griffin's BotCon 'blog'

[griffin]

My 'haul' for today - Triggerbot Dogfight (to replace a broken one).

I got up early (6am), so only 4 1/2 hours sleep. It was also my turn to have the floor (2 beds, 3 people, for 3 nights), but was too tired to even notice.

I had a couple of things I needed to do early, so was out of the room before the other two woke up.
I had to pick up some toys for Krayt (which he had organised), so went to the ATM to get out the rest of the money for it, but the ATM refused the withdrawal, while another wouldn't let me take out the amount I needed, so ended up sending them the money by paypal (had to go back to my room to do it). An hour later, after all the running around, I had the toys.

But then had to deal with my other problem - wrong BotCon toys. The day before, when they were starting to let people order larger numbers of convention toys, I bought 3 sets of each, but when I was checking how many Con toys I had, I realised they gave me 6 of the Rapido pair and none of the Scorch pair (lucky I needed to check over the toys, or else I may not have noticed until I got home - they were already in a box to take home).
So I had to queue up at the dealer room, instead of at the panel room to get a good seat for the Hasbro panel.
Fortunately the lady remembered me, and didn't doubt my claim (I really should have checked), so swapped them over. I also then bought an extra set of each, which should cover those who sent money for them. (a toy dealer was there at the same time, buying 24 of each set - I guess it was okay now to have unlimited purchase quantities, to make sure they didn't get stuck with too many after the Con)

While in the dealer room, and with very limited funds, I had a look for some cheap figures JustOwen wanted. Found him some, plus that Triggerbot I mentioned earlier.

Dropping all that stuff of in the room, I went back down to line up for the Hasbro panel (for 40 minutes).
Sat through the first four panels (4 hours), then decided to leave before Peter Cullen's panel. Despite being one I like hearing at the convention, I've seen him a few times before, and I needed to take photos of the art display and Hasbro toy display (just in case I didn't get time on Sunday).
I took photos of all the art and hasbro stuff, and headed back to the panel room, with about 5 minutes left of the Peter Cullen panel.
Then sat through the next 2 panels - well, skipped out of the IDW panel after the slide show, to go back to the dealer room before it closed for the day in about half an hour.

I was planning to start writing down the details in the display cases, but had 3 different people running into me, and then chatting.
As such, I didn't end up writing anything down.
I talked to the Activision people a bit, about maybe having a multiplayer demonstration (They had 6 seperate consoles set up to TVs, but all were individual play. They also mentioned that the convention seems like it had a lot less walk-ins this year, and we thought it was probably from lack of targetted marketting of the convention to the Resort patrons.

I left just before the dealer room closed, and headed to my room to get ready for the Awards Dinner.

Dinner was a bit fancy, and the awards presentation was nicely done (aside from some technical/projector problems).
Dinobot won the fan-choice inductee position.
And they announced the dates and locations of next year's botcon (Pasadena, 2-5 June).

Came straight back to the room to post the news, and then do other board stuff until I go to bed by 2am Sunday (4pm Sunday, brisbane time).

[Zippo]

I really should have sent you some cash this year, I didn't know that they opened up the exclusives to a free for all if not sold out.

Im looking at my cash supply being empty after ebay'ing Breakdown, Clench and Pyro. Still need a boxed set so I can get those three for the loose display as well.

Rapido and Double Punch are also on the wish list.

Cheers for the reports!

[JustOwen]

Thanks Bigbot~

[Sleeve]

My 'haul' for today - Triggerbot Dogfight (to replace a broken one).

HAH! That's one of the only figures I picked up at last years' con.

[1orion2many]

You put a lot of work into your reports so I am looking forward when you post the full report on the board Griffin

[griffin]

Well, it's over again for another year... and as usual, it's over so quickly.

In about 9 hours I make my way back home, and I only just got here too...

Today wasn't very eventful for me.
After waking up at about 8am, and doing a few things (like packing) before heading to the Panel room just after 10am to catch the end of the Bob Budiansky panel, and have a good spot for the Hasbro Designers panel.

After that one was over, I went to my room to get one of the boxes, to get a quote from the UPS shippers in the Dealer Room (no post office nearby).

