Jecca Mehlota (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jecca_mehlota) wrote2007-07-04 05:00 am
jecca_mehlota) wrote2007-07-04 05:00 am
Entry tags:
Geekdom is the right of all sentient beings!
Please don't kill me for the subject line.
So, as I said a few days ago, I'm back from BotCon! I was going to write this up earlier, but my poor laptop spent most of Monday undergoing emergency repairs and was scattered quite thoroughly about the downstairs. It was kind of scary. What if something had gone wrong or been damaged?
But Botcon! Oh! It was fantastic! Easily the best convention I've ever been to (and while it was my first Transformers con, it was not my first con ever. Just so that statement can pretend to have meaning, you know). I don't know what it is, but everyone I met and/or interacted with was nice, polite, and there because they liked Transformers. (Perhaps my years at Otakon - DON'T GET ME WRONG I LOVED GOING TO OTAKON - just made me cynical, though. ... and AnimeBoston was even worse.)
I will now ramble a lot about the convention. I will not talk (much) about the movie. That'll be in a different post. Anyway, all you really need to know is SEE IT. SEE IT NOW. I DON'T CARE WHO YOU HAVE TO KILL OR WHAT ORGANS YOU NEED TO SELL. SEE IT.
Mom, Dad, and I drove down. It's only four or five hours, which is really nothing, considering we're well used to two day drives to Michigan. It was uneventful. I got a bit excited at the first sign for Providence we saw, but, well, signs don't mean you're there.
When we entered Providence, though, pretty much the first thing I saw was the giant mall that had "Cinema 16" stamped on the side. Cinema 16's where the movie'd be showing! Cinema 16 was in the mall that connected to the Westin! The Westin connected to the convention center! That was the moment. And then I saw the giant BotCon poster and I was gone. ...I may have squealed.
Then we went past our turn and got way lost and spent a half an hour trying to get back into the center of town! I was too busy going "eeeeBotCon ohmigosh I'm here" to really care. And, hey, we got to the hotel eventually, anyway (haha, and I make jokes about Burlington being full of one-way streets. Wow, Providence. Wow).
Dad and I went in to check in to the hotel and... oh, the poor receptionist. I wouldn't want to have to deal with my father at all. He's embarrassing. They'll plainly tell him where he can park, how much it'll cost, when he'll be billed, and that the only reason they're swiping his card now is so that if anything happens, they'll have it on record. It took us at least twenty minutes to check-in, because he kept making a fuss over everything. Eventually the poor girl - and she was still in training, too. I felt so awful that my father was putting her through the whole mess - was sent to another station so the guy in charge could deal with my idiot father.
We were put on the forth floor - which you need to use the elevator for, because you can't get above the third floor without your room key card. (The BotCon keycards had pictures of the movie characters on them! The Westin - where I was - had Bumblebee. Apparently the Biltmore had Prime. I don't know who was on the other two.) (Megatron and Starscream, apparently. Don't know who was in which, though.)
I was slotted to pick up my badge and box set at 5:30 - it was only about four o'clock by the time we were all settled in back at the room. We went off to locate the main area... found the line. They were playing the 1986 movie! On the ceiling! Hee! It was funny.
Dad, for... I don't know, he was just being crazy on Thursday, he became convinced I needed to go stand in line now right now and nothing I said or did could convince him that I couldn't pick my stuff up for another hour and a half. After arguing with him for fifteen minutes, I threw my hands up and walked up to stand in line. Except the line didn't even open until 4:30, so mostly I sat on the floor and was really bored. Listened to the welcoming announcement at 4:30. They announced the other convention exclusives for anyone who hadn't seen them (Alpha Trion, Weirdwolf, Huffer, and Springer - yay, Springer! - as well as a Vector Sigma display piece-thing). Then I stood around for another hour. I ended up getting pulled into an occasional conversation with a group of people standing near me. The guy had also been selected for the raffle for the last 100 Hasbro tour seats.
FINALLY I GOT MY PACKAGE. And, oh! Those jets! They're beautiful. They are so, so beautiful. Classics Mirage done in clearish blue plastic was the free figure. I was a little disappointed until I got him out of the bag, started playing with him, and remembered just how much I adore that mold. His right foot/"toes" are a little loose, but it's not really noticeable.
Dad and Mom - well, okay, mostly Dad - had come back and made sure I was still there every so often, so I handed off my box set and went to stand in line for the other stuff. Cash line was moving faster (barely), but it was still about an hour and a half. During the wait, I ended up trading my theater 15 ticket for a theater 10. The guy's friends were all in 15 and it's not like I was with anyone, so I swapped. We also discovered many of the Dirge figures had either two left or two right missile launchers, so I had to flag down Dad and get him to bring my box back to check. Mine, amazingly, had a left and a right missile launcher, they were just on the wrong side. (The launchers are removable, so people were swapping all con.) Also, I listened to the '86 movie two or three times total. Gah! But I got my toys and I love them so, so much. They are so pretty. Also bought an Alternators Tracks (yay!) and a t-shirt and the lithograph.
I saw a guy wearing a shirt that proclaimed, "I Am The Stig's Fat Cousin" and laughed.
And, uh, then it was well after seven and coming up on eight, really, so we all went back to the room, dropped my stuff, I grabbed my movie ticket, and we crossed the skybridge to the mall for dinner.
Which I was far too excited to eat. Hee. We poked around a few shops after eating (or not) to pass time. FINALLY it was 9:30 and the mall closed and there was a swarm of fans to the theater on the top floor! No, the screening didn't start until 10:30, but there I was. I talked with more people and also just sat and willed time to move faster faster faster (it didn't work, of course). The little pre-show ... thing they played was incredibly annoying. A dorky man in dorky clothing kept talking about the Modern British Invasion and playing a bunch of songs by AWESOME BRITISH BANDS. AREN'T THEY AWESOME, MOVIE-GOERS?!
Then they would cut off halfway through the song so he could talk at us more, so I had like twelve songs stuck in my head by the time 10:30 rolled around and they turned the annoying man off. But the movie didn't start! It was just a screen telling us our show would start soon! We sat rather patiently for ten minutes and I was ready to eat my badge and the chair and possibly the woman to my right out of excited energy (I often develop the urge to either climb or chew on things. I've no idea why) when - hey! Who should walk in but... Brian Goldner! What's he doing here? He thanked us for coming. Then he introduced Rachael Taylor! She plays a character in the movie named Maggie. Blonde, tattoo on her neck, hacker/advisor person. We were all cheering and clapping at her when in walked Tyrese Gibson! Who is also in the movie. He's the black soldier, Epps. So we all cheered and clapped even more, and with a resounding cry of "BRING IT!" scared the group out of the theater (well, probably not. They had six more screens to hit) and ...
