BotCon 2000, the seventh annual US national Transformers fan convention, conducted in organizer 3H Enterprises' backyard of Fort Wayne, Indiana at the Grand Wayne Center from 28-31 July 2000, was a great success. My own reports, reviews and synopses on the individual components follow. Text is copyright Phillip Thorne and The Non-Sequitur Express, ©2000, all rights reserved. Page last updated 26-dec-2000.
Saturday, 11:00-12:00
Autographs 12:30-14:00
[Disclaimer: the following synopsis is to the best of my recall and scribbled notes. Any misrepresentations or misquotes are entirely my fault. No disrespect or infringement is implied to John Moschitta, or any party or person cited. Some facts have been checked against the Web.]
How he got into voice acting... As a boy on Long Island (NY, USA) he wanted to get into the Guinness Records, but the Coney Island amusement park wouldn't allow a 12-year-old to ride a roller coaster for a straight fortnight. Instead, he locked himself in his room and started practicing the Hamlet "to be or not to be" soliloquy, which was the standard test at the time. The skill would also serve well in household convesations dominated by five sisters. He's indisputably the champion speedtalker in North America, but there's a schism between the US and UK editions of _Guinness_. In a televised competition, the UK champ (a Steve Woodmore) won by 0.01 second -- but later analysis indicated he'd dropped three sentences. Woodmore has since contrived to avoid a rematch, Moschitta says. [Woodmore has a different story, adds Craig Crumpton on r.t.t.m. My examination of three editions of _Guinness_ supports Mr.Woodmore's claim of primacy.]
It's sometimes annoying, but JM attacts crowds of followers at airports, restaurants and amusement parks -- muttering to themselves "is that the fast-talking guy? no, it can't be" -- until he turns and erupts "yes, it is!" Most people recall him as "the Micro Machines Man" but a surprising number recognize him as "Blurr;" he's been dumbfounded by the positive fan reaction [most of BotCon's voice actor guests have reacted the same way]. There's been only one stalker, a woman who insisted on a speedspeaking challenge. (Yes, ladies, he's not married.)
Yes, he uses his fastspeak all the time to mess with people, for instance uncooperative telco billing departments. One fan speaks up: "I work in the the billing department of a telephone company. Could you call *my* supervisor?"
On his résumé... He's appeared in over 1000 TV episodes (including 4 regular series) and 12 films. Sitcoms are "a day at a beach" because it's a 9-5 workday, except for the fifth day when they film before a studio audience. One-hour, one-camera dramas are torture, though, because it's 13-14 hours of mostly waiting. He starred in only two eps of "Saved by the Bell" but has received 160 residuals checks to date. He enjoys speaking at live events, such as corporate conventions. He's written (including a comedy that got only five eps), worked on Warner Bros. game shows, PBS, and created the board game "Motormouth." (It sank in that year's general US board game depression, but sold very well as "Tongue Tangle" in Europe.) He's also the executive VP of the Starlight Children's Foundation (AZ/NV chapter). His latest role is as a talking dog for an upcoming animated series on UPN; but he recorded the voice twelve different ways and doesn't know which will be used.
JM almost got the part of "Mumbles" (a delicious irony) in "Dick Tracy" (1990), but one night Warren Beatty had dinner with Dustin Hoffman, who asked for a part. Instead, JM became a newscaster -- and after filming, the creators realized he and Tracy were the only characters wearing yellow. Snip, snip... and so his part was reduced to closeups of his moving lips.
He's had ocassion to try to speedtalk in German and Japanese, but it really requires close familiarity with the structure of the language. He once performed some ADR voiceover for a movie (something involving a rat) being dubbed into German, and had sufficient understanding to know the translation was *way* off.