They wanted US$380-420 for one of my two boxes I needed shipped, so decided to take the chance to take them back on the plane (which 'should' cost me about $300 in excess luggage fees).

Took the box back to my room, and came back down to the panel room to catch a few minutes of the Voice Actors panel (which means I managed to attend every panel this year, even if it was just a couple minutes for some of them).

Saw llamatron before his early departure (2pm I think), and TheHandsomeCrab a little later, who was leaving 4-ish. RokDog should still be here for a few more days though.

In the dealer room just 2 hours before the show closes at 3.30pm, I took about an hour writing down all the details in the Hasbro product display (last minute, but no chance before then).
With less than an hour to go, and less than 30 minute before the cut-off to getting into the prize draw with your surveys, I rushed through most of the survey, but still only managed to get through 2 1/2 pages of the 4-page form. (it was like doing a homework assignment)

After the prize draw, I started looking around for something to buy, for me.
Saw Road Ceasar for $500 (I had enough, but wouldn't have had any money to get home with), and saw a Grandus and Dai Atlas. I couldn't find anything on my want-list, so ended up going for a set of clear Car Brothers for US$150 (with packaging, but no biocards - if they had any), plus a set of 8 Beast Machines Happy Meal toys.
That was my entire Sunday Haul...
Pretty disappointing.
But not really surprised. I didn't have enough money after a week of other expenses, and the dealer room didn't have as much variety for me (plenty of Gen1 toys, but not a whole lot of recent stuff from the 2-5 years ago which I have a lot of missing figures).

After they announced that the convention had closed, I wandered around the dealer room for a few more minutes.
I asked Scott McNeill if it were true that he was born in Brisbane - he said no, but did live there for four years when young.
I talked to Hasbro's Aaron Archer. We talked about the World Cup, the Hasbro panel at SDCC allowing photography, and, passed on the suggestion from here that they should release Drone packs for PowerCore Combiners, to give the 2-pack Commanders a Powerup Form (the main gimick of the series). He liked the idea, but said it would be difficult to sell without the play element of a Commander figure, so I said that it could be a mailaway offer. He seemed interested, as he had already described the Drones as army-building vehicles (using 'Stunticons' as an example of an army name, not just a small sub-group). I think he saw the potential of multiple drone redecos, without having multiple redecos of Commander figures. He said to tell Eric about it, because PCCs were Eric's line.
So, I also said a quick goodbye to Eric, and told him about the PCC idea (after all, we've been testing them out and reviewing them for over a month now), he was just as interested in the idea. (he also mentioned coming back to AUS for a holiday soon)
Also saw American friends Ben Yee and Karl Hartman for the last time this year. Both will be back for next year, so I'm happy about that.

A little after 3.30pm I headed back to my room to finish boxing up my stuff ready for my 2am departure.
Not sure what to do tonight.
I want to get some more Onion Rings from downstairs, or maybe see what RokDog is doing...
Or I could just stay here and watch the Transformers Movie (it just started - 6pm).

[5FDP]

Thanks for all your commentary Griffin. I found it really interesting and insightful. Have a safe trip back home.

[Deonasis]

Not sure what to do tonight.
I want to get some more Onion Rings from downstairs, or maybe see what RokDog is doing...
Or I could just stay here and watch the Transformers Movie (it just started - 6pm).

Onion rings + movie + RokDog. A 2am flight can kill a few options for the night also. From what I have read so far they didn't reveal too much (toy-wise) that we didn't already know was coming

Now we wait and see if griffin's mail-away exclusive PCC drones come into existance. I would also want the drones to be singley blind packed limited to 200 pieces with the rarest limb having only 100 made. Then some rarer chase editions too

[griffin]

Maybe have them in those dispensers like those Tomy Movie figures.

[liegeprime]

Thanks for the reports bossbot!! Now I cant wait for your pictures going out and about town... any of those "naughty" pics like leaning on the big balls in Melbourne? heheeheh

Have a safe trip back, hopefully plenty of legroom in the plane, I know that's one of your pet peeves on planes...