Movie.
There are.
There are no words.
This was the best movie experience in my life. I've been to opening showings before - Star Wars II was a very good one. People fought choreographed lightsaber battles and did fake Force moves (and they were very, very good at it), costumes... the audience cheered and clapped during the movie.
But it didn't even touch this.
It's a theater - an entire 16 screen theater! - full of Transformers fans. We screamed and cheered and gasped in shock or horror and clapped. And laughed. It was just. It was fantastic. I'd elaborate, but I promised no movie talk in the BotCon post.
It was fantastic and if I had dropped dead as the credits rolled, I'd have died completely content. (It may have been something like this.) That is all you need to know.
Also? First, and probably only, time in my life that, for the entire duration of the movie, no one in the theater stood up once. No one left during the credits, either. It was really nice.
By the time we'd all shuffled out, it was at least 1 am, so I went back to the room and passed out. Well, tried to. I was too pumped up to really accomplish anything other than sitting on my bed and alternated between grinning and asking, "whyyyyy?" (because of a spoilery thing that happens that I didn't like. THE ONE THING I DID NOT LIKE) for about an hour. Then I passed out. Oooh, sleep...
And I had to get up early for the second day in a row to go on the Hasbro tour!
... There's something weird with my digestive system. I cannot consume products with high levels of Orange in them (the fruit, not the color, though the two usually go together), nor can I eat within an hour of my rising time. Waiting until 10 or later is generally the safest bet. Mom still insisted on making me eat something (and drinking some juice with high levels of orange), so I was queasy for the rest of the day. It was very sad.
Spent more of the time waiting for the buses to arrive standing off to the side, but eventually engaged in conversation with a guy. He seemed decent enough, I guess. I am a poor judge of character. THEN WE WENT TO HASBRO!
It was fun! Got to see how they came up with some of the movie designs, and how they come up with toy concepts, and how they do the paint applications, and... and other things! It took like three hours, and at the end they gave us a snack and something to drink. I chose water. Yay, water.
I learned that the Masterpiece Starscream they're bringing over is going to be a WalMart exclusive and nearly cried. I hate WalMart, and mine never restocks on Transformers. (Though I don't know how I feel about the paint scheme. G1 colors, but the original one looks really nice as he is.)
Came back during the time designated "Lunch" on the schedule (which is printed on the backs of the badges. That? That is genius at work. Good job, people). Wasn't sure what to do, so I wandered around until I found the room they were holding panels in. The Board Wars preliminaries (different Transformers forums complete in a Jeopardy-esque style with weird trivia questions. I knew more than I expected to) started up shortly after, and those were fun to watch. The Allspark (where I lurk most) won last year. They came in second in the prelims, with TFWikia taking first (so they didn't need to play in the morning).
(I missed the final round the next morning. Apparently the Wikia won there, too, with The Allspark as a close second?)
After that was a panel with the movie writers, where Questions were asked and answered, though most of it was stuff I'd either already figured out or already heard (on the Hasbro tour). Again, I refrain from speaking too much on it!
It was then 4, so the sales room was open for a special preview. I didn't head straight there, though. I wandered over to the Hasbro sales room. They had Pepsi Prime, and though I dislike Pepsi and have no desire for the guy, I thought I'd go look, anyway.
... They put signs up for this later, but I hadn't seen any at this point, so when I entered the room I was very nearly literally floored. There, off to the side, they had The Truck.
THE TRUCK. The one they'd painted up, the one they used as Prime in the movie whenever he was in vehicle mode.
I took lots of pictures.
(Mom or Dad had been messing with my camera and set it to something bizarre, so half my photos turned out fuzzy or weird before I figured out what was wrong, as you can sadly see in the above images.)
I got to touch him! It was A Moment. Really, I don't even know what it was. I was moved for some reason. (It's a truck with flame decals. I cannot justify my emotional reaction in the slightest.)
Also, I had a nice girl with pink and blue hair take my picture standing next to him.
... *insert really annoying fangirl-y type sounds here*
... After finally recovering from my complete awe, I moved on and up to the Dealers Room and wandered in. They had a big statue of Movie Prime in the middle of the room. (There was also the Countdown To Movie Release but, heh, it was still set for the fourth. I, er, took that photo on Sunday, which it why there're only two days and a few hours left.)
Wandered around the room for an hour or two, bought a few things... Some art, a few toys...
While I was standing in line at one booth, a guy at the neighboring booth asked if I was from Michigan. I was really confused for a long moment, before I remembered I was wearing my Mackinac Island shirt. I said no, but that I'd had family who lived up there and spent summers up there when I was younger. So we talked about the place for a while, and it turns out his aunt (or great aunt?) owned a restaurant called the French Outpost. Woah! He also said it'd been sold to the Grand Hotel recently (which is true), and I told him the locals all complained the food wasn't near as good as it had been (which is also true).
So he was an Orr, I guess! Mom and Dad - especially Dad - knew/know them somewhat. Grandparents probably knew them better, but grandparents kind of dead.
Saw some people cosplaying as Red Alert (left) and Inferno (right)! Told them I really liked their costumes and really liked the characters (I do, I adore them both) and got to take their picture (er, obviously). It was shortly after this shot that I finally figured out what the heck was wrong with my camera, for all the good it did then.
Eventually brought loot back to the room and because an autograph session started at 6, I grabbed a few items. David Kaye (who does, among many, many other things, the voice of Beast Wars/Machines Megatron) was going to be there, as well as the 2007 movie writers and Stan Bush, who sang a bunch of stuff off the '86 movie soundtrack. Did not get the movie writers' autographs at all, but not too terribly upset about that.
Went back into the Dealers Room to wait until 6, then met up with parents... Was waiting in the line for David Kaye and got to talking to the woman in front of me. She had a bunch of boxes (loads of boxes) and she and her son were going to get Kaye to sign them all. It was two items per turn at the table, so they were just going back through the line over and over again, I guess. The end of the session closed in, though, and a staff member cut the line - people for David Kaye and people for Everyone Else. I was not allowed into the David Kaye line. Sadness! But I did get Stan Bush to sign my copy of the rerelease of the 1986 movie soundtrack and had my picture taken.
It was kind of funny (and kind of sad), actually. He and the others were basically being left alone because everyone wanted to meet David Kaye. After that, every time I passed him in the halls or on the escalators or whatever he would wave, smile, and say hi. Was, er. Surprising. Obviously, I said hello back.
