The Botcon Report!

[raisedbymoogles]

Ta-da! The Botcon Report! ...Well, mostly it's just me transcribing all my voice posts (minus the um's and uh's) with some additional notes. Since the voice posts are LJ-exclusive, I might as well do this for my IJ and DW friends too. <3

Day 1

Kupo! This is Botcon Report, Day 1: Not The Botcon. We went to the Magic Kingdom today! We had a lot of fun. Stayed there for about seven hours in ninety-degree weather and Lots and Lots of humidity. But, you know, other than that it was a beautiful day. Memorable parts of the Magic Kingdom: taking the Fastpass onto Space Mountain, that was fun - 'cause otherwise we would've been waiting like two hours in line. I guess this a new thing that they have, the Fastpass: you put your regular ticket in and you can choose a ride that you take the Fastpass on, you don't have to pay, but there's like a limited window, you can only have like one at a time.

(inaudible - roommates talking)

Yes.

(inaudible - roommates talking)

Another new thing was the Enchanted Tiki Room. When - (inaudible - roommates talking) - yeah. "Under New Management," yes. When I lived in Florida, my family completely adored that thing. My parents got a big kick out of it. So I was really curious to see how it had changed. And it turns out that they added Iago and Zazu, and they have big parts, and they have, like, all kinds of fun. And it was really cute and funny, but the downside is? I kind of ship Iago and Zazu now. ...Yeah, I'm a hopeless fangirl.

The day ended a little bit abruptly when Poptart, suffering from heatstroke, pretty much collapsed. Yeah -

(inaudible - roommates talking)

Yeah, I'm -

(inaudible - roommates talking)

Yeah, Oasis says "Hello, LJ." ...Poptart says "urgh."

(inaudible - roommates talking)

...."Glurble." Yes. Glurble too. So anyway. She and -

(inaudible - roommates talking)

yeah, Okami says boo. ANYWAY.

(inaudible - roommates talking)

Yes. ...Shoot, I'm losing my train of thought. Right! Poptart and Oasis went back to the hotel; I stayed at the park for another hour doing pin trading. And that was a lot of fun because I actually had, like, an 'in' to be social with people and talk to people, and I got some shiny objects. I'll take pictures. I have Mickey in the Jedi robes with a lightsaber, and Minnie in the Princess Leia slave bikini. And it's awesome. And I also have Daisy as the aviator pilot from Mechanical Kingdom. It's really cool.

After I got back, we kinda rested a little bit, we went to this sushi place called Kimono's. Obviously the price point is pretty high, but it was way worth it. Oh my god, best sushi I have ever had, and I include the sushi that I have had in Japan. Holy crap, it's amazing.

(inaudible - roommates talking)

So after that we went to do our registration stuff. I have my badge now, and apparently I'm from Cincinnati, because everything was under Poptart's name and she's from Cincinnati. And we ran into Ravyn, who is volunteering, and is very excited about everything.

(inaudible - roommates talking)

Yeah, she gets to meet Perceptor's voice actor. And she actually met Perceptor's character designer, who has a Japanese name that I cannot remember right now.

(inaudible - roommates talking)

...Yoke. Okay, that's what it was. But yeah, we met him two years ago. He's back. ...He's ba~ack! And after that we went to get ice cream, and I got a scoop of rainbow sherbert, which is like green and red, and I gave Poptart the cone so she could taste and she promptly dropped it on her Megatron shirt. So now Megatron has rainbow sherbert all over him and I suggested Starscream should lick it off.

(inaudible - roommates talking)

Well, he should! Who else is going to? ...Anyway! Right! I promptly made an epic maneuver of awesomeness and ran into a glass window. I was texting Okami and wasn't paying attention- (transmission interrupted)

---

Okay, so, my long and rambling Botcon Report, day 1: Not the Botcon, part B! ....What was I talking about? Yes. My epic maneuver of awesome, yeah. I was standing by a glass window texting Okami, and not really paying attention to anything, so I just saw a clear bit out of the corner of my eye, and I turned around and WHUMPF! Right into the window! And these two people were standing right there when I did and were like 'oh my god, are you okay?' and I'm like, 'yeah, I'm an idiot, but I'm fine!' So I was laughing pretty much the whole way back to our hotel. But just because I'm tired and everything's funny and I'm too worn out to be embarrassed right now.

