Susp's Botcon Report Pt. 2
Suspsy
And Enjoy The Ride
Some Spoilers Ahead . . .
One thing that I should probably address before anything else is Botcon
2003. Our registration booklet featured an awesome image of a
Godzilla-sized Cryotek turning the city of Chicage into his personal walk-in
freezer and the announcement that Botcon 2003 would take place on July 26-27
at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare. Also, there was a 1-800 number for reservations
and the revelation that hotel guests would receive a free toy for each
night. Initially, I thought I'd wait until after the current weekend had
ended, but the sight of many, many people dialing on their cell phones
scared me, so I went ahead and reserved my room. A good thing, since, while
the hotel did NOT fill up over the weekend (the 800 line simply got
fragged), I hear it's more of less booked solid as of this week.
Also, if I forget your name in here somewhere, please rest assured that it's
entirely unintentional. Botcon is always a test in memory.
SATURDAY
In keeping with Botcon protocol, we arose at a quarter to seven, showered,
and headed downstairs to await the opening of the dealer room. The line was
vast, naturally, however I managed to cut in and join Swift, Quez, Mono,
Pic, and Co. near the front. Later, Hoop joined us and got some pics of one
of his favorite Botcon subjects: people with really, REALLY bad hair. When,
oh when, will society learn that mullets are unacceptable? Quex showed us
her Playskool Spider-Man books as well as a really freaky book entitled
"Robby Really Transforms," written by some quack psychologist who thinks
that playing with robot toys makes you a violent person. Swift, in a gesture
of kindness that completely rocked, gave me a promotional item from Lego:
the Lewa Nuva, which won't even be out until September. Sweeeeeeeeet! It's
basically the same as the original Toa figures, but it's got new leg pieces,
battle armour, a totally redesigned Kanohi mask, and two machetes for hackin
g with extreme prejudice. I ended up acting as a billboard with legs that
day, carrying the Nuva around with me and getting lots of jealous looks and
comments from other attendees. Later, while I was standing in line to get
Bob Forward's autograph, one girl acted like she was going to have a fit
when I told that the toys weren't out yet.
9AM passed and fanboys starts to grumble that the dealer room hadn't opened
yet. Geez, take a chill pill. Finally, the doors opened and the stampede
began. Geeks of all age, shape, and smell thundered forth, their mouths
dripping, their eyes blazing, their guts jiggling, and their wallets
trembling in fear. Yessir, Botcon was officially in full swing!
Since I really didn't have a specific want list this year, I spent the first
few minutes casually wandering around the room, admiring all the tables and
running into old acquaintances. There was Raksha's table, complete with
Straxus, Skyf, and a cardboard cutout of the world's only walking toaster
(Didn't say anything to Skyf, even though it was tempting). There was Big
Bad Toy Store, selling Storm Jets for $40 (which was probably the best deal
for a SJ in the entire room, sadly). ToyFare, shilling their monthly
dirtrag. Hydra and Tori Amos, whom I bought nothing from. Harold Tietjens
and the always loveable Doug Dlin, with copies of Cybertronian. Doug had
told me the other night that there was a slim chance that #6 would arrive on
time, and sure enough, it came later that day. I ended up getting #1, #5,
and #6 off them, but I'm sad to report that #1 and #5 are now coming apart.
Doug, help?
I also saw the same guy who'd sold bootleg porn tapes at Botcon 2001, but I
didn't learn until after the weekend that he was selling them at his table
AGAIN. What the spotted heck was with that, 3H? I thought you guys were
cracking down on smut like that.
The highlight of the dealer room had to be Hasbro's Armada line, proudly
displayed in a glass case. There was Sideways the double agent, with
partners Crosswise and Rook. Blurr, who was hand-painted. Smokescreen,
packaged only, sadly. The Mini-Con Destruction Team and Race Car Team. The
big boy, Supreme Optimus Prime. And there were some real surprises: Megatron
and Starscream repainted by hand as Galvatron and Thundercracker; the
Mini-Con Space Team, consisting of a satellite, a rocket, and a carrier
truck; and the Mini-Con Car Team, which included a green Cadillac.
Scavenger, one of the Hasbro reps informed me, was not in attendance due to
the fact that he was en route to ComicCon. Sure, leave out one of the two
toys I was most interested in seeing. Jetfire was around somewhere, but they
hadn't located his box yet.
