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Fumihiko Akiyama's 'Botcon Legends' book rules all

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crazysteve

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Aug 1, 2003, 2:55:34 PM8/1/03
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I don't think Fumihiko Akiyama gets how much I dig him. He didn't seem
to understand why I wanted him to sign my stuff at his table this past
weekend at OTFCC. The guys at his table must have thought I was a bit
goofy asking for his autograph on the books he authored, but I don't
care. This year Fumihiko sold an absolutely kick ass fanzine titled
'Botcon Legends' that covers every single Botcon including the
Japanese and Euro events. It's a black and white zine chock full of
Botcon related content that's a celebration of his love for the event
and the people who organized it over the previous nine years. It's got
interviews with the Hartmans detailing their experiences not only with
the show, but how they got into Transformers in the first place! It's
got tons of pics of all the Botcon toys, art contest coverage from
each show, pics of the venues, pics of some of the more significant
prototypes and concept pieces brought by Hasbro, notes on what was
happening with the toyline during the time periods specific to each
convention, capsules covering what happened in each of the Botcon
comics, and tons of other content. Best of all, it's in both Japanese
and English. I got mine signed by him, and I bought ANOTHER copy of
his tremendously helpful 'Transformers in Japanese Missions' (I got
one last year but is now falling apart, and I never got that first one
signed). 'Botcon Legends' rules all, but I have no idea where to get
one if you didn't grab it at the show. He was selling it for $10, but
I would have paid twice that. It's really that good.

--
crazysteve and his evil RUBBER TIRES of legend
http://www.scrambledcity.com

Brian Doyle

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Aug 1, 2003, 3:23:58 PM8/1/03
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"crazysteve" <crazy...@scrambledcity.com> wrote in message
news:1c3243d7.0308...@posting.google.com...

> I don't think Fumihiko Akiyama gets how much I dig him.

Anyone who's ever had dealings with Fumihiko feels that way. One of the all
out nicest guys in the business, and I'm not just saying that because we
both work for Tomarts.

Jordan L Derber

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Aug 1, 2003, 3:49:48 PM8/1/03
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In article <1c3243d7.0308...@posting.google.com>,

crazysteve <crazy...@scrambledcity.com> wrote:
>I don't think Fumihiko Akiyama gets how much I dig him. He didn't seem
>to understand why I wanted him to sign my stuff at his table this past
>weekend at OTFCC.

Did you have him sign your Sunstorm (assuming you got one)? My buddy Mike
did since Mr. Akiyama helped to come up with the character's bio. Mr.
Akiyama said he didn't consider something that should be signed by him,
but he was happy to oblige.


>signed). 'Botcon Legends' rules all, but I have no idea where to get
>one if you didn't grab it at the show. He was selling it for $10, but
>I would have paid twice that. It's really that good.

Yeah, it is good, but unfortunately it was a little rushed. The next
version will hopefully have color photos and some other improvements. I'm
going through the book to look for grammar and spelling mistakes, as well
as mistakes such as the BM premire at BC99 not having BGM when it
actually did (it didn't have op/ed credits or commercial bumpers,
however). And I've noticed that Mr. Chalk is sometimes credited as Garry
Chalk as well as Gary... is there a "more correct" spelling of his name?

--
Jordan Derber
e-mail: jsdst5 at pitt.edu
jsd_d305 at hotmail.com

Hydra

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Aug 1, 2003, 6:29:52 PM8/1/03
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crazy...@scrambledcity.com (crazysteve) wrote in message news:<1c3243d7.0308...@posting.google.com>...

No kidding, the book was awsome. Although, I'm a little bummed that I
wasn't mentioned by name, since I won the two trivia contests ('99 and
BCJ 2000) he mentioned. :) Oh well, Jordan and I are on the inside
cover.

It was cool that they got Hige Bancho's talk at the back translated,
although I would have liked to see the chat session inside the book
also tranlated. Well actually, Akiyaka gave me the go-ahead to start
working on it, although it's pretty long so I imagine it'll take me a
while.

Doug Dlin

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Aug 1, 2003, 8:30:57 PM8/1/03
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On Aug. 1, 2003, Jordan L Derber wrote:
>
> In article <1c3243d7.0308...@posting.google.com>,
> crazysteve <crazy...@scrambledcity.com> wrote:
>> I don't think Fumihiko Akiyama gets how much I dig him. He didn't
>> seem to understand why I wanted him to sign my stuff at his table
>> this past weekend at OTFCC.
>
> Did you have him sign your Sunstorm (assuming you got one)? My buddy
> Mike did since Mr. Akiyama helped to come up with the character's bio.

Oh, so? I thought that was just a slip by Glen. As far as I've been
told, the bio is all Hirofumi Ichikawa's doing.

Mind, this doesn't belittle Fumihiko's other TF-related accomplishments
in the slightest...

> Yeah, it is good, but unfortunately it was a little rushed. The next
> version will hopefully have color photos and some other improvements.

Twice the number of photos, for one thing, or so Fumihiko's promised.
More captions to proofread!

> I'm going through the book to look for grammar and spelling mistakes,

You too, huh? I was only able to proofread a portion of the text, since
he didn't send me a good chunk of it. He kinda put off that part of the
production 'til the last minute, y'see. :-)

> And I've noticed that Mr. Chalk is sometimes credited as Garry Chalk
> as well as Gary... is there a "more correct" spelling of his name?

