BotCon 2014 news bits (and some photos)

[griffin]

That custom class photo of the parts on mold sprues looks just awesome!
I wonder if this is what all TF toys look like before they're assembled?
I'd be kind of curious to hear how difficult it was to put together, and whether you painted any parts before finally assembling?

There are more photos from the custom class that will be in my full report... but yes, that's how the Transformers toys come out of their separate moulds, and people have to cut them up and assemble them all day long in factories.

Difficultly depends on your experience with building models, as it's the same process, except you use screws and pins instead of glue... and similarly with the painting process - some people paint the parts before construction, while others build then paint.

[griffin]

I posted these images in a different news topic so wasn't planning to post them here, but figured that all of these can go in the one topic for now.

(these may be temporary images - when the full report is up, I may delete these "z" images from the server as they will be redundant)

Knight/Autobot 3-pack

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Pirate/Decepticon 2-pack

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Clone 2-pack

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Kreon 6-pack

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Unpainted custom class figure

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Comic cover

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Autograph cards

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Oversized cards (about A4 size) for the main guests

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Litho poster

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Chase autograph cards - 1 of 4 randomly inserted with a set of 9 Autograph cards.


(I still need to ask the reasoning behind those four images)

[Omega Metro]

Great photos there Griffin. look forward to the full report.

[griffin]

Saturday (continued)

1PM - "Fembots" (female voice actors in Transformers)



Morgan Lofting (Moonracer, Firestar) - Samantha Newark (Aerial) - Sue Blu (Arcee & Animate Arcee, and voice director since Beast Wars)

Samantha Newark - also voiced Jem, which was her first animated role
Morgan Lofting - also voiced the Baroness. She wanted to voice something deep and gritty in Transformers but there were no female characters like that.
Sue Blu - also voiced a Misfit in Jem

All spoke highly of Director Wally Burr, but also noted that he was good at his job by getting his Voice Actors "throats to bleed" (figuratively speaking of course).

At that time there were very few Female roles in animation, but a lot of Execs and creative team are women.
Jem was the first cartoon to have a lead cast of females. (I guess She-Ra would have been the first if the main villain was female)

Favourite characters they voiced...
Morgan - Baroness, and a Ben10 character
Sam - Jem, and the evil crazy Jem
Sue - Arcee & Animated Arcee

Sue mentions a funny moment from the recording days of Beast Wars - Garry Chalk volunteered to record a big burp (probably for the Low Road), and proceeded to drink a can of cola for extra fizz... then when he did the burp, cola froth came up and sprayed the booth, leaving everyone laughing hysterically.

Sue - first Voice Directing role was with TMNT, and it took a lot of time and effort to be allowed to do it (being female). Once she went into directing she avoided doing voice roles, so that it allowed more women into the industry.
She has even appeared on-screen, with her last on-screen role in Friday the 13th Part 7.

Characters they wished they could have voiced...
Morgan - none
Sam - Jedda (from Jem) because she was British, and she was from England.
Sue - Sari (from Animated) and Blackarachnia (not sure if she was referring to a particular one)

Favourite people to work with...
Morgan - Gregg Berger (Grimlock)
Sue - Charlie Adler (Gen1 Silverbolt), Frank Welker (the rest of the cast)


2pm - Transformers Art (IDW artists)



Josh Burcham - Robby Musso - Marcelo Matere - Matt Frank - Josh Perez

Freelance artists & colourists, that mostly work for IDW or Hasbro at the moment.
Each started out as fan-artists and got picked up for official work.

Favourite works (mostly recent stuff, as they mentioned that they get better over time)
JB - BotCon 2013 Machine Wars
RM - BotCon 2014 Box art
MM - BotCon 2011 art
JP - BotCon 2008 boxset and Dark Cybertron


MF - tries to sneak in Transformers references and images in the current Godzilla comic.
MM - put Nemo in the ROTF comic (the revival of Megatron on the ocean floor) but was made to take it out.
JP - always sneaks in colours and characters on background characters to resemble obscure or cultish figures.
MF - tried to get some Animated characters (Lockdown, Lugnut) in the background of the Trailcutter spotlight, but had to take them out to avoid confusion.

MM - Japanese art inspired him, particularly the Visual Works book from about 10 years ago.

Colourists are given a fair bit of freedom when it comes to colouring the backgrounds to set the mood (like dark or bright colours).

