Throwback Thursday- Botcon 1995 Pre Reg

Oh, they're doing it again? I can't miss it again this year!

*****************************************************************************
                             BOTCON '95             

The Second Annual Transformers Convention             
Dayton Convention Center, Dayton, Ohio
Saturday and Sunday, August 5 & 6, 1995
Some planned events include:
- A special Convention Exclusive Transformer figure available only to preregistrants
- A laser light show synchronized to the soundtrack of Transformers the Movie
- A presentation by Hasbro executives on upcoming plans for the toy line,
  including a question-and-answer session
- An art display and contest with prizes awarded in color and black & white
  categories, as well as an art auction
- A display room featuring private collections of Transformer-related
  merchandise
- Continuous videos, including the Japanese episodes and the Movie
- Dealer tables for the buying, selling, and trading of Transformers and
  Transformer-related items
- Presentations by the officers of the fan clubs and club media producersPrices:Non-Dealers:
     Preregistrants $25 for whole weekend, $15 for single day (Sat. or Sun.)
          (Preregistration includes the Convention Exclusive Transformer)
     For non-preregistrants, admission at the door is $5 per day.Dealers:
     $80 per table for whole weekend; $45 per table for single day (Sat. or
     Sun.)
       (Price includes admission for dealer and one helper, and the
          Convention Exclusive Transformer)
Hotel Costs:Stouffer Renaissance Dayton Hotel is connected directly to the Dayton
Convention Center.
$64 per night, single or double room (up to 4 people per room), plus 12.5% tax
(=$8 in tax per night).  To reserve rooms, contact Stouffer Renaissance Dayton
Hotel at:
          Fifth & Jefferson Streets
          Dayton, OH 45402
          phone: (513) 224-0800 (call collect)
Remember that you must make hotel reservations separately (not through the
convention organizers) by *July 14, 1995*.  Be sure to say you're coming for
BotCon '95 in order to get the reduced room rate.
Other things to see in and around Dayton:Wright Patterson Air Force Museum with IMAX theater; International Women's Air
& Space Museum; Dayton Art Institute; Dayton Museum of Natural History;
National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center; Victoria Theater; Memorial
Hall; Sunwatch Village; Paramount's King's Island; The Beach Waterpark; Blue
Jacket Outdoor Drama.
     The Dayton Convention Center is conveniently located close to Dayton
International Airport, and is easily accessible by highway.  Greyhound bus
station is located directly across the street from the Convention Center and
hotel.
Contact:  Raksha, convention organizer
          a.k.a. Jovanka Kink                    Michael Payton, phone contact
          1177B Georges Place           OR       (614) 885-5313 (Sun.-Wed.)
          Columbus, OH 43204-1085                e-mail Micr...@aol.com
          e-mail jk...@magnus.acs.ohio-state.eduArt Contest:   David Kolodny-Nagy
               3701 Connecticut Ave. N.W. #500
               Washington, D.C. 20008-4556
               e-mail st93...@pip.cc.brandeis.edu                         BotCon (TM) by Jonathan Hartman******************************************************************************                                                      _____________________
                    Registration Sheet               |Official Use Only:   |
                                                     |Date Received_______ |
                        BotCon '95                   |Registration #______ |
               August 5 & 6, 1995; Dayton, OH        |Weekend__ Sat__ Sun__|
                                                     |---------------------|Name       _________________________________________________
Address    _________________________________________________
City       ______________________  State___  Zip____________
Country    _________________________________________________
Phone      _________________________________________________
e-mail (if applicable)   ___________________________________               __ Dealer
               __ Non-Dealer               __ Attending whole weekend (Saturday and Sunday)
               __ Attending Saturday only
               __ Attending Sunday onlyPrices:
Non-Dealers:
     $25 for whole weekend; $15 for single day (Saturday or Sunday)
          (preregistration includes the Convention Exclusive Transformer)
     Admission at the door for non-preregistrants is $5 per dayDealers:
     $80 per 8' table for whole weekend; $45 per table for single day (Saturday
     or Sunday)
          (Price includes admission for dealer and one helper, and the
          Convention Exclusive Transformer)Total amount enclosed: $___Hotel Accommodations must be made separately:
$64 per night, single or double room (up to 4 people per room), plus 12.5% tax.
Contact Stouffer Renaissance Dayton Hotel directly at:
     Fifth and Jefferson Streets
     Dayton, OH 45402
     phone: (513) 224-0800 (call collect)
Reservations must be made by July 14, 1995.  Be sure to say you're coming for
BotCon in order to get the reduced rate.Registration deadline is July 20, 1995.
Cancellations must also be received by this date to guarantee a refund.     Return this sheet with check or money order payable to:
               BotCon '95
               1177B Georges Place
               Columbus, OH 43204-1085                         BotCon (tm) by Jonathan Hartman
******************************************************************************

*note* I had so much fun doing this last week, I thought I'd do it again. Not sure how many of these I plan to do, but for the moment I'm having fun. I pulled this from this old usenet post.

