it's

like well, you got to go through that This weird

archway and it's like well It was cleverly disguised

as like an employees only type area where you

know where where you would expect uh people,

you know the the the people who work there to

duck into to to like replenish the supplies and

things but it was actually a hallway that took

you back to where the where the ballrooms and

the the restaurants were it was just really confusing

yeah I was having a hard time getting around

there just because I wasn't familiar with the

setup so whereas I think when I went to TF con

and in 2012 it was pretty much laid out as you

know a normal convention everything was kind

of all surrounding it so it was real easy to

get to everything As it should be because you

would You would think okay. Well, this is gonna

be laid out in such a way where? The people that

are attending can find things easily. They don't

they're not gonna get lost and unhappy You know

food is readily available Well, that's what BotCon

is all about is making people readily unhappy

That's about it I mean seriously wasn't there

something this year where they're like, yep,

no registration just everybody come as you are

Well, I was kidding when I said that. No, no,

no, no. It wasn't you. I thought I saw something

where someone else said that BotCon did away

with registration. No, that was me. I said that,

yeah, because the way they handled registration,

it was like, OK, BotCon's in two weeks. We haven't

been able to register yet. And they're like,

oh, it's coming. As soon as we get the system

ready, it's going to happen. And finally, they

said, all right, it's done. It's done. And everybody

tried to log in and do it, and it didn't work.

And they said, OK, never mind. We'll do it in

a couple more days. And then we tried again.

Oh, no, no, no, it's not working yet. Well, hell,

when is it going to work? And then I posted that

message. It's like, OK, there is no more registration.

Just bring your cash to the front door. And a

lot of people that simple Exactly. No, it would

be that would be terrible at pandemonium But

a lot of people replied and like CC'd by Khan

and said is this true? Are they are they cancelling

the registration and the bike had people after

about a day, you know responded No, that's just

some internet jokes. You know, that's not true

And I'm like, you know, I it's funny that even

you heard that and didn't attribute it to me

because you know, who the hell am I? But yeah,

that's that's funny. That's funny. What was really

funny, though, is when they finally did open

registration. I found out by accident. Because

I was just literally sitting in my office just

hitting the refresh and then I'd go do something

I come back I hit refresh and I go do something

I'd come back and hit refresh and it popped up

And it said click here to register and I'm like

heck Yeah I will and I signed signed myself up

for everything and got what I needed and and

about a minute later The tweet came in said registrations

now open Haha, so you single -handedly destroyed

and restored registration Exactly that was all

me but I When I when I did register, you know,

I I thought that two things were gonna happen

number one I thought that the box sets and all

the registrations were gonna go immediately and

number two I thought that the Frank Welker packages

were gonna go immediately and that wasn't so

much the case In fact, they were offering to

sell the Frank Welker photo ops Almost a Saturday.

Yeah, because they hadn't sold them all yet Maybe

if they'd made the packages more affordable They've

probably decided if they're gonna pay Frank X

amount of dollars. Yeah, I can see they're trying

to recoup Yeah, well not even you know break

even even even break even so let's say if they

spent I don't know $42 ,000 They would have to

sell 800 of the packages to break even. My math

might be off. My math might be off. And I know

that there was a line of 150 people for autographs,

like the first day, and 150 people for autographs

the second day. So, you know, as far as I can

tell, maybe they didn't break even. So what was

the theme this year because I'm looking at the

website and I'm like I don't recognize any of

these damn toys No, the theme was there was the

theme was like heist. It was a heist type thing

and so they had like Megatron the leader oil

master the muscle pack rat the thief, you know,

and they were and they were I honestly only skimmed

through them Comic book I didn't read it But

but that was you know, that was the thing they

had they had an Autobot stepper, which was which

I believe Well, of course it's a repainted no

What does that when they're reverse? That's like

mirror mirror universe shattered glass. It's

a shattered glass stepper and Then battle and

then battle trap who's a triple who's instead

of being a duo con is a triple changer He's a

repaint of Springer And but the cool thing is

oil master oil master is a double pretender.

I Mean it's literally like a big ape shell that

splits open and you pull a robot out Yeah, that

would be optimus primal Sort of well, it's kind

of like it's kind of like they merged beast wars

and generations all into one thing Well, no,

it was interesting though is that the panel they

said you know now we have this new mold this

basically a giant ape with a little robot comes

out of it what's next for that mold you know

is it gonna be club exclusive only or do you

think Hasbro will use it and they basically said

they don't know but after after creating the

mold and all that I mean Hasbro owns it it would

be a shame if they didn't do something with it

Yeah, there's that yeah Yeah, so there's that

Yeah, until they go back to until they go back

to trying to Reuse different theme like real

regular like the animated theme or a beast machines

theme or Something like that. I'm just not gonna

care about the toys I mean, honestly, I think

they've run a file of that already cuz You know,

they've done that they don't want to do the same

thing over again. So what do you do? Well, let's

do machine wars Oh god, those are awful, you

know, let's do g2. Ah Nah, let's not do that

anymore You know, so now that's like well, I

guess I guess we can try to go back to some of

the stuff that people liked You know, we'll we'll

throw we'll throw some beast machine where yeah

beast wars in there Well, we'll throw some shattered

glass in there. We'll just see what sticks Yeah,

I mean granted from what I understand a lot of

people aren't happy with with some of the extras

that we had You know, but everyone seems to be

pretty impressed with that oil master he's kind

of neat I I mean, I think the toys are cool.

If I if I could have afforded them, I probably

would have gotten good Well, they got a buttload

of them left over. So What killed me though I'm

in line for registration and and they say okay

now You know you already signed up for your box

set now. You can get your your your 2015 exclusive

toys, but while you're at it, how about some

2014 exclusive toys? We also have some 2013 exclusive

toys, you know, and I'm thinking why are these

not all sold out was this I mean, I would were

they complete crap I don't know I I don't remember

looking at them And last year and going yeah,

maybe I'm kind of happy. I'm not going I don't

remember. What was the year that they did? Classics

universe versus shattered glass where they had

that crappy looking Shattered glass optimist

that was based off of some weird ultra Magnus

molders. I think that was 2012 or 2013 I forget

honestly from for her for me and my interests

there is Decent really awesome set since 2011

and animated Oh, did I miss 2011? I didn't do

2011 You missed out on the stunta con job. I

did. Yeah. Oh, I did not get the santa con job

You are so kicked out of the fandom In fact,

I think that was the year that I was really aggravated

that didn't go aside from 2005 which was the

first year fun pub and had their box sets and

it turned out to be really, really good. Yeah.

Yeah. Anyway, so anyhow. So what other experiences

did you guys have at BotCon this year? Well,

Steve met Frank Walker. Yes, I did. Thanks to

somebody on this show. Yeah, yeah. He happened

into a ticket. Well, this is interesting between

the difference between our our meetings of Frank

Walker here So I had an autograph session with

Frank Walker and I wanted him to sign my my legacy

book From a Jim Sorensen and Bill Forster, so

So I you know we get it I was What was I? I don't

know. I might have been like Somewhere between

like fifth and tenth in line or something. Mm

-hmm And number one, because the whole place

is a rat warren and you can't find where they

want you to be. Where is this place? It's like,

OK, remember the bar we were talking about? You

had to find your way to the bar and then go behind

the elevators to get to the room. It was pretty

bad. Yeah. Yeah, it was. Oh, anyway. So no one

else could find the damn thing. So I walk up.

I've got a pretty good place in line and. You

know, so I'm guessing that about, you know, the

first, I don't know, dozen or so people actually

came in and had a conversation with the guy,

as opposed to just signing something. Because

it was like, you know, I walked in and said,

hey, you know, how are you? And he's like, hi,

I'm Frank Welker. And I'm like, I know. What

an amazing coincidence. I'm here to meet Frank

Welker. But yeah, we talked for, I want to say,

we had a moment. It was a good 30, 40 seconds.

For a minute there, I thought you were going

to say it was a Scott McNeil moment, but that'll

never happen to Frank Welker. Honestly, the way

they had this place set up, it's like they had

a room that he was in, and they had armed guards.