Like to draw...
MF - Beasts, Dinobots, Dezarus
MM - Animated
RS - Megatron
JB - Optimus Prime

Drawing the first movie comics in 2007 was difficult to get used to, since the design and detailing was so much different to what they had been doing, or used to up until that point.


3pm - Collector Club
(only one panel this year)



Lanny - Pete - Brian

Showed us slides on the art process for this year's boxset cover, plus toy colouring layouts (pics will be in my full report).

Scorponok's head was originally planned to have a swivel joint, but after a few prototypes, it was just not going to look good sticking up too high.
The face-flap was also intended to work like Gen1 toys (covering up the robot face when the Nebulan was in humanoid mode), but the new sculpting of the face prevented it... and it was more important to get a good face than a gimmick (and we all hate how mainline toys have things sacrificed for gimmicks).

There were lots of issues with colours this year, from when the samples were sent, to the final products.
Also, there were a number of construction issues... which you have to realise that the factory workers usually construct tens or hundreds of thousands of the same toy parts, and are given just a thousand to learn and construct for toys that they are not likely to have been building in the past (and even if a worker has been there long enough to have done a particular toy before, they would have been constructing hundreds of different toys since then).
Cannonballs thighs were swapped over on all figures, making it look knock-kneed, but still transforms. To fix it you would need to remove two pins.
Scorponok apparently has shoulder pieces swapped over, but I can't tell which shoulder piece, as it doesn't look obvious that there is anything wrong (or the transformation is affected).
Some people also had some Clones with bad insertion of pins in the legs, missing the hole, making the figure loose or unable to completely line up in car mode.

The Membership 2-pack box concept (Transmutate box with room for Rampage) will be back next year (which allows them to sell another toy product to their growing line-up).
The two toys were just approved last week, but no slides were ready for the reveal... which they will do on the website soon.

The third subscription series...
Actionmaster Krok with Gatoraider - Generations Megatron (new head) & Micron gater.
Nacelle - Classicverse seeker looking like an early 80s catalogue (Blue Thrust with wings coloured like Starscream)... the 30th use of the mould, for the 30th Anniversary.
Serpent O.R. (name subject to approval, but unlikely to remain) - green/gold/purple JP Generations Ratbat.
ZAP - red/white/purple Generations Bumblebee/Nightbeat, with Kreon GB Blackrock & Kreo station (homaging the unreleased Japanese Blocktown series).
Gen2 Starscream - redeco of Classic-verse Starscream to go with G2 Ramjet.
Tarantulas - redeco of Generations Junkheap/Scrapheap, with 2 Micron beetles.
Plus a 7th bonus figure again

Again, they will try to get ahead with the Membership and Subscription orders, to offset the factory delays... so that they can have things in hand by January, to send out on schedule.

Some FunPub figures are thought up a number of years before they are used, so that they have a decent fit... but the Subscription series is now allowing them to use up ideas that were not suitable in a BotCon or Club comic themed set.

The Beast Wars comic this year (last year?) in the Club Magazine was a testing of the waters for more Beast-themed toys in future... if feedback is positive enough.

Rules are always changing when it comes to the toys they can use, but at this time, they can't touch any mainline figures, or anything Dinobot related, or licensed cars.

[griffin]

Saturday (continued)

4pm - script reading



(characters they played in the script reading)
Samantha Newark - BW Sonar, Armada Sureshock
Parvesh Cheena - Rescue Bots Blades, RID Windsheer
Morgan Lofting - Shattered Glass Ravage
Michael McConnohie - RiD Hotshot, RiD Ironhide
Hal Rayle - Gen1 Snarl, Mystery Abductor's voice (Gen1 season 3 Skuxxoid)
Jack Angel - IDW Ultra Magnus
Sue Blu - IDW Tailgate, Animated Arcee

The script was about different characters from different series being abducted to fight each other, but end up teaming up to defeat the Skuxxoid.


7.30pm - Golden Ticket Reception

The signed souvenir card we got.


And mingling with the guests...

Animated Optimus feeding his "creator".



