TFcon 2019 happened on July 12-14, and like just about every other TFcon, it was a wild weekend that ended way too quickly. I enjoyed my time there as I usually do, spending time with friends and cool people and buying as many toys as I could. Though I wish I could have done more. It was a busy time and there was a lot happening!

Here’s a look at some of what happened from my point of view.

The party kicked off in a big way on Friday when Arcee and Hot Rod from the awesome rock band Cybertronic Spree crashed the convention and appeared unannounced at the Hotel Bar. My phone had been giving me grief for a while, but it managed to cooperate for long enough to record Hot Rod doing karaoke, which you can watch here on Instagram.

There were some great guests at the show this year, including voice actors Michael Chain, Steven Keener, Colin Murdock and Blu Mankuma, former Hasbro designer Aaron Archer (who is an awesome dude and had an amazing panel about the creation of Transformers Armada), visual effects artist Chris Zammit, and comics writer Bob Budiansky. One of the best convention panels I had ever seen was from Ron Friedman, who wrote the 1986 Transformers movie and revealed that he rewrote the first 60 episodes of the TV series. It was an incredible behind the scenes look at storytelling from someone who had been in show-business for decades.

I did a panel too! I presented “Beyond Transformers: Takara’s Extended Robot Universe“, a panel all about other robot toys and shows from the same Japanese toy company that made the original Transformers figure. As with last year, my panel was on last, before the organizers panel on Sunday, but this year, I was way ahead and didn’t need to scramble to get everything done at the last minute. I worked pretty hard on this panel, making over 100 slides and even doing a hype video that would play before I started, which you can see below. It all paid off when I heard the big reactions to certain things that I had hoped would bring the house down. I actually finished exactly on time, which was a thrill in itself!

If you wanted to see the entire thing, it’s out there somewhere!

There was another epic Slurpee Run, an excursion to the nearby 7 Eleven, which saw over 50 people join us. I remember when it was only 5 people! Now it’s one of the highlights of the entire show, though it will forever remain an unofficial event.

And here’s my haul. You can see a detailed list of my purchases on my Tumblr. In general, my game plan for TFcon is to just buy everything you want early in the morning, put it away in your hotel room, and just not worry about it anymore. Then you can just chill in the panel room, check back in every once in awhile, and not miss anything good. That’s what I did, and I got just about everything I wanted and still had room for some extra stuff.

As much as I loved TFcon this year, I can’t help but feel like I could have done more. There were other things I wanted to do and people I didn’t see very much of if at all, so I feel like I might have missed out. This year is when it became apparent to me that I had to make choices based on my time and my health that were not always the most fun, but it is what it is. It just means that the convention is growing and there’s more to do in general, so that’s a good thing. Unfortunately, it’s only one weekend a year, but that just makes be appreciate it more. See you there next time.

Sayonara.

It’s time! TFcon Toronto 2019 is this weekend. The hype is real. I’ve been looking forward to this since… well since TFcon 2018! There are some truly amazing guests and incredible events scheduled for the show, and tons of new and old toys to buy too.

I’ll be presenting a panel called “Beyond Transformers: Takara’s Extended Robot Universe“. It’s all about other sci-fi and robot toys made before and after Transformers by the same Japanese company. It’s happening at 3pm on Sunday, the final event of the show before the organizers’ panel. Which means that TFcon ends when I say it ends. I’m working hard to make this my most epic presentation yet, full of some of the craziest robots you’ve ever seen. It’s going to be another “You had to be there” kind of moment, so you’re not going to want to miss it.

If you are attending, I hope to see you there. Come over and say hi to me.

I’ll have a full report of everything that happened when I get back.

Sayonara