Tiny Turbo Changers!

They're out and tons of fun! If you're wondering how to decipher who's who in the surprise baggie, there's a easy way to figure it out. On the back of the baggie in the left corner is a little window you can peek inside of as well as a tiny imprinted letter or number that's actually a code! Thanks to Robert Hardin in his Talk Transformers post, we've been able to decipher the code!

A - Grimlock gold
B - Grimlock black
C - Lockdown
D - Hound
E - Bee yellow
F - Crosshairs
G - Blackout
H - Soundwave
J - Starscream
K - Sideswipe
L - Bee black
!, I, or 1 (it's a little unclear on the bag) -  Optimus Prime

I've put the code on the side bar of the page for the time being to help out fans looking to collect all these great toys. If you have a problem reading the code, you can try the method my wife and I did before finding out about the code. Feel the baggie, the bots are in their alt mode inside. Look in the window, and after you've identified which alt mode you have (silver car, green truck for example) you can easily move the toy around in the bag to line it's face to the little window. Going by the pictures of the toys on the shelf packaging, it's pretty easy to figure out who you got in that little baggie!


If you're viewing the mobile version of Zone Base, tap the full page option towards the bottom of this page to view the scroll bar.

Living in the past

It's silly how my mind works. I often think of older Transformers conventions as better automatically. Which isn't fair to newer shows, but I guess that's just me doing a stereotypical "things used to be better" and feeling all smug. Though, those older BotCons had something that the later ones didn't have and it's extremely hard to describe if you were never there. A vibe, a mojo, a something. Not that's not saying newer shows don't get it, Charticon in 2013 had it. My friend Don compared Toylanta (the show where the Botlanta panel track I organize is) to the most similar any con he's attended to the first BotCon (he went to the first and yes that was flattering). Not to mention, I see pictures online of smaller TF shows around the world, and they seemingly have it. I don't know if it was just a moment in time, or me being younger, but there was a certain something about those older shows that I've never let go.

BotCon 01, the hair since has migrated from my head completely to my face

So, if I may relish a bit in old convention videos I found on Youtube. Wait, I can. I totally can. So I'm going to do that. If you follow the links on the video, you can go to the respective poster's page and check out their other work. That's my way of giving a catch all credit to the content. But really, go check them out.

BotCon 1995, the second BotCon. I would have loved to go, unfortunatley I was just a kid in high school and only knew of them from ads in Lee's toy magazine (or was it Tomart?). I used to love that old back section full of classifieds. Pre-internet, that was the main way for people to advertise their toys stores, or zines, or fan clubs, or conventions, or really anything that we easily do on Facebook now and take for granted. I'd often see them in toy, video game, and horror magazines. I'd regularly send in an envelope with a few dollars and enjoy the onslaught of random catalogs and various zines and pamphlets I'd get in return. You'd be surprised at the amount of detail that goes into a book  made at a local copy center.

At about 5:59, that's me in the fire bowling shirt walking up to a table. Oh yea, that's also the same shirt I'm wearing in the pic a little up at BotCon 2001. It was the first BotCon I was able to go to. As a broke community college student, they all seemed so far away and out of touch. Though in 2001, I was on my own and just barely making ends meet. 2001 was in Durham North Carolina, which is about 4-6 hours away from here. My Mom called me one morning to check on me, and while we were talking I brought it up as I was trying to figure out how to go.  She actually woke me up and the Toyfair issue opened to the page with the ad was open laying right next to me. When I asked her how far away Durham was, she offered to take me. We went Friday night, and came back Sunday with the main day of fun being Saturday. Of note, we hit every difficulty imaginable and the trip there took over 12 hours. I wish I was kidding.

OTFCC 2003, despite all the organizers drama that led to the 3H split, I went to OTFCC 2003 (there was a name change) and had a great time. It was a really good show and if you watch that video or as you can see in the preview there was a dance party. I was there a few minutes when some friends and I went to discover it after the line died down. I fondly can remember Brian Kilby making a nervous smile that pretty much said it all and Ant not appreciating the remix of Metallica and TFTM audio clips. This was just before Hooper X launched from our group and started punch dancing to the derision of others.

The following year was OTFCC 2004 and BotCon 2004. I wanted to go to both, but could only go to one. So I went to OTFCC 2004 and had a great time. It really was a good time and the last 'old style' BotCon. Outside of the at show memories, and not in this clip, was Ruben Studdard. There was a wedding going on in the convention center (as well as a few other cons) and they apparently hired him to sing at it. Later in the hotel, I got to witness a drunk Ruben Studdard in the hotel resturant, a well as his entourage get into a fight with the bridesmaids in the lobby.

