So How Was Botcon 2012 Overall? Options

[Suspsy]

What was attendance like? Were the facilities good? How were the guests? And did FP properly address the CC fiasco during their roundtable discussion?

[Robowang]

What was attendance like? Were the facilities good? How were the guests? And did FP properly address the CC fiasco during their roundtable discussion?

A friend of mine went and brought the wonderful story of "Garry Chalk Girl," who was seemingly one of those creepy fans who stalks the guests, but slowly evolved over the weekend, after being seen with him numerous times, into, apparently, his mistress.

Some notes I remember from his story:

-She is a fan artist who draws Optimus Primal stuff

-She walked around with Chalk a lot

-she still had to stand in line to see him at the autograph session

-Chalk gave her a hearty slap on the backside during said autograph session

-Chalk mentioned that he often poses for her(whatever that means...)

-they were seen making out in the hotel lobby....Sunday, IIRC.


It's only funny because all his online bios talk about his loving wife, Linda, who is not this girl (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-hotrod.gif)

So yeah, there's an interesting story about a guest. And if his bios are all out of date and he's divorced, then, uh, kudos to him!


As for the CC fiasco, apparently Brian gave a quick apology at the beginning of the panel, and that was all that was said of it, other than some dude with an AWESOME shirt that said "I went to Botcon and all I got was my credit card info stolen" or something like that.

Apparently attendance wasn't too bad, but the dealer room was basically a ghost town, and even though there were plenty of great spaces available, a dealer or two were still cast off into far corners of the room.

This post has been edited by Robowang: May 14 2012, 10:44 AM

[NightViper]

I saw Garry a couple of times with the girl in question. I tried to explain it to myself that she was his assistant/handler and therefore they were just familiar. But, yeah, it was definitely something more than that.

And the dealer room was spread out a bit, but "ghost town" is a vast exaggeration.

[CORVUS]

I saw Garry several times. He seemed to be almost omnipresent. It was kind of funny.

The dealer's room was indeed comfortably spread-out, but it was quite busy. Ghost-Town compared to what, exactly?

The panels I attended were informative and fun, my only disappointment being that we weren't shown the Voyager FOC Grimlock that Hasbro essentially admitted would be coming.

[Walky]

Yeah, on Friday and Saturday, especially Saturday, there were times that I felt that there was only standing room in the areas in front of my booth. It was crazy busy. Now, Sunday was a waste of time, but that's generally true of Sundays at conventions I deal at.

[Powered Convoy]

It was a good time.

I didn't care too much for the hotel. It looked nice but had things like fleas on the couches in the lobby, strawberry like substance on the floor in my room, and scratches in the windows in my room. Staff was very friendly though.

I also didn't like Dallas much as I was approached by a few too many street dwellers. I rarely have any trouble with any one no matter where I go, such could not be said about Dallas.

Randy

[CORVUS]

Atlanta used to be pretty vagrant-heavy too, but the last few times I went to Atlanta, I really didn't see many.

I didn't have that issue in Dallas because I never left the hotel until I actually left (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-hotrod.gif)

[MrBlud]

The con itself (I felt) was a bit of a letdown but hanging out with friends definitely made up for it.

[NightViper]

It was a good time.

I didn't care too much for the hotel. It looked nice but had things like fleas on the couches in the lobby, strawberry like substance on the floor in my room, and scratches in the windows in my room.

I noticed that too. On the surface, it looked like an amazing hotel. But when you looked closer, you could see the stains on the walls and ceiling, half-assed electric wiring, and, because I don't want to even think about what it actually was, I'll just leave it as "residue" on the carpeting.

Lucky the bar was trenormous, so that all blurred away after a bit (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-fire.gif)

[CORVUS]

The Hyatt in Atlanta is similar in that respect, but its also considerably older. However, I never encountered fleas or any other sorts of undesirable parasites there. There was, however, a nice alcove near a side elevator with some nice chairs that wasn't as well-traveled, that was a pretty good make-out spot.

But we're talking about Botcon, and I'm off-topic (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-fire.gif)

[xZAOx]

Surprised at the Gary Chalk talk, but no mention of his....off-color comments during him and Kaye's panel.

"Rattrap, everything you touch turns to jive!" <--funny

"Megatron, you #####!" <---WTF?! (Edit: apparently that word is banned here. Good call! It's an offensive word for gay people.)

Aside from that, there was some of the usual - panels starting late, long lines in spite of there being better options, lines starting late, technical difficulties ruining the script reading (if you were near the front you could at least still hear), other technical difficulties and general amatuer-ish mistakes.

The guests were good though I thought, although I felt bad for Buster. The dealer room was smaller, and was more spread out. So on the plus side, it was a lot easier to get around in. On the negative side, several of the dealers I talked to sounded like they really didn't know if they'd come back. The booth price keeps going up, and foot traffic going down....not a scenario for profit. A couple of the dealers did really well though. The prices keep going up in general (like HA Soundwave for $100, when he's easy to get for $70 on eBay, wtf), and for 95% of the items I saw I was interested in, the price was just nowhere near what I thought was sane. There's always deals of course, but they keep shrinking. I spent waaaaay more in the after-hours parts parties.