On flubs... If JM should happen to blurt the wrong word, he won't realize till several sentences later -- and *then* he'll skid to a stop, prompting inquiries from the audience. One time he was filming a TV spot for Federal Express; it was reputed to be so hilarious that the suits showed up and insisted on input. He survived 24 takes, every time spot on; exasperated, the director asked "What are you, a machine? Don't you ever make a mistake?" "You want a mistake?" JM obliged by sneaking in some double-entendres the director had always wanted -- and *that* was the take printed. When JM related this story on "The Today Show," the networks threatened to yank the ad.
On "The Transformers"... He joined the cast via Wally Burr and prior cartoon work. As it happens, season 3 was recorded before TF:TM (1996), so he was very surprised that the voice cast was completely different. John felt privileged to work with Orson Welles (Unicron) -- yes, he died during production, and Leonard Nimoy (Galvatron) did some of his pickups (re-recording certain lines to fix problems). As to recording bizarre SFspeak -- Welles (as a matter of course) needed a motivation for everything, Nimoy of course had his Trek experience, and Judd Nelson (Hot Rod) was just easygoing. Scheduling prevented him from meeting former "Monty Python" actor Eric Idle (Wreck-Gar). Later, he and Robert Stack (Ultra Magnus) were sent on a promotional tour, and instructed to say it was a wonderful, non-violent family film. This seemed a little suspicious given their dialogue... so when they finally saw the film on opening night, they were mortified.
The "Transformers" scripts would often include neologisms, and even the writers wouldn't know how to pronounce the words -- very bothersome to the actors. Because he was always busy and travelling, he didn't often see the eps, and since lines might be mix-n-matched from one story to another, he couldn't easily recall what went where. Each episode took 60-90 minutes; a part was recorded with pauses between lines, the better to splice. He loved everything about the show -- it was a hysterical group of actors, full of hijinks [as reported elsewhere] -- but the industry has changed in the 25 years he's worked; it's run by business-school managers now. He still sometimes encounters a fun ensemble.
How to get into voice acting... see AFTRA, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Get an agent, and prepare a demo tape of 60-90 seconds with as many voice stylings as you can. Union rules allow an actor to voice one main and up to four extra characters before extra payments kick in.
Saturday, 14:00-15:00
Autographs Sunday, 10:00-12:00
The "Beast Wars"/"Beast Machines" voice panel featured three actors: Ian James Corlett (Cheetor, originally scheduled for BC99), Venus Terzo (Blackarachnia, also a guest at BC97), and Alec Willows (Tarantulas). [Disclaimer: the following synopsis is to the best of my recall and incomplete scribbled notes. Statements have been rearranged into topical clusters. Any misrepresentations or misquotes are entirely my fault. No disrespect or infringement is implied to any featured guest, or to any party or person indirectly cited.]
In his younger days, Ian was a fan of Disney animation and collected the merchandise. Inspired by Stan Freeberg and company, and by Daws Butler, he was soon making and voicing animated films for local festivals, so he was already in the loop when the industry came to town seven years later. He's no longer doing voiceover for imported anime; it's not as lucrative as original work (such as BM) and, because the ADR is done solo, it's just not as much fun. Some shows credit him with a middle name, some don't. He won a Gemini Award for his writing on the young kid's CG show "Rolly Poly Ollie."
In regards to the BW/M cast, "As corny as it sounds, it's kinda like a family. A family you can leave." He likes the visual feel of BM, but admits that the scripts had "more bickering and less story [than BW]. Nothing that couldn't be fixed, though." He liked the way Cheetor was given more responsibility: "Because I got to do more." And then, with a resentful decrescendo, "C'mon, Bigbot! Ultra gear! I'll be your sidekick. Forever." Asked about future plans: "I want my own spin-off." AW adds: "It'll be called 'Suitcase Wars'." He is, however, starting to take umbrage at the number of BW fans who say, surprised, "I thought you'd be younger."
Cautiously hesitant, he accedes to a fan request to say: "I like pie!"