Later, I returned to the display to see that Hasbro had beefed it up
considerably. They had another Blurr in car mode, Galv and Thundercracker in
robot mode, Delux-sorry, Supercon Optimus Prime, who came with a new jet
Mini-Con and looked like a real winner, and Jetfire, the white, gray, black,
and red Autobot space shuttle who features opening bay doors, firing
missiles, a Mini-Con moon rover, lights and sounds. His robot mode looked
very bulky, but in a powerful, imposing way. Looks like he could flatten the
original Jetfire in a brawl. One of the shuttle's thrusters becomes a bigass
handheld cannon, very cool. But what no one knew up until now was that
Jetfire can actually MERGE with Supreme Optimus Prime's cab, creating a
super robot that looks a lot nicer than the one formed with Prime's trailer.
I came away from the display more convinced than ever that Armada is the
gift Almighty God Himself gave us. Let the fans rejoice and let the
naysayers shut their holes. It is SO right.
Said hey to M_Sipher and purchased his kickass Mugshots 2 poster, which
features TFs in both robot and beast mode, as well as Dreamwave's biggest
loser, Lazarus, chained and being consumed by the technovirus. Sipher also
got to play with my Lewa Nuva after I foolishly left it at his table. It was
one of two such incidents that weekend.
At the appointed time, I got in line with other green badge wearers for the
writers' autograph session. Trent had managed to persuade me to buy one of
his group battle posters that had most of the RID characters on it, so I got
Tom Wyner, Richard Epcar, and Steve Kramer to sign it. I was also able to
chat a little with Bob Forward, who was by far the guest I'd been looking
forward to seeing the most. He is, after all, the story editor of the
greatest TF series of all time. For his part, Bob seemed very pleased to
meet such a major fan. I resolved to talk to him some more at some point
during the weekend.
Afterwards, I rejoined the #WiiGii! crew and we all headed over to Arby's
for lunch. It just wouldn't be Botcon without eating tons of salt-fried
grease all weekend long. I even went so far as to cheat on my diet by eating
french fries.
At noon, the dealer room closed for inventory check, which would've sucked
had it not been time for the writers' panel. The RID team explained how all
the G1/BW/BM references had indeed been mandated by Hasbro, and that they
had actually put their foot down a couple of times on the grounds that they
felt the references were too obscure. It was apparent that they weren't too
thrilled about what they probably considered interference.
I asked Tom and Richard to do a skit with Devimon and Myotismon. They each
commented on their respective characters, however, they either forgot or
declined to do the skits, those bastards. Bob explained how towards the end
of BW, they talked with Hasbro over the possibility of either expanding the
show to outer space or simply letting it end, which as we all know was what
ultimately happened. He described how he and Larry DiTillio tended to work
independently from one another of script writing, and even had a little fun
trying to redirect each other's ideas. Also, he elaborated on the nature of
the Vok-how they are the final step in the evolution of humanity and the
self-appointed guardians of space and time. Larry, OTOH, wanted to tie them
in with the Swarm from the G2 comic.
Simon Furman reminisced about his failed plan to bring Ramjet, Dirge, and
Thrust into the final episode of Nemesis. He also professed a love for
killing.
After the panel let out, Thy and I stood in line for our exclusives for
about five minutes before deciding the line was too long. In the mean time,
I actually started buying things: recolours of Mechatron and TM2 Dinobot to
replace my old broken ones.
Just as Hasbro's Armada display was the highlight of the dealer room, so too
was their panel was the highlight of the entire day. There were three men
and two women: Michelle Field(marketing director), Aaron Archer(primary US
designer), Joe Matico(senior product manager), Amy Agnew(marketing), and
Andrew "Swiper" Frankel(exclusives director and all-around lucky bastard).
There was also a designer from Takara who didn't speak but sat in the front
row of the audience. They came fully prepared with a nice computer
presentation that showed artwork and photos, and they had answers ready for
some of the most persistent/annoying questions.
· First up, Laserbeak was introduced to give kids a sense of inclusion in
the storyline, and his hot orange colouring was quite, quite necessary in
order to meet safety standards.
· G1 Megatron has as much chance of being re-released as Steve-O Stonebraker
has of becoming Playmate of the Year, even if he were coloured shiny blue
and hot orange (Meggy, not Steve-O).
· Fortress Maximus has been delayed for failing to pass Hasbro's new drop
test-any broken pieces will leave sharp edges that could potentially harm
children.
· There will not be any beast TFs for awhile, sadly.
