Apr
28
BotCon Photos
Filed Under General, My Progeny
Sunday I took my daughter to BotCon. She’s not big into Transformers (to be totally honest I’m not what you’d call a diehard fan either), but she enjoyed the movie and was as curious as I was to see what the convention was all about. So we rolled out around noon on Sunday to check out the show.
This was just outside the door. I remember seeing this prop in the lobby of the megagoogleplex cinemas last summer as it counted down the days until the premiere of Transformers the Movie.
Just inside the door? Wall to wall geeks!
Yeah, these are my people. I consider myself a freelance geek as I tend to spread my geekiness across multiple realms rather than invest all of my time and energy into becoming fully versed in just one or two.
This was a random photo from one of the display cases. I took more, but this is the only one that came out halfway decent. Yes, I suck at photography.
In the hallway outside of the convention there were tables set up for autographs. Here’s Tara Strong, the voice of Sari on Transformers animated either in mid-sentence or mid-sneeze:
My daughter threw me in front of the bus while getting her autograph. When asked if she watched the cartoon show, my daughter said, “yes, but my Dad hates it.” Exact word for word quote. Technically she wasn’t lying (I do hate the show), and I received a rather icy stare from Ms. Strong as a result. I tried to smooth things over by making a humorous comment about not being the target audience, but the damage was done.
Here’s Bumper Robinson, the voice of Bumblebee on Transformers animated. If you have trouble finding him in this picture, he’s the guy under the hat:
David Kaye, voice of Optimus Prime on Transformers animated, suffering from Peter Cullen envy.
Here’s one of the few people we saw dressed in costumes at the convention. Much to my surprise, all of the costumed fans were women. Also to my surprise, there were women there. Who knew?
This first one is dressed as Wheeljack (I was quite impressed with myself that I remembered that name):
Another fan dressed as Ratchet. Upon closer inspection, the costume looked to be fashioned out of multiple styrofoam coolers.
Of the fan costumes, this young lady was probably the most popular:
Her cop outfit had the Decepticon logo along with the slogan “to punish and enslave”, which was written on the side of Barricade, aka the cop car from the Transformers movie. I imagine she grew quite tired of guys asking her if her handcuffs were real (yes, they were).
Probably the coolest part of our time at the convention was at the play area, where they had an area cordoned off for kids to play with many of the Transformer toys. My daughter picked up one of the larger Starscream toys and between the two of us we managed to get him transformed from robot to jet form (in my defense, I’ve been out of practice for the last 20 years). Upon completion, the person in charge of the area just gave it to her! He fished out a few of the other pieces which went with him and she walked out of there with a huge souvenir. Here he is as a jet:
(the banana is there for size reference)
And here he is in robot form:
(again, the banana is for size reference)
She kept calling him Skyscreamer or Optimus Prime (blasphemy!), something even a casual fan would not stand for. I coached her up on the drive home. (When we got home I Googled the toy to get a reference on the retail value. He’s not cheap.)
She did get one other free toy as we were walking out, a little cellphone (not a working phone) called Wiretap V20:
Although most of the convention was just booths set up for collectors to buy/sell/trade their collectibles, it was still a fun time for us. Both of my daughters have shown aptitude in transforming Starscream from jet to robot and vice versa, but I occasionally have to correct them on his name (yes, it’s a pet peeve).
You were mentioned in USAToday PopCandy. Nice pics!
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