I've wondered that myself. Probably should've asked him at the
convention. :-P

Doug Dlin
apcog at hotmail.com

Jordan L Derber

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Aug 1, 2003, 11:01:01 PM8/1/03
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In article <3F2B0641...@texas.net>, Doug Dlin <ap...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>On Aug. 1, 2003, Jordan L Derber wrote:
>> Did you have him sign your Sunstorm (assuming you got one)? My buddy
>> Mike did since Mr. Akiyama helped to come up with the character's bio.
>
>Oh, so? I thought that was just a slip by Glen. As far as I've been
>told, the bio is all Hirofumi Ichikawa's doing.

Hmm, I might be misremembering on what exactly he helped create, but
pretty sure he did say he had a hand in its creation when I asked if it
would be alright if Mike got it signed.

Doug Dlin

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Aug 5, 2003, 12:06:11 AM8/5/03
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On Aug. 2, 2003, Jordan L Derber wrote:
>
> In article <3F2B0641...@texas.net>, Doug Dlin
> <ap...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> On Aug. 1, 2003, Jordan L Derber wrote:
>>> Did you have him sign your Sunstorm (assuming you got one)? My
>>> buddy Mike did since Mr. Akiyama helped to come up with the
>>> character's bio.
>>
>> Oh, so? I thought that was just a slip by Glen. As far as I've been
>> told, the bio is all Hirofumi Ichikawa's doing.
>
> Hmm, I might be misremembering on what exactly he helped create, but
> pretty sure he did say he had a hand in its creation when I asked if
> it would be alright if Mike got it signed.

Hmm..well, there's always a chance of information omitted or
misunderstood on any side of this equation. Either of us can
double-check with him directly, of course, once he's got time in his
schedule again for regular responses.

Star Saber

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Aug 5, 2003, 11:36:27 PM8/5/03
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hyd...@yahoo.com (Hydra) wrote in message news:<6cf1db48.03080...@posting.google.com>...

>
> No kidding, the book was awsome. Although, I'm a little bummed that I
> wasn't mentioned by name, since I won the two trivia contests ('99 and
> BCJ 2000) he mentioned. :) Oh well, Jordan and I are on the inside
> cover.

*Ahem*. WE won the '99 Trivia Contest. How quickly they forget.

-Star Saber (you didn't even remember that Overlord was released in Europe.
Did you? DID YOU? ;)

Doug Dlin

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Aug 12, 2003, 12:18:07 AM8/12/03
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On Aug. 1, 2003, I wrote:

> On Aug. 1, 2003, Jordan L Derber wrote:
>>
>> In article <1c3243d7.0308...@posting.google.com>,
>> crazysteve <crazy...@scrambledcity.com> wrote:
>>> I don't think Fumihiko Akiyama gets how much I dig him. He didn't
>>> seem to understand why I wanted him to sign my stuff at his table
>>> this past weekend at OTFCC.
>>
>> Did you have him sign your Sunstorm (assuming you got one)? My buddy
>> Mike did since Mr. Akiyama helped to come up with the character's
>> bio.
>
> Oh, so? I thought that was just a slip by Glen. As far as I've been
> told, the bio is all Hirofumi Ichikawa's doing.

And I've just confirmed that from Ichikawa-san himself. I didn't even
have to ask--apparently, he's still browsing the newsgroup. :-)

According to him, the only direct contributions Fumihiko's had to any of
the specs Ichikawa-san's done is to request that Barbearian/Grizzly-1 be
a berserker and that Double Punch be the same character as the Action Master.

Again, this is not to downplay in the least all the other contributions
Fumihiko's made.

Oh--Ichikawa-san also mentioned that he's not done any of the new
Micromaster stories, bios, or other background info.

Derik Smith

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Aug 12, 2003, 5:09:29 PM8/12/03
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Doug wrote:

>> Oh, so? I thought that was just a slip by Glen. As far as I've been
>> told, the bio is all Hirofumi Ichikawa's doing.
>
>And I've just confirmed that from Ichikawa-san himself. I didn't even
>have to ask--apparently, he's still browsing the newsgroup. :-)

*waves*

>According to him, the only direct contributions Fumihiko's had to any of
>the specs Ichikawa-san's done is to request that Barbearian/Grizzly-1 be
>a berserker and that Double Punch be the same character as the Action Master.

*pauses*
*compares tech-specs*
*swears*
How did I miss THAT? It borrows the entire last line, and the elite joke
in the function...
*sighs*

On the plus side, I learned somethign new abotu the TFU today! So... yay.

-Derik
"You have zero talent. Give up writing." -Yuki Eiri, Gravitation
"Ebola is a horrible disease, one that EVEN homeopathy is powerless to
treat." -Isla9

Beat Mach Kicked Bucket

Jordan L Derber

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Aug 12, 2003, 9:23:17 PM8/12/03
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In article <3F386A80...@texas.net>, Doug Dlin <ap...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>According to him, the only direct contributions Fumihiko's had to any of
>the specs Ichikawa-san's done is to request that Barbearian/Grizzly-1 be
>a berserker and that Double Punch be the same character as the Action Master.

Hmm, I coulda sworn he said that he had helped in some way. Wonder when
he agreed to sign the card, then. Oh well.

Doug Dlin

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Aug 12, 2003, 9:40:05 PM8/12/03
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On Aug. 12, 2003, Jordan L Derber wrote:
>
> In article <3F386A80...@texas.net>, Doug Dlin <ap...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> According to him, the only direct contributions Fumihiko's had to any
>> of the specs Ichikawa-san's done is to request that Barbearian/
>> Grizzly-1 be a berserker and that Double Punch be the same character
>> as the Action Master.
>
> Hmm, I coulda sworn he said that he had helped in some way.

Eh, who knows what games of Telephone were inadvertently played
throughout that noisy weekend.

> Wonder when he agreed to sign the card, then. Oh well.

Perhaps out of sheer politeness/confusion. :-)

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