· Ball joints are lacking in Armada not because Hasbro's purposely trying to
avoid them, but because they don't work well with the toys' designs.
· Tech specs are absent from the packaging due to the new tri-lingual rule,
which would've reduced them to being short and banal.
· Trans-Tech never made it past the concept stage and RID was never anything
more than filler.
· There is no movie in the works.
· The lack of Canadian exclusives is the fault of Canadian retailers, not
Hasbro(Thank God for having friends in the States!).
· For all you old fuddy duddies, there will be more G1 reissues in the
future. Just expect them to have slight modifications in order to meet
current safety standards.
· There will be 52 episodes of Armada showing on Cartoon Network in the
States. I was greatly relieved to hear from Michelle that a deal with YTV is
in the works so that Canadian Transfans won't be left in the lurch.
· There are no female characters planned for the Armada line, which is
unfortunate to say the least.
· Michelle refrained from confirming that Garry and David were playing
Prime and Megatron, so Glen Hallit happily stepped in to confirm it for her.
· There are no plans to make The War Within toys, not unless the comic is a
MAJOR hit. Pray.
· When asked about the issue of name reuse, the reps cited all the exact
same reasons that have been discussed ad nauseum on ATT: they've got a Final
Fantasy thing going on where each new series will take place in a different
continuity; they don't want some other company using a TF name, as was the
case with Hot Rod; the names were great then and they're great now, and they
allow each new generation of fans to grow up with their unique versions of
Prime and Megatron; there's more than one Aaron in the world, so there can
be more than one Megatron. Hey, no argument here.
Finally, Michelle showed us that they had actually changed Hot Shot's face
from a happy one to a fairly bland one in order to show "we're listening."
Ye gods, and people still insist that Hasbro's just a faceless, money-driven
corporation that doesn't care about the fans. As of now, anyone who feels
that way is officially an idiot. Hasbro loves us. End of story.
We also got to speak to Swiper on more casual terms in the dealer room after
the panel let out. Turns out he's responsible for Cryotek as well as Air
Attack Optimus Primal, Scourge, Megabolt, and the Laser Cycles. And his
image was incorporated into the GI Joe line as "Sideswipe." AND he informed
us that we may be seeing a toy in the future with either the name Bludgeon
or Big Daddy. YES! THERE IS A GOD!
I finally went and picked up my exclusives. First up was Cyclonus, whom
everyone knew was a gorgeous recolour of Ultra Jetstorm. The front of his
box featured character art by Pat Lee, while the back art was obviously Dan
Khanna. A series of small pictures showed how Cyclonus' Spark was extracted
from his old body by Cryotek and then inserted into his current, much cooler
form.
Next up was CatSCAN, a red, white, and black recolour of Night Slash
Cheetor. He came in what had to be the coolest packaging EVER: a blue-green
box with a large front flap that flipped up to reveal a lenticular motion
card showing CatSCAN being "scanned." Created by Apelinq to function as the
Wreckers' medic, CatSCAN is more of an AI program than a true Cybertronian.
Think Data from The Next Generation. Also, it was neat how, while CatSCAN's
box featured Armada Autobots, Cyclonus' featured Armada Decepticons.
The last and smallest exclusive was Glyph, a blue and silver recolour of the
Bumblebee keychain and the fourth female TF toy to come out of Botcon. As
with Tap-Out, I was again disappointed at first, since I was really
expecting a BW or BM-era toy. Since then, however, Glyph and Tap-Out have
grown on me, and it is nice that we no longer have to deal with people
bitching about how there's never any G1 exclusives.
As for Wreckers#2, well, it simultaneously rules and sucks. The Beast
Mutants, the Dinobots, the Deployers, Spittor, and Sonar all die
meaningless, cruel deaths, which irked me to no end. The Mutants are NOT
"unmarketable product," people. 3H Productions explained at their panel that
it was done so that they could focus on the remaining characters, but that
didn't make the mass slaughter any less crappy. Packrat dies as well, but he
more than deserves it. Primal Prime is a major fool, which blows a big hole
in the "wisdom of all the other Primes" thing. There were Hammerstrike
drones with the Sharkticons and Alligatorcons. Fractyl has the hots for
Arcee, CatSCAN is a neat addition to the cast, Rotorbolt DOES have a
personality, Ramulus has his original colour scheme now, Cyclonus turns out
to be the traitor (big surprise there), and Devcon had all the best lines
(again, big surprise). Lines like:
"I liked her better when she had that kid in her head."