Well, I should say armed guard. Don't touch the

Megatron. Don't touch the Megatron. Don't touch

the Megatron. They had a guy positioned in the

front. the front door so no one else can come

in. They had two guys inside, not including the

photographer, right? Two guys inside and then

they had another guy stationed in the next room

because there's two adjoining rooms and what

they would do is they would shuttle you in to

the first room and then shuffle you out to the

next room real very quickly. So basically what

you're telling us is that Frank Welker has the

Earth Defense Command as his bodyguards. If the

Earth Defense Command is made up entirely of

unarmed BotCon employees, then yes. Yeah. If

Marissa Fairborn was there, it would be Earth

Defense Command. There you go. Wait, wait, Marissa

Fairborn was at BotCon this year. Sue Blue Boister.

Yeah, so anyway, so yeah, it was nice. It was

like I said, there was a moment and and I guess

further down the line not everyone kind of kind

of got got that moment because they were shuffling

they were they were they were shuffling people

faster and I mean, yeah, it was kind of the same

thing when I have my photograph too. I walked

up shook his hand. He's oh, how are you? You

know, I remember you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you

know, we smiled click got a picture out the door.

I went And Yeah, when I when I went in the next

day to get another picture because the first

one wasn't good enough apparently They The by

that time I was like 50th in line and they were

really just pulling people through I mean Frank

was just standing there like This rictus, you

know on his face and everyone just kind of ran

past him and they snap pictures I can see because

this would be his first bot con that he would

get tired very easily with the constant photo

op All day long having everybody well true that

actually no I mean I know the guy got paid to

be there, but I'm just saying like the man doesn't

do Honestly, this is probably the first time

I've ever heard of Frank Welker being at any

convention whatsoever. This is a man who prides

himself and loves his privacy. Yeah, he's been

doing voices since 1969 or before, but it's one

of those things where this was a new experience

for him and he needed all new experiences. You

need to adjust to them. You know by the time

that you know, you went back and being 40th or

50th in line And you know him looking the way

you say he looked that means that he was getting

really tired Well and that yeah, I mean on the

one hand it's like dude you're getting paid to

be here The other hand again this number after

30 years we can cut him some slack Well, you

know people were telling me well, the only reason

he's here is for the money, you know, because

pete Peter Cullen told him that, you know, oh

man, the money's really good. You got to go do

the convention circuit. And I'm thinking, I was

telling people, you know what, honestly, this

guy, this guy, he flies his own planes. He spends

an inordinate amount of time playing golf. He

doesn't need the money. He steals steak dinners.

Exactly, he steals steak dinners. That was funny.

I was told he actually said that wasn't true

Anyway, if you were if you were there anyway,

so yeah, it was in the video Yeah, go watch the

video. So the video I took that's his other ones.

Those are crap Use Michael Wilson's yeah use

mine Anyway as I was saying though, but then

this number I hear this this inordinately large

number that starts with the four Come comes around

and I'm thinking wait a minute That's that's

ridiculous because if he's doing this convention

and then maybe two or three more before the end

of the year That's that's a that's a lot of money

We're quickly getting into six figures for for

what three days work if if he does all these

conventions Yeah, but like I said, this was his

first And who knows if he wants to do it again

because look how long it took him to actually

choose to come regardless they could have It

doesn't matter. They could have thrown any Obscene

amount of money at him. Yeah, you know they could

have you know brought dump trucks of gold Really

really really really really want you at our convention.

Is this enough gold, you know I mean, it's not

like we can you know build you a golden lagoon,

but this is good as we can get Well, I don't

know I mean I His appearance there what the things

he said that what he especially, you know talking

with individual people As well as talking on

the stage did not reconcile with what we had

been previously told at least I didn't think

so It's like no, he's he's a very kind man, but

he's private. He's reclusive. He's he's practically

a hermit You can't get close to him because he's

you know, he's got uh, uh, you know, howard hughes

where he doesn't want to touch anything, you

know, uh, you know gnarly fingernails and toenails

and shit. I don't know but When you meet him,

you know, he's he's a very warm very welcoming

He's he's he didn't seem terribly shy. He shook

my hand a couple of times. So I I don't know.

I I just felt like man Maybe all the stories

people have been saying for years aren't all

that true. Maybe he's not a recluse You know,

he's not he's not so shy that he's afraid to

talk to people I just think what it is, is he

prefers, it's not necessarily that he's recluse,

but I think he prefers the anonymity of just

being credited as the voice actor and not doing

any, like Peter Collin, let's face it, Peter

in the last 30 or so years has, you know, he's

been the face of the brand because of who he

voiced. And, you know, and you've said this,

Michael, you know, he essentially gives you the

Hasbro answer. To a lot of things like oh, yeah,

no, he's you know, yeah, I mean that that's the

way it is chill Yeah, you know come on now I've

said it before I'll say this optimus prime exactly.

I said, you know Peter. How do you reconcile

the the fatherly, you know? G1 version of optimus

prime the the freedom is the right of all sentient

beings optimus prime with with this new movie

version Of optimus prime who says things like

give me your face, you know Do you feel that

these are different? You know different sides

of the coin and he says no, I believe that Believe

that you know that these are the same character

and you know updated for a new time Yes, but

you know this the core values still hold true

And I just wanted to say, I wanted to call bullshit

on him. This is bullshit, Peter Cullen, you know?

He could have at least given a better answer,

like, well, Michael, we gave Optimus Prime an

upgrade. A software upgrade. It's a downgrade,

to be honest. I think next time. You're at a

convention, and you get a chance to meet Peter

Cullen, Michael. You should ask him that same

question now that Age of Extinction has come

out, and he killed a human. Regardless of what

that human did to you. I will kill Frasier. And

then when you feed you the answer, you just cough

and go, bullshit. Bullshit. That's right. Bullshit.

Bullshit, Peter Cullen. Let's just start throwing

tables. This is a punch of shit Peter Cullen.

So basically you're gonna turn into Prowl from

IDW. Exactly we're gonna Prowl that table. It's

the last thing we need is to Prowl the table.

So aside from that one guy who was there, you

know, voice Megatron and such, other people were

there. I met Sue Blue, which was cool, and I

met John Machida jr. Which was interesting and

Derrick Wyatt was there. Did we mention Derrick

Wyatt? Yes Alright, well he was he was around

there too Saw Josh Perez and he's a really nice

guy. He's really funny Who else did I see did

you see Josh Bertram? Mm -hmm. I did. Yeah. No,

I saw Alex Milley Milne Alex Milne. Yeah Milne.

I don't know billy No, actually, no, it was it

was pronounced Milne. I I talk with some of people

who know Because I didn't and I didn't want to

mispronounce his name when I talked to him And

no, I did talk to Josh Birchham Livio Ramon Delhi.

Yep. That's right was there. I did not talk to

him again I didn't talk to him at CF con and

I didn't talk to him here and I I don't know

why Something wrong with you. I I know I just

I found him intimidating or something. I don't

know If I could have an entire Transformers comic

series with just his interiors Yeah, I would

be set because I love Livio's style. Okay, it's

just so good. I'll buy that sure Yeah Yeah, so

I met a lot of artists that was kind of cool

And the voice actors were very nice. There was

actually on Friday night Friday night. There

was a reception for the golden ticket holders

and There might there might have been Oh heck

30 people in the room. I don't know. Um, I didn't

count them all But, yeah, there wasn't a whole

lot. It was less than 50, had to have been. And

it thinned out pretty quickly. And what I thought

was weird, I thought, you know, we're going to

have Sue Blue here, and we're going to have John

Machida here, and Derek was floating around in

the mix somewhere. But, you know, if there's

50 people here, how are we all going to be able

to talk to these three people, these three VIPs,

right? And it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought

it was gonna be because I guess a lot of these

people were I don't I don't pretend to know what

was going through their minds But they they thought

it was safer to kind of gravitate into the corners

of the room So so yeah, so I mean there were

some people talking to Sue and then there was

some people over there talking to John and Some

people talking to Derek, but eventually, you

know, it wasn't that hard to just walk up and

be like, hey, how are you? How's it going then?

