BotCon 1998

« BotCon 1998 »
"You're gambling the Earth, Prime?" "Shut up, Arcee. I've got a full house."
Date	June 19, 1998
City	Anaheim, CA
Venue	Anaheim Convention Center

BotCon 1998 was held on June 19-20, 1998 in Anaheim, California.

Venue

BotCon 1998 was held at Anaheim Convention Center, which looks remarkably like a UFO. Located in the Los Angeles suburb of Anaheim, California, the Convention Center is literally right across the street from Disneyland. The convention space included a panel room, video room, and a main hall with dealer tables, Hasbro display area, autograph tables, and art contest display area.

Merchandise

Convention-exclusive toys

• Antagony, a black and lavender redeco of Inferno
• Vice Grip, the Powerpinch mold in blue and gray

Fiction

• "Visitations" live-action script reading

Guests

Hasbro employees

• Andy Espenshade
• Jennifer Donahoe

Voice actors

In the end, there can be only one voice actor. ME!

• Susan Blu
• Garry Chalk
• David Kaye
• Scott McNeil
• Doug Parker

Comics and animation

• Beast Wars story editors:
  • Bob Forward
  • Larry DiTillio
• Generation 1 comic staff:
  • Simon Furman
  • Andrew Wildman
  • Rob Tokar
  • Richard Starkings
• Generation 1 cartoon staff:
  • Bryce Malek
  • David Wise

Events

Saturday

• 9:00am: Doors open. Art contest/auction setup. Beast Wars Season 1 begins airing in the video room.
• 11:00am: Beast Wars story editor panel with Bob & Larry
• 12:00pm: BotContest Session #1; Art Contest setup ends
• 1:00pm: Hasbro presentation
• 2:15pm: Voice-over artists panel with Susan, Garry, David, Scott, and Doug
• 6:00pm: Main Hall closes
• 6:30pm: The Transformers: The Movie showing in the video room ("serious version")
• 9:00pm: "Visitations" live-action voice actor script reading. The story features not only the current year's exclusives (Antagony and Vice Grip) but previous years' characters as well.

Sunday

• 9:00am: Doors open.
• 10:00am: TF:TM showing ("MST3000 version")
• 12:00pm: Raffle winners drawn
• 12:15pm: BotContest Session #2
• 1:00pm: Generation 1 comic panel, with Andrew, Simon, Richard and Rob
• 2:15pm: Generation 1 cartoon panel, featuring Bryce and David
• 3:30pm: Convention organizer Q&A
• 4:00pm: Main Hall closes

Trivia

• Frank Welker had been planned as a "special surprise guest" due to his proximity to Anaheim but was unable to attend because of a scheduling conflict. Apparently, he is is so busy that he can't commit to anything more than two weeks in advance.
• Prizes for Sunday's raffle included both of the BotCon 1998 exclusive toys, an "Internet Exclusive" blue Super Hybrid Model Galvatron, the original storyboards for Code of Hero, and a "I Survived BW-35...Dinobot Didn't" T-Shirt signed by the entire Mainframe cast.