Found out Mom and Dad had found a WalMart, gone in, and found the WalMart exclusive Alternators, and bought them for me! So I got Ravage and Rumble and I didn't need to spend extra! Good times.
So, after the photo, we ran to the room and I dropped off my stuff (again) and we ran out for Italian for dinner. Dad doesn't like Italian, but he's heard the best Italian in town was nearby and so decided we had to go. To be fair, it was very, very good. He didn't like it, but that wasn't much of a surprise. Then we hurried back again and the parents went off (again) to do whatever it was they did all weekend while I went down to watch the Transformers MST (you know, Mystery Science Theater 3000 scenario, put on by a group of fans). Ended up in line behind the guy I talked with on the tour, so we talked more. I was confused (not by him, by someone else) for Wayward, who runs Insecticons.com... That was a weird moment (and set a trend, apparently, but more on that later). But then the line moved and we watched Transformers: The Movie 1986 (again) with running commentary. It was hilarious! Though you really had to be there. And it probably helped to have knowledge of the fanbase and such. Anyway. Funny!
(Daniel, real men don't cry. They just get stronger!)
After that finished, I went back to the room and took a shower (there were two shower heads! Oh, it was weird!) and... went to bed. Because the next morning Peter Cullen (voice of Optimus Prime! Among others) was doing one of his two one-hour autograph sessions and everyone and their family wants his autograph, which meant another early morning to get up and wait in line. Wheeha.
Plan didn't go so well, as apparently people had been lining up since five or seven am or something ridiculous like that. Oh, well. Stood in line, anyway. Missed a few panels I'd wanted to attend, but hey. It was a long wait, but I talked to the people around me and it was fun. Also, I had a blueberry muffin, which automatically makes everything better. They cut the line to stop new people from getting in, and Peter Cullen stayed past the ending time, but I still didn't make it to the front of the line. Sadness and woe!
Fortunately! Oh, so fortunately. The BotCon staff is composed entirely of awesome. They pulled out a roll of tickets and handed one to everyone still in line and told us that if we came back at 3:30 (the second and final autograph session), the tickets would let us go right to the front of the line. I was twelfth in line, apparently!
Attended the Hasbro Transformers Movie Partnership panel, but didn't hear anything I'd not already heard either on the tour or at the Movie Writers' Panel. Was still fun! Didn't stick around for the Activision panel (they made the video game). Instead I went... back to the Dealers Room! Oh, yes.
Spend that money, Jecca.
WORK THAT WALLET!
Bought a few more things ("Heroes of Cybertron" figures are so, so awesome. And I've been thinking about getting Alt Smokescreen for quite a while now. I finally just did it), then hurried outside and got in line to try and get David Kaye's autograph again! I was much closer to the front of the line this time (behind the woman from the other night! hee! So we talked more), so getting up there wasn't a problem!
I got a picture and had my Beast Wars season 2 DVD booklet signed. David Kaye is the smaller one that just says "Yessss..." underneath. The big huge thing taking up the rest of the cover's from Scott McNeil, who I met at Otakon in 2005. The quote is from Hamlet, but is also said by one of his four characters (yeah, he did four characters, which was like a fourth of the cast).
David Kaye was very nice. Also, he asked what happened to my wrist (I have been wearing my wrist brace the last week or so, because for whatever reason my tendonitis has just been hating me a lot).
Then I ran up and dumped everything in my room. Peter Cullen had a panel at 2, and I was pretty sure I'd need to get in line for it. It was a safe assumption, so I waited in line until the panel rolled around!
It was a fun panel! He's a funny guy. Also, he did the Prime voice and everyone cheered a lot. I got a sound clip of it with my camera, but I have no idea where or how I'd upload that, so, er, sorry.
That got out at 3, so I had half an hour and, sick of and becoming very confused by the people who kept asking if I was Wayward, I decided to seek her out and see if we were mysteriously twins or if people were just insane (I was placing my money on the second one, there).
Yeah. She didn't seem to get it, either. We both had glasses! And brown hair! GOSH WE JUST LOOKED SO ALIKE.
Except not at all.
Whoo?
Was considering buying a few prints from her (cheap, good souvenirs for people who didn't come), someone else behind the table (I, er, guess his screenname is Ironbite or something) mentioned they'd already cut off the line for Peter Cullen and he'd wanted his autograph.
Maybe this was weird and/or creepy, but approaching someone and asking if they thought we looked anything alike was that, too, so, eh.
Anyway, I only had one item I wanted signed, so I said that I had a line ticket and would get something signed for him if he wanted. So I took the picture he wanted signed and hurried off to claim my place, since it was almost 3:30 by that point. I got two pictures of Peter Cullen, but they had to be taken while he was signing. There were simply too many people to try and talk to or pose for all of them. But I got my More Than Meets The Eye DVD cover signed, and I got the picture signed, too. Then I thanked him and he looked up and seemed kind of surprised. (Why are people always so surprised when I thank them?)
And then I gave Ironbite-guy his picture back (weird story? He wanted Cullen to write, "To Ironbite" but the man either misunderstood or misheard or I don't know what, because he wrote "Ironhide kicks butt!" It is at least a picture of Ironhide - Cullen also voiced him in the 80s cartoon), bought a few prints, and went on my merry way. And bought an Alternators Hound. Booyah!
Then I went to David Kaye's panel at 4, which was just... Probably the second best panel I went to all weekend, and definitely the funniest. He talked a lot about the upcoming series, Transformers: Animated (he is doing Optimus Prime, which is quite a change considering he's been Megatron for like the last five series), mostly just telling us characters who're going to be in it and a few of the people voicing them. A few people got him to do little voice skits, which I tried to record. I missed the first line on both of them because I am useless. But this one was very, very funny! Beast Wars Megatron and TF:Animated Optimus Prime play golf! (His Prime voice can be a bit hard to hear, I can type it up if needed.)
Then he sang The Rubby Ducky song! (Beast Wars Megatron is occasionally seen in a 'bathtub' and he has a rubber ducky with him. It is the best thing ever!)
That panel went overtime, but it was also the last thing on the schedule until the awards cocktail party at seven, so it didn't really matter too much.
I wandered around and sat in the room until about 6:30, when I went downstairs and got lost in a giant crowd of people.
