The Intergalactic Highway

http://www.botcon.com/pictures06/screen ... %20lex.pdf

Man, this exclusive set will ROCK-- pre-BW versions of Rattrap, Primal, Dinobot, Rhinox, and Cheetor! YEAH!

Also, Blu Mankuma, Richard Newman, and Pauline Newstone will be attending!!!

And a class to create your own custom TF figure!

Holy crud, I'm hyperventilating...

Damn, man; ya beat me! You know what's scary about it, though? Just a couple hours ago, Sapph and I were just talking about contacting the BotCon organizers and finding out if/when they'll next get around to updating their front site!

http://www.botcon.com/

And yes, it's updated for sure now.

Outtsyder

Here's a "Cliff Notes" summary of the prices and REALLY rough activity plan for this year's BotCon....

* The title for this year's BotCon will be "Generations", and the story, given the theme of BW's 10th Anniversary, will be called "The Dawn Of Futures Past." This will chronicle the story of our Maximals and Predacons just before the theft of the Golden Disk!

* As before, the exclusive toys will be in a box set; this time, it will feature five toys. And keeping with the BW theme, they will be Optimus Primal, Rhinox, Rattrap, Cheetor and Dinobot... in their Cybertronian pre-BW-on-Earth bodies! Pictures of the new exclusive toys will be shown on the BotCon site in the months leading to the convention, and each toy will include what will be called a "Golden Disk Key". (Personal speculation: possibly remolded versions of Cyber Planet Keys from the Cybertron line.)

* The prices will be a little bit lower than last year, though not by much. Again, it will follow the same plan: Primus Package, Mini-Con Package, Protoform Package and Iacon Package. Each, of course, will have the slightly-cheaper Club Member price and the slightly-higher non-Member price. (All prices given will be in $US.)

- The Primus Package is the Big Kahuna; it includes one of the 5-figure box sets (with all the Tech Specs and other fixings), some extras, and access to all convention activites, except a city tour on Thursday, or a TF toy customizing class, both scheduled during the daytime (both events are available to all attendees for a separate charge). [Club Member Price: $249. Non-Member Price: $299.]

- The Mini-Con Package, valid for the Awards Dinner and all show events (except the city tour and customizing class on Thursday) is the "family accompaniment package" for family members of a Primus Package holder; it is only available when bought in conjunction with the Primus Package. [Club Member Price: $75 for the first one, $60 for additional ones. Non-Member Price: $75 each. Limit of 4 Mini-Con packages from Primus Package.]

- The Protoform Package is a bit lesser; along with the convention goodies (except the 5-toy set), it involves admittance to all events except the Awards dinner and the Thursday tour or customizing class. [Club Member Price: $114. Non-Member Price: $159.]

- The Iacon Package is the non-attendee package. It's basically all the stuff in the Primus Package, except for admittance to the show (which you wouldn't be able to attend anyway, if you ordered this one). [Club Member Price: $249. Non-Member Price: $299.]

Confirmations for signing up will be mailed out in August.

* Price for the Lexington city tour on Thursday is $48, open to all ages. The toy customizing class on the same day is $30; only 20 spaces are available, and you must be over 12 to qualify (due to the use of sharp knives). Both cost extra if you want to sign up.

* An additional Thursday activity (which do NOT cost extra) is yet another MSTF show by M Sipher. This will take place after the registrations are closed on Thursday night.

* Friday's activities will run all day; the morning will be Dealer Room set-up time, and a Registered Guest "early bird" sales preview will be open for a few hours in the afternoon. Friday night will feature a TF Game Night, where you can join other BotCon goers in TF Games like the new TF Attacktix, and other miniature and card-based TF games. An Attacktix Tournament will be held Saturday and Sunday.

* The rest of the convention weekend will be many of the usual activities, convention seminars, and Art, Diorama and Costume contests; the winners will be announced during the dinner Saturday night. The seminars will include things from Hasbro, IDW, the TF Collector Club; etc. The Saturday Night Dinner will also be an "Awards Party", and it will combine the Dinner together with the Casino Night. Voice actor guests Blu (Tigatron) Mankuma, Pauline (Airrazor) Newstone, and Richard (Rhinox) Newman will be on hand for a live script show during the Saturday Night Awards Party. As for the Awards themselves, they will be called the BotCon Spark Fan Achievement Awards, which will not only feature the winners of the Art Contests, but fans will get to vote for the best TF websites on the 'Net!

* A major new addition is a new game activity: Faction Feud - The Battle Of The Boards. Teams of five (representing their home TF community) will compete against one another in a Family Feud-style TF Trivia game! The date and time has not been clearly announced (though I'd suspect the Friday Game Night makes the most sense), and teams should submit their entries by September 1 to be eligible.