So now we're back at our hotel and Okami is here with us; she has made planetfall. And we're all in our jammies - well, most of us are. And, time to relax and get ready for Botcon, Day 2! I hope you all are having a wonderful time wherever you are, but not quite as wonderful a time as me. Kupo!

Additional Notes (a.k.a. bits I forgot to mention in the voice post)
- Me peeking at a young man's badges, which were on a strap over his behind: "I'm not looking at your butt, I swear! ...Well, it's very nice, but it's not what I'm looking for."
- Addition of Captain Jack Sparrow to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride was very well done. He was just wiggled in here and there; and the other bits that I know and love were still allowed to shine. ...Also, we saw him as street cast. His actor was very good. Ran just like Depp. XD
- The Hall of Presidents managed to spark a little patriotism in my withered black heart. (Animatronic Obama ftw!) The Carousel of Progress, on the other hand, was made of deeply disturbing history fail.


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Day 2

Kupo! This is Botcon Report, day 2! We were kind of bushed after Magic Kingdom, as you can probably imagine, so we slept in, all of us, and we didn't get actually down to the dealers' room to set up until, oh, two? No, noon, 'cause the doors opened at two. But we got everything set up, and, y'know, it looks fabulous, and I took pictures, of course. Two of my scarves are actually draped over Unicron's helmet horns. 'Cause Poptart brought her Unicron head from her cosplay last year to display stuff on, and it didn't really work with her jewelry, but it works great for my scarves. Anyway, we all set up, Oasis went to Target for some shelving units - which she didn't end up using, but anyway - the doors opened, and everybody swarmed in and started shopping, but it seemed like we weren't getting any attention. Y'know, I was looking around and everybody around us had people browsing through their toys and such, and we were just dead. And I got a little nervous. And that's why - see, I wasn't really planning on cosplaying today, just because, y'know, the dealer room would only be open for three hours, but I saw that we weren't getting any traffic, which, y'know, was probably to be expected, because all the hardcore toy buyers were gonna be in today as opposed to, y'know, Everybody Else. With the capital letters.

But I went up back in my room with Artoni (that's her LJ name) to change, when I discovered, finally, the thing that I had forgotten - inevitably forgotten. My undershirt for my costume! And without that, nothing else really worked. So I was panicking a little, and as I said, Oasis was at Target, so I called her and said - y'know, begged her to find me a shirt that worked. And, y'know, it's Florida. It's the height of summer. Target's not gonna have that many long-sleeved stuff. So she calls me back and says "I found something, but it's a sweatshirt, and it's zippered and hooded." And I said, "Fine, y'know what, Galvatron will just have to have a zipper. And I'll tuck the hood under my back." So she did that and I went back down and watched the booth for a while, and finally Oasis came back and I went up and changed, and I went back down in full costume walking across from the Swan Hotel to the Dolphin Hotel in full Galvatron, bwah-ing all the way. Well, not really. But it was fun. I got some odd looks from the tourists. I got one lady - well, she had a British accent but that doesn't necessarily mean anything - ask me, "Okay, what are you doing," And I told her, "I cosplay! I just, y'know, I choose who I want to be," and then she's like, "Okay, and then...?" "And then I pose for pictures and let people tell me how cool I am!"

...So I got down to the dealers' room - y'know, after running basically a gauntlet of photographers, and I saw Ravyn in her Perceptor costume. She was so excited. She got Paul Eiding's autograph on her costume chest. (Paul Eiding is Perceptor's VA, by the way.) And I was having a lot of fun. But I wasn't really sure how to play Galvatron. Y'know, when you're at a Transformers convention, you don't necessarily have to be In Character, but it helps. But I wasn't really sure how I was going to play him, 'cause y'know, especially with kids around, I don't want to scare the little kids, and - I want to be in character, but I don't want - y'know, In Character in this case means blowing stuff up. And hitting people. And - well, you all know how Galvatron is. So I eventually settled on, well, Galvatron is getting a lot of praise, so he's in a really good mood. So I was able to play off of that. And, y'know, accepting praise and admiration as my due. But that worked out pretty well. Y'know, especially with the kids. Well, not that many- (transmission interrupted)

---

Oh my god, I ramble so much these days. Where was I? Right! Playing Galvatron, trying not to scare the kids while still being in character. It seemed to work pretty well. I was kind of a hit. Y'know - well, y'know, Transformers fanboys. But - I actually got called 'precious' once. I was like, "Galvatron does not do precious!" Y'know, I chose Galvatron partly because I wanted to kind of step out from my comfort zone a little bit, but I knew that my natural cuteness was going to shine through anyway. But calling me "precious?" That's just a little over the top!