At the door, we all got a bag of stuff. In it was a little air freshener for a car shaped like Bumblebee's in the movie (it says "Bee-otch" and everything!), little cards with info about the movie 'bots, a t-shirt (it is XL! Mediums are almost big on me! I do now know what to do with it, honestly, but it's an awesome shirt, regardless), and a poster. There were two posters, just the generic Prime ("Protect") and Megatron ("Destroy") movie ones. Most people seem to have received Megatron, self included.
I do not like crowds! So I stood on the edge feeling useless and awkward for a while until a few guys invited me over to play "really bad 80s Trivial Pursuit" with them. Sure, why not. We didn't play much, they put the food out shortly after I sat down. But the six-or-so of us talked a lot, and it was a whole lot of fun (I recognized one of them by his username. Which reminds me that I'm supposed to register on that forum. Bleah). We talked through the opening band (which was, quite frankly, terrible. They did a bunch of covers - badly) and then managed to miss that they were conducting the awards inside the ballroom.
The mass exodus, followed by Stan Bush starting his performance, kind of clued us in to that. We listened to a few songs, then they decided to go look at some of the stuff they'd bought and I decided that, since my knee'd been trying to kill me with pain for the last two hours or so, I would go to bed. It was approaching 11, anyway.
Sunday! The last day! Very sad! I got up... yes. Early. The Hasbro Future Product Unveiling panel was at 10, and everyone wants to go to that. EVERYONE. So I headed down a little before 9:30 and while waiting for the elevator was joined by a person from the room next door to mine - we started talking, and she was very friendly! Found another forum, looked it up, probably going to join (eventually. Shut up I am shy and have a lot of experience lurking it's a habit). Is small and friendly, which is good for me because I am actually quite shy and easily intimidated. We talked all while waiting in line, and a few of her friends may have cut in line to join us when we told them to.
Not that I, you know... endorse line cutting. Of course not.
They all seemed very nice, though!
The unveiling panel, though... oh, man!
GREAT NEWS ALL OF IT.
I am so, so sold on TF:Animated. I wasn't sure at first - I wasn't sure I liked the look, I wasn't sure I liked the ideas, but, oh, man, they bought me. I cannot wait! January cannot come fast enough! It looks great!
The fact that there won't be any full-line gimmicks is just like icing on the cake. So happy!
And! Oh! Classics line! They're doing another round of Classics! Under the Universe title. And it's got the twins! Sideswipe and Sunstreaker! Eee! AND OCTANE!
Octane! Octane Octane Octane! So with Classics Astrotrain out already and TF:A having a Blitzwing, we get three of the triple-changers! So glorious! So! Fantastically! Glorious!
They're probably going to do Classics Prowl, too, since he can be repainted to Blue/Silverstreak and Smokescreen! And maybe Ironhide, since he can also be repainted! (Maybe they confirmed those guys, actually? I can't remember.)
I am so, so psyched.
Also, I may as well just give Hasbro my account info, since they're going to be getting everything in it, anyway. Gaaah.
Titaniums are being put on hiatus, sadly. We kind of knew that, though, after War Within Prowl (who is really, really pretty), they were going to stop. And still no plans for more Alternators (*sob!*). Oh, well.
IT IS ALL SO FANTASTIC! I CANNOT WAIT!
Also, one of the funniest moments:
VERY MINOR MOVIE SPOILER
Everyone wants them to make a toy of the Mountain Dew machine that comes to life near the end and starts shooting cans of soda at everything. Crowd cries for Hasbro to make toy: Dewbot!
Random audience member: Call him Dispensor!
(It'll make more sense if you've seen the movie.)
YES IT WAS FUNNY. SHUT UP.
That panel ended, though, and we all split up. I kept running across several of them, though, and saying hi. And... that was basically it. I met a few more people, saw some of the guys from the night before, and stayed around until the end in hopes that they'd announce the location of next year's convention, but they didn't have it cemented yet. Oh, well.
Edit:
I cannot believe I forgot. Actually, considering how tired I was? Yes, I can. I went to other panels, one of which was for TFCC comics or somesuch. I can't be bothered to go find my badge to look up what the name really was. They had a fifteen minute or so clip one of them had made of the theft of the Golden Disc (pre-Beast Wars). They'd managed to get voices for some of the characters, and even had David Kaye for Megatron. It was really neat.
/Edit
Oh. Saw a Starscream costume. Red Alert had mentioned there'd be one running around and that if they met up, they were going to reenact "Auto Berserk." Obviously, I've no idea if that ever happened.
Also saw Wheeljack, who had a lightsaber. The prospect kind of terrified me! hee! (I think I saw him on Friday, too, but I am not sure.)
There was a ... one of the conehead jets. I want to say Ramjet, but I don't remember which color he was. Pretty sure it was white, but I might be wrong. Anyway, he was doing down an escalator and I was going up, so no pictures.
I saw a few people cosplays, too (Dr. Archeville, Marissa Faireborn, and girl!Spike with Bumblebee in her shirt) but didn't manage to get any photos of them, either.
And I bought two 'World's Smallest Transformers.' They are so tiny! And adorable! (They are Jazz and Prowl, for the curious. They are tiny.) They actually transform, too. They are awesome and adorable and I love them. Considered buying Sideswipe, too, but can't have one twin and not the other and, well, no Sunstreaker at all, so. I'm a bit peculiar with some characters like that. Almost bought a Red Alert, too, but went with a second Jazz for Aniko.
THEN MOM, DAD, AND I GOT LUNCH AND DROVE HOME!
So, even with all my pre-con nervousness, I had an absolute blast. It was easily one of the best weekends of my life and I would love more than anything to go next year, as well, so hopefully they hold it somewhere (and some time) I'll be able to get to!
I will probably ramble about the movie later. It is so awesome. Go see it as soon as possible! (I saw it twice Monday night - once at the first showing with Dad, and then again at the midnight showing that was technically on Tuesday with Mom, my brother, and some friends. Sadly, but not surprisingly, the crowd was no where near as awesome and enthusiastic as the BotCon group was.)
p.s. - I knew this would happen, but, ugh. Movie's been out all of a day and already new people are flooding into the fandomand writing really awful fanfiction. I just hope they do not try and murder it the way the "Advent Children-only" people (and the "I hate Advent Children!" people) tried to - and, heck, if you want my opinion, largely succeeded - murder the Final Fantasy VII fandom.
Edit:
Oh, God, that sounds terrible of me. I have nothing against new people in the fandom! I love meeting new fans, and I love it when people come into the fanbase! I am just so worried, because I know what can happen to fanbases when the fandom in question goes "mainstream" and I just... I love my fandom and I don't want it to suffer and die slowly. Or become the next Inu Yasha or Naruto or something (though I know the odds of that happening are very small).