I didn't get to go to BotCon 2004, I could only choose one, and OTFCC was closer and a lot of my friends went as well, so the draw for what makes a con fun was there. I did order a non attendee pack though, really wish I could have went. I couldn't find a video of the 2002 show which was also a great deal of fun. I'm not doing any travel this year for conventions, I'd love to check them all out though. Hascon is coming up and it looks neat. There's TFCon of course and I've enjoyed those a lot. Pete Sinclair has his new Robot Convention I'd like to check out, ignoring any drama (I try my best too, it has zero to do with why I'm going to a convention anyway), there's going to be some cool displays there and I'd love to go to Fort Wayne again. Botlanta was earlier this month which makes the year wait until next year feel like an eternity. I went to a good deal of the Fun Pub BotCons and always had a good time, though eventually got priced out as the costs started going over what I could justify. There's just something special about these older shows. That's what I want to do with Botlanta, and I hope I can find at other shows. That vibe. It's hard to describe, but once you feel it, you know it.

I could go on and on, but I figure now's a good time to stop inserting videos and help the wife make supper. I've got some TF's to open, I should get to that.

Botlanta 2017

So much thanks to my friend Duron Land for the image we used on the standee.

This past weekend held the first ever Botlanta event at Toylanta (formerly known as Joelanta). Toylanta is a wonderful local toy convention that I have the honor of helping out with. Initially it was a GI JOE centered convention that ran for quite some time before broadening it's focus to also cater to other interests. At that point it was renamed Joelanta and the Great Atlanta Toy Convention, and is where I came onboard. They had invited me to operate a Transformers panel that I have had fun doing for years with my friends Dusty Griffin and Brian Kilby (and on occasion Diecast and Crazy Steve).

The panels popularity had grown to the point where it grew into it's become a programming track at the show. Which we have dubbed Botlanta, as the con has a great naming convention going on. Going into this year, the head honchos of Joelanta decided to rebrand the convention into Toylanta to avoid any confusion. Joelanta, Botlanta, and assorted other panels with a massive (and I mean massive) dealer space (there's dealer halls every nook and cranny) make up Toylanta. Which is becoming even more popular (and bigger) as each year goes by.

So this year, I got to organize a Transformers show. While I've organized fan meet ups and ran panels at conventions before, it was a new experience for me. I reached out to various fans within the Transformers fan community to help Dusty, Brian, and I make a panel track. One thing that was important to me was to make this show distinct. I thought each panel should be informative as well as entertaining to those in attendance. I wanted the track to be an experience to remember and a destination to not miss.

Crazy Steve ran a panel with his awesome collection of vintage toy ads from newspapers and catalogs. Not only is it neat to see those old ads, but as he explained, there was some interesting history displayed in them. Various variations on figures would be in the pictures and artwork that would reference various stages of the Transformers toy line in planning. Dusty, who is a Toy Hacks designer, showed his creative process for making a Repro Labels set and even gave out free sets to attendees! Thanks to my pals at RFC, we were able to produce several panels covering several topics and even put on a live episode of RFC. I was also very pleased to meet two gentlemen (whom I became fast friends with) that had approached me to run a panel on toy displays and even set up an impressive display.

While planning the show, I contacted Derek Yanniger, whom was a key artist on the Transformer Generation 2 comic book. His work was an integral part of the overall look and feel of the comic, which just happens to be my favorite TF comic to date. Derek agreed to come Saturday, and was an absolute treat to have. We set him up with a table to sell his artwork and signatures. In the afternoon, he did a panel with my friend Gabe, on his time with the comic. Derek was such a gracious and outright cool person, it was an all around great experience.

I had spent so much energy into the show that by show time I was a nervous wreck. I just wanted it to be everything somebody coming would want it to be. Fortunately, I had the support of my crew and especially my wife (who made sure I always had a cold soda, or a back rub when I'd take a moment to sit down). Together we all put on a show that I'm very proud of. It was my first time, in a hobby where I don't have many first times anymore. Sunday as the convention was wrapping up and I spent a lot of time with various people at the show talking. Which is my favorite part of these conventions. I get to meet new friends, see old friends again, sometimes meet friends in person for the first time, and generally get to hang out with my friends having fun with something we all love.

I learned a lot this year, which will help going forward in the years to come. Learned what works, what didn't work as much, and what to work on for next year. Seemingly and thankfully everyone that came had a great time. As the show wrapped up and everyone said their goodbyes, I felt like a moment in time was passing. There was a mojo in the air of togetherness that I felt strongly. I can only hope others felt it too and it wasn't just the results my pulse racing all weekend. Shortly before leaving the con, I went into our panel room to say goodbye for the year. As silly as it seems, it felt like leaving home. As an adult, a year doesn't seem so far away anymore. But waiting for next year feels like an eternity.


Check out the Botlanta FB page for pictures and hey, while you're there, please like and share!