The Energon Pub

Fear and Loathing in Cincinnati Ohio (Part 1)

(If you were there, please, post up your videos, identify yourselves in the pics that are here already, say 'hi' in general. I know a lot of you haven't posted before, this is your chance and we hope to see more of you lurkers our there!)

Hey all, here is my personal review of the first two days of the convention. If you were there and a part of these events, please put up your pictures, or at least tag yourself in them so I and everyone else can know who you are.

Thursday

http://url.photobucket.com/albums/v299/Daidoji_Kage/BotCon%202008/IMG_0324.jpg

Yours truly and many of your fellow board members made their arrival sometime Thursday (or in some cases Wednesday) to our glorious once a year party of consumerism and excess. Most of the attendees are staying at either the Hyatt or the Millennium Hotel. Both, essentially three star hotels which while passable, aren’t going to give you any cause to seek out the creature comforts of the accommodations.

What strikes everyone who ends up at this yearly event is how many and how many different kinds of fans are around. Young, old, cool, creepy, male, female, we’re all there. With very few exceptions the atmosphere is exceptionally positive. People are willing to talk about the hobby, talk about their experiences, and are just glad to be around fellow fans. Even meeting up with someone you might have disagreed with in forum discussion is fun and a lot of good natured ribbing comes out of these situations.

What then strikes most people, especially first time goers to the convention, is the huge lines and literal hours of waiting that awaits them. One very long line, leads you to another. We spent a hour just looking to move twenty feet in order to get our box sets.

Brief video of the line…
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... ursday.flv

So, yea after picking up those coveted box sets, we move on to the even longer line of picking up our collection exclusives. Low and behold, we’re told that there are only 30 extra sets beyond what was planned for the attendees…No one is willing to wait until morning to get theirs

Brief video of the exclusives line…
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... esLine.flv

By the time that all was said and done on Thursday, people were met, and toys were bought, it was after 10PM. Do you know what closes at 10PM in Cincinnati Ohio on a Thursday night? The answer is EVERYTHING. So, we rallied the troops for some dinner followed by a small party and gathering in a few of the hotel rooms.


Friday

Friday morning was all about recovery. About 10 AM we ventured into the IDW panel, followed up by a very entertaining time with the Voice Actors panel. Not a great deal of new info came out of the IDW panel, but the entertaining nature of David Kaye, Bumper Robinson, and Tara Strong the next hour more than made up for it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOF52GQFGmw

Then at 2PM, it was show time. The dealer room for package holders was to open at this time. We gathered up our filthy money and prepared for the ridiculous feeding frenzy of toys.

Finishing up and feeling damn proud of all the awesome finds we made, everyone headed back to prepare for the big events of the weekend: Battle of the Boards and the Seibertron Party.

Battle of the Boards is a trivia contest where the different message forums compete against one another to see who holds more obscure TF knowledge. Seibertron was matched up against the gentlemen of the TFWiki. While your friends on the board here went in hoping for the best, we recognized the impressive amount of knowledge those guys retain. We lost the actual contest for sure, but we had more supporters, more cheering, and an absolute dominance of the arm-wrestling portion of the competition. (funny story, ask someone who was there.)

The Seibertron party was next up at 10PM. It was fantastic. We met at the Sports Bar attached to the hotel. There were about 40 people, maybe more in attendance. We drank, cheered, and had a damn good time.

Pics and Video:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0333.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0334.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0335.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0336.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0337.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0338.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0341.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0342.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0343.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0344.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0345.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0346.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0347.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0348.jpg

Videos:
Walk Through
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y_Cl8WXFzY

Presenting the shirt to Simon Furman:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... Furman.flv

Simon Furman was at the event and was more than willing to chat with fans, take pictures, and be a part of the festivities. He was very gracious with his time and was a real gentleman.

Saturday and Sunday Reviews yet to come…

My sincere thanks to everyone who made it out this weekend. This convention was as good as it was because of the people there.

I started out listing names...then went back. Too many thanks to do...

See you all next year where ever it ends up being!

I can't say this enough, but thanks to everyone on this site for making this guy (first BotCon) feel at home... I had a great time!!!

Arm wrestling is best XD

But I agree, this year wouldn't have been half as fun without all the people that came. Hopefully we see an even better turnout next year with a bar close by

Sgt. Grumbles wrote:Arm wrestling is best XD

But I agree, this year wouldn't have been half as fun without all the people that came. Hopefully we see an even better turnout next year with a bar close by

Better yet, a bar that stays open till at least 2am!!

Looks like fun, I look forward to BC'09!

Liege Evilmus wrote:Looks like fun, I look forward to BC'09!

Just find us man and you won't sleep the whole weekend!

Geekee1 wrote:

Liege Evilmus wrote:Looks like fun, I look forward to BC'09!

Just find us man and you won't sleep the whole weekend!

Well I'm insomniac anyway so I know that won't be a problem. As for Bars being open till at least 2am. The ones near me are open till 4, and I often close them out and have some after hours at mine or someone elses house.

So don't worry, I fully intend on having a well stocked room

I look forward to mind erasers, car bombs, and showing you all a cool trick with a bendy straw.