I am just scared because for the first time in like twenty years Transformers is big news. It's intimidating. I'm never in fandoms that ... do things like that. blearshg
So, as I said a few days ago, I'm back from BotCon! I was going to write this up earlier, but my poor laptop spent most of Monday undergoing emergency repairs and was scattered quite thoroughly about the downstairs. It was kind of scary. What if something had gone wrong or been damaged?
But Botcon! Oh! It was fantastic! Easily the best convention I've ever been to (and while it was my first Transformers con, it was not my first con ever. Just so that statement can pretend to have meaning, you know). I don't know what it is, but everyone I met and/or interacted with was nice, polite, and there because they liked Transformers. (Perhaps my years at Otakon - DON'T GET ME WRONG I LOVED GOING TO OTAKON - just made me cynical, though. ... and AnimeBoston was even worse.)
I will now ramble a lot about the convention. I will not talk (much) about the movie. That'll be in a different post. Anyway, all you really need to know is SEE IT. SEE IT NOW. I DON'T CARE WHO YOU HAVE TO KILL OR WHAT ORGANS YOU NEED TO SELL. SEE IT.
Mom, Dad, and I drove down. It's only four or five hours, which is really nothing, considering we're well used to two day drives to Michigan. It was uneventful. I got a bit excited at the first sign for Providence we saw, but, well, signs don't mean you're there.
When we entered Providence, though, pretty much the first thing I saw was the giant mall that had "Cinema 16" stamped on the side. Cinema 16's where the movie'd be showing! Cinema 16 was in the mall that connected to the Westin! The Westin connected to the convention center! That was the moment. And then I saw the giant BotCon poster and I was gone. ...I may have squealed.
Then we went past our turn and got way lost and spent a half an hour trying to get back into the center of town! I was too busy going "eeeeBotCon ohmigosh I'm here" to really care. And, hey, we got to the hotel eventually, anyway (haha, and I make jokes about Burlington being full of one-way streets. Wow, Providence. Wow).
Dad and I went in to check in to the hotel and... oh, the poor receptionist. I wouldn't want to have to deal with my father at all. He's embarrassing. They'll plainly tell him where he can park, how much it'll cost, when he'll be billed, and that the only reason they're swiping his card now is so that if anything happens, they'll have it on record. It took us at least twenty minutes to check-in, because he kept making a fuss over everything. Eventually the poor girl - and she was still in training, too. I felt so awful that my father was putting her through the whole mess - was sent to another station so the guy in charge could deal with my idiot father.
We were put on the forth floor - which you need to use the elevator for, because you can't get above the third floor without your room key card. (The BotCon keycards had pictures of the movie characters on them! The Westin - where I was - had Bumblebee. Apparently the Biltmore had Prime. I don't know who was on the other two.) (Megatron and Starscream, apparently. Don't know who was in which, though.)
I was slotted to pick up my badge and box set at 5:30 - it was only about four o'clock by the time we were all settled in back at the room. We went off to locate the main area... found the line. They were playing the 1986 movie! On the ceiling! Hee! It was funny.
Dad, for... I don't know, he was just being crazy on Thursday, he became convinced I needed to go stand in line now right now and nothing I said or did could convince him that I couldn't pick my stuff up for another hour and a half. After arguing with him for fifteen minutes, I threw my hands up and walked up to stand in line. Except the line didn't even open until 4:30, so mostly I sat on the floor and was really bored. Listened to the welcoming announcement at 4:30. They announced the other convention exclusives for anyone who hadn't seen them (Alpha Trion, Weirdwolf, Huffer, and Springer - yay, Springer! - as well as a Vector Sigma display piece-thing). Then I stood around for another hour. I ended up getting pulled into an occasional conversation with a group of people standing near me. The guy had also been selected for the raffle for the last 100 Hasbro tour seats.
FINALLY I GOT MY PACKAGE. And, oh! Those jets! They're beautiful. They are so, so beautiful. Classics Mirage done in clearish blue plastic was the free figure. I was a little disappointed until I got him out of the bag, started playing with him, and remembered just how much I adore that mold. His right foot/"toes" are a little loose, but it's not really noticeable.
Dad and Mom - well, okay, mostly Dad - had come back and made sure I was still there every so often, so I handed off my box set and went to stand in line for the other stuff. Cash line was moving faster (barely), but it was still about an hour and a half. During the wait, I ended up trading my theater 15 ticket for a theater 10. The guy's friends were all in 15 and it's not like I was with anyone, so I swapped. We also discovered many of the Dirge figures had either two left or two right missile launchers, so I had to flag down Dad and get him to bring my box back to check. Mine, amazingly, had a left and a right missile launcher, they were just on the wrong side. (The launchers are removable, so people were swapping all con.) Also, I listened to the '86 movie two or three times total. Gah! But I got my toys and I love them so, so much. They are so pretty. Also bought an Alternators Tracks (yay!) and a t-shirt and the lithograph.
I saw a guy wearing a shirt that proclaimed, "I Am The Stig's Fat Cousin" and laughed.
And, uh, then it was well after seven and coming up on eight, really, so we all went back to the room, dropped my stuff, I grabbed my movie ticket, and we crossed the skybridge to the mall for dinner.
Which I was far too excited to eat. Hee. We poked around a few shops after eating (or not) to pass time. FINALLY it was 9:30 and the mall closed and there was a swarm of fans to the theater on the top floor! No, the screening didn't start until 10:30, but there I was. I talked with more people and also just sat and willed time to move faster faster faster (it didn't work, of course). The little pre-show ... thing they played was incredibly annoying. A dorky man in dorky clothing kept talking about the Modern British Invasion and playing a bunch of songs by AWESOME BRITISH BANDS. AREN'T THEY AWESOME, MOVIE-GOERS?!
Then they would cut off halfway through the song so he could talk at us more, so I had like twelve songs stuck in my head by the time 10:30 rolled around and they turned the annoying man off. But the movie didn't start! It was just a screen telling us our show would start soon! We sat rather patiently for ten minutes and I was ready to eat my badge and the chair and possibly the woman to my right out of excited energy (I often develop the urge to either climb or chew on things. I've no idea why) when - hey! Who should walk in but... Brian Goldner! What's he doing here? He thanked us for coming. Then he introduced Rachael Taylor! She plays a character in the movie named Maggie. Blonde, tattoo on her neck, hacker/advisor person. We were all cheering and clapping at her when in walked Tyrese Gibson! Who is also in the movie. He's the black soldier, Epps. So we all cheered and clapped even more, and with a resounding cry of "BRING IT!" scared the group out of the theater (well, probably not. They had six more screens to hit) and ...
