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.jpgYours 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.flvSo, 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.flvBy 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.
FridayFriday 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=JOF52GQFGmwThen 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.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0334.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0335.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0336.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0337.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0338.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0341.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0342.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0343.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0344.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0345.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0346.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0347.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... G_0348.jpgVideos:
Walk Through
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y_Cl8WXFzYPresenting the shirt to Simon Furman:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... Furman.flvSimon 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…
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 
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).
Still a neat shirt!
