I went to my very first Botcon this weekeend! As an East-Coaster, I was out of luck as a kid as they were virtually always too far away to practically travel to. Then, the con stopped existing. I had written off the posibility of ever attending the mythical Botcon, even when it returned. So I was surprised when my brother told me back in May that this year's Botcon was going to be in New Jersey, only a two-hour drive. The ride wasn't even too bad. I got lost on the terrible terrible terrible streets of Manhattan for only twenty minutes.
It was well worth it, though, as it was a great experience! So many things I had never seen before in real life. It was great watching other people's reactions as well, knowing they were in the same boat. We stuck around for the Beast Wars cast panel, and got in line just in time, too, as it grew rapidly right after we got there. Any later and we would have had to wait outside. It was surreal being so close to people I have been reading about for years. I also spoke with Jeremy Levy and Jaime Lamchick briefly!
Anyway, here's the haul:
Power Core Combiners Searchlight and Backwind, a great little set from an underrated toyline;
Battle blades Optimus Prime, basically ROTF leader Prime in Studio Series scale;
Movie Longarm, specifically the Screen Battles version with the damaged Bee, a long-time grail of mine;
Energon Arcee, one of the few Omnicon molds I never had;
Cybertron Thunderblast, another Cybertron Decepticon and for a much better price than can usually be found on ebay,
ROTF Mindwipe, loose but with his box, another grail of mine (I was this close to getting Skystalker too, but he was gone by the time I came around again);
Animated Blackarachnia, another welcome edition to my miniscule Animated collection, and...
Animated Lockdown, still on card. The most expensive singular item I bought there. He'll be coming out of that package soon, but I will try to preserve it as best I can. Now I finally have one of the most iconic original characters from Animated, and I can do the cross-compatibility gimmick with Ratchet's EMP.
My brother got some of his grails, too: Movie Starscream in G1 colors, Movie Thundercracker, Rotf Lockdown, and Adventures/Prime Voyager Ultra Magnus.
While I didn't magically find every TF from my grail list, I can hardly say I'm disappointed in what I did find. It was truly an amazing day, and I'm very grateful to have had such a bountiful experience.
instead if relying on nitro zeus with thunder wings head.
ROTB Optimus Primal!
