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Botcon
On Friday 13, 2001 at 8:30am, two of my friends Rahman, Chris, and myself left NJ on a Greyhound bus bound for Durham North Carolina for the Botcon 2001! Friday! I brought one suit case (filled w/ cloths obviously) and my backpack filled with HW, a cd player w/ music, and something to draw. And another bag filled w/ food and provisions for the LOOOONG 13 hour drive. Rahman brought w/ him a HUGE duffle bag. And Chris brought one small bag and a cd stereo. The bus was expected to arrive at Durham at 9:30 in the evening, well Grey hound was wrong. Due to a delay and the fact that they over booked on the bus (about five people had to stand in the aisle) the bus did not arrive in Durham until 12:30 Saturday morning! I do not like Greyhound!!! Next year; I'm drivingJ We took a cab to the hotel and checked in. Before we went to bed we flipped through the tv and saw this one movie w/ a young Amilio Esteves in it. It was some story about aliens bringing life to trucks and having them kill humans. It was a really stupid movie. So stupid that it was funny. It was really ironic because at one point on the bus, Chris had mentioned this movie in a book he has about cult movies and other strange cinima. It was pretty bad&ldots; Saturday! We all got up at around 10:00. Ate at some place called the Waffle House. Rahman and Chris, having no interest in Transformers what-so-ever decided to stay behind while I went to the Marriot, that's where the convention was held. So I called a taxi and drove over there. I had pre-registered for the convention. I showed the lady my confirmation letter and she gave me a book of events and a name badge with Transmetal II Dinobot on it. Botcon was so cool! This was my first one and I had a blast! My first stop was the art room. WoW! I was impressed. There were some Out standing art work there; some of them blew me away! Now I know what to do for next year. Than I quickly scoped out all the other areas; checking out the video room and the G1 discussion room, and my personal favorite; the dealer's room. I spent most of my time in the dealers room. I brought $500 dollars spending money with me and between Saturday and Sunday I had about $25 of it left. On Saturday I got: (in no particular order) -Rampage for $1 (He was all busted up) (I'm going to do something with it) -TM1 Terrorsaur $1 (again busted up) -TM1 Megatron $8 (I already own one but his right arm had broken off some time ago so I needed a new one.) -My Botcon exclusive comic (with the good cover) -BW Metals Ravage $90 (No cheaper than Ebay) -G1 Mirage (complete) $75 (out of box) -2 inch Transmetal Optimus Primal $10 -A clear PVC of Rodimus $5 -G1 First Aid (Protectabot) $5 -A Transformers the Movie Soundtrack $25 -G1 Tripticon $15 (with no accessories, but in good shape!) -Two DBZ Vegitas $18 for both (1 for me and the other for my friend Mark for his B-day) I think that's all I got on Saturday. Shortly after that the line was well under way for the G1 voice actors autographs. It was one LONG line. I got autographs from all three G1 voice actors. John Stephenson who played Alpha Trion, Kup, Huffer, Windcharger, Devcon, and Thundercracker. And also he played Mr. Slate on the Flintstones! I met Mr. Slate&ldots;very cool. Than their was Gregg Berger who played the very popular Grimlock, the Dinobot commander. Along with him he played Skyfire and Long Haul. Last but not least there was Michael Bell. The voice of Autobot Prowl, Sideswipe, Bombshell, Swoop, and Scrapper. When I went up to Michael, I introduced myself and said 'it's really nice to meet you; sorry you got killed in the movie; that really sucked' I was just busting his chops a little. (I don't think he took the remark too well) They were all really nice people; I remember John Stephenson after he had signed mine he asked everyone (in the proximity of his voice) if we were all having a good time. Though I'm sure they were all really tired. After I got my autographs I left the room only to find Rahman and Chris sitting out in the hall. They hadn't been there long and were waiting for me to show up. We talked for a little bit. Chris told me that in one of the rooms that some kid asked the actors to say 'wuzzup' in every voice they do. (Glad I missed that.) They wanted to go back to the hotel, but I said I'd stay here for a little bit lomger. The guys left, and I was able to catch the last