[IACON ONE] Iacon One report!
Steve-o Stonebraker
July 7-8 2006
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Like most of my convention reports in the last few years, this is a
bare-bones "what information did I get" kind of thing, not the story of me
and my friends eating at Arby's.
I've created a Flickr account for myself, and made an album with my photos
from the convention:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44469668@N00/sets/72157594196481590/
The first bunch of them are from Kyde's presentation on Friday night, and
most of the rest are of my friends, the art contest, and the dealer room.
GoBots panel: Fumihiko Akiyama and Doug Dlin
o Yeah, Fumihiko came all the way to the US for Iacon One. Very cool of
him.
o With a little assistance from Doug, Fumihiko gave a thorough history of
Machine Robo and all instances of the name "GoBots". It was a really
awesome presentation, and Doug said he would get a copy of it out to
me/us eventually. Lots of neat pictures of weird old stuff, and a lot
of info that was totally new to me.
o Since I wasn't taking notes, I don't really have much to put in for a
summary, but I wanted to mention it.
"Hasbro" panel: Andrew "Swiper" Frankel and Joe Kyde
o Like the GoBots panel, this was given after the dinner on Friday night.
Also, I wasn't taking notes (again, at the dinner), so this is strictly
from memory.
o Andrew talked about his work with Hasbro Direct, which was not a
"design" job, but almost more like marketing most of the time.
o He did exclusives and other side-projects for a lot of Hasbro
properties, not just Transformers.
o He confirmed that he wrote a lot of packaging copy including character
bios for things like the Deployers, Wal*Mart Dinobots, etc.. He also
confirmed that he was the one at Hasbro sending "suggestions" to the
English scriptwriters for the "Robots in Disguise" cartoon.
o The "drop test" we heard about for RID Fortress Maximus has an
additional element that hasn't been discussed previously: drops done
in-package. It wasn't all that clear at the panel, but he later
clarified it for me. The drop test we heard about before, where the toy
has to not break in dangerous ways, is indeed done. But they also drop
packaged toys to see how damaged the box gets, whether the toy gets
damaged inside, whether it gets knocked out of position so it won't be
in the bubble in the right way, etc.. The Fort Max packaging couldn't
take this beating, and that was at least one contributor to the reason
he wasn't brought over here.
o Kyde talked about how he got into Hasbro -- At BotCon 1996 (which was my
first convention), he talked to Anthony Gaud and found out that Gaud was
a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, and that UC sends design
interns to Hasbro. Kyde says that, right then, he decided to go to
college at UC so he could get one of those internships.
o He went to college at UC and got one of those internships.
o When he got to Hasbro, he says that Transformers at the time was
basically "just Aaron".
o Kyde mainly did decos, but also did some design work on Armada Overload.
o He still does decos for Transformers on a freelance basis.
o Takara's Armada/Micron Legend "Scourge" figure was done based on a color
sheet Kyde was working on intermittantly for a Hasbro redeco, but hadn't
finished. He was surprised when he saw it, and realized it was his
unfinished work. For the US Nemesis Prime, he and Aaron finished it up.
o Kyde showed a bunch of color sheets during his talk, as well as some
mold breakdown photos that show exactly what pieces are in particular
molds (and also what type of plastic is used in that mold).
o He talked about the restrictions you are under when designing a deco,
such as making all the plastic in a particular mold the same color, that
some types of plastic can't be painted, and that you have a limited
number of paint aps to make. Painting the whole way around a gun barrel
takes three or four aps, and if you want to paint the tip also -- rather
than leaving it bare plastic -- that's another one.
o One of Kyde's other projects at Hasbro was a design for an adorable
turtle shape-sorting toy for babies, where each section of his shell had
a differently-shaped hole for blocks to be put in. His bosses didn't
like it. As a joke he altered the design into a turtle pounding bench
(a toy where a baby just hits things for some sort of sensory response).
The boss loved the idea. Kyde felt bad for the turtle, sending it to be
beat upon, so he gave the final version a construction helmet.
Apparently it wasn't on the market for very long.
o The "Night Attack Team" Mini-Cons were based on a redeco he worked on
to turn the Land Military Team into JDF (the Japanese "military" self-
defense force) colors.
