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I just got back from my first Botcon and I had a great time. I heard that it was different from the other ones because of the location, but it was still pretty fun for me, and I went only on General Admission, so I missed out on a lot of stuff that was for package holders only.

Some of my experience:

First off, I originaly bought and paid for a Primus package with the Paramount party, but then things happened and I had to cancel it. My plans changed from a thursday through sunday trip to a mad 3 am morning rush drive to get to Pasadena by 9am. I waited in line for over an hour before I finally was able to get into the convention.

Lots of people to finally really talk Transformers with face to face. The average age was probably around 30 or so. There were girls and boys, and I met a lot of cool people.

There were many artist there from IDW as well as independent fan artist and freelancers that were cool. I Met Silas from "My little Transformers" and he was really nice. Matt Moylin from Little Formers was awesome, but swamped with work. All of the IDW guys were cool. I got a lot of stuff signed, like Spotlight Drift from the artist, inker and letterer. I got to meet E.J. Su, Alex milne, Shawn Knowler, Marcelo Matere, Josh Van Ryek, Joanna Lafuente, Casey Coller and Chris Mowry, all awesome at their jobs. I saw a sneak at some upcoming pages in progress featuring a certain police bot that people love. I do not think I was supposed to see it, but it was awesome. I sort of somehow ended up in a small circle surrounding the IDW artist involved while chasing an Autograph from someone who was not officialy there.

The voice actors were cool. Greg Berger signed my spotlight Grimlock. David Kaye acted like he recognized me and we actually held up the line for a couple minutes talking about the Garlic Smell on hwy 132 in Gilroy, a conversation which he started. he also signed my japanese Animated season three comic I bought from a cool dealer that David had never seen before.

I tried to get in line twice for Peter Cullen, but it filled up and was full both times. The second time he did autographs, they only had him sign fifty of them. He later had a panel that was cool and I got to ask him a question and then shake his hand before he left. Just seeing him made me all jittery, like Christmas morning and Disneyland all rolled up into one.

Stan Bush was hanging out at his own booth all day and was selling and signing his CDs. I had my picture taken with him.

Lots and lots of Dealers. You can get a bargain on some stuff, but you have to ask around. Most of them were waaayyyy overpriced. One guy was trying to sell minibots at $100 a peice, but he had other stuff for cheap. I bought a good condition Rumble with both weapons intact for $10 from another guy who was selling it for more, but after we talked a bit, he lowered the price.
I bought the Spike and Sparkplug figures at $15 for the pair. A PVC g2 megs Japanese figure for $5, a g2 prime trailor (only missing the door)for $3.

There was a hasbro area with all the Toys on display. Some were blah, but some were cool. There was a display of Universe (or maybe commemorative edition) Soundwave with the g1 mold and four cassettes. It was pretty cool.

The Panels were cool. All the Hasbro guys mumble like they don't really care, but at least they showed some cool toys. Peter Cullens panel was awesome.

Tyrese Gibson showed up at the Sunday Hasbro Panel and that was great. He walked into the front away from the podium and was actually being cool and personal with the audience. He has a Autobot insignia Tattoo. I took a picture of it.

The Cosplay Panel was great. I learned a lot from it and I am now thinking of making a g1 Skidz costume. It is getting late, but I will edit in the Deviant artist who were part of the panel including who was also really cool to finally meet in person. thank you for being so nice. Check out their website: [link]

There many Deviant artist there who were really great to meet.

At last, there was the main booth for the TFCC. It was selling the ROTF toys at actually reasonable prices with little gold foil first issue Botcon stickers that they let you put on the toys yourself. They also had all the TFCC store stuff and then some for sell. The exclusives were expensive. I bought the Elita-1 and Razorclaw 2-pack for $87 after tax. Wow. The sweeps were sold out before I even got into the convention on Saturday at 10am. The toys are not that good this year and I ended up buying mine at the last moment just to have one from my first Botcon. The dealers were already splitting up the convention exclusives and selling them individually for way too much money. Greedy greedy, they should make a rule for the dealers so you can not sell the toys for the years convention you are attending.

Overall, Botcon was a blast and I might save up and go wherever it is next year.


Edit: On Sunday, I went to Meltdown Comics in West Hollywood and bought a bunch of stuff. That store is rad. I reccomend it to anyone traveling to the area.