"You're living on my clock now, Cyclonus-run while you still can! The day
you stop running will be the day I cut out your Spark!"
"I did have a partner once-for about fifteen cycles. He gave me some hard
data on where my target was headed-heh-and I left his little green hide
floating in space."
Obviously, Tengu intended to take full advantage of his opportunity to do
justice to his all-time favourite character, but I couldn't help feeling
that his Devcon was just Depth Charge in Mirage's body. Mind, it's been
about seventeen years since I last saw "The Gambler," so my memory of Devcon
is sketchy to say the least. And then there's Cryotek. I'd figured that his
appearance in the comic would simply depict his betrayal by Megatron, but
instead I was surprised and pleased to see that Cryotek is the major villain
in the Wreckers storyline. This guy is every bit as brilliant, conniving,
and ruthless as his famous pupil, if not more so. He's chilling in every
sense of the word. Oh, and his dialogue in the very last panel is boldfaced
to the point where it's a real challenge to make out what it says: ". . .
IN CONTROLLING TIME ITSELF!" Cryotek kicks ass and then some.
The last item on the official Botcon agenda was the voice actors' panel.
Since the actors were still busy signing autographs, the audience
participated in an impromtu trivia game where the person who answered one
question got to ask the next one. I correctly identified the ep in which BW
Megs' rubber ducky first appears and asked who is famous for saying "Save
your ammunition, Autobots! Superior forces are taking over!"
Almost immediately, Mike McConnohie set the record straight by telling us
that Tracks wasn't gay. He also singled out Rik Bakke from the audience as
someone whom he obviously respected and considered a comrade. No argument
here: Rik's one person in this fandom for whom I have nothing but admiration
and affection for.
Hoop asked Peter how a budding young actor could get into softcore porn.
Without missing a beat, Peter proudly described his humble beginnings, how
he'd been in a ton of Roger Corman films, and that "I've got lots of
skeletons in my closet and I'm proud of every single one." How could anyone
NOT love this man? I myself hit up Peter for a round of "Who's The Greatest
Shark In Town?" which got a great response from the audience.
Dick Gautier remembered absolutely zilch about Hot Rod, however, he and Mike
spoke warmly of the late Scatman Crothers and Chris Latta. Mike remembered
Scatman as a very kind, wholly selfless individual, while Dick lamented how
Chris apparently harbored a lot of demons and was far too hard on himself.
Mike also described Frank Welker's incredible talent for mimicking
non-sentient objects like a payphone.
As for my soupy friend Neil, he actually seemed in good spirits and came off
as funny. He was clearly very proud of his work, especially as RID Optimus
Prime, which helps explain his seething resentment of Armada. I came away
from the panel thinking that perhaps my last impression of Neil would be a
positive one. Alas, I was wrong.
After the panel, I ended up hanging around outside with about half the
#WiiGii! crew, just playing with toys and milling around for an undetermined
reason. Gordon came by and I invited him to the #WiiGii! party, but he ended
up declining, citing fatigue. Through some bizarre twist of events, it ended
up that the bulk of the #WiiGii! crew went to Wendy's while Hoop,
Bluestreak, Mouse, and myself headed over to Burger King. Afterwards, Blue
let us visit the GI Joe vehicle graveyard in the back of his van. A pity I
don't kitbash, since there were some good pieces (a nearly complete
Pulverizer, a submarine from the Cobra Hammerhead, a chassis from the
Thunderclap, etc). We returned to the Hilton, met up with our would-be
abandoners, procrastinated some more, then trekked over to the Holiday Inn
for the annual #WiiGii! party. Who says you don't get any exercise at
Botcon?
We gathered in the lounge outside Charge's suite on the 14th floor: the
entire #WiiGii! crew, plus Doug Dlin and a couple of people whose names
entirely escape me. We conducted our own little impromptu MST3K panel with
Lith narrating the 1985 picture book "Decepticon Hijack," and Doug providing
the heckling. Mono broke out his homemade beers: Optimus Prime Porter and
Blackarachnia's Cyber Venom Kiss. I had two bottles of the former, which was
surprisingly strong. Hell, Trix drank the slightly weaker Cyber Venom
Kiss--and she ended up passed out on the floor at one point! I showed off my
one Stupid Beer Trick, as seen in this fine photo taken by Bluestreak7:
http://bluestreak7.iwarp.com/cgi-bin/i/bc02/suspsy.jpg
After getting a call from downstairs asking us to simmer down, we crowded
back into the suite and watched some REALLY SCARY STUFF. First we watched a
film by Walky and couple of his buddies that spoofed "Run Lola Run." Then
Lith's "Stayin' Alive" music video featuring Ginrai getting fragged by
Overlord. Then a dub of "Headmasters." Then an After School Special starring
Mr. T. It was scary as hell, people. It had Mr. T breakdancing, playing the
standup bass, singing, directing kiddie fashion shows, and generally being
humiliated to the point of madness. BE SOMEBODY!
