July 13th – 15th brought us yet another fantastic TFcon experience in Mississauga, Ontario. I had a mostly great time. At least,  when I was able to. When I wasn’t, I was working on something! Let’s take a look at what went down.

It was great to see Transformers voice actors David Kaye and Gary Chalk at the show. They have both attended TFcon before a number of times, but having them both making a rare convention appearance together was great. Also there was Hal Rayle, the voice of Shrapnel and Snarl in the original series, who  fit right in, and David Mendenhall, who played Daniel. This was David Mendenhall’s first ever convention appearance and his insight on working on the show as a kid was amazing. He told a lot of fantastic stories and I made sure to tell him that what he shared with us was very special.

Here’s some costume pictures. There were a number of impressive entries but I think that the young ones stole the show this year. The little Grimlock was roaring and swinging his tail around all day!

Speaking of young ones, I did a “How to Draw Transformers” panel for kids on the Sunday afternoon. I showed the kids how I think about drawing a robot in 3D using basic shapes and a simple pose while drawing Optimus Prime. I did not go in with any planned material and just kind of made it up as I went. I was thinking that maybe the 3D aspect was going to be too complicated for the little ones, but that’s what they asked for!

I did another panel this year, this time about “How Transformers Changed Around the World“. It had information on what the Transformers brand was like when it came to other countries like Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Italy, and Germany. It was the last panel of the show before the Organizers’ Q&A, and on one hand that meant I couldn’t really enjoy the show until it was all over, but on the other it meant that if my panel went a little bit over time it would probably not be a big deal. Well, that’s exactly what happened.  I had so much information to go through that I was about 5 minutes over time, and there was enough stuff that I cut for time that I honestly could have kept going for another 30 mins. People responded in a huge way and loved the Chilean laser shoes commercial and the Italian Beast Wars song. When it was all over, they were chanting my name!

I had missed out on a lot of the show because I was still working on the presentation. I couldn’t hang out much after hours and I had to pass on doing Faction Feud. In the end, it was all worth it. I enjoyed doing the panel and I’m glad that everybody seemed to like it. But next time, I’m going to have to find away to finish everything I need to get done earlier, because I don’t want to miss that much of the show again.

The highlight of the weekend was definitely the Annual Slurpee Run. Imagine a conglomerate of about 50 Transformers fans descending upon a 7-11 store at around 11pm on a Saturday night. Even though I had work to do, I couldn’t miss out. It was hilarious and amazing. Even guests Aaron Archer and David Mendenhall joined us. For those wondering, I had a sour watermelon flavored Slurpee and it was delicious.

And here’s all the stuff I bought. I did pretty good this year. Amung the highlights are Sixshot, Overlord, and Defensor all from Japan. You can read more about my haul on my Tumblr and keep an eye on there for more toy pictures.

This was the 15th time I’ve attended TFcon and it’s hard to imagine my life without it. The people I’ve met there have become some of the best friends I’ve ever had, and the convention has hosted some of the most memorable moments I’ve experienced in my life as a fan of anything.

I’ll see you there next year. Till all are one.

Sayonara.