Movie.
There are.
There are no words.
This was the best movie experience in my life. I've been to opening showings before - Star Wars II was a very good one. People fought choreographed lightsaber battles and did fake Force moves (and they were very, very good at it), costumes... the audience cheered and clapped during the movie.
But it didn't even touch this.
It's a theater - an entire 16 screen theater! - full of Transformers fans. We screamed and cheered and gasped in shock or horror and clapped. And laughed. It was just. It was fantastic. I'd elaborate, but I promised no movie talk in the BotCon post.
It was fantastic and if I had dropped dead as the credits rolled, I'd have died completely content. (It may have been something like this.) That is all you need to know.
Also? First, and probably only, time in my life that, for the entire duration of the movie, no one in the theater stood up once. No one left during the credits, either. It was really nice.
By the time we'd all shuffled out, it was at least 1 am, so I went back to the room and passed out. Well, tried to. I was too pumped up to really accomplish anything other than sitting on my bed and alternated between grinning and asking, "whyyyyy?" (because of a spoilery thing that happens that I didn't like. THE ONE THING I DID NOT LIKE) for about an hour. Then I passed out. Oooh, sleep...
And I had to get up early for the second day in a row to go on the Hasbro tour!
... There's something weird with my digestive system. I cannot consume products with high levels of Orange in them (the fruit, not the color, though the two usually go together), nor can I eat within an hour of my rising time. Waiting until 10 or later is generally the safest bet. Mom still insisted on making me eat something (and drinking some juice with high levels of orange), so I was queasy for the rest of the day. It was very sad.
Spent more of the time waiting for the buses to arrive standing off to the side, but eventually engaged in conversation with a guy. He seemed decent enough, I guess. I am a poor judge of character. THEN WE WENT TO HASBRO!
It was fun! Got to see how they came up with some of the movie designs, and how they come up with toy concepts, and how they do the paint applications, and... and other things! It took like three hours, and at the end they gave us a snack and something to drink. I chose water. Yay, water.
I learned that the Masterpiece Starscream they're bringing over is going to be a WalMart exclusive and nearly cried. I hate WalMart, and mine never restocks on Transformers. (Though I don't know how I feel about the paint scheme. G1 colors, but the original one looks really nice as he is.)
Came back during the time designated "Lunch" on the schedule (which is printed on the backs of the badges. That? That is genius at work. Good job, people). Wasn't sure what to do, so I wandered around until I found the room they were holding panels in. The Board Wars preliminaries (different Transformers forums complete in a Jeopardy-esque style with weird trivia questions. I knew more than I expected to) started up shortly after, and those were fun to watch. The Allspark (where I lurk most) won last year. They came in second in the prelims, with TFWikia taking first (so they didn't need to play in the morning).
(I missed the final round the next morning. Apparently the Wikia won there, too, with The Allspark as a close second?)
After that was a panel with the movie writers, where Questions were asked and answered, though most of it was stuff I'd either already figured out or already heard (on the Hasbro tour). Again, I refrain from speaking too much on it!
It was then 4, so the sales room was open for a special preview. I didn't head straight there, though. I wandered over to the Hasbro sales room. They had Pepsi Prime, and though I dislike Pepsi and have no desire for the guy, I thought I'd go look, anyway.
... They put signs up for this later, but I hadn't seen any at this point, so when I entered the room I was very nearly literally floored. There, off to the side, they had The Truck.
THE TRUCK. The one they'd painted up, the one they used as Prime in the movie whenever he was in vehicle mode.
I took lots of pictures.
(Mom or Dad had been messing with my camera and set it to something bizarre, so half my photos turned out fuzzy or weird before I figured out what was wrong, as you can sadly see in the above images.)
I got to touch him! It was A Moment. Really, I don't even know what it was. I was moved for some reason. (It's a truck with flame decals. I cannot justify my emotional reaction in the slightest.)
Also, I had a nice girl with pink and blue hair take my picture standing next to him.
... *insert really annoying fangirl-y type sounds here*
... After finally recovering from my complete awe, I moved on and up to the Dealers Room and wandered in. They had a big statue of Movie Prime in the middle of the room. (There was also the Countdown To Movie Release but, heh, it was still set for the fourth. I, er, took that photo on Sunday, which it why there're only two days and a few hours left.)
Wandered around the room for an hour or two, bought a few things... Some art, a few toys...
While I was standing in line at one booth, a guy at the neighboring booth asked if I was from Michigan. I was really confused for a long moment, before I remembered I was wearing my Mackinac Island shirt. I said no, but that I'd had family who lived up there and spent summers up there when I was younger. So we talked about the place for a while, and it turns out his aunt (or great aunt?) owned a restaurant called the French Outpost. Woah! He also said it'd been sold to the Grand Hotel recently (which is true), and I told him the locals all complained the food wasn't near as good as it had been (which is also true).
So he was an Orr, I guess! Mom and Dad - especially Dad - knew/know them somewhat. Grandparents probably knew them better, but grandparents kind of dead.
Saw some people cosplaying as Red Alert (left) and Inferno (right)! Told them I really liked their costumes and really liked the characters (I do, I adore them both) and got to take their picture (er, obviously). It was shortly after this shot that I finally figured out what the heck was wrong with my camera, for all the good it did then.
Eventually brought loot back to the room and because an autograph session started at 6, I grabbed a few items. David Kaye (who does, among many, many other things, the voice of Beast Wars/Machines Megatron) was going to be there, as well as the 2007 movie writers and Stan Bush, who sang a bunch of stuff off the '86 movie soundtrack. Did not get the movie writers' autographs at all, but not too terribly upset about that.
Went back into the Dealers Room to wait until 6, then met up with parents... Was waiting in the line for David Kaye and got to talking to the woman in front of me. She had a bunch of boxes (loads of boxes) and she and her son were going to get Kaye to sign them all. It was two items per turn at the table, so they were just going back through the line over and over again, I guess. The end of the session closed in, though, and a staff member cut the line - people for David Kaye and people for Everyone Else. I was not allowed into the David Kaye line. Sadness! But I did get Stan Bush to sign my copy of the rerelease of the 1986 movie soundtrack and had my picture taken.
It was kind of funny (and kind of sad), actually. He and the others were basically being left alone because everyone wanted to meet David Kaye. After that, every time I passed him in the halls or on the escalators or whatever he would wave, smile, and say hi. Was, er. Surprising. Obviously, I said hello back.