But the scariest show of them all was definitely "The Eltingville Club," an
animated pilot that I think appeared on Adult Swim a few months ago.
Basically, it's about four loser geeks(one of whom bears a slight
resemblance to Swift!) and how two of them end up in a trivia contest of
irrelevant proportions over a Boba Fett doll. It was scary because it hit
far too close to home, ESPECIALLY since I actually knew two of the trivia
answers. Afterwards, my first urge was to sleep with a bunch of women to
reassure myself that I wasn't as far gone as those horrific creatures.
Once the beer was all consumed and the scary shows were all watched, we all
traipsed back to the Hilton for even more fun. The voice actors had again
decided to hit the bar and we wasted no time in joining them. Neil,
apparently eager to outdo his previous fiasco in the elevator last night,
launched into a lengthy and sad diatribe against Armada, the Canadian voice
acting industry, and the entire world in general and how it had screwed him
over, pausing only to take swigs. Most of it was rehashed from the elevator:
lousy 60s' animation yadda yadda yadda bad voice acting yadda yadda yadda
FYRE TRUKK NOT SEMI TRUKK. I calmly but firmly pointed out to him that it
wasn't Canada's fault that American companies were turning to us for quality
work at a lower cost, and while he acknowledged this point, he continued to
indulge in self-martyring rhetoric. To call him childish would've been an
understatement. Overall, Neil's antics that weekend constituted the most
repellent behaviour I'd ever had the displeasure of witnessing at a Botcon.
Good riddance, Mr. Kaplan.
Tom Wyner also expressed discontent with Hasbro, however, thankfully he was
nowhere near as vociferous and unreasonable as Neil. He seemed more sad than
angry over the conclusion of RID, and I got the distinct impression that he
either never knew or never acknowledged that the show was always meant to be
nothing more than filler. Particle Man was there as well, unfortunately, and
nearly had an aneurysm when I noted that we're only a small fraction of
Hasbro's buying audience, the majority being children under the age of 10.
Happily, the gloominess of Tom and the ghoulishness of Neil was easily
overshadowed by the greatness that is Wankus and his wacky cute girlfriend
Daisy. No amount of description can ever possibly do justice to their
increasingly hilarious antics. No words can capture Wankus' quick wit, his
unabashed openness, his eagerness to share a dirty joke while downing a few
beers, his down-to-earth friendliness and natural charm, and his willingness
to offer up some of Daisy's clothing to anyone who bought the next five
rounds. Wankus and Daisy were VERY impressed by Bryce's sunken chest, even
christening him "Dent Boy." It was a big moment for Bryce, since it was
undoubtedly the first time in his life an attractive woman wanted to
voluntarily touch his bare chest.
Walky had been drawing incredibly accurate caricatures of everyone on the
backs of their BC badges since Friday, and I finally hit him up to draw
mine. It ruled. Once I get access to a scanner, I'll post a pic of it. Walky
captured my essence perfectly, right down to my trademark evil grin. He also
drew a caricature of Wankus in his sketchbook which similarly ruled.
Finally, exhaustion overcame me and I bid my fond farewells and headed up to
my room. In doing so, I missed some of Wankus and Daisy's craziest antics,
dammit.
All in all, it had been nothing short of one seriously sweetass day.
Susp
"We'll see you around, Devcon." -Apelinq
"Not likely." -Devcon
Robobase
I was at Botcon, but because of going this year as an official dealer (as
opposed to the unofficial dealing I did the previous two years) I missed out on
the panels and such.
Though I am hurt you didn't mention me in the dealer area. After all, the
bootleg tape guy was right behind/next to me!
Looking forward to Sunday's report.
RoboBase - www.robobase.com
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Suspsy
"Robobase" <robo...@aol.com> wrote in message
> I appreciate these reports, Suspsy.