ten minutes of the Beast Wars discussion forum. The two guests from Beast wars were Gary Chalk, who played Optimus Primal, and Scott McNeill who played Rattrap, Dinobot, Waspinator, and Silverbolt. Unfortunately I did miss most of the discussion because I was in line for autographs. What little I did see was good. Shortly after that the from ended and the autographs session began. Huh&ldots;another hour long wait in line..BUT IT WAS WORTH IT! Finally we were let into the room. The wait was taking forever. The line was getting very congested because Scott McNeill was BS-ing with everyone. So things were taking a long time. Everyone was lining up to Scott first and Gary had nothing to do for a little while so (I think out of boredom) He started walking up to people and signing the autographs. He reminded me a lot like Mel Leipzig; my art teacher at MCCC. He was doing ten different things at once. And so when one person was done with Scott, Gary had to rush over that the person and than he would run back over to the line. It was great. Unfortunately I wasn't able to actually talk to Gary Chalk because was very busy running around signing; but I did take a pic of him. He was a nice guy. Finally I met Scott McNeill. The first thing I said; 'Hi, my name James; it's really nice to meet you.' And Scott said, 'Ah James! A sophisticated name, you must be gentleman.' (I swear to you; that is what he said!) This guy was awesome! I told him he did a great job on the show, and Dinobot was definitely one of my favorite characters. And again; (just to bust his chops) I said I really liked Dinobot; and it really sucked how he got killed twice. He said; 'Yeah; I know they didn't even tell me about it in advance.' And than; he said, in Dinobot's voice; "They killed me&ldots;and than again, and again&ldots;" an he was just going on w/ that. Ah, it was great. He signed my book, as did the others and I also asked him is he could also sign my Botcon name badge. (Which don't forget had TM2 Dinobot on it) He looked at it for a moment and made mention how his did not have Dinobot on it; his had Megatron. (because he was a guest). But he signed it and I even got a picture of him as well. All in all it was cool. Gary Chalk and Scott Mcneill were some great people. After I had left the room; I was hungry; I was tired, I had been there for 11:00 till 5:00. I was going back to the hotel. I called a cab. When I got to the room, I noticed that Chris and Rahman were not there. But on one of the beds were several porno magazines and a tape. (Chris and Rahman were busy) I pretty much just shrugged my shoulders, and began counting my loot. About 30 minutes later Chris and Rock showed up. Apparently they had spent the day buying beer and porno. Later that night&ldots;at around 11:30 we caught a cab to a movie; we saw the Score with Robert DiNero. It was an ok movie. After the movie however the guys and I needed to call a taxi&ldots;but their weren't any payphones to be founds. We ended up having to go back inside the theatre but the girl said 'we're closed' and we said we needed a pay phone to call a cab. And she still said we're closed. (She was obviously not a shining example of an intelligent person). So after that we all laughed at her and left the building. We eventually did find a payphone about a quarter mile away and we did get back to the hotel. at around 2:00am. After We got from the movies&ldots;.yikes! We were able to catch the Simpsons. It was a good episode. Sunday! Sunday we didn't get up until about 10:00am. I went over to the convention for only an hour or so just to stock up on more goodies. -I got an unofficial Transformers guidebook $25 -A G1 Groove $5 -Beast Wars Clawjaw w/ Techspecs and instructions $8 -I got two key chains made up. One for my mom which had the words, 'That's just Prime' and the other for my friend Lori which had G1 Ravage on it. $2.50 total. Pretty much the rest of Sunday the guys and I just hung out at the hotel room. Rock and I saw Big Trouble in Little China&ldots;that movie is wacky&ldots; Later on that night we found a pool hall in the shopping center across the street. We played several games and I was actually able to beat both Rahman and Chris at least once. Well, all in all, We all had a good time. It was my first Botcon an I had alot of fun. Next if Botcon is within driving distance I'm am DRIVING.
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Botcon
2001