* And the usual disclaimer; anything included in the convention is subject to change without notice.

You'll find much more thorough detail on the Convention and all its goodies on the links provided at http://www.botcon.com/ and you'll require Acrobat to download and print the registration form. As usual, the BotCon event schedule will become more clearly defined in the months to come.

Outtsyder

*has been freaking out (in a good way) for the past half hour* Oh, joy!

How uncanny, Outty, that we should be discussing Botcon's site needing to be updated the very same evening it got updated. Huh, murphy's law.

Botcon this year sounds fantastic! I practically flipped when I read Beastbot's telling of the pre-BW toys of the Maximals and Dinobot. I am SO going for the full package. *dances* And I musy say, I am really surprised at who the VAs are this year. I thought they'd get some of the more regular attendees, like Scott or David or Gary. Not that I am complaining, I really would love to meet Blu (I bet Miss Spesh is gonna be thrilled with that since he voices her 2nd fave character) and Pauline and Richard. I'm so excited!

I'll be organizing another Botcon Bwint chat in the near future.

Thanks for letting us know, Beastbot!

At least "Murphy's Law" worked out in a good way this time.

In a way, I wasn't really TOO surprised with the round-up of VA guests this year, and I kind of figured BotCon wouldn't be having Garry, David or Scott because the three of them have been booked for several other conventions all over the place. Except for Scott, I'm not sure how many VAs would have the energy level and/or the time in their schedules to work in more than 1-2 conventions within a certain span of time.

And also, I recall when we were talking with Ben Yee near the end of last year's BotCon, he did mention he was hoping to get a hold of Richard, Blu and Pauline for this year, or at least try to make contact with them (along with others like Venus "Blackarachnia" Terzo, though she's booked for Iacon One in Indiana this summer). At least a hint was there, but nothing was known for sure at that time.

It does kind of make sense, though. Garry, David and Scott have been to BotCons, OTFCCs and other TF conventions a lot of times before, and some others (like Terzo or Alec "Tarantulas" Willows) are already scheduled at other conventions this year. This can be a chance to spread things around to other VA guests who ordinarily didn't get as much publicity as some other ones (like Campbell "Rampage" Lane or David "Depth Charge" Sobolov). Meeting the VAs this time is going to be pretty different from '05, though. This might shock a small number of those of you who know me, but... these three VAs? I've actually never met them before!

Outtsyder

Well, it should be noted that it was said in either the Botcon brochure or the e-mail sent to all club members (I forget which) that more guests were going to be announced later, they just wanted to reveal the ones that were first-timers to the convention. So Scott McNeill COULD be coming-- remember, there were five voice actor guests last year.

CUSTOMIZING TF CHARACTERS *wishes convention was in Toronto... again*

Slag, I miss out on almost everything.


WW

*totally spazzing*

I'M TOTALLY GONNA PAY WHATEVER I NEED TO SO I CAN GO AND GET THAT SIIIIIICK SET!!! *panting*

*drools over thoughts of what pre-Wars DB would look like* I can't believe my dream's coming true. I've always wanted to know what he looked like. I mean, in the pilot, you get a very, very brief glimpse of him just to the left of Megatron's face, just before they crashed. It's extremely blurry, but you know it's him talking.

*keels over, giggling* I'm so happy . . .

I'm thinking Dinobot will be a repaint of either Cybertron Landmine or Mudflap with a new head. Cheetor will almost certainly be a repaint of Override, given that A. The alt mode fits and B. Override's face is close enough to Cheetor's where the toy won't need a head remold. Rattrap will likely be Brakedown or Clocker with a new head... I hope Dirt Boss is the mold used for Primal, since it's mentioned in the TF Ultimate Guide that Primal was a monster truck before the Beast Wars. Rhinox is totally up in the air, I have no idea what mold he's going to be based on...

Beastbot wrote:I hope Dirt Boss is the mold used for Primal, since it's mentioned in the TF Ultimate Guide that Primal was a monster truck before the Beast Wars.

... wait, Primal was a monster truck? Wow. Well, I want to take the course, especially if we can create BW and Pre-BW characters. *grins*


WW

Well, the toy customization course (which it looks like I will not be able to attend, alas, since it ends 5:00 on Thursday, and I can't get in until Thursday evening) will likely involve you getting the individual parts to two or so Transformers and giving them your own customized paint jobs and MAYBE a few slight retooling of parts, depending on your artistic ability. Still really cool, but I doubt you'll be able to make your own completely unique toy.