Thank you. :)
> Though I am hurt you didn't mention me in the dealer area. After all, the
> bootleg tape guy was right behind/next to me!
I'll mention you in the wrap-up.
Susp, can't seem to write one of these blasted reports without forgetting to
mention SOMEONE.
"Reach for the stars, but never leave your friends." -Cosmos
JORDAN L DERBER
Heh, not very original of you to use Hoop's jokes, even if he isn't on ATT
any more. I actually found it funny (especially since I use the same kind
of hairdye she does) and somewhat flattering when I first heard that at BC
99, though. Her face might kinda freak me out a bit, but I am rather fond
of her voice and some of her songs. Sorry to disappoint you if it was
meant as an insult ^_^
And sorry you didn't get anything from our table, had some great deals and
alot of stuff nobody else had-- loose (and most of them complete) Japanese
TF exclusives and pre-TFs for a fraction of the price they normally go
for, MIB and MISB Japanese BW toys for less half the retail price, loose
complete AM vehicles and other G1 stuff (most still with at least
something like box art, specs, Powerplans, instructions).
And then Hydra had lots of MIB stuff for pretty good prices, I know he had
the lowest on the Toyfest Convoy SCF exclusive set (metallic holding Megs
and metallic truck mode) for awhile, and I don't remember anyone else
selling TV Magazines, either.
Plus we were helpers for Mr. Akiyama, Azusa , Mr. Maeda (owns an awesome
store in Osaka), and Mr. Koike (designer of Metalforce Convoy), and I was
their unofficial interpreter ^_^ Helped some non-Japanese speaking
Transfans get some good deals-- of the BC guys got one of the Headmaster
heads (Rodney, IIRC) for 1/3 off, Hellbat (the British Transfan, not the V
character) got a Blackshadow for a little cash and a Dominion T-shirt, and
I got Azusa to lower the price of the New Year's Convoy to the best price
in the room (AFAIK, $80) and after everyone else had sold out of them, I
believe. Was really interesting to interpret the haggling and somewhat
frustrated bargaining when someone was trying to make a deal with Azusa
for the Dark Fire Convoy...
But unfortunately I can't get everybody a good deal at BotCon. Made a lot
of people happy, though (especially the woman who bought my MIB Ikard &
Takotank) and gave away some of the best deals outside of Japan. I may
come across as a stuck-up braggart (and I'm probably bragging now ^_^)
online, but I try to do what I can as a Transfan for the rest of the fans
on the individual and collective level, even if I don't agree with
everyone's opinions. Hope you didn't buy anything from me or my bro
because we didn't have anything you wanted, and not because you don't
like the kind of people you think we are or what we've said/done, or
anything like that.
>understatement. Overall, Neil's antics that weekend constituted the most
>repellent behaviour I'd ever had the displeasure of witnessing at a Botcon.
Heh, you should have seen a certain dealer bragging about how he had just
said that Armada sucks (or something along those lines) right to the faces
of one of the Hasbro guys, and then I saw the same dealer talking to one
of the reps (the guy who designs and/or decides the names, Aaron, I
believe) as he was getting into his SUV. I felt rather sorry for him, as
he didn't look like he was having fun talking to this particular dealer.
I can be evil, but not that evil ^_^
--
Jordan Derber, Uber-Otaku
aka H-K
aka Buster Darkwings, Evil Destron Fairy
Subtitler and Co-Organizer of the Japanese TF episode fansubbing project
Stranger
> I was at Botcon, but because of going this year as an official dealer (as
> opposed to the unofficial dealing I did the previous two years) I missed
out on
> the panels and such.
>
> Though I am hurt you didn't mention me in the dealer area. After all, the
> bootleg tape guy was right behind/next to me!
Hey, I'll mention ya', Robobase. Total Science Fiction ran a real classy
booth this year - very helpful folks. Plus, they held a raffle at the end-
which are always fun (well, if you win at least.) Good times.
--
Stranger- Impulse's #1 fan, next to Max of course.
Also goes by the name of Dan Nguyen or "Space Cowboy"
Robobase
prices. Were it not for my impending move and other financial considerations
that caused me to have an EXTREMELY large amount of self control, I would have
bought tons of the stuff.
Douglas W. Dlin
>
> There was Big Bad Toy Store, selling Storm Jets for $40 (which was
> probably the best deal for a SJ in the entire room, sadly).
They had Battle Unicorns for $12--finally, a somewhat reasonable price.