Found out Mom and Dad had found a WalMart, gone in, and found the WalMart exclusive Alternators, and bought them for me! So I got Ravage and Rumble and I didn't need to spend extra! Good times.
So, after the photo, we ran to the room and I dropped off my stuff (again) and we ran out for Italian for dinner. Dad doesn't like Italian, but he's heard the best Italian in town was nearby and so decided we had to go. To be fair, it was very, very good. He didn't like it, but that wasn't much of a surprise. Then we hurried back again and the parents went off (again) to do whatever it was they did all weekend while I went down to watch the Transformers MST (you know, Mystery Science Theater 3000 scenario, put on by a group of fans). Ended up in line behind the guy I talked with on the tour, so we talked more. I was confused (not by him, by someone else) for Wayward, who runs Insecticons.com... That was a weird moment (and set a trend, apparently, but more on that later). But then the line moved and we watched Transformers: The Movie 1986 (again) with running commentary. It was hilarious! Though you really had to be there. And it probably helped to have knowledge of the fanbase and such. Anyway. Funny!
(Daniel, real men don't cry. They just get stronger!)
After that finished, I went back to the room and took a shower (there were two shower heads! Oh, it was weird!) and... went to bed. Because the next morning Peter Cullen (voice of Optimus Prime! Among others) was doing one of his two one-hour autograph sessions and everyone and their family wants his autograph, which meant another early morning to get up and wait in line. Wheeha.
Plan didn't go so well, as apparently people had been lining up since five or seven am or something ridiculous like that. Oh, well. Stood in line, anyway. Missed a few panels I'd wanted to attend, but hey. It was a long wait, but I talked to the people around me and it was fun. Also, I had a blueberry muffin, which automatically makes everything better. They cut the line to stop new people from getting in, and Peter Cullen stayed past the ending time, but I still didn't make it to the front of the line. Sadness and woe!
Fortunately! Oh, so fortunately. The BotCon staff is composed entirely of awesome. They pulled out a roll of tickets and handed one to everyone still in line and told us that if we came back at 3:30 (the second and final autograph session), the tickets would let us go right to the front of the line. I was twelfth in line, apparently!
Attended the Hasbro Transformers Movie Partnership panel, but didn't hear anything I'd not already heard either on the tour or at the Movie Writers' Panel. Was still fun! Didn't stick around for the Activision panel (they made the video game). Instead I went... back to the Dealers Room! Oh, yes.
Spend that money, Jecca.
WORK THAT WALLET!
Bought a few more things ("Heroes of Cybertron" figures are so, so awesome. And I've been thinking about getting Alt Smokescreen for quite a while now. I finally just did it), then hurried outside and got in line to try and get David Kaye's autograph again! I was much closer to the front of the line this time (behind the woman from the other night! hee! So we talked more), so getting up there wasn't a problem!
I got a picture and had my Beast Wars season 2 DVD booklet signed. David Kaye is the smaller one that just says "Yessss..." underneath. The big huge thing taking up the rest of the cover's from Scott McNeil, who I met at Otakon in 2005. The quote is from Hamlet, but is also said by one of his four characters (yeah, he did four characters, which was like a fourth of the cast).
David Kaye was very nice. Also, he asked what happened to my wrist (I have been wearing my wrist brace the last week or so, because for whatever reason my tendonitis has just been hating me a lot).
Then I ran up and dumped everything in my room. Peter Cullen had a panel at 2, and I was pretty sure I'd need to get in line for it. It was a safe assumption, so I waited in line until the panel rolled around!
It was a fun panel! He's a funny guy. Also, he did the Prime voice and everyone cheered a lot. I got a sound clip of it with my camera, but I have no idea where or how I'd upload that, so, er, sorry.
That got out at 3, so I had half an hour and, sick of and becoming very confused by the people who kept asking if I was Wayward, I decided to seek her out and see if we were mysteriously twins or if people were just insane (I was placing my money on the second one, there).
Yeah. She didn't seem to get it, either. We both had glasses! And brown hair! GOSH WE JUST LOOKED SO ALIKE.
Except not at all.
Whoo?
Was considering buying a few prints from her (cheap, good souvenirs for people who didn't come), someone else behind the table (I, er, guess his screenname is Ironbite or something) mentioned they'd already cut off the line for Peter Cullen and he'd wanted his autograph.
Maybe this was weird and/or creepy, but approaching someone and asking if they thought we looked anything alike was that, too, so, eh.
Anyway, I only had one item I wanted signed, so I said that I had a line ticket and would get something signed for him if he wanted. So I took the picture he wanted signed and hurried off to claim my place, since it was almost 3:30 by that point. I got two pictures of Peter Cullen, but they had to be taken while he was signing. There were simply too many people to try and talk to or pose for all of them. But I got my More Than Meets The Eye DVD cover signed, and I got the picture signed, too. Then I thanked him and he looked up and seemed kind of surprised. (Why are people always so surprised when I thank them?)
And then I gave Ironbite-guy his picture back (weird story? He wanted Cullen to write, "To Ironbite" but the man either misunderstood or misheard or I don't know what, because he wrote "Ironhide kicks butt!" It is at least a picture of Ironhide - Cullen also voiced him in the 80s cartoon), bought a few prints, and went on my merry way. And bought an Alternators Hound. Booyah!
Then I went to David Kaye's panel at 4, which was just... Probably the second best panel I went to all weekend, and definitely the funniest. He talked a lot about the upcoming series, Transformers: Animated (he is doing Optimus Prime, which is quite a change considering he's been Megatron for like the last five series), mostly just telling us characters who're going to be in it and a few of the people voicing them. A few people got him to do little voice skits, which I tried to record. I missed the first line on both of them because I am useless. But this one was very, very funny! Beast Wars Megatron and TF:Animated Optimus Prime play golf! (His Prime voice can be a bit hard to hear, I can type it up if needed.)
Then he sang The Rubby Ducky song! (Beast Wars Megatron is occasionally seen in a 'bathtub' and he has a rubber ducky with him. It is the best thing ever!)
That panel went overtime, but it was also the last thing on the schedule until the awards cocktail party at seven, so it didn't really matter too much.
I wandered around and sat in the room until about 6:30, when I went downstairs and got lost in a giant crowd of people.