Looks like you had a blast. I look forward to joining you as soon as they stop scheduling Botcon the same week as exams.

Woohoo! Fashionably late to the party.

Me and my wife had a great time and met alot of great people.Hope everyone keeps in touch.My wife took a few pics I'll post them sometime this week.Counterpunch even though it looked like your head was going to explode you did a great job getting everyone together It was nice to put a few faces to names.It was one giant party all weekend thought all of us were going to get thrown out of places or arrested a few times.cant wait till next year

Wish I was there ... missed it all this year. Looks like it was a fun time, too. I was at '08, but only briefly met a few of you guys.

Let's just say you are my kind of people.

Maybe next year!

Great pictures, CP, I'll be posting mine soon. But where's the videos from Thursday night??

Savage wrote:Great pictures, CP, I'll be posting mine soon. But where's the videos from Thursday night??

Who boy.

And folks. Consider yourself lucky to get a rare glimpse of TheMuffin. I didn't even know you were filming lol.

Ah man. For those of you that were there, if 08 was a great time, then wait til 09. I'm not a n00b anymore, I gots me training done. 2009 will top this years event by far. Counterpunch won't have to work alone this time.

For those of you that couldn't make it, start making preps now. 2009 is gonna be the "You had to be there" Botcon where we take all three awards and all the fangirls to boot.

You can sig quote me on that.

Oh also, some pics.

Quick shot of the Animated panel folks. Freaked me out cause he looked directly at me.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/ ... G_1249.jpg

Partial shot of the dealer room.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/ ... G_1269.jpg

And what kind of event would it be without cosplay?
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/ ... G_1278.jpg

Also a quick swing around the dealer room... You even get a shot of the shady Mkall fellow at the end.

http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/ ... I_1273.flv

I had an amazing time! This was my first BotCon but it certainly won't be my last. Hopefully, next year, I'll be able to go for the full experience and not just Saturday and Sunday. I got to meet a few people including Counterpunch, albeit very briefly, and I got to chat with Ryan for a bit on my way out (I forgot to say thanks for making the t-shirts). I'll have a bunch of pictures up very soon. I took about 250 and I'm still organizing.

I'm not featured in any pics, but I did make a cameo appearance in the third pic from Friday under the bar glasses on the right. No purple hair this year, either.

Although, next year I may try cos-play. We'll see.

Iron-Man wrote:Oh also, some pics.

Quick shot of the Animated panel folks. Freaked me out cause he looked directly at me.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/ ... G_1249.jpg

Partial shot of the dealer room.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/ ... G_1269.jpg

And what kind of event would it be without cosplay?
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/ ... G_1278.jpg

Also a quick swing around the dealer room... You even get a shot of the shady Mkall fellow at the end.

http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/ ... I_1273.flv

On that third link thats my freind Rose dressed as Soundwave

I hope one day that I can go to a Botcon

From the stories I heard, it sounds like Botcon was a blast, and I'm sad that I missed out I hope I can make it out to Botcon one of these years. I've still never been to an actual con (just the smaller Xtravacon here in Michigan).

Big thanks to tfpredaking for nabbing me one of the seibertron shirts Kinda wish there had been small sized ones, but oh well, I can manage a medium Still a neat shirt!

Iron-Man wrote:Oh also, some pics.

Quick shot of the Animated panel folks. Freaked me out cause he looked directly at me.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/ ... G_1249.jpg

I had to chuckle at this picture. That annoying person holding up the red camera in the shot? Yeah, that's me. Sorry that I was in the way. :/ .... I'm not sure I like how my hair looks from that back, either.

I didn't make it to any of the Seibertron meet ups myself. I planned on it, but that first night I drove 15 hours (running on only 1 hour of sleep) and I never could catch up on sleep enough to do anything late at night. Oh well, now I have a year to get to know people better.

Looked like it was fun, I'll have to go to a Botcon someday. But man seeing those lines make me think about how bad the Hasbro Toy store line is going to be at Comic Con. I had to wait in a line (in which you may get a ticket that you would have to wait in a line again) to get to a Line just to Get Rodimus Last Year.

Highbeam wrote:I've still never been to an actual con (just the smaller Xtravacon here in Michigan).

You should hitch a ride with one of us to the MotorCity Con.

I just buzzed through my pics and loaded them up on photobucket. I was going to title a bunch of them but I think that might have taken all week. Anyway, here they are:

General BotCon pics.

In and around Cincinnati.

People in costumes.

Custom contest entries.

The Hasbro showcases.

Some of my haul.

I had a great time at Botcon(well, except for waiting in line Thursday night for 2 1/2 hours to get the souvenirs), and I cheered hard and whistled louder. I should've been brave and got up there and made a fool of myself during the board wars lol. It was great to meet several of you, and I hope to do it again next year! Oh, and Counterpunch, who was the call for when you were armwrestling? lol

Megatron's Lapdog wrote:I had a great time at Botcon(well, except for waiting in line Thursday night for 2 1/2 hours to get the souvenirs), and I cheered hard and whistled louder. I should've been brave and got up there and made a fool of myself during the board wars lol. It was great to meet several of you, and I hope to do it again next year! Oh, and Counterpunch, who was the call for when you were armwrestling? lol

That would've been me calling in!