You know what I find funny about all this is

you have five Total guests this year. Yeah, okay

Four of them tour Sue blue and John machito one

is Derek J. Wyatt and one is somebody else I

don't even know some Japanese guy. Oh, I forgot

about him. Yeah, so So all as I'm thinking is

if they wanted to have and I know they wanted

to make the Frank thing special I understand

that but if they wanted to have all five guests

in one room You put Sue and John Derek and this

other guy in the four corners and you put Frank

right in the center Kind of like the fifth element.

These corners would be empty. Honestly, they

were, like I said, they played Frank very close

to the vest. They had him in a special room by

himself. And one person at a time walked in,

one person walked out, another person walked

in, another person walked out. But here, again,

you've got 30 to 50 people in a room. It was

a good -sized room. I mean, it's a banquet hall,

right? And they fed us. Which honestly I didn't

eat very much because I just had portillo's and

it was awesome Because I love portillo's if you

get to Chicago, you gotta have the portillo's

Actually scratch that get the deep -dish pizza

first Okay, so anyway, but before you go on your

story here just to clarify the the other guy

the Japanese guy He's from Takara. So just so

he's so people don't yell at me for now Yeah,

the Japanese guys from to carry his name was

Ono Koji or Koji Ono depending on how you pronounce

his name Yeah, if you're Japanese or American,

right? Yeah, and he designed a lot of the diaclone

stuff So like Sumpstreaker Dickel and Sumpstreaker

and those he designed a lot of those and and

eventually this became Transformers and once

Takara started doing their own transformers,

then he was responsible for a lot of like victory

in his own stuff So like I'm in the legacy book.

I had him sign my Deathsaurus page Because you

know, he did he did the dust source and that

and I'm never gonna meet like an artist or a

voice actor from Japan Yeah, who's gonna sign

this that page? No, I speak a little Japanese.

Yeah, so yeah, it's it was interesting cuz I

was talking with Proto man and some Japanese

guy walked up with these, and Proto Man's like,

oh, hold on a second, and he's talking to this

guy, and he goes, ah, you know, this is so -and

-so, so -and -so only speaks Japanese, you know,

and I looked at him and I said, oh, nice to meet

you. Nice to meet you. And he looked at me and

he just laughed and he said, your friend speaks

better Japanese than me. And I said, well, that's

okay because I just exhausted my Japanese. What

about you Steve? What was your Frank Welker experience?

It was very quick Because well, and I only say

that because they they were really shuffling

people through at that point They were trying

to get people in and out like it was Luckily

because Michael told me you know you're gonna

want to get there like at least a half hour early

I was attending the new product panel Where they

they had the You know, they're showing like the

combiner wars and all the different bots you

could make and then they were revealing, you

know everything and I Left about halfway through

that panel so that I could go get in line Which

if I would have thought about it, I should have

left when I saw John Bailey leave 20 minutes

prior Because The the line when I got there I

was probably I don't know like 40 something in

line And then there was like about 150 people

behind me or something Yeah, all the people that

waited till the end of the panel. Yep Yeah, because

they were coming by telling their friends that

were in the beginning of the line Hey, yeah,

this is what was at the panel and they're like,

oh great go to the end of the line. Yeah So it

was it was kind of great But uh, yeah, I mean

I I just kind of It was it was real quick. They

kind of shuffled you in there. They're like,

hey, you know stand on this white X on the floor

Yeah, and then Frank, you know, we'll shake hands

with you and say hey, how's it going blah blah

blah and then Put his arm around you and then

take a picture. Yeah, and then they're like,

okay go in the next room We'll give you your

picture. Yeah, all right hit it, you know, well,

I mean did you shake his hand? Did you make eye

contact? Was it okay? Awesome. So I did get that

so that was that was nice. I It's one of those

memories that will last forever just because

I get to meet Frank Walker the voice guy And

and you know we were talking about this before

but this could go either way He could decide

that he really enjoys this. He really likes reaching

out to the fans. He really likes that $42 ,000

paycheck. He could do this You know, I have to

because not everyone is financially motivated

But a lot of people are So he may decide he really

likes us and he could do this for years. Or he

may decide that this is just a bunch of shit

on a cracker and I'm never doing this ever again.

I mean, I can tell by watching the panel that

you had recorded and put up on YouTube that,

you know, he was very grateful. He was, you know,

kind of in shock and just, you know. Yeah, yeah,

shock and amaze and amazement for, you know,

how dedicated the fans are. And, you know, I

think it's a positive thing for him, but I think

it might be something where, and we might've

already said this earlier in the episode, but

where instead of every year or every single different

convention each year that the Transformers brand

does, whether it be TFCon, whether it be BotCon,

whether it be whatever, Maybe he comes every

two or three years or every every other year

certainly. It's just knowing what I know from

what I've heard from various voice actors and

him liking his anonymity. I just don't think

they're going to be able to get him every single

year. And honestly. Frank Welker is a once -in

-a -lifetime thing. He really is and it is a

once -in -a -lifetime event Would you want BotCon

to have him every single year and get stale?

Yeah, I felt the same way about Peter Cullen,

but I've met him a couple of times You know and

One year I went and didn't get to Meet him, but

I was standing 15 feet away at the end of the

line Watching people walk away And the light

in their eyes is just like, oh, I met Peter Collin.

It's the most amazing thing. And for me, it's

like, yeah, I've already met him a couple of

times. Not a big deal. But for them, it was like,

oh, this is amazing. And honestly, there are

people out there who didn't come to this year's

BotCon because it was out in BFE, just way too

far outside of Chicago. The location was horrible.

I think one of the reasons why the attendance

was so low and the Frank Welker packages were

failing to sell was because this place was not

easy to get to. It was not a very good location.

See, I don't understand why they just don't have

it at whatever Convention Center Chicago has

like on, you know, well, yeah, they have you

know, say sweet shoes downtown Like wizard world

is is right outside of O 'Hare. That's a perfectly

like Where where tfcon had there we're going

right back to tfcon you have kind of had there's

just outside of O 'Hare It's a it's a hop skip

and a jump shuttle ride to the to the hotel from

O 'Hare. Yeah, that's where they Don't say where

they should have it, you know, I don't want to

be play armchair Convention organizer here, but

somewhere in that area See I was room. I was

thinking more like on the lake like where you

know in Dark of the Moon. They destroyed the

city. That's Thinking yeah like I think it you're

thinking McCormick place. Yeah I don't know how

much it costs to do something in McCormick place

But McCormick place is set up in such a way where

they can they can give you as much room or as

little room as you need Granted, it's like, wow,

we got to pay this guy this ridiculous amount

of money, and we can't afford to actually have

a real venue. Where can we stick this? I don't

know. This place by Chicago that's fallen apart

at the seams, and they're willing to do it pretty

cheap, so maybe we can do it there. Yeah, no,

this place was... We were joking about it. It's

like there was a... Oh, what was the name of

the place in Dirty Dancing? This was like the

place in Dirty Dancing. I don't even remember.

Like the resort, the resort in Dirty Dancing

where, you know, like, like I said, like 60 years

ago, 60 years ago, this place might have been

the shit. I mean, really. And then at some point

they expanded and turned to shit. And no, well,

no, I mean, they expanded. And then so there's

like part of it that's like really, really old.

And and it's like it's weird. It's weird old.

It's like the hotel the time forgot and and then

in the middle they put a tower Yeah, that's where

the most of the hotel blocks were there the the

convention blocks were And those were nicer,

you know, and then there was some that were kind

of Don't know. It was just weird. It was it was

as if they Expanded here and expand and then

ten years later put some buildings here and then

ten years later put some buildings here and the

whole place didn't didn't sum up to a cohesive

hole and you could tell visually Where the old

stuff started I? Was in one of the really old

rooms did not have You know didn't have modern

amenities no Wi -Fi no nothing well well I have

Wi -Fi, but I had to like pump the well handle

to get water to come out. I shared my own butter.

It was really hard. One of the things that I

noticed was like the bathrooms were like the

oldest fricking thing in the world. Yeah. It

was just like you had, you know, the typical

like when you turn on the faucet in the shower

type thing and you get the scalding water that

just comes out and you're just like, jeez. That

was that kind of thing. Yeah, I don't know and

then it was just look was the walls look like

they were like bleeding like Rust yeah, and what

part of the hotel were you in? I don't know.