9PM - BotCon 20 year Retrospective



Karl Hartman - Pete Sinclair

Started with a montage video of the various BotCon exclusive toys, then called out for those who still have a perfect attendance of American BotCons (not counting the one in 2003, which dropped the name before the convention started).
There were 13 at the 10th Anniversary, and there are still 7 who have not missed an official American BotCon since it started in 1994. (and I thought I was bad for attending 14-15, depending on the count... then again, these 7 all appear to be Americans now - a couple were foreigners at the 10th Anniversary)
Pete and Karl are two of the remaining seven, and I recognised 3 of the other five.

Next was a slide show of SOME of the scrapped concepts and ideas over the years.
(no pics allowed)

The "Never was gonna happen" category...
Gen1 Hardshell/Bombshell - Classics Straxus
JP Megabolt/Overlord - VOY TF2 Mindwipe
Animated Hubcap - Animated Soundwave
Gen1 Predaking - TM2 Tigerhawk
Pre-TFs Marlboro - Anim/TF2? Lockdown
Femme Fatale (female Cykill) - TFPrime Arcee (not First Edition)
Shattered Glass Stranglehold - Anim/TF2? Lockdown (with moustache)
Scrash/Euro Skyquake & King Atlas & Dai Atlas - all from 2008 Universe Silverbolt
Turbomasters Boxset (Scorch/yellow, Boss/blue, Hurricane/white, Flash/red, Thunderclash/truck) - TFPrime moulds Ironhide/yellow, Wheeljack/blue, Smokescreen/white, Bumblebee/red, Ultra Magnus/truck.
My Little Pony Twilight Sparkle Prime - purple Beast Machines Battle Unicorn

In the "Almost happened" category...
Gen1 Ransack - FOC Kickback (almost was a Pirate this year)
Pirate Cannonball - TFPrime Wheeljack
Pirate Megabolt - TFPrime Skyquake (probably good that it didn't, as it was used in last year's set)
2014 Gen1 Bumper - TFPrime Rumble
Crosshairs & Pinpointer - Generations Kup w/ Micron
Strika - Animated VOY Bulkhead
Bruton (from Gen1 3D comics) - FOC VOY Grimlock or TFPrime? Bulkhead
2013 Machine Wars Prowl - Classics Mirage
2013 Machine Wars Hubcap - Classics Kup

2011 Boxset went through a lot of changes before they ended up doing the Animated Stunticons...
First - Shattered Glass Beast Wars
Then - Classics Stunticons
Then - Animated (see below)
Then - Animated Stunticons

The "Animated" set would have had Gen2 Sideswipe (which we got that year), Jackpot (a subscription figure the next year), and three unknowns - a lime/white Megatron, cream coloured Ratchet, & something I didn't get to write down.
The at-show figures would have been - Bugbite (JP Hydrodive Bumblebee), Toxitron (JP Wingblade Optimus), Kup (DLX Cybertron Optimus), "Armada" Wheeljack (Rodimus), Tigatron (also from Rodimus), Shokaract (JP VOY Blackout), Springer (Swindle)... and a 3-pack of Flamewar, Atagony & Nightracer from Arcee mould.

In 2007 they were given the slight possibility that Alternators were on the table, so came up with a 4-pack boxset proposal... which didn't end up happening.
Galvatron (from Wheeljack), Cyclonus (from Mirage), Ultra Magnus (from Optimus) and Rodimus (from something he couldn't remember... probably the Rodimus mould).

The final figure reveal was... Rodimouse - Transmetal Rattrap coloured like Rodimus Prime.

Doing a Season 4 of Animated is something they'd like to do, but no new moulds would limit its potential and possibly spoil it.

[griffin]

Sunday 22nd June

10am - Transformers Animated



Marty Isenberg (Producer) - Derek Wyatt (Art director) - David Kaye (Optimus) - Susan Blu (Voice Director)

Season 4 was fully mapped out before the series was axed, and the Animated Almanac covers most of it.
The series would have started out being on Cybertron, with Megatron escaping to Earth, and the Autobots going after him.
Jazz & Ironhide would have become part of the regular team, as Bulkhead would have stayed on Cybertron with Sari and Arcee.
Blurr was not planned to return, while Prowl would hang around as a ghost that could possess others.

Optimus was planned to be a Junior officer in Animated by the Executive Producers, to be something different to other series that had him as the prime leader. (they obviously didn't realise that the same thing was done in Beast Wars...)