Comic creator panel: Bob Budiansky and Don Figueroa
Bob stuff --
o Bob has a bunch of his original materials with him.
o Designed many of the human characters, but probably not many robots,
although he may have described them to the artists pretty thoroughly.
He did design many/most of the characters from his later comic series,
SLEEPWALKER.
o Putting Spider-Man in the miniseries was Jim Salicrup's idea. Hasbro
didn't like it -- Mattel was selling Spider-Man toys at the time, and
Hasbro didn't want their comic to potentially "advertise" their
competitor's toy. Salicrup thought this was a bizarre response, as
having Spidey appear in the comic could only help the comic's sales.
Regardless, they compromised and used the black symbiote costume in
the story because Mattel's license only covered the red and blue
costume.
o They made sure to let Circuit Breaker appear in SECRET WARS II before
she showed up in TRANSFORMERS to secure ownership of the character,
just like Simon Furman did with Death's Head.
o In the first batch of names that were sent to Hasbro for the first-year
characters, most were rejected. These names were -- I think -- the
work of Denny O'Neill. (It may have been Jim Shooter, but O'Neill
would make more sense. We'll see for sure when Crazysteve finishes
his transcript of the panel.) Optimus Prime is one of O'Neill's names,
but most of the others were dumped. The rejected name for the
Starscream toy was "Ulchtar". If the other names were "alien" sounding
proper names like that one, rather than cute puns and such, it's not a
big wonder that Hasbro rejected them.
o One of Bob's sheet was handwritten drafts of the character bios,
presumably the sheets on which he wrote his ideas over that Thanksgiving
weekend in 1983 after Shooter gave him the job.
o On the Megatron bio, some alternate name options are given: Deathray,
Slagmaker, and Master.
o Also brought a handwritten sheet of graph paper where he worked out the
original tech spec stats. I already made a separate post about that,
along with a photo of the sheet.
o "Buster" was a name that either Shooter or O'Neill had picked (not sure
which, so again, wait for the transcript), as he'd had a childhood
friend by that name. (At OTFCC 2004, Bob said that the typed treatment
reads "Spike" and has "Buster" written in by hand in Bob's writing. He
indicated that he couldn't remember why the name was changed, but
apparently it has come back to him.)
o Bob was "special projects" editor, which is why he got so many toy
tie-in comics.
o Bob is the author of the poems/chants from the "Visionaries" toyline.
Don stuff --
o Really didn't think that Hasbro would leave his "signature" on the
"Titaniums" War Within Prime figure. He had assumed it would be removed
before production, but... oh well! Now his name's on a toy. :)
o When asked how working for IDW is different than working for DW, Don's
answer was, "Well, they pay me." Other than that, he said it was pretty
much the same.
o Similar to Simon's statements, Don said that Pat Lee had met with him
just a month before Dreamwave folded and made it sound like everything
was fine.
o When he was growing up in the Phillipenes, his mothier who was in the
USA sent him comics by mail.
o His first toy design work -- aside from his own scratchbuilds -- was
the Cybertron Starscream toy. Aaron Archer came up to him at a
convention and asked him to help out.
o After the panel, Crazysteve was asking some questions while I stood
there listening (he asks great questions!), and at one point it came out
that before Don got his break into doing TF comics for Dreamwave, he was
working as a forklift driver in either a grocery store or warehouse (I
forget exactly which).
o Don's forklift had an Autobot symbol on it.
o Don and Bob are working together on a comic for IDW that will be
formally announced and described at, I believe, San Diego Comic Con.
All they said at Iacon One is that it's some sort of G1-based story.