We were you couldn't have been in the tower We're

in like ninth floor or something. Oh a nice floor

had to have been the tower. Okay? Was it that

bathroom tower? The vanity outside the bathroom

was redone, and the rest of the room was redone.

They even had a pretty modern TV you could plug

USB into or HDMI, which I haven't been to a hotel

yet that has that, at least in Michigan. Then

I was looking at the bathroom to it, and I'm

like, wow, this is like the oldest effing room

in the ... Yeah. Entire building, you know, and,

you know, no fan in there, so you're like literally

like gagging on the steam. I think I had a fan,

but it was so loud I couldn't turn it on. There

was no fan in this. I was over in Camp Crystal

Lake. I mean, honestly, it was it was pretty

bad over there. And it was a schlep to get all

the way across the resort over to the. to the

convention center which oddly enough was called

the the mega center that was the name of the

convention center the mega center it was the

megatron it made me giggle i was like how fitting

you know but it's like no this place isn't even

important enough to get bought up by a big name

it wasn't like the staples mega center it's just

like yeah you know that big building that gets

a shitty wi -fi next to the resort oh yeah that

one yeah that's where we're gonna have it Yeah,

next time they say free parking just be like

all right. I'm out. I'm out. Yeah, it's like

it's just Chicago Oh fuck parking is gonna be

ridiculous, and it's got free parking. That's

not Chicago That's Grey's Lake, Illinois Well,

I mean like as far as north as Grey's Lake is

that's like how far west this is I mean it was

It was pretty far out of the way Yeah, and I

lucked out in our entire drive because we left

it. I made it shoot. I got up at like four in

the morning That particular day It's so excited

so excited. I can't sleep. Well, and I had to

go pick my brothers up so I mean that was part

of it and you know, I'm sitting there and I Gave

to his house about you know quarter to five and

then we're on the road by five. Well, I We're

driving, dumbass me doesn't take into consideration

that there's a time zone change. Along the way.

I never do. So I'm sitting here and I'm like,

great, we're going to make it by 930. Nope, we

got there at 830. Yeah, plenty of time. Which

was beneficial because we got there and we were

probably, I don't know, like the 40th people

in line. from the door Which wasn't bad, and

then I get to see it wrap around the parking

lot seven times. Yeah Oh, it was ridiculous.

How bad it wrapped I was uh Where the heck was

I I was I was coming in from from the resort

area And I looked around and I was like holy

crap. You know look at the line out there, and

I went in and What time was it was it like 830

or something? I went in and just you know walked

around did my thing and then Came back out later

on and looked in the line had gotten ridiculous

And I think I was looking for you, but I didn't

spot you and I was just walking along I'm like

God this line is really long Yeah, I was so glad

that we got there when we did I was like well

That was the nick of time and then like just

about everything I did all day was like the nick

of time. Yeah, yeah It was even messed up at

the Welker panel lines that they had, you know,

because you had the VIP and then you had the

other line. That was so messed up. Yeah. And

then they had the general admission people and

they're like, well, somebody from Botkin comes

over, yeah, there's no guarantee you'll get in.

Yeah. So you're just standing here to see. Yeah.

Well, it was sad because it was like they had

a sign that said, Welker people here. And then

they had a sign that said something like golden

ticket and something here and and I so I'm waiting

in line because I said well, let me it oh and

then you were like way over there way over on

the other side, you know in a line for registry

or non registration and So I'm like You know,

are they gonna clear the whole room and then

see golden ticket people? And then see the Walker

people or I mean because I'd be pissed off if

I paid actually 200 bucks and for my Walker ticket

and didn't get you know, I don't want to say

front row but somewhere where you can see and

So one of the organizers who came by Guys there

every year forget his name, but he goes by D

Mac and D max there and he says And I said, hey,

you know, we're talking about this I almost want

to clarify now this line here is for you know,

Welker Package holders and he said yeah, and

I said and I said this lines for What did I say

Welker and golden ticket yeah, and he's like,

well if you have a golden ticket you can just

go in and sit And I said well, I thought they

were gonna clear the room out and he goes. Yeah,

everybody except golden ticket and I was like

Oh, so I said, see ya, you know, and I just trotted

out a line. And it was, it was probably 15 minutes

before the Welker thing even started. And I just

took my seat right in front of the panel. I mean,

literally like right in front of the panel. It

was, it was like, this is the best seat ever.

And I sat there and that was it. It might've

been, it might've been a little bit to the left.

It was a little bit to the left, but I'll tell

you what the thing was, is there was a, There's

an aisle right directly in front of Frank Walker.

So I couldn't sit in the aisle. That's true.

Yeah. But and then they had the like the computer

and everything. All the all the stuff set up

like right in front there. So it was not a very

good stand. It almost kind of reminded me when

I got the the the video of Scott McNeil at TFCon

a few years back. Yeah, I was like six people

from him, like in the front row. Yeah, that's

cool. Yeah, so I don't know, I was really happy

about the golden ticket. I mean, on the one hand,

it was kind of expensive. And part of me is like,

wow, man, do I really need a golden ticket? You

know, but on the other one, on the other hand,

it was it was handy to have because I did the

reception, you know, got got to hang out with.

You know the the voice actors at the reception

I got to get in early I was first in line for

for everything Got really good seats at the panels

So it's like is that worth an additional $400?

Maybe not I I don't know I can't say But you

did benefit from it so did benefit, you know,

honestly after I spent the money and I just had

it in my hand Right. It was such a valuable tool

It was a very nice thing to have it made it made

It made everything a lot nicer. I don't think

I would have been as happy, you know, I've been

a lot of bot cons I've never had a golden ticket

and and I've always been midway to the back in

these panels, you know and trying to get a picture

I would I'm redoing some of the photos on my

blog, and I just looked at my BotCon 2006. It

was the 2006 page, and I'm updating the photos,

and I'm looking at all the photos I took at the

Hasbro presentation, and not a single one of

them are in focus. It's too far away. I'm jostling.

It was a mess, and yeah. I mean, I vaguely remember

it, and the pictures just don't do it justice.

So I was like, damn, you know, I'm kind of glad

that I had front row seats for all this stuff.

I mean, it was again, maybe I would have paid

200 bucks for it. Don't know if I would have

paid for. Yeah, especially since like Saturday.

It's like you put $400 a register so you can

do the one of the things you get to do is that

the awards dinner on Saturday and they feed you

like dinner. You know, you put another $400 down

and you figure you're going to get another dinner.

And that wasn't so much the case. They had light

hors d 'oeuvres and desserts. They had desserts

too at the Friday reception. And there were a

lot of people there who had literally three plates

of food. This was their dinner, come hell or

high water. Three plates of hors d 'oeuvres and

they're just two fists in it. Well, that's because

food there in general is expensive as all hell.

That's not true. It's not like Disney World.

You've got you Like you have the resort here

on one corner of these two highways and then

on the next corner, you've got a target and On

the other corner, you've got a Walmart So honestly,

there's no reason why you can't just cross the

street and buy some food I was seriously I was

seriously tempted to go across the street and

get a bunch of Lunchables if I had had a fridge

in my room I would have bought a buttload of

Lunchables just eat you didn't have a fridge.

No Told you I was in the room the time forgot.

Oh Geez, we had fridge and a refrigerator and

a microwave What what is this some sort of castle

that was converted into a modern home or something?

So seriously, it's like Michael. Yeah, I mean

camp Crystal Lake over here man. I don't got

any amenities It's like you're like I didn't

have nothing and you're like and I'm like, well

I had everything except for the bathroom. Well,

yeah It's kind of like two Disney movies combined.

It's kind of like Michael was in the jail cells

from Robin Hood and Steve was in the castle tower

from The Sword and Stone Something like well,

you know, it's funny though is when I checked

in I said, you know, I got the group rate. She's

like, yeah your group rate is I want to say that

the convention rate was 112 for the room and

and then and then she said okay for wasn't sure

if I was gonna be there for two nights or three

and she said well you can check out whenever

you want and I said, okay, so so I go to sign

in and it says 237 and I said well hold on a

second is this 237 for the first two nights that

I'm going to stay and She goes. Oh, no way. Sorry.