David showed us how he had to squeeze his face from both sides to voice the Insecticons in TFPrime, which he regretted doing in the audition, as it was quite painful after a while.
He said it was great to be in the same room as Peter Cullen and Frank Welker during TFPrime.

Favourite guest voices
- Weird Al. Tom Kenny even snuck in with his kid to meet him, despite not being required to record lines that day.
- Lance Henrikson
- Judd Nelson
- Fred Willard
- John Moshitta

Corey Burton was agreed to be one of the best Megatron voices in Transformers.
David Kay wanted to do an evil Optimus, to sound like the BW Megatron.

Sue was a stutterer as a child and mistakenly put into the special-ed class at school, so got into voices to pass the time (her IQ was above average).
David got into voice acting from mimicking Teachers at school, and then got a job as a Radio DJ.

The Season 2 finale credit scene of the two heads floating in space was not originally scripted, but as the pair were ad-libbing, it was animated and added in.

Porter C Powell was not planned to be in more than one episode, but after seeing how he was drawn and voiced, they kept bringing back the character.

David Kaye mentioned that he's got a small part in the next cartoon series, and that Marty almost got to write an episode for it.


11am - IDW comics



Livio - Sarah - Mairghread - Andrew - James - John Barber

(some of my details may be off, as I'm behind on IDW comics... photos will be included in the full report)

Covers shown for MTMTE 30, 31, 32
RID 30, 31, 32

MTMTE 30 is the end of 3-part Megatron trial
MTMTE 31 sees the return of Drift (in time for cashing in on the Movie) after his exile in #15 or #16.
MTMTE will soon have a multi-part story on the "Senator Era" and the Functionists.
RID 31 features Jazz.
RID 32 end of 5-part story
RID 33 & 34 features Galvatron in a stand-alone 2-part story
RID 35 starts the second story arc, with some old humans returning

Windblade 3 & 4 shown.
#4 will be her back story.
The makeup & jewellery on her has a purpose... apparently.

Primacy images shown

TFGIJoe 1 in July, written by Barber.
#0 was more GIJoe focused, but #2 will be Transformers heavy.
(they mentioned at their Dealer Room table that pre-orders for the crossover are higher than some of their ongoing lines... so someone liked Issue zero)

"Punishment" is a motion comic, now available through a Windows 8 app, for free. A print version will come later.
It is set on Cybertron, post-Dark Cybertron, with Optimus and Dinobots hunting down someone or something killing Decepticons.

November sees a new mini-series called, Drift - Empire of Stone.
Written by Shane McCarthy & drawn by Guido.
I think they mentioned that it was set at the end of Primacy... a pre-history story perhaps (depending on how long ago Drift became an Autobot I guess, or a story of flashbacks).

2015 - Windblade returns in a new mini-series, by the same team, Scott & Stone.

Q&A...

Movie comics - not likely to do any ever again. (I looked up the sales stats a few months back, and they did worse each series, to the point of selling almost half of the number of ongoing issues).

Where are the Dinobots at the moment? - four will be featured in "Punishment" on Cybertron, while Grimlock is currently with the Scavengers and will feature in an upcoming 2-part MTMTE story.

Fortress Maximus? - soon to return in a story called Sword of the Solo.
Overlord - dead
Galvatron & Megatron - Furman's idea to have them as separate characters in IDW, for more creative freedom.
RID timing on Earth - currently a couple years ahead of us (about 2016 I guess).
Sixshot - not on the horizon
Springer & Wreckers - currently in a holding pattern (so not likely to see again for a while)
Spotlights - not on the horizon
stories by Furman - not on the horizon
First 13 and Alpha Trion to be revisited? - keep an eye on Windblade comic.

More Crossovers are coming, but can't make announcements yet.

The appearance of odd (non-Gen1 series) characters that have Generations toys is not from Hasbro demanding it, but Hasbro showing IDW upcoming toys and the editors choosing to include ones that inspire them or can fit in the story.


Noon - Gen1 Retrospective.



Jack Angel - Astrotrain, Omega Supreme, Ramjet, Ultra Magnus (post movie)
Hal Rayle - Pipes, Shrapnel, Snarl
Samantha Newark - Aerial
Michael McConnohie - Tracks, Cosmos

Jack Angel couldn't remember how to do Astrotrain's voice, but did remember that they had to computerise it to sound like two voices at once.

They commented on Casey Kasem, who recently died, saying that he was a great man.