He repeats a story relating an incident with fellow actor Gary Chalk (Optimus Primal) while recording an episode of "Sonic the Hedgehog." It seems GC's script called for a burp. "If he were smart," IC explains, "he'd get me to do it," -- apparently IC is famous for his voice-belches. Instead, he starts guzzling Coke, building up a head of CO2. Finally, "he belches -- but it's full of foam and Coke. It spills all over his script, Phil Hayes and I leap five feet away. The poor girl behind the glass, the production assistant, laughed so hard..." [Gary's take is somewhat different, Doug Dlin points out.]
Venus always wanted to be in the Saturday morning cartoons she watched. She's soon to appear as the voice of telekinetic "X-Men" member Jean Gray, in the first 11 of the 13 season-1 eps of the new "X-Men: Evolution" series to appear on KidsWB. As research, she saw the Fox movie. She rather likes the look of BM Blackarachnia. Asked for her thoughts regarding the infamous removable "cyber bra" of the TM2 Blackarachnia toy (by an attendee who claimed he was simply forestalling the inevitable fanboy questions), she nonchalantly replied: "a girl's gotta change her wardrobe sometimes."
With an untidy shock of greying hair and thick-rimmed spectacles, Alec Willows strangely meets the stereotype of the cackling mad scientist. Inspired by "Loony Toon's" Yosemite Sam, a younger Alec would perform duos with himself. He claims to use Gary Chalk (Optimus Primal) as a role model for his characters. Compared to fellow spider Blackarachnia? "I think Blackarachnia is a little further along in the brains department," he answers, "because she's still alive." A few days before BC00, AW finally acquired a toy version of his character, a gift from his daughter -- who advised him to leave it in the package. He performed the voices of both Tarantulas and Rhinox in the American port of the "Beast Wars Metals" game.
AW was quite taken aback at the untimely death of Tarantulas, and his conversion to a suitcase. [That bit I don't quite understand.] Given BW's recording schedule, it seems Dinobot died on the same day as Tarantulas, and "Scott [MacNeill] was like twenty thousand times more upset." Apparently he consumed all the grieving in the room, leaving not much time for AW's character. "I think I'll do that now," AW muses, and begins wailing. "Waaa-ahhh!"
When auditioning for a part, a actor evolves a voice in conjunction with the director, who inevitably chooses the one you can't maintain for more than a few seconds. In BW, sometimes the director would direct sessions (in Vancouver Canada) remotely from Los Angeles, over a voice-only link. This was merely an excuse for extra studio hijinks, including spitballs. One (apparently confused) fan asks them about a schedule discrepancy in the preregistration packet, and then about plans for new toys. Both questions elicited noises of puzzlement from guests and audience alike.
The three actors were asked to each order lunch at McDonald's, in-character. AW began, cackling. "I'd like the filet-o-fish. And fries. *Lots* of fries, mwa-haha-ha-ha!" VT followed with a sultry, "and I'd like the 'Two can Dine for Six-ninety-nine'." And IC: "I'd like fifteen Happy Meals for Big-Butt." [Thanks to Doug Dlin for adding that segment, which I missed.]
Several innuendo-laden comments revolved around Scott MacNeill, the gravitational anomaly of BW voice actors, who somehow acquired the roles of Rattrap, Dinobot, Waspinator *and* Silverbolt. "Everyone wanted to be Rattrap," explained IC. Insisted AW, "but I *really* wanted to be!" "Maybe not," sneered IC mock-nastily in reply, voice dripping with implications. "You didn't get it."
Saturday, 15:00-16:00
The Hasbro Toy Group panel featured Joe Madeco (JM), Project Management Engineer, and Jamie Overbie (JO), Global Marketing Manager for Transformers. The watchphrases were "in the toy business you take risks," "it's for marketing purposes," "we don't know," and "we can't say." This panel was relocated from its original 16:00 timeslot because their return flight time changed. [Disclaimer: the following synopsis is to the best of my recall and incomplete scribbled notes. Statements have been rearranged into topical clusters. Any misrepresentations or misquotes are entirely my fault. No disrespect or infringement is implied to any featured guest, or to any party, person or corporate entity cited.]