That's the wrong paperwork So apparently there

were people staying there who were paying 237

a night and Honestly, I've been in hotels that

are worth 237 a night This place was not worth

$237 a night. It wasn't worth $112. We paid because

when I called, there were no... This was like

in March. Yeah. They had no... Hotel blocks?

Yeah, there was nothing left as far as online.

I had to call and get a room. And they had...

Their cheapest room online was $430. Whoa. A

night? Yeah. Holy crap. So I called and they

were like, oh yeah. You could have just stayed

with me. Oh, I know. I had two beds. I had three

bodies in my room. You guys could have shared

a bed, you're siblings. Yeah, that's true. Well,

my one brother did have a roll away, but... All

right. But but yeah, we let's all flip a coin

to see who's sleeping on the floor. Let's see

who's sleeping in the. Well, it's funny because

we get the car tonight. I called for the Wi -Fi

because they didn't tell us anything about the

Wi -Fi. And we all got back to the room. We're

like, I want fucking Wi -Fi. Yeah. We were eating

our pizza from Pizza Hut that we spent entirely

too much on. And I wish we were together. Oh,

my God. You guys come to Chicago. You Pizza Hut.

Wanted well, we're trying to find food and we

didn't know really where we're going. So it was

kind of yeah For the moment you could have ordered

a Gio Donno's Adam deliver Yeah, we weren't sure

what was gonna deliver with had we paid attention.

There was a frickin Papa John's right across

the street Yeah, oh my god. Yeah, and we I didn't

know that I was like you gotta be shitting me

cuz there's none around here Yeah, there's no

anymore John's by you. No, they all closed down

Oh, well, I guess it was kind of exciting if

you'd never seen one, you know Well, I'd had

it before because we used to have three of them

around us But then they all closed down some

over the last ten years. So there's a reason

for that Nobody bought it So, I mean I kind of

It kind of sucked anyway, but yeah, so I was

calling down there and I was like, uh, yeah might

want to get a roll away, too Mmm, well, I'm getting

the Wi -Fi password Yeah, yeah, no, that's that's

like a ridiculous sum for any hotel room. Honestly,

I I'd ended up getting it for 159 but oh, oh

awesome. How'd that happen? It was the last room

they had Okay, it was pure luck. It was pure

stupid luck, but it was a 400 though No, it was

159. I was I was geeked. Oh my god Yeah, no,

I mean there are people that but like I said

there are people paying 237 and again I had like

just the worst room I was literally I didn't

have a fridge so I couldn't I couldn't actually

put meat and cheese in in my room to eat so I

was I was eating Cliff bars and I had carnation

instant breakfast in a pre -bottled And I would

just shake them up and chug it for breakfast.

Wow. And lunch, actually. I ran back to my room

and grabbed another one for lunch. Oh, man. You're

the new spokesman for Subway. Two breakfast shakes

and two subs for lunch and dinner. And a sensible

dinner. That's right. Shake and bake. Don't know

if I actually lost any weight This is like a

12 -hour hike, you know, you're literally up

and walking the floor running back and forth

across the resort There was no rest involved.

I Was exhausted by the time I go back to the

room my brother he'd when we left he'd had no

he just got out of work like two hours before

we started and he's like I'm gonna sleep in the

car and then he changes his mind. He's like,

I'm just gonna stay awake. Oh Jesus. So he sleeps

literally like 20 minutes in the car on the way

to the convention. Yeah. And... Then... He stayed

up all day? Oh, he stayed up all day. Holy cow.

I don't know how he did it, but I used to be

able to do that, but I can't anymore. But yeah,

he... He got back to the room. He ate half a

pizza because we bought two large pizzas. Yeah

He ate half pack of Oreos and then he was gone

He was down face down into the bed out I was

like damn it didn't take him long. Yeah Yeah,

no, I Yeah, I didn't have I was gonna say I didn't

have a TV man. This sucks But no, I had a TV.

I don't think I turned it on Normally if I'm

in a hotel room, I'll turn on the TV watch a

little TV pass out But no, I was so tired. I

like I Skyped my kids and told him good night

Passed out. That was it for me. Oh Man I want

to say one of the nights I went out to like the

parts parties and did those and just to see cuz

because They had a total and complete ban on

third party products, right? So Thursday night

Yeah, definitely Thursday night. It was out You

know visiting rooms in the hotel that hosted

third -party items so it's like render form was

in a room and make toys was in a room and a Couple

of the vendors that sell the third -party stuff

had their own room Yeah, and then there was a

few vendors who just had all their shit in their

room on shelves Yeah, no it was nice I oh I'm

sure I complained to Steve about this. I don't

know if I complained publicly but but I had a

I had a list and This is a yeah, you remember.

Okay. I had a list. This is a I had I used to

I used to maintain a database of all my transformers

and This was years ago. I haven't updated it

since but but you know back then I want to say

I had like 22 2300 items but there were lists

online I want to say there used to be a big bot

and and for every every Transformers Line that

would come out they would list all the toys and

not just the US toys But like the Japanese exclusives

and stuff like that whoever maintained this list

did a really good job So I took all those lists

I made one big list and then I went through and

checked all the ones I you know have it have

it don't have it have it don't got it, you know

I have this one, but I'm missing a missile that

type of thing and you know completely filled

out all the stuff that I had and then filtered

that database for items that I didn't have or

items that I had stuff missing. And that printed

out to about seven pages and then I put pictures.

I went on like tfu .net and found pictures of

all the items I didn't have and stuck and pasted

them into my pages. So now I have this seven,

eight page list of items that I want. That I

need to fulfill my collection and had pictures

next to them and I had carried this list with

me To all the conventions all the comic cons

everywhere I went, you know that white self transformers

and everyone I bought one I would cross it off

the list and I had this list on my back pocket

because I wanted to go to the parts parties and

oh, you know you have You know G1 Punch counter

punches blue gun, you know, I have the yellow

one, but I don't have the blue one and in reality

I don't know which one I have the only way that

the only reason I know which one I have is because

it was on the list and I dropped the list Lost

my list couldn't find it and then went back to

all the other rooms that I had already been in

and everyone's like Hey, you're back. What do

you want to buy? And I'm like nothing I lost

my list, you know, and they're like, oh, I haven't

seen it, you know So in Ria, you know most likely

it dropped and a very helpful cleaning lady threw

it away Because that's what cleaning ladies do

when they find wads of paper on the ground So

I don't been helpful to use the Wi -Fi to print

out the list off your website No, no this no

seriously this list This list was literally something

I printed out eight years ago and just carried

it around I I never went back to update my database.

So even if I printed it out, it would give me

a list of everything that I didn't have eight

years ago. And wouldn't help me now. I mean,

I guess I could go through my entire collection

and find the stuff that I do have and cross it

off. I guess that makes sense. But it would be

difficult to do. So I don't know so so part of

me is saying, you know This is the the universe's

way of telling me that I need to quit collecting

transformers You know or at least you know Let

me know that I'm not obligated to buy any more

stuff because you know, I don't know what to

buy anymore On the other hand everything that

I could remember that was that I still had that

I didn't currently have on I Just bought it I

said, you know what, this might be my last convention.

I think I'm just going to buy everything that

I remember. So I got the last couple headmasters

or the last couple target masters I didn't have,

the last power master I didn't have. Just crossing

the list off for the last of the 86, 87 guys

that I didn't have yet. And and maybe I got them

all now. I don't know. I don't have a list anymore

You know, eventually I'm gonna have to revisit

my collection and see but for right now I'm just

going to assume that I have them all Gotta catch

them all You know, sadly, I have a completionist

mentality, and I do. You've seen my collection.

This is ridiculous. No, I know. How do people

live like this? I've seen your collection, and

I've seen the giant stack of boxes you keep in

your closet, too. Exactly. I even found an orange

bone crusher. Jeez. I know. So my orange Devastator.

You know can can take the knockoff that he has

for an arm and actually put a real bone crusher

on if it's not green and purple It's not Devastator.