Still about twice retail, but at least better than $20 each, which was
the lowest I'd seen them go for previously.
Sadly, their Gaiking Space Dragon set was UP from last year
($130->$150), and the only one they brought sold before I could decide
on whether or not it was worth it. Oh well, it was probably for the best.
> ToyFare, shilling their monthly dirtrag.
Tsk...perhaps I should've refused Tom Root's interview. :-) (Well, it
wasn't for TOYFARE, but even so...)
> Hydra and Tori Amos, whom I bought nothing from.
I'll choose to see this as a good-natured rib, since I *know* you
wouldn't be so crass as to stoop to unprovoked insults...
> Harold Tietjens and the always loveable Doug Dlin,
Hey, my jaws were drooling and guts jiggling like many another rabid,
overweight fanboy's. What makes me so special? Okay, so I *did* shower
most nights that weekend, but surely that couldn't be enough to make
such a difference.
> with copies of Cybertronian. Doug had told me the other night that
> there was a slim chance that #6 would arrive on time, and sure enough,
> it came later that day.
No reprints of #2, though. *&^%! FedEx...
> I ended up getting #1, #5, and #6 off them, but I'm sad to report that
> #1 and #5 are now coming apart. Doug, help?
You know the drill--send 'em to us and we'll replace 'em with good
copies. We even give the pages some reasonable tugs to be sure they
stay where they should.
Doug Dlin
ap...@hotmail.com
mpa...@netwalk.com
> Douglas W. Dlin wrote:
> >
> >On Aug. 5, 2002, Suspsy wrote:
> >>
> >> "Douglas W. Dlin" <ap...@texas.net> wrote in message
> >>
> >>> Sadly, their Gaiking Space Dragon set was UP from last year
> >>> ($130->$150), and the only one they brought sold before I could
> >>> decide on whether or not it was worth it. Oh well, it was probably
> You're talking about the Soul Of Chogokin Daikumaryu set, right? If so, the
> price increase isn't surprising... SoCs tend to get scarce and expensive
> several months after release, it seems.
>
Here it is for $88.99. http://www.gundamstoreandmore.com/ban76391.html
It was where I bought mine a while back.
Douglas W. Dlin
>
> jask...@aol.com (Paul Segal) wrote in message news:<20020807003010...@mb-mj.aol.com>...
>
>> so, the price increase isn't surprising... SoCs tend to get scarce
>> and expensive several months after release, it seems.
Silly me, I thought demand would go DOWN because the toy had been around
enough that not many people would want it any more but not long enough
to inspire "collector nostalgia," even if it was kinda rare. So much
for that idea.
> Here it is for $88.99. http://www.gundamstoreandmore.com/ban76391.html
>
> It was where I bought mine a while back.
Ooh, sweet! Now I just have to see if I can spare the funds after
paying bills for the month. :-P Thanks anyway, Mike!
Doug Dlin
ap...@hotmail.com
Paul Segal
>
>On Aug. 10, 2002, "mpa...@netwalk.com" wrote:
>>
>> jask...@aol.com (Paul Segal) wrote in message
>news:<20020807003010...@mb-mj.aol.com>...
>>
>>> You're talking about the Soul Of Chogokin Daikumaryu set, right? If
>>> so, the price increase isn't surprising... SoCs tend to get scarce
>>> and expensive several months after release, it seems.
>
>Silly me, I thought demand would go DOWN because the toy had been around
>enough that not many people would want it any more but not long enough
>to inspire "collector nostalgia," even if it was kinda rare. So much
>for that idea.
Nah, since it's for a market of people who are basically all about collector
nostalgia, and it's of a character whose popularity now is mostly based on
nostalgia, it's pretty much straight from the store shelf to being a
collector's item.
Ever checked out ToyboxDX.com ? You can easily see this phenomenon on their
forum, when someone decides several months after some big-ticket diecast item
comes out that they shouldn't have skipped it, and asks where they can still
get one...
Glad someone pointed you to a cheap one, though. I'm not that interested in
Gaiking, but I may have to pick up the SoC Great Mazinger reissue that's coming
out some time soon...
-Paul Segal
Email: aster...@yahoo.com ICQ: 24024819 AIM: asterphage
Cool stuff:
G-Gundam, Minicons, Yoko Kanno, Wilco, Meet James Ensor
"If we wanted more, then it was only what we thought our right was
Wanted more, but we were always blinded"