Beast Wars voice actors panel: Venus Terzo, David Sobolov, Scott McNeil
o Scott did most of the talking, not too surprisingly.
o Scott's very first convention appearance, after 10 years of VO work, was
BotCon 98 in Anaheim. It was the first time he ever got to meet and
interact with any of his fans.
o Iacon One is David's very first convention appearance!
o David still gets fanmail about Depth Charge, more than he gets for any
of his other (and more recent) roles.
o Scott still says BW is the only show he's ever done that he became a fan
of.
o Scott just finished off "InuYasha", and is starting a new series called
"Stormhawks" that he is very excited about. It's produced by Aseph
Fipke. He also has a role in the upcoming "Fantastic Four" animated
series.
o "If you ever want to feel really unclean, sit next to Alec [Willows]
when he does the Tarantulas laugh." --David(?)
o Elizabeth Carol Savenkoff -- who played the Predacon's ship computer,
and apparently goes by her middle name -- was just a production
assistant (at Pinewood Sound, perhaps?) who they thought sounded good so
they just cast her internally.
o Scott still refers to "Beast Machines" as "the bad thing". He's also
not all that impressed with the interest shown by producers in the more
recent TF shows. Says he still misses BW, that it was "the best"
ensemble he's ever worked with.
o Scott passed out twice while recording "Dragonball Z" dialogue/screams.
He also passed out once under Wally Burr's supervision on "Conan: The
Adventurer".
o David's contract for an upcoming "Dragonlance" feature specifically
promised that his voice or image would not be used with any "intimate
hygiene" products, as well as firearms and a couple other ridiculous
things. Scott continued to make hygiene product jokes for the rest of
the convention.
o Scott always buys doubles of his toys now, one to open and one to keep,
after opening his original Dinobot in a rock bubble. (Yes, he even
knows about the rock bubbles!)
o At this point in the panel, David got Carol on his cell phone so we
could shout hello to her. He put the phone up to his mic so we could
hear her, and she seemed quite tickled. She said, "Beast Wars lives on!"
o David told a story about getting fanmail from a 14 year old girl who was
"in love" with Depth Charge. She said in the letter how she wrote lots
of stories about Depth Charge, but her mom found them and took them away
and grounded her because they had "naughty parts". It's the only fan
letter that David hasn't responded to, thinking it would be better
"to let that one lie".
o Scott was once licked by a girl with terrible oral hygiene.
o In discussing men wearing sailor fuku at conventions, the topic briefly
shifted to common con outfits. One of the VAs -- Scott, I think -- said
"There's also always stormtroopers," regardless of what kind of
convention it is. After he said this, a group of four girls in the
front row all turned to each other and nodded in agreement, which I
found at least as funny as the statement itself.
o Initially the directors for BW wanted Scott to make Silverbolt "just
you", in his normal voice, but that didn't feel right to him. Over
lunch he was thinking about it and said, "if he was the kind of guy that
would use the word 'citizen'..." And Bob and Larry immediately perked
right up and started adjusting the script. That kind of thing can't
happen when the higher-ups don't bother to show up and be a part of the
recording sessions.
o Scott mentioned more than once how Dinobot "knew he was going to die"
something like five episodes before Scott himself had realized it.
o Scott lurks every once in a while in a Yahoo!Group devoted to him, to
see what people are saying!
o Also, Scott is hooked on World of Warcraft. He plays a night elf hunter
with a cat, which LV! and Trixter tell me is basically the most cliched
WoW character you can be.
o Scott briefly talked about his experience working with Hong Kong
directors on "Warriors of Virtue". Paraphrasing slightly since I
couldn't remember the whole thing: "We want to hear water. But, not
like a river. The water of the ocean. We want to hear the color blue."
--Steve-o
--
Steve Stonebraker (sst...@gmail.com) Physicist and All-Around Geek
www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~sstoneb/ AIM: srstoneb Y!IM: sstoneb
Thunder 06
<snip>
Thanks for posting some of the highlights! I couldn't make it to this
Con but was interested in hearing how it turned out. Was there a lot of
people, btw?
t.k.
Steve-o Stonebraker
> Thanks for posting some of the highlights! I couldn't make it to this
> Con but was interested in hearing how it turned out. Was there a lot of
> people, btw?
They had around 100 preregistrants, and with walk-ins, I would guess they
got up to maybe 150 or something. Smaller than I would have hoped (and
probably smaller than Malin and Phil hoped), but not bad, I think, for a
brand new convention. I just hope they did okay financially, and that the
dealers did okay financially, so that the show can live on.