That's all I know say the orange Devastator is

the best Devastator. No. Oh, yes G2 Devastator

is a sight to behold. Oh awesome Steve so do

you think you would like to or enjoy? Going to

BotCon again after this first experience or are

you just ready to wash your hands of it? Well,

I wouldn't say I'm ready to wash my hands of

it. I don't I guess it would depend on the location.

Yeah That would be primary. I would go again

I mean I the only thing that's stopping me from

going to TF con again is the location and the

fact that It was like a group vacation thing

when we did it So, I mean that's really the only

thing that I could see stopping me from going

I think I'm gonna focus on more of the the local,

you know stuff I can drive to within a couple

hours Yeah, and then drive home and in you know,

kind of like how grand cons been To that degree.

So, I mean, I don't think I'm gonna I Won't say

I won't ever go again, but I'm not planning on

going just yet If that makes any sense wasn't

that ones you one episode where they were stealing

cars the Decepticons were stealing cars Wasn't

that like in Detroit? They could really have

BotCon in Detroit next year Yeah, right. Yeah,

right You know TF con again the beat the set

horse is Current not currently but but they're

they're they're going to have this year. They

have Canada North Carolina and Chicago Well,

no, it's it's it's not this year 2016 is in Chicago

they're having it in Charlotte this year and

then next year will be in Chicago I Interpreted

that as they were having all three of this year

is in there. July is this one. They're having

the Charlotte one and then in October They're

having the Chicago one Really? So that's that

yeah, that's not how I took it. But but that

would be really cool I would totally go to the

one in October I would, but I can't. It's nearby.

I know, but I've hit my quota for the year. Oh,

you know what? Honestly, I already, again, I

said I already bought one of each. If I went,

it would just be to see my friends, you know,

people that I know there. I may try and go to

C2E2 next year. Oh, C2E2 is awesome. I want to

go to a regular comic convention. Well, you know,

Wizard World. is um is having theirs in august

and that's up with bio hair that's closer for

you at least i'm taking the kids i take the kids

on yeah well you know it's scary it's like my

wife's my wife had planned my boy's birthday

party on the saturday and then i usually take

my kids on the sunday so it'll be a busy couple

of days it's tempting You know those are I don't

know I mean those are different because those

are like 50 bucks to get in and then if you do

want to talk to If you want to you know meet

a voice actor you can walk up and shake their

hand and say hi But if you want a picture, it's

40 bucks if you want a signature is 40 bucks

Yeah, they charge you for everything. Yeah, it

charges a hell of a yeah That's what press passes

were invented for their registration is actually

open and working. Exactly. What was funny too

is when there was all this registration issues

for BotCon, TFCon put up their registration like

six months early. They said, hey, come register

for our convention because our registration actually

works. Well, what's funny is half the staff for

TFCon was staff at BotCon. Were they yeah, okay.

I've recognized a lot of the guys from TF con

when I went a couple years back Yeah, it is funny.

I wouldn't have expected that But yeah photo

man was on staff Was he on staff? I just saw

him hanging out. He didn't have like a hat, you

know He didn't have to have a hat. He had the

badge. Mm -hmm. I noticed normally a lot of those

guys would have the bot con shirt and the hat

When I was oh man when you were getting your

picture with Welker I went back to get a second

picture because the first one was Positioned

wrong and they wanted that they said if you want

you can take another picture and I said I totally

want so I went in I went to the front of the

line and Me and a couple of the people needed

it done. So they hustled us in real quick got

a picture Really quick and then hustle us out

and I was the last one to get mine printed So

I'm you know sitting in the secondary room When

they bring in all the Hasbro guys and they brought

the Hasbro guys in right out of the Hasbro panel

So they're they all walk in and I'm like, hey

guys, how's it going? And they're like hi, and

I'm like, hey quick question, you know, you guys

are gonna paint that that Devastator Yellow right,

you know, you can't just can't just make that

something like that, you know only give it a

green color You're gonna have to you know repaint

it You gotta repaint it to recoup the cost, you

know, well, you know look at the the Metro plex

they they didn't repaint Metro plex They totally

could should have done Metro Titan, but they

didn't repaint it They they are adding new parts

to it and calling it Fort backs So we're gonna

have another a new fort max, right? So is this

thing gonna be four feet tall or ten feet tall?

No, it's well, it depends. I don't know but uh,

but no they're taking they're taking the metroplex

mold and they're they're doing some remolding

to it and repainting it To uh to look like fortress

maximus, which is awesome. I'll tell you. Oh

and they're giving him a headmaster Which is

awesome. I love that idea. But you know again

Yeah, yeah, but here you've got this mold that

you that's two foot tall, you know, what are

you gonna do next to it? You know, there's only

so much you can do so something is recognizable

as a devastator. You got to paint them orange

so So they said oh, you know, we hadn't thought

of that. But if anybody asked we'll tell them

it was your idea You're funny. So at this point

they shuffle all the the Hasbro guys into the

next room and they shake hands with Frank, they

talk and they're chatting, you know, and I know

that outside this room there's a line of 150

people waiting to get a picture taken, but inside

the room and I'm kind of standing next to the

door peeking in as all the Hasbro guys hamming

it up with Frank Walker and just hanging out.

And I was like, well, this is an interesting

place to be right now. You know, listening to

the Hasbro guys, you know, fawn over Frank Walker

because, you know, you know, who wouldn't, you

know, you basically get your picture taken as

a group with all the people who who who produce

the line, you know, and here's the guy who basically

started half the line. He voiced half the original

lineup. Yep, absolutely. Anyway, so yeah, so

that was fun. That was interesting And then after

I actually got my picture printed and I wandered

out I went and hung out in line with Steve I

Was like whoa cuz you're just popping out of

nowhere. Yeah Well when you're one of the seven

dwarfs that's what happens Well, it was either

you know talk to Steve or talk to John Bailey

and John Bailey's like who the hell are you?

Steve my friend, you know me, right? Yeah, she's

like she's like I gotta go, you know I Told I

told Steve next time we need to have one of those

Oversized digital recorders so you guys could

actually do a live podcast without needing all

this equipment That you know, honestly that would

be hard to do. I don't even think kill these

guys did that what? Did a live podcast they did

I think oh they did they I know they they covered

all the events Well, yeah, they may have edited

it later, but I don't know No, I don't but I

mean they weren't like in this in the show floor

trying to do shit You know, there's just no way

I Could say I set up I guess no, I'm saying that

You guys could go off into a corner somewhere

and just do a live podcast with the two of you

with something like the Tascam linear PCM recorder.

You know, I mean, not necessarily. Or I could

just use my cell phone and call into the blog

talk radio number. There is that, but I'm just

saying that. That might work. It may or may not.

Yeah, it was. Yeah, I don't know. I mean. It

was for one. You'd have to have signal for that.

But yeah, I don't know. It's too much crap to

carry around in that there's not really a lot

of room to move. I was I was half the time I

was wondering if I should wear my backpack in

there because well, the nice thing was it wasn't

attendance was down. It was down. So yeah, so

you could actually maneuver through the hall

through the down the aisles in between things,

because sometimes it's so packed. You can't get

through. And, you know, this time it wasn't that

packed. Anyway. BotCon that time forgot? Yeah.

Well, yeah, it was like a throwback to older

BotCons where people didn't actually show up,

I guess. I don't know. Nobody could find it,

so they just didn't come. It was hard to get

to. You know, and the sad thing is, well this

isn't sad, I guess it's good if you live in Chicago,

but the Blackhawks had just won their championship.

So they were having, on Thursday, they were having

a parade through Chicago. And the people who

were there, you know, were like, hey, I think

I'm gonna hang out in Chicago for the day. Kind

of didn't. And then the people who were driving

in kind of got stuck in the traffic that was

going through Chicago. So they did so it took

you know, they're like, oh my god took me three

hours to get in here I was talking to Thorazine

He was there yeah, and he was like, you know

what we drove in and My GPS told me to go through

Chicago and I'm like, well, why don't you take

you know? 90 to 294 and 294 down to 88 and he's

like, yeah, that's gibberish to me. I have no

idea And I'm like, dude, you didn't have to go

through the city to get here. You could have

bypassed all that. But yeah, a lot of people

having a lot of traffic issues. And like I said,

even when you're well outside of the city, it's

still another 45 minutes to get there. Yeah,

but I mean, see, that's the thing. It's like,

you know, I don't want to sit here and rag on

BotCon, but I'm still going to do it regardless.