Well, y'know, it's my blessing and my curse to be this cute. So, I'm just going to have to live with it, y'know. And so is Galvatron, apparently. 'Cause, you know, two more days!

So, I was cosplaying for about two, two and a half hours. And I got to walk around a little bit. And I actually sold three pieces, which is really good (burp) excuse me, really good for Friday. Y'know, two of them were to my friends, but still, I'm kind of excited about this. And I have high hopes for tomorrow.

So we closed down at about five, and Oasis and Okami and Oasis' friend and I went down to one of the Downtown Disney places to have dinner at an Italian restaurant called Portabello. It was very good. The calamari was oh-my-god-delicious. And we just had a lovely time!

So now I am sitting by the lake between Dolphin and Swan. It's nice and breezy out, which kinda cuts the heat and humidity a little bit - 'cause, y'know, it's Florida, it's still hot and humid at night. There were fireworks earlier that we got to see, that was cool - although we couldn't see much 'cause it was behind the treeline... And now I'm just about ready to go back up to my room and flop. So! Y'all have a lovely evening, and I will post again tomorrow. Probably twice tomorrow, knowing me. Kupo!

---

Also, you guys, I got interviewed by a guy with a microphone and a real TV video camera guy behind him. The thing on his microphone said he was from something called the Daily Buzz? So I don't know if I'm actually going to get any screentime - or YouTube time, or whatever - from these people, but - yeah, keep an eye on that. I might get on TV, who knows? Or, y'know, on the Internet. This may be my Internet debut! Well, if he's not skeevy, I hope. All right, good night. Kupo.

Additional Notes
- I actually got camera'd at three times. Once by the Daily Buzz, once by Retro Video, and once by people who neglected to give their affiliation, but who filmed me singing and dancing (in costume, natch) to "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen. The lady with them asked me what I was singing after they recorded, and when I told her, she's like "We can't clear that," and they promptly disappeared. So I guess no screen time from the mystery newspeople.
- I was pretty much singing "Don't Stop Me Now" all weekend. Earwormed Oasis something fierce. I love you, Oasis!
- Japanese Transfans are the cutest ever. These three girls got me to pose with them and they were giggling the whole time. They were just so excited to be there, it was adorable.
- I also had a commission today! <3 (lj)artoni.


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Day 3

Kupo! It's time for another exciting installment of Botcon! This is Day 3! I'm totally bushed, so I'm going to try and keep this short.

Sale-wise, today was kind of a disappointment. I only sold three pieces, which, if you were paying attention from yesterday, was the exact same number I sold during the three hours we were open on Friday. And one of the sales was to Poptart. So. I'm really really hoping I can get some stuff sold tomorrow. But it turns out I will be able to stick around until the end of the dealer room tomorrow, because my flight doesn't leave until 6:52, instead of 5:00 which I was fearing, so I don't have to leave before 3:00. Anyway - yeah. Poptart is laughing at me. ....Shut up, you!

(inaudible - Poptart being a smartass)

I've only - I've only just started! Geez. Gimme a break. Okay! Highlights include: the - there were a lot of cosplayers. The most spectacular by far was the giant Coronation Starscream. He, seriously, was like two people tall. It was being controlled by a guy on stilts, it had a voice modulator so he really sounded like Starscream, and he was -

(inaudible - more smartassery)

- I didn't want it! I didn't want to have to wear a mask! ...Ignore her. Where was I? Oh yeah. The vocal modulator. He was in character, so cool. He was with his family, and his son was playing Mini Coronation Starscream, and his wife - yeah, his wife was, by turns, Megatron with purple lipstick, or a Witwicky - random Witwicky, whatever. So yeah, I totally threatened him with my cannon, like twice, and... what else? There was a Snake Eyes and a Deadpool, there was actually two Megatrons - one was being played by a guy - there were two -

(inaudible - take a guess)

- no, that was Frenzy! Frenzy is red! ...There was a Frenzy. There was two Shattered Glass Optimus Primes, one normal and one plushie. Yeah, the plushie was cute. Several Bumblebees, a lot of Seekerbinks - billions of Seekerbinks, Poptart says. And, lots and lots of people having fun. And mostly looking at toys apparently, because we were getting passed over a lot. Poptart sold about a hundred dollars' worth of jewelry. (to Poptart) How much worth of jewelry did you sell today? ...Yeah, she said she sold five hundred dollars' worth of jewelry...