The Business... JM confirms the rumor that Jen Donahue is joining the TF team; she is in fact the retail marketing manager for several lines, including TF.
The website... The Hasbro websites (beastwars.com, beastmachines.com,) will soon be updated; in particular, the "What's New" section should be updated every two weeks. Asked about the longtime-unchanged selection on hasbrocollectors.com (which imports Japanese characters not otherwise marketed in the US), JO suggests we buy more and thereby help them work through their inventory. As for the Japanese Ravage toy, there are no plans to import unless sufficient buyer interest is apparent.
Engineering... New ideas might originate from anywhere in Hasbro, from the chairman to the mailroom. The process is one of iteration and parallel phases that takes 4-6 months: artistic design, marketing, engineering, evaluating successive prototypes by Takara, deco (painting) and tooling (carving the plastic injection molds), debugging, packaging, and finally marketing. Hasbro keeps a reference library of past toys, and during their meetings with Takara (4-6, each 3 days) they'll propose motifs they'd like to see again; JM gives full credit to Takara's engineers for the "magical" details of transformation. Sculpting, plastic colors and paint are back-and-forth between US and Japanese sensibilities. Designers are always checking if a single "deco operation" can apply paint to multiple locations on a toy. (Takara is the Japanese toy company that produced many of the robot toys repackaged by Hasbro in 1984 as "The Transformers.")
Packaging... Why is Cheetor on every box? "Because he's so awesome!" jokes JO. More importantly, the consistent box coloration and art provides a unified look for the Transformers section, intended to (1) complement the toy within and (2) make it stand out in the (visually busy) action figure aisle. The possibility exists of a return to individualized art; they perform periodic color surveys of the (volatile, fluxing) aisle. (The example of the "Digimon" toys with a similar packaging color is raised.)
Twist ties... JO admits that the twist ties are his personal pet peeve, but JM explains that they're necessary to prevent movement and damage during Pacific shipping. The alternative is plastic "backup blisters." Japanese stores are much smaller and lack the "J-hooks" found in the US; they stack the boxes in the aisles, so for added rigidity they prefer the backing bubble approach. For the US, the priority is clear visibility of the product, hence the avoidance of more than a single sheet of intervening plastic.
Tech specs... One fan congratulates them on the recent improvement in the text of tech specs (the brief biographical sketch on the back of the package). JO explains that one package copywriter takes the lead on a character, then passes it around the team. They love to insert G1 refs whenever it makes sense. Prior tech specs featured an artistic rendering of the character (the same one that appeared on the box front), but new ones use a photo; as JM explains, the new priority is to showcase the toy itself in the most accurate way possible.
Distribution... JM asks how long we'd like to see a toy on the shelves: 6 months? 12? 18? The recent re-emergence of older BW toys wasn't flushing leftover stock; there's always a full plan, JM says, and they always gauge whether the re-release fits current marketing plans; it was definitely demand-driven. Even a redeco (such as the FoxKids Transmetal repaints) takes a year. JO cites the quandary that, towards the end of the year, some toys are underproduced; should Hasbro make more? TM2 Blackarachnia's low distribution was due to a decision, after the first few thousand units were produced, to switch to a less metallic plastic mix. One fan complains that the new Beastriders (non-character vehicles with rudimentary transformations) are just slightly too short for the intended characters to ride. Another wonders why the BM-Silverbolt is only a Basic-scale toy; JO says it's to test market appeal; if it does well a larger version may be release. Will there be a Savage-Noble (a character from BM-202 and -203) toy? After a whispered conference, they hint only that "they'll make great Christmas presents."