It's one of those things where they could have

chosen a better location within Chicago city

limits proper, like something very easy to get

to, something that is going to be 45 minutes

away from every other frigging thing. You know,

this is one of the reasons why I said use the

river. You know, you could have people ferry

in or so. I don't know. It doesn't work that

way. I know. I was just saying that it's one

of those things where you pick a location for

a convention like BotCon that travels. Most of

the time it travels or it has in its, you know,

10 year history or 11 year or however the hell

many times BotCon. Whatever. You're supposed

to pick a city. So if people their downtime after

the convention is kind of over for the day or

the evening that people can actually enjoy the

city but if you have something that's 45 minutes

in bum freak Cybertron then who the hell knows

yeah no this place was really hard to get to

and a lot of people flew in to like O 'Hare and

found out that it was gonna be an hour and a

half to get there and I want to say that I want

to say that they provided shuttles, but I'm not

sure if they actually did. That would have been

the right thing to do. Let's get some shuttles

so that people don't have to pay a taxi cab however

long to get here. I don't know. I drove in. I'm

local, so it wasn't that terrible. You know,

I had a unique situation and that I had a wedding

to attend on Saturday night So I drove to BotCon

on or drove drove there on Thursday straight

out of work And then stayed over Thursday and

then hung out stayed over Friday and then Saturday

Left to go to a wedding stayed overnight there

and then came back on Sunday And I wasn't even

sure if I was gonna come back on Sunday, but

then I thought yeah, you know, there's stuff

I want to say I want to see that script reading

You know, maybe buy some more stuff in the dealer

room. I was kind of glad I went back. I did buy

some Transformers art, but it wasn't from anybody

that was any of the artists that were notable

along the sides. Oh, OK. And then because it

was Dragon Megatron and regular Primal. There

you go. OK. And then. Almost wish I would have

had like a printout of my My transformer that's

gonna be in the new art It's it's one I had drawn

years ago by Josh Birchham of my truck as a transformer

in the style of like Optimus Prime with a Fusion

cannon on his arm So yeah, I had that drawn by

him years ago I just It would have been cool

to have it signed. Yeah, no that would have been

cool. He was he was really nice about signing

and I You know, I'm not usually one to buy like

art art art Basically because I know what I'm

gonna do I'm gonna bring it home and leave it

in the pile and it would be really cool if I

could frame it and put it up and You know, but

that's not so much what's gonna happen and I

know how I work And you know, so it's like I

went and I talked to Josh, but I didn't like

buy art and I'm the one it's like damn You can't

just go up and get a signature from someone on

your book and not buy something But on the other

hand, it's like yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah I I go

for the art anymore, but that's because I don't

have the space plus I like having crap to put

on my walls now Yeah, and I have posters that

are signed by like Mark McKenna and Scott McNeil

and yeah stuff like that. So That's always cool.

Wait, who told you you can't just stand in line

to have somebody sign your book and not buy something?

Who told you that? Well, no, I wasn't standing

in line. I just walked up and said, hey, Josh,

how's it going? And he's like, oh, yeah, I said,

well, you know, how's the convention treating

you? You know, doing pretty well. And he's like,

oh, yeah, you know, just doing some commissions.

And I said, oh, I said, hey, you know, I hate

to pester you, but, you know, I got Jim Sorensen's

book. Have you seen it? And he's like, I think

so. Let me see. So I showed it to him and I said

would you mind signing it? He's like, oh no,

let me sign it Yeah, I mean it was I said I had

this company. There was nobody like crowding

him You know, it was just saying how's it going?

We talked for a few minutes. I had someone sign

my book And then later on I was want to say I

was talking to Who was I talking to I don't think

it was Proto Man of somebody else and then Alex

Milne walked up and started talking to us I was

like, hey, how's it going, you know said alex

you know i i hate the press for you would you

mind signing my book and he's like oh no i don't

mind and you know i guess when you when you have

a signature with a doodle in a in your book uh

You know and you showed it to another artist

they immediately want to doodle too. Yeah So

I have this page in my legacy book with a bunch

of doodles on it. It's kind of cool Well, you

made it sound like someone told you that you

couldn't just have and I'm thinking wait a second

I mean that's just coming courtesy. That's right,

but maybe I'm the only courteous guy here. I

don't know You paid to go to the convention,

right? yeah you pay you paid to go to the convention

you paid for all this stuff to get at the convention

you know the frank welker thing and everything

else that is far but con is not free comic book

day i mean free comic book day is the place where

you really need to buy stuff and i just go there

for the damn free comics you know it's like that

i mean bark on your spending you know in some

cases thousands and thousands of dollars it's

like You should be able to bring and have people

sign whatever the hell you want them to sign.

Yeah, yeah. No, I get that, but at the same time,

the guy's got a booth, he's got all of his wares

in front of him, and you walk up and you look

and you're like, wow, this is nice art. I'm not

going to buy any of it, but here, sign my book.

It just kind of felt weird. Yeah, but yeah, let's...

Met a lot of people did a lot of interesting

things 2015 this year. Yeah, it was a good thing.

I don't know if I I don't know if I'll do it

again. I Don't know. I'll still continue to do

like conventions. I just don't know if I'll do

it by time We had this conversation with a couple

people there. It's it's like They've been in

Pasadena what two three times now? And yeah,

and it's easy for them to get voice actors to

come to Pasadena because, you know, they live

there. That's where they live. And they don't

have to fly them out. They don't have to feed

them. They don't have to pay for their hotel

rooms. It's, you know, hey, you mind driving

five minutes downtown and talking to some people

for us? And we'll spring for lunch, you know?

And they can have the entire cast of Transformers

Prime. They can have the entire cast of Rescue

Bots. They can have four or five You know G1

voice actors because if they're still working

They're working somewhere near Pasadena true

and that or they can have you know, Michael Bay's

Secondary stunt coordinator come out and talk

to people Nobody gives a shit about that guy.

Nobody gives a shit about that guy The guy lives

in the area they can come out they'll don't hear

it will flip for lunch. Sure. Okay, cool You

can't do that in Chicago you can't you can't

do that anywhere else except pastina so i think

that as long as they're still making movies which

they're announcing now they're making butt loads

of movies you know a whole mythos a shared universe

they got cancelled did it No, I was just saying

that you'd believe me. Oh, no. I was about to

say, oh, that's terrible. Because, you know,

I see the potential there, right? The human movie

needs to come to light before another Transformers

movie does. I don't want to see that Thundercats

movie. Where's my live action Thundercats? But

no, I think if they continue to go that route,

BotCon should probably stay in Pasadena. Yeah,

probably. That's the best thing for Fun Pub.

Sadly, I can't justify heading out to California

for an annual BotCon run. Not every year, maybe

every other year, every few years. Steve, what

is going on with All Things Transformers? This

was supposed to be the grand finale episode,

but it's not. Yeah, I changed my mind Yeah, so

I figured we'd bring it back with trans all things

transformers version 3 which will be the final

version and it'll continue the numbering as You

know as normal so be 51 Steve is suddenly not

bored with transformers anymore. Yeah, it had

something to do with going to a convention But

yeah, it's funny how you suddenly care again.

Give it another 25 episodes. You'll change your

mind. Yeah, I know. Another review podcast will

be like, I'm done with this shit. No, but my

son's watching Transformers animated. Oh, nice.

Which is funny enough the show that I didn't

really care for all that much when we watched

it on the Review podcast until I got to season

3 and then now I've got a greater appreciation

for it being that I'm watching it with him Everything

and his favorite character is Grimlock Really?