(inaudible)

...But not enough. Which is - it's still a lot more than I did! ...Yeah, I know, but still! ....See, she makes me lose my train of thought every time she interrupts, but I love her anyway. But yeah. I had a lot of fun as Galvatron. I was walking around and I got lots of compliments and pictures again, and at one point Oasis loaned me her iPod and I was dancing around in the aisle. And we scared people. Actually, the weird thing was, we were pretty much the - well, first we were the only booth manned entirely by chicks (manned by chicks, har har) and we were also the only booth that would like smile and acknowledge your presence, acknowledge you exist - 'cause you know, some of the dealers are kind of flinty and don't seem like they really want to be there, and act like they hate you for existing when you want to buy something from them. But we acted, y'know, actual, like, friendly, and people seriously ran away from that. I mean, it's amazing how socially awkward some of these people can be. They just come out of the woodwork. Yeah, there was a couple people that were like total social awkwardness...

(inaudible)

...oh god. Yeah. There was this one guy who was complaining about how his foot hurt, so Oasis offered him a chair. So he sat down for a few minutes, then he got up and I went to sit down - and the girl in the booth over was like *GASP* "DON'T SIT DOWN DON'T SIT DOWN!" Yeah, she had seen the back of his pants. There was like a puddle. Yeeeaaah. So we definitely switched chairs with some people out in the hallway, and yeah. That would not have been pleasant if I'd actually made contact.

(inaudible)

...I know, yeah, and he kept coming back. It was like, "Ugh, please go away, you stink." Yeah, as- (transmission interrupted)

---

Oh my god, so much for keeping it short! So anyway. Past the social awkwardness and the ew factor, I actually had a pretty good time. Aside from not selling anything. I -

(inaudible)

- huh? Yeah, I sold two things to her so far. I sold six items and two of them were to Poptart. ...She's laughing at me. She always laughs at me. ...Yeah, well.

(inaudible)

...stop talking, I'm trying to post! Geez! This is why I can't get these things in one post! Geez. ANYWAY. After the dealer room closed, we went out to Uno's to have dinner. And we were all wearing Transformers t-shirts, so the hostess was like, "unnhh... weird people, go away," but, yeah. We went to Uno's and then we went to this cheap t-shirt shop, and I got a little Pink Ranger keychain, and a little fluffy purple chinchilla thing - a stuffed animal. They were cute! And I hadn't really seen a lot of stuff that I wanted to spend money on. I don't think I really need any more toys right now, I have a whole bin full of toys in the basement that I haven't put up yet, and y'know, I've been living in that house for two years. So, no toys, except for Transformers Animated Arcee, 'cause I just had to have her. And I got an Autobot pin and a Hot Rod shirt and a Kingdom Hearts shirt at Stylin' Online. But other than that, I think I got pretty much whatever I need. I dunno, maybe if there's something shiny that's marked down tomorrow, I'll pick it up. But - anyway! After that I met up with Rosieknight, and we hung out and had a grand old time for a couple of hours until I was like, "okay, flop tiem." Which is why now, it is flop tiem. So, tomorrow I will be doing an actual typing post because I will be back at home. Unless something awful happens. So! Have a safe evening - or morning, whenever you listen to this, and... Kupo!