Experiments... JM remembers the "Manga Transformers" concept from about a year ago, but he can't say offhand if they fit any current line ideas; only that Hasbro is constantly experimenting and evolving new ideas. For that same reason, occasionally toys will be released that prove wildly unpopular; it's the nature of the business to take risks. One highly opinionated fan asks "where did you come up with this vomitous Animorphs reject idea?" in regards to Beast Mutants, Transformers with two animal but no robot mode. "Owch," replies JO; but it's another experiment. The new Dinobots line exists because Hasbro's chairman loves dinosaurs, and because they're very hot right now, especially among young boys; the line is selling as well as the core BM characters. JO admits the "Transformers" brand name was weakened when Animorphs (characters based on the books by Scholastic and Nickelodeaon show) were brought under it, and JM concedes "we probably stretched beyond our core fanbase, and probably got burned."
G1 yet again... There's the inevitable request that, should G1 (Generation One, 1984-1992) characters (not toys) reappear, for a Headmaster Arcee. A second fan clarifies that should G1 be revived, it not be with the old molds (that are worn out anyway -- see elsewhere in this review), but new ones with BW-level posability. G1 toys are unlikely to be re-released because the molds (toolings, dies) were run hard during their heyday, and many are now worn-out; they'd have to be evaulated one-by-one, if their output still meets safety standards.
Japan... Asked if we might see store-exclusive (Wal-mart, Kmart) Japanese toys by the end of the year; they'd like to, but no. JM has actually played with the recent Takara Unicron prototype, but since the model is in Tokyo, and has no comment as to production plans. In BW "Agenda, Part 3" the humanoid character Ravage transforms into a cassette (like one mode of his G1 form), but a Japanese toy has him transforming to a panther (like the other). JM explains, "the Japanese market has its own chapter [of the saga]," and JO adds "it keeps everyone on their toes." Due to more stringent US safety standards, many Japanese toys can't be sold in stores, or even on hasbrocollectors.com; others need accessories changed (large pointy swords), and the molds for yet others must be tweaked (presumably to thicken likely-to-break plastic elements).
Future toys... "We heard you, we know you like vehicles," but they can't reveal whether BM or any future line will feature more of them. Savage-Noble might appear for Christmas. No one asks about the long-delayed release of BM-Rattrap. They're evasive when asked why such a small number of species is reused for so many US toys (skipping ones used in Japan, such as giraffe, horse, penguin).
It won't happen... We can't custom-order accessories because Hasbro isn't set up for that sort of sale (JO suggests trading with other fans); even if it were, they couldn't provide items that US safety regulations preclude from the boxed toys. (The example is Fortress Maximus, whose original Japanese version featured a sword -- a very large one, to scale with the two-foot figure.) Many of the G1 toys (in mint condition) wouldn't pass today's updated regs. Even if they did, the molds (toolings, dies) were run hard during their heyday, and many are now worn-out; they'd have to be evaluated one-by-one, to see if their output still meets safety standards or is usable at all.
The Shows... Many fans have complained that the onscreen versions of the "Beast Machines" characters don't resemble the toys, in shape or color (Optimus and Tankorr most particularly); this is not only annoying but poor marketing. JO explains that the development timelines for Mainframe and Hasbro didn't mesh well; hence the severe disparity; JM assures us we'll see better marketing coordiantion in the future. The subtitle for "Beast Machines" season 2, "Battle for the Spark," has product implications. As to a rumor that Takara is taking the new "Car Robots" series [of which several eps were seen in the video rooms, in the original Japanese] to the Cartoon Network, JM can only say it would be a very orchestrated shared effort with Hasbro.
Licensees... Hasbro's outlicensing group is constantly approached by prospective licensees; the fee depends. They cite one exciting day when a box of Transformers T-shirts arrived at the office. They don't know if Marvel still owns the comics license. They don't know if Hasbro's recent acquisition of Wizards of the Coast (makers of "Magic: the Gathering" among other card and pen-and-paper games) portends a TF RPG. A Dean Johnson claims he's trying to get a new TF series produced, has spoken to Jim Kipling's office, and wonders if his ideas have been stolen, or if Hasbro merely intends a different direction; JM hasn't heard, but JO says Jim's office is down the hall from his; there's a *process* and he doesn't think they'd depart from it. The McDonalds toy promotion begins 4 August, and features nine BM toys.