Yes, he loves Grimlock. It's it's dinosaur and

he loves the the fact that he hates cars Really

hates cars. All right. Well, there's enough the

initial episode Yeah, cuz my son has the book

that that goes along with it. It's like a companion

like kid book type thing I don't know where we

got it, but he loves it and Grimlock says in

there. There's a line that he goes cars and trucks

bad Yeah, and so like And then he says car robots

worse and then so my son thinks it's funny because

I sit there and I do all the voices during the

entire book of all the characters as best I can

and yeah, usually just for s and g's I Change

Megatron to be stores. Oh, yeah as it should

it's yes as it should be or I sometimes throw

in a walker just to mess with them, but uh So,

I mean, I read that and he likes the episode

and we watch the show, but he also knows what

they all turn into. Yeah. Like, you know, prime

fire truck, ratchet ambulance, bulkhead, you

know, big truck, you know, bumblebee little car,

and then, and then prowl bike. Okay. Sports utility

vehicle. Well, that's what he knows. So like

he thinks it's great. And I'm like, okay. I'm

like, you know what they are, that's cool. Then

I'm also watching Robots in Disguise, the new

show. Yeah, I have my kids watching the new show

now. That's pretty entertaining. Have you watched

all 26 episodes? All well, I've only watched

the 15th that have been on TV so far. Yeah See

that's the thing. It's like I don't know if it

was you under one of your pseudonym accounts

or whatever else or somebody else but somebody

commented on our on our Transformers rid animated

number zero thing saying oh, you know that You

know, oh, you know that you know, you can watch

the whole thing here and I'm like Yeah, I understand

that, but I want to watch it on TV as it happens.

I don't want to, you know? Yeah. That's too much

like effort. That's going to get too much more

time. Yeah, it's like, yeah. I literally had,

yeah, I had like 10 episodes recorded before

I even watched the first one. Yeah. I don't have

cable, so I had to go that route. But no, that

was not me. I didn't think it was, but I'm just

saying. I know how you work. Because I typically

don't reply on anything. So yeah, I Watched it.

I will see say that you you will see some of

the The 13 show up oh I was gonna say Megatronus

is coming. I knew that yeah Megatronus and then

there's the Micronus like Micronus Micronus is

Which is teaching prime how to be a prime again

because apparently he's forgotten apparently

he is forgotten Yeah, since Predacon rising he

doesn't know how to be a prime anymore So well,

it's bothersome because it's like, you know,

this this this show is really doing really well

without prime And I honestly don't see why they're

bringing him I see why because he sells toys,

but I don't see why they're bringing him back.

Well They do story. I think he just he's distracting

to the story. I think that they're gonna eventually

bring Megatron back to But I don't think there

is a damn story. Honestly, I understand there

is one. I understand they're marketing this new

cartoon to the kid audience. I mean, this is

essentially a slightly a little bit more like

maybe teen version of rescue bots at this point.

And those transformers, Pokemon. Well, OK, there's

that, too. Yeah, they get this. Yeah. Animals.

Yeah. Pokemon. It's animals that transform. Exactly.

It's animals that transform in the cars. That's

kind of cool, I guess. Don't get me wrong, I

love hearing Will Friedle as Bumblebee, and I

love the interactions between Side Swipe and

Strongarm, but honestly, the show to this point,

there have been a couple of good episodes, but

this isn't my kind of Transformers. I'm not dissing

the show, and I know it's not supposed to be

my kind of Transformers, I understand that. I'm

just saying that it just needs to hurry the hell

up with some storyline. It does, you just have

to give it to the second half. Oh, I haven't

given it to the second half yet. Well, it does

build. I just watched the episode where they

arrested all the bad guys and then lost them.

And I said, all right, I'm out. They get them

back. They get it back. I can tell all the listeners

right now, there will be no individual Transformers

Robots in Disguise review podcast. I can say

that right now. At least I won't be doing it.

We will. Steve, do you mind if I say this or

do you want me to not say it? Wait until before

we close out. Okay. I was actually tempted to

try something like that. similar to Roll to the

Rescue Bots, except with this show. I enjoyed

this one, I think it's really good. It's a good

show, I like it. And it continues prime. Yeah,

kind of. No, it does. In a pseudo 2D, 3D animation

kind of way, yeah. Yeah, they changed the animation,

but they didn't beast wars to beast machines

too, so I mean... True. Yeah, it's not really

any different. It's just continuing but again

it jumps a few years and they said in season

two You're gonna see a lot of the prime characters

come back So that's what they're setting up for

it It's just they and they kind of wrap up not

to really spoil anything, but when prime comes

back He and he more or less Bumblebee's like

oh you're gonna be my leader again, and he's

like no we'll be equals You know, basically,

you know... Arise, Bumble Miss Prime. Yeah, basically

Bumblebee's gonna help teach him again, which

I don't know why he reverted. Other than because

he merged with the AllSpark, you know, in Predacon

Rising. Yeah, there's just so much Bumblebaggage

when it comes to Bumblebee. Bumblebaggage. But

he does get a slogan finally. I don't want to

hear it! I can't remember what it is. I think

my favorite one so far actually happened in the

pilot episode, Roll Up and Roll Out. Because

all I could think of is Transformers Fruit Roll

Ups. One of the scenes that the Hasbro people

showed was Bumblebee trying to figure out what

his new... Tagline should be and he he says one

and he says he writes it down and he's like nah

That sounded better at my head and he crumbles

that it throws him over his shoulder and he's

in the junkyard, right? The scrapyard and he

keeps making piles and piles and piles and finally

Finally, you know, they show that the Sun the

Sun set the moon comes out He's been doing it

all night and strong arm comes out and she's

like sir. What are you doing? And he's like I'm

I can't I can't do it justice because he would

say something and then he would immediately say

something else and rhyme with it You know because

it was like I'm alright and everything's tight

She's like sir, I think you need to recharge

and he's like I need to recharge on the barge

And he's got posted no time over his face charge

because I'm at large Exactly. Yeah, I was like

that and she just kind of like helps him off

and you know puts puts That's uh, you know drapes

him over her shoulder Helps him away kind of

like an old drunken friend you found in the gutter

like what are you doing down there? Come on Let

me help you back to your house, you know, it's

kind of like Megatron being drunk on energon

and g1 microbots Energy it was something like

that, but now he was having a hard day, and he

couldn't figure out what his new slogans Here

what it ends up being because that would ruin

it. I'm not gonna ruin it So I think because

I plan on planning out episodes from now on Novel

idea kind of like what we did when we went to

actually close it out So anything you guys want

to Pimp out before Mike spoils what the surprise

is and then he close out. Don't do it! I have

nothing to pimp. I've done absolutely nothing.

Okay. You need to start doing stuff. Go for it,

Mike. I'll try. Alright, so here's the thing.

I am to the point now where podcasting needs

to be a hugely pre -produced thing. Where it

frees all of us up. To not be set into a weekly

thing where we oh my god. It's Thursday We absolutely

have to sit down to record this because it comes

out in two days so Everybody's been asking me

if Transformers prime time is still happening.

Yes, it is It will not start airing until if

you checked your email this morning. You'd find

this out It would not start vacation check shit

It will not start airing until probably summer

of 2016 The TFG to podcast supposedly is also

going to be happening And that'll be the end

of our transformers coverage for now as far as

in -depth review shows I just So far in the middle

of season one of robots in disguise I just don't

think it's a cartoon that I can dedicate the

time I've dedicated to to the others So what

Steve and I are going to do is we're going to

set a certain segment section aside of each whether

we want to do it every two weeks or and i'm not

saying the podcast even saying whether we want

to take two episodes and put them in one podcast

or else it's essentially the transformers ross

in disguise cartoon stuff is going to be talked

about in all things transformers is what it's

gonna happen so uh... so that's the plan as far

as that goes alrighty interesting and transformers

prime time in the tfg2 podcast are gonna have

a hell of a lot more voices in them the original,

especially with TFG2. The original TFG1 podcast,

that was fun, amazing, but it's really rough

in the beginning. My goal with Primetime and

TFG2 is to have as many different opinions and

voices as we possibly can have. Awesome. So,

yep. Sounds good. And there's one other beastly

surprise, but that'll be for another day. That's

a terrible idea, but okay. No, it's not. Okay

So thank you for listening to all things transformers.

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I'm still at peak on court, Michael. Yep. Yep.

Alrighty. So until next time, transform and roll

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