Additional Notes
- The thing Poptart is talking about up there (the 'I didn't want it!' bit) is a vocal modulator.
- Every time Giant Starscream saw me, we did the whole "Megatron - is that you?" thing. XD
- Re: the no toy thing? FAMOUS SLAGGING LAST WORDS.
- I really think I was overly ambitious on the sales thing, which is why I sound so let down here. I was having visions of completely selling out Friday or Saturday (and why not? I'd buy my stuff!), so I wasn't really prepared for what actually happened.
- Some guy offered to take me to Webworld. If that's his idea of flirting, he will never get laid.
- It seems like cosplaying has become prolific enough that Botcon should seriously consider doing a contest. Giant Starscream would have won this year, of course, but I flatter myself that I was in the top five.
- This pic of Galvamoogle is sporting a fetching Optimus Prime scarf! This is the scarf that didn't get sold.
- Japanese TFA toys are shiny. Why don't we get that? (Also, Bulkhead is apparently Ironhide in Japan. This amuses me.)
- I got to see a bit of War for Cybertron. Specifically this bit of dialogue: (Somebody else - Ratchet maybe?) - "See, Prime, you're better at this than you think you are." Optimus - "The Council of Elders will choose the next Prime. I am only a stand-in until that choice is made." Those of you who have watched me fangirl over Roddy can probably figure out why I love that line. Need to play this more than ever, guys.



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Day 4

Kupo! I've got a little time to kill before the other girls come and take me to the airport, so I might as well do this. This is Botcon, Day 4: The End is Just the Beginning, Kupo. Let's see... sales-wise, I sold two more pieces today, and - heh, one of them was because of Poptart's intervention, but anyway. That means I sold more than half of what I came with, so I'm pretty happy about that. Probably put the rest of it up on Etseh. Etsy. Etseh? ....ahem. On the Internet, so that you guys can have a crack at the leftovers. Whatever.

It was kind of more of the same. Everybody was kind of blah 'cause it was the last day and we were all tired, but I threatened Starscream again and I got more pictures - my camera actually ran out of batteries. I played around with some little kids. Galvatron is so cute with little kids. And... I know I said I wasn't going to buy any toys, but I bought Heroes of Cybertron Paradron Medic from Oasis, and I bought a Disney Label Mickey Prime, because a) I draw that Kingdom Hearts: Metal Heart, so it was kind of appropriate that I should have at least one Disney Label Transformer, and 2) it was just adorable and shiny! So I couldn't resist.

What else... Well, you know, it was pretty much more of the same, only shorter. We got to sleep in an extra couple of hours, which was nice. Remind me and I'll tell you about the Disney movie dream I had before Oasis woke me up to take a shower. It was kind of funny - I kind of felt her shake me, but I wanted to stay in the dream and see what happened, so she had to shake me a couple of times before I woke up. And now I am finally out of the costume. The costume is actually in pretty poor shape: the glue holding the Velcro to the craft foam didn't quite hold up. And, you know, there were rips and tears and various battle damage. But the cannon didn't flop, so I'm happy about that! And I made some friends, which is always nice. I actually socialized with people! I'm kind of amazed at myself.

Oh! And there are pictures of Galvatron eating Pocky. Just as a little preview of what you have to look forward to.

So! My plane touches down around nine-ish, so I will post when I get home safely. Other than that, take care of yourselves, and I'll see ya on the Interwebs. Kupo!

Additional Notes
- The craft foam was actually an excellent building material for the main body of the costume - lightweight, flexible, allows me to move and sit and kneel and go to the bathroom without major help from NASA which is always a plus. But it didn't quite hold up to the rigors of being taken on and off and moving around. Mostly, the connector points were where it failed. I'll have to rethink the load-bearing parts for my next costume - possibly reinforce them with cardboard.
- In case you haven't already heard, next year's Botcon has been announced for Pasadena, CA. Yes, again. I haven't definitively said yes or no yet - it depends on what my life is doing at the time - but I'm definitely going to start saving up. Plus, since Ravyn is building an Ultra Magnus costume, I kinda want to go as Hot Rod.
- I also definitely want to re-think my merchandise for next year or the year after. The generic Bot/Con symbols did okay, but I noticed that there were hats that looked like the helmets of specific characters, and there were people carrying around Plushiebot's plushies. I hear that Plushiebot is defunct now, though, so that gives the fandom a plushie vacuum that I am ready to fill! ...I just have to find an easier way to do it than I did with Ravyn's Perceptor. Maybe if I made them smaller... *plotplotplot*
- I'm looking forward to a few of the upcoming toys. Shiny!

Picture post and a few skibbles coming soon. Oasis has some of the pictures I want to post, since my camera died Sunday afternoon.