Sunday, 12:00-13:30
Autographs 13:30-15:00
This panel consisted of interlaced prerecorded music, live performance, and autobiographical comments, plus responses to audience questions. [Disclaimer: the following synopsis is to the best of my recall and incomplete scribbled notes. Statements have been rearranged into topical clusters. Any misrepresentations or misquotes are entirely my fault. No disrespect or infringement is implied to Vince DiCola, or to any party or person indirectly cited.]
Vince DiCola claims his career progressed backwards: he very quickly had several prominent commissions, but then fell into near-obscurity. Fan interest, he says, keeps him in the music business. He relates the detailed story of how he almost became the keyboardist for Don Henley and The Eagles; after two auditions, he was the number two choice, and lost only to a musician who plays five instruments. He's a fan of movie composers John Williams, Goldsmith, whoever did "The Matrix," James Horner, Alan Silvestri, James Newton Howard, and Hans Zimmer. "Jesus Christ Superstar" was the first rock opera he saw, and he'd love to score that sort of fusion. He released several albums under the "Artful Balance" label which folded in the late '80's; it was resurrected earlier this year [2000]. He's planning on launching vincedicola.com in a few months; he hasn't decided on an MP3 policy.
He's often worked with a vocalist called Gary Falcone. Cues a recording of "No Mercy," co-authored by Scott Shelly, who helped write "Dare." Then, a non-Transformers song called "No Risk, No Glory" featuring Stan Bush as the demo singer.
After moving from Lancaster (Pennsylvania) to Los Angeles in 1981, he played in the band of Frank Stallone, Sylvester's brother; it was through him he was comissioned to score "Rocky IV," of which he plays "Dragon's Entrance" and "Knockout;" the latter is a little unusual for him as it involves piano and orchestra. Vince then performs a piece called "Rise of the Champion" which he plans to submit in a bid to land "Rocky VI."
Speaking visually, he was thrilled to score "Rocky IV," but considers TF:TM superior in fitting music to the mood. He hesitated to take the latter job because he was only given storyboards to work from. His favorite tracks from the film are "Unicron's Theme," "Death of Optimus Prime," and one of the battle sequences (he didn't recall which). He attended the Saturday night showing of the film. He has indeed spoken with 3H about re-issuing the movie score (first available on the BC97 two-CD set, "Til All Are One").
One musical set comprised prototypes and unused tracks from the movie: An extended version of "Gone Fishin'" written according to the boards that were latter cut. A version of "Autobot-Decepticon Battle" with a "click track" used to match its progress to the film. An untitled and unused piece with a strong beat and oriental elements. After that, several experiments based on TF:TM tracks: a highly dissonant "Unicron's Theme" and a version of "Autobot-Decepticon Battle" with bits of the "Star Wars" theme and a techno flavor. Lastly, he plays a new version of "City Under Siege" on the piano (or rather, the synthesizer emulating same).
The TF:TM score was created on a Roland MC500 synthesizer and recorded with a Faustex 16-track analog deck. He makes all his own samples (a Casey Young does the programming), and seems very faintly contemptuous of the majority of musicians who rely on the manufacturer's presets. He's never written his compositions out as sheet music; they're too complex. [As a one-time highschool marching band clarinetist who had the greatest difficulty memorizing a ten-minute halftime show, that *really* impresses me.]
One attendee stands up, and credits his music with altering her parents' attitude towards Transformers; from hostile to merely indifferent. A second asks if she can use his music on her college demo reel; he graciously assents, to her and in general, with the caveat that he should get royalties on intended-for-profit pieces.