According to a website called "The Numbers" the Actors/Voice Actors who have been in movies that have earned the most in total, Frank Welker was number one for a long time... beating out people like Samuel L Jackson, Morgan Freeman, Harrison Ford and Tom Hanks. Since the Avengers movies, Samuel L Jackson has now just hit the lead.
And Jack Angel was number four for a while, who mentioned that Samuel L Jackson once said on the Howard Stern Radio show that Frank and Jack were "not real actors".

They talked about how Frank Welker would have fun with making sounds in the recording booth. Like, a sliding door noise, which would have people looking to see who was entering the room... and doing a "white noise" hum that would keep frustrating Wally Burr, who would try to work out where the noise was coming from.


Samantha Newark mentioned a time while doing Jem, that had the storyboard artists do a prank, by drawing up joke storyboards that had everyone nude (nothing graphic, just no obvious clothing).

Jack Angel mentioned that Wally Burr was so difficult to please, that he just started imitating him, and ultimately got him off his back.
He was both praised and feared as a Voice Director. (a common theme from the Voice Actors)

The reason why Jem was apparently cancelled, despite being popular...
The advertising rules that prevented toy companies advertising their own products in their cartoons, allowed for their competitors to target those cartoons with their toys, so Jem was a popular cartoon with girls, but all the ads were for Barbie, which meant they got better exposure for less investment.
Hasbro axed a number of cartoons at that time, which Jack said almost killed Marvel.

Jack Angel is 83 years old... so was already in his 50s when voicing Transformers.

They all agreed that recording voices for computer/console games is the worst job, as it is very long and repetitive.

[griffin]

One more panel to go... but first, welcome to intermission. (as the Offspring once said )

From the Hasbro display, some of the newer items added on the Saturday.

Deluxe Lockdown, Hotshot (redeco Crosshairs).


The back of Hot Shot, showing the alternate hood deco - not sure which one we are getting, or if it is a sticker option to give it a Tracks look. Also a closer look at the next DLX Bumblebee.


Generations Brainstorm, Arcee, Chromia.


Generations Nemesis Prime w/ Spinister, Cliffjumper w/ Suppressor.


Movie Boxsets - Breakout Battle & Autobots United.


Platinum Leader 2-pack


(Heaps more photos of the display in the full report)

But here's something from the Dealer Room... some of the regular/repeat appearances of Lucky Draw toys that never sell. (I blew it up enough to see the prices)


And a couple photos of the many Costumes there this year...

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[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Cool report Griff!

Doing a Season 4 of Animated is something they'd like to do, but no new moulds would limit its potential and possibly spoil it.

I think the thing that would spoil it the most would be the collector's club more than no new moulds. I hope they keep their dirty hands off of a season 4 Animated!

[griffin]

And to wrap things up on this brief coverage of the more interesting news/fan bits of BotCon 2014...

Sunday 1pm - Japanese Transformers Art



Jesse Wittenrich (BotCon comics)
Sakamoto (JP Kreo comic, BC14 comic, new Legends comic, Cloud Concept art, Gobots comic soon)
Maki (interpretor)
Tsushima (The Cool, Star Gate Battles, Alone Together - club comic)
Andrew Hall (at Ehobby for a while)

Mostly a slide show, explaining thoughts and inspirations behind each (photos in full report).
Including the pencils and line art process for some of the BC14 comic. Colours done by Josh Bircham.
They noted some of the background characters they threw in for a bit of random, obscure fun... like the 3rd Dorvak toy (Whirl & Roadbuster were Dorvak) called Bonapart Tarcass (?).
The setting/timing of the comic is post Beast Machines.

The "castle" at the bottom of page 10 was meant to be coloured like Dai Atlas, but wasn't fixed up before going to print.

Tsushima was approached by Andrew to work on the Club Comics, who was apprehensive because he had no idea who he was.

The new JP Legends toy series comic will mainly be Beast Wars, and very simplistic.


That's about it people.
There might be a few minor things I remember for the full report, but that's about all the news from this year's convention.

Next up are some photos of things outside of the Convention, as a taste of what else to expect from the full report... whenever it gets done. (it will be a while, as there are about 800 photos this year)

Any questions? Dispensor's panel is about to begin...

[Mythirax]

Any questions? Dispensor's panel is about to begin...

That gave me one heck of a good giggle