I look forward to TransformersCon every year. Each new convention seems to be bigger and better than the last, and it has quickly established itself as one of the premier Transformers fan gatherings around the world. This year definitely lived up to the reputation it has been gaining among the Transformers community, and I had a great time participating in the convention activities, hanging out with fellow fans, and meeting new faces.

I also had a bit of a personal stake in the convention this year, as I was asked by JLvatron to illustrate an 8 page comic that would be included in the program guide. This was a big deal to me and I really appreciated the opportunity to contribute something like this to the convention.

I wasn't sure if I was going to write a report on the convention or not, so I didn't get a whole lot of material to work with for this purpose. So, rather than go ahead with my usual style of convention reports where I break down everything I did and what happened exactly, I'll just throw up a few pictures and cover some of the major highlights.

The whole event kicked off on Fan Friday with a Transformers costume panel. Here you see Wayward in her Bonecrusher costume from last year and JLvatron in his Perceptor costume that he made as youngster. They talked about how they made their costumes and techniques that could be used for Transformers costuming.

The Perceptor costume could actually transform into a microscope. Well... sort of. As much as can be expected from a human being who can not actually bend in particular ways.

RandomFerret shows up in his Optimus Prime costume to save the day! He mostly made this out of discarded election signs. Impressive stuff.

The Transformers Customizing panel had some excellent examples of customized toys and discussion of methods to create them and the best tools and methods to use. Here, DAK shows off a preview of a huge project he had been working on that would go on display the next day.

And here it is! On Saturday, convention attendees were greeted with this gigantic sculpture of Optimus Prime! Based on the 20th Anniversary Masterpiece toy, but scaled up by a factor of 12, it surely was a powerful sight! The eyes even had lights in them.

This picture gives you some idea of the scale of this sculpture. Do not touch the Prime! He WILL step on you!

Here in the dealer room we find not only a myriad of Transformers to buy, but also Wayward dressed up as Vector Prime's trusty Minicon, Safeguard!

The voice actor guest this year was Michael McConnohie, the voice of Tracks and Cosmos in the original Transformers series, and Hotshot and Ironhide in Robots in Disguise, a show he was also a writer and co-director on. I got to meet him just before the panel started, and he complimented me on the comic I drew. He even asked me to sign a copy for him.

Mr. McConnohie was a very classy and entertaining guy who exhibited a genuine enthusiasm for his work on Transformers. He shared some stories about his fellow voice actors from their recording sessions and talked about some of his other work in video games and anime. He also had a few interesting things to say about the upcoming Transformers movie and how it ought to be handled. Essentially he said that he didn't think they should be screwing around with any of the aspects of the franchise that fans hold dear.

Speaking of the movie, the prolific producer Don Murphy was in town and agreed to come to the convention to answer some of the fans questions and address their concerns. While there was still a lot that he couldn't say yet, he did the best he could. There was a very long lineup of people who wanted to have their questions answered, but he seemed very friendly throughout the whole thing and asked everyone who stepped up to the microphone to say their name so he could address them properly. One of the more entertaining moments came when Don was asked a question by a very young boy who really knew his stuff and could verbally express himself better than just about anybody else in that room.

By now all the juicier bits of information that came out of Don's appearance at this convention have been reported on other websites, but I'll just say that, going into it, I thought I was going to be horribly embarrassed by the fan community pestering over minor details or issues that have been beaten to death already, but thankfully it didn't really turn out that way. It was actually very well handled and, by the time the panel was over, I had a much better feeling over how this movie will turn out. My respect definitely goes out to Don for taking the time to come out to the convention to talk with us, and to the folks at TransformersCon who did what no other convention has done and made this panel happen.

Towards the end of the show came the always popular live script reading, where members of the audience audition to play the roles of various Transformers characters and perform alongside the voice actor guest. There was actually another script reading the day before, where I got to play Dinobot from Beast Wars. I auditioned for a few parts in this one too, but I didn't get any roles. The auditioning was very entertaining, and there were a few dead-ringers in the bunch. The audition for the role of Unicron saw an especially long line of people, but it was the very last audition that just blew everyone away to thunderous applause.

This time, instead of everyone sitting at tables with microphones to read their lines, the performers were all standing up and using one single microphone. The story was a continuation from the comic I drew for the convention program, but things took a more comedic twist! There was a definite energy in this script reading, and everyone had a great time. Edwin, who played Tarantulas, had his character down so perfectly it was scary! And it was awesome to see a professional like Michael McConnohie in action. It was a lot of fun to watch and everyone did great.

Stuff I Bought.

I didn't buy very much, really. Some people really go nuts and bring home a big haul, but I was content to just pick up a few things I'd otherwise probably not get the chance to buy. First up was this Reverse Convoy from Japan. He's an Optimus Prime that Transforms into a Megatron, or a Megatron that Transforms into an Optimus Prime. The possibilities are endless. It's a weird Japanese import, so I like it.

The big purchase this time around was this. It's Star Convoy, a toy I've wanted for 10 years. An upgraded version of Optimus Prime released only in Japan, it was recently reissued so I figured I should pick it up while the getting was good. Thanks goes out to Guber who tracked this down for me after mentioning it in passing that I couldn't find one. I think he was more excited about it than I was!

I also bought the 2005 TransformersCon DVD, a great memento from last year's convention, plus footage from the New York CyberCon.

And hey, look! I'm on this DVD! How about that?

Here it is, the 8 page comic I drew for the TransformersCon program. I want thank JLvatron and Colin Douglas for giving me the chance to have my work seen by so many people. It really means a lot, and I'm glad that it was so well received.

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Conclusion.

For the sake of this report, I pretty much just focused on writing about the main events that were on the convention schedule and some of the things I saw or participated in, and that's all great, but that's only part of what makes this convention worth it. The other part is how much fun it is to be around so many other folks who enjoy the same thing. Most of these folks I only see once a year, but it's always a blast. I don't really know how a convention report such as this can fully express what it's like, so the best thing I can say is that you just had to be there.

So I hope I see you there next year!

Sayonara.