This post has been edited by xZAOx: May 15 2012, 04:50 PM

[MrBlud]

I am continuously disappointed amazed that FP never seems to really fix anything. Say what you want about Hallit/Hartman's but every Botcon that ran got progressively better. My first one was 1997 and it got better every year with lines, panels, setup, etc.

FP is more like someone juggling. Every time they concentrate on one thing something else suffers for it. Plus the prices for dealers and attendees keeps going up.

[NightViper]

A couple of the dealers did really well though. The prices keep going up in general (like HA Soundwave for $100, when he's easy to get for $70 on eBay, wtf), and for 95% of the items I saw I was interested in, the price was just nowhere near what I thought was sane. There's always deals of course, but they keep shrinking. I spent waaaaay more in the after-hours parts parties.

This describes a lot of conventions that I've gone to in the last 3 or 4 years.

I used to be able to find tons of Transformers items to buy at Fan Expo and TFcon, but recently the prices that the dealers have been putting on things have killed my interest. Fan Expo in particular. Don't ever even consider buying a Transformers toy there; they must think they're made out of gold!

TFcon, you can still find bins of older toys for cheap. Anything still in package, though, prepare to dig a little further in your wallet than you were expecting.

[Daggor]

This is good info. I'd like to know more. Is Buster in bad health? Despite the tech problems, can anyone give a synopsis of the VA reading?

[Sean Whitmore]

I also didn't like Dallas much as I was approached by a few too many street dwellers. I rarely have any trouble with any one no matter where I go, such could not be said about Dallas.

I never knew Dallas was such a hustler's paradise. I couldn't take two steps without some random stranger popping out to give me directions for a dollar, press a streetlight button for two dollars, sell me a flower for my girlfriend for five dollars...it was un-be-friggin-lievable.

And at night it was even worse, because the hustlers turned into drug dealers and loud drunks. My friend likened it to the nighttime scenes in Castlevania 2, where all the enemies become stronger. We made the incredibly poor decision to go for a walk at 1 in the morning to find a 7-11 or CVS, and a half-hour later we were practically praying to Primus to deliver us back to the Hyatt safely.

[Sean Whitmore]

The prices keep going up in general (like HA Soundwave for $100, when he's easy to get for $70 on eBay, wtf), and for 95% of the items I saw I was interested in, the price was just nowhere near what I thought was sane. There's always deals of course, but they keep shrinking. I spent waaaaay more in the after-hours parts parties.

I couldn't believe the prices for Beast Wars figures. There was one table against the far wall (opposite the club store) where almost every BW toy on the table had a Post-It with a three-digit number on it. I couldn't believe it, I almost thought the left-most digit was for classification purposes or something.

Another guy was selling a Razorbeast for $70, justifying it by comparing the first wave of BW toys to G1 in terms of scarcity and value. Sounded like B.S. then, and proved to be when I got home and saw I could have my pick of Razorbeasts on eBay for under $30.

[Specimen-17]

I also didn't like Dallas much as I was approached by a few too many street dwellers. I rarely have any trouble with any one no matter where I go, such could not be said about Dallas.

I never knew Dallas was such a hustler's paradise. I couldn't take two steps without some random stranger popping out to give me directions for a dollar, press a streetlight button for two dollars, sell me a flower for my girlfriend for five dollars...it was un-be-friggin-lievable.

I'm surprised by these comments. I spent a full week at the hotel, and needless to say spent a fair amount of time in the area/around Dallas and wasn't approached by anyone at any time of day. Actually, one guy tried to sell me some kind of JFK newspaper, but I politely declined and he left. And that was on the Tuesday where I spent a good 8 hours wandering around on my own (and found the $7 Warpath at Ross's before anyone else got there. Suckers!). I guess I just look less approachable than some of you.

Personally I thought the hotel was great. The elevator went THROUGH THE ROOF (or at least, it seemed like it did) and you could see the Omni-Corp building from the top. That was the highlight of my week.

[Suspsy]

I saw Garry a couple of times with the girl in question. I tried to explain it to myself that she was his assistant/handler and therefore they were just familiar. But, yeah, it was definitely something more than that.

Was this girl wearing a Catwoman suit at one point?

[NightViper]

No...

But now I feel like I missed something special!

[MrBlud]

I also didn't like Dallas much as I was approached by a few too many street dwellers. I rarely have any trouble with any one no matter where I go, such could not be said about Dallas.

I never knew Dallas was such a hustler's paradise. I couldn't take two steps without some random stranger popping out to give me directions for a dollar, press a streetlight button for two dollars, sell me a flower for my girlfriend for five dollars...it was un-be-friggin-lievable.

I'm surprised by these comments. I spent a full week at the hotel, and needless to say spent a fair amount of time in the area/around Dallas and wasn't approached by anyone at any time of day. Actually, one guy tried to sell me some kind of JFK newspaper, but I politely declined and he left. And that was on the Tuesday where I spent a good 8 hours wandering around on my own (and found the $7 Warpath at Ross's before anyone else got there. Suckers!). I guess I just look less approachable than some of you.

Personally I thought the hotel was great. The elevator went THROUGH THE ROOF (or at least, it seemed like it did) and you could see the Omni-Corp building from the top. That was the highlight of my week.

I guess it depends on where you go too. During Botcon our group was pretty much constantly harassed when we left the Hotel but when I went out with a local friend we didn't come across a single one.