At the door, we all got a bag of stuff. In it was a little air freshener for a car shaped like Bumblebee's in the movie (it says "Bee-otch" and everything!), little cards with info about the movie 'bots, a t-shirt (it is XL! Mediums are almost big on me! I do now know what to do with it, honestly, but it's an awesome shirt, regardless), and a poster. There were two posters, just the generic Prime ("Protect") and Megatron ("Destroy") movie ones. Most people seem to have received Megatron, self included.
I do not like crowds! So I stood on the edge feeling useless and awkward for a while until a few guys invited me over to play "really bad 80s Trivial Pursuit" with them. Sure, why not. We didn't play much, they put the food out shortly after I sat down. But the six-or-so of us talked a lot, and it was a whole lot of fun (I recognized one of them by his username. Which reminds me that I'm supposed to register on that forum. Bleah). We talked through the opening band (which was, quite frankly, terrible. They did a bunch of covers - badly) and then managed to miss that they were conducting the awards inside the ballroom.
The mass exodus, followed by Stan Bush starting his performance, kind of clued us in to that. We listened to a few songs, then they decided to go look at some of the stuff they'd bought and I decided that, since my knee'd been trying to kill me with pain for the last two hours or so, I would go to bed. It was approaching 11, anyway.
Sunday! The last day! Very sad! I got up... yes. Early. The Hasbro Future Product Unveiling panel was at 10, and everyone wants to go to that. EVERYONE. So I headed down a little before 9:30 and while waiting for the elevator was joined by a person from the room next door to mine - we started talking, and she was very friendly! Found another forum, looked it up, probably going to join (eventually. Shut up I am shy and have a lot of experience lurking it's a habit). Is small and friendly, which is good for me because I am actually quite shy and easily intimidated. We talked all while waiting in line, and a few of her friends may have cut in line to join us when we told them to.
Not that I, you know... endorse line cutting. Of course not.
They all seemed very nice, though!
The unveiling panel, though... oh, man!
GREAT NEWS ALL OF IT.
I am so, so sold on TF:Animated. I wasn't sure at first - I wasn't sure I liked the look, I wasn't sure I liked the ideas, but, oh, man, they bought me. I cannot wait! January cannot come fast enough! It looks great!
The fact that there won't be any full-line gimmicks is just like icing on the cake. So happy!
And! Oh! Classics line! They're doing another round of Classics! Under the Universe title. And it's got the twins! Sideswipe and Sunstreaker! Eee! AND OCTANE!
Octane! Octane Octane Octane! So with Classics Astrotrain out already and TF:A having a Blitzwing, we get three of the triple-changers! So glorious! So! Fantastically! Glorious!
They're probably going to do Classics Prowl, too, since he can be repainted to Blue/Silverstreak and Smokescreen! And maybe Ironhide, since he can also be repainted! (Maybe they confirmed those guys, actually? I can't remember.)
I am so, so psyched.
Also, I may as well just give Hasbro my account info, since they're going to be getting everything in it, anyway. Gaaah.
Titaniums are being put on hiatus, sadly. We kind of knew that, though, after War Within Prowl (who is really, really pretty), they were going to stop. And still no plans for more Alternators (*sob!*). Oh, well.
IT IS ALL SO FANTASTIC! I CANNOT WAIT!
Also, one of the funniest moments:
VERY MINOR MOVIE SPOILER
Everyone wants them to make a toy of the Mountain Dew machine that comes to life near the end and starts shooting cans of soda at everything. Crowd cries for Hasbro to make toy: Dewbot!
Random audience member: Call him Dispensor!
(It'll make more sense if you've seen the movie.)
YES IT WAS FUNNY. SHUT UP.
That panel ended, though, and we all split up. I kept running across several of them, though, and saying hi. And... that was basically it. I met a few more people, saw some of the guys from the night before, and stayed around until the end in hopes that they'd announce the location of next year's convention, but they didn't have it cemented yet. Oh, well.
Edit:
I cannot believe I forgot. Actually, considering how tired I was? Yes, I can. I went to other panels, one of which was for TFCC comics or somesuch. I can't be bothered to go find my badge to look up what the name really was. They had a fifteen minute or so clip one of them had made of the theft of the Golden Disc (pre-Beast Wars). They'd managed to get voices for some of the characters, and even had David Kaye for Megatron. It was really neat.
/Edit
Oh. Saw a Starscream costume. Red Alert had mentioned there'd be one running around and that if they met up, they were going to reenact "Auto Berserk." Obviously, I've no idea if that ever happened.
Also saw Wheeljack, who had a lightsaber. The prospect kind of terrified me! hee! (I think I saw him on Friday, too, but I am not sure.)
There was a ... one of the conehead jets. I want to say Ramjet, but I don't remember which color he was. Pretty sure it was white, but I might be wrong. Anyway, he was doing down an escalator and I was going up, so no pictures.
I saw a few people cosplays, too (Dr. Archeville, Marissa Faireborn, and girl!Spike with Bumblebee in her shirt) but didn't manage to get any photos of them, either.
And I bought two 'World's Smallest Transformers.' They are so tiny! And adorable! (They are Jazz and Prowl, for the curious. They are tiny.) They actually transform, too. They are awesome and adorable and I love them. Considered buying Sideswipe, too, but can't have one twin and not the other and, well, no Sunstreaker at all, so. I'm a bit peculiar with some characters like that. Almost bought a Red Alert, too, but went with a second Jazz for Aniko.
THEN MOM, DAD, AND I GOT LUNCH AND DROVE HOME!
So, even with all my pre-con nervousness, I had an absolute blast. It was easily one of the best weekends of my life and I would love more than anything to go next year, as well, so hopefully they hold it somewhere (and some time) I'll be able to get to!
I will probably ramble about the movie later. It is so awesome. Go see it as soon as possible! (I saw it twice Monday night - once at the first showing with Dad, and then again at the midnight showing that was technically on Tuesday with Mom, my brother, and some friends. Sadly, but not surprisingly, the crowd was no where near as awesome and enthusiastic as the BotCon group was.)
p.s. - I knew this would happen, but, ugh. Movie's been out all of a day and already new people are flooding into the fandom
Edit:
Oh, God, that sounds terrible of me. I have nothing against new people in the fandom! I love meeting new fans, and I love it when people come into the fanbase! I am just so worried, because I know what can happen to fanbases when the fandom in question goes "mainstream" and I just... I love my fandom and I don't want it to suffer and die slowly. Or become the next Inu Yasha or Naruto or something (though I know the odds of that happening are very small).
I am just scared because for the first time in like twenty years Transformers is big news. It's intimidating. I'm never in fandoms that ... do things like that. blearshg