#him correctly for a cosplay caption

[skyview-temple-spring]

A WHILE AGO I ASKED ABOUT A DIRECT TRANSLATION OF GHIRAHIM'S DIALOGUE BECAUSE I ONLY FOUND BROKEN LINKS BUT GUESS WHAT.

NOT A BROKEN LINK. DIRECT JAPANESE TO ENGLISH

[allspark]

SDCC 2019 rolls on, bringing us the first-ever convention exclusive BotBots! As previously reported, the SDCC 2019 exclusive BotBots “Con Crew” set was released at general retail in the Philippines, and we’ve got a quick but comprehensive look at the three-tribe set of new arrivals.

The set is a mix of convention-themed characters — better yet, convention ATTENDEE-themed characters, with personalities to match — composed of some redecos and some debuting new molds. It’s worth noting that the packaging doesn’t have an SDCC logo or “convention exclusive” notation anywhere, although that doesn’t make it any less special.

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It’s effectively one of the first BotBots box sets, alongside the series 3 Arcade Renegades’ 16-figure packaging, and the packaging has a nice look, from the social media-themed cover with selfies of the Con Crew, to the inner tray displaying the characters in a mix of robot and altmodes, to the bright and energetic original art depicting the characters at a ‘con (with a bit of a GI Joe shout-out in the background). Owing to its one-shot release format, there are no blind-packaged figures in this set.

  The inner tray is also accompanied by a backdrop with some raised pieces, which is sadly a bit too cramped to serve as a diorama in its current form (but there’s nothing really stopping you from opening it up and adding to it…). Interestingly, the instructions don’t have any bios for the characters — those are found on the by the interior cover, which also has “convention panel schedule” style profiles showing us more of their personalities.

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The 10-figure set breaks down into three tribes with their own sigils: the Line League, the Fantastic Fuelers, and the Meet ‘N’ Greets.

The Line League is a three-Bot team comprised of items you might encounter in a convention queue: a tent, a backpack, and a portable game console that helps you while the time away. These are also known as Vigitente (a new series 3 tent mold), Con-packtor (a series 2 Overpack redeco), and Captain Cartridge (a series 3 D-Pad Chad redeco).

  Vigitente is a nice preview of the upcoming Playroom Posse tent; she sports a somewhat Megs-y helmet and a mischievous, daring expression. Con-pack-tor carries the Overpack mold well with an eye-catching yellow and red strap detailing (the green crest is a nice accent too). Captain Cartridge is one of the three figures in the set to come with cosplay gear: he’s got a fabric cape that’s removable if you pop his head block off. You don’t really need to take the cape off to transform him, but it’ll get stuck under the ‘screen’ and will look odd. 

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The Fantastic Fuelers is the only four-Bot group, perhaps a nod to another fantastic foursome, comprised of convention snacks (fish taco, chips) and beverages (energy drink, coffee). This is where you’ll meet Sumthin’ Fishy (a redeco of series 2 Hawt Mess), Hal A. Peno (redeco of series 3 Treat Elite), Carb O. Nate (redeco of series 1 Nrjeez), and Coffeemus Prime (a redeco of series 3 Latte Spice Whirl).

  Sumthin’ Fishy brings the obvious fish-themed redeco for Hawt Mess’ taco altmode, with some nice teal and pink accents in robot mode. Hal A. Peno revisits the mold with a bright red and an unexpected set of blonde (cosplay?) bangs in robot mode. Carb O. Nate brings some life to his inherited mold with a great deco that really beats the somewhat plain look of Nrjeez. Finally, Coffeemus Prime has an unmasked face under his cardboard cosplay mask (which I apparently didn’t get back on correctly); the mask also needs to be removed for transformation. The rest of him is pure Optimus fanboy cosplay as well, from chest windows to silver grille. 

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Finally, the Meet ‘N’ Greets are items that feature at convention panels — a marker, a book, and a camera. These are Scribzilla (new marker mold), Inky Inkerson (book, a Professor Wellread redeco), and Botarazzi (camera, an S.A. Cheez redeco).

  Scribzilla has the pink fabric kaiju-cosplay hat, a nice piece that is held on by the ball joints for his wings/marker body (marker mode is only possible without it — take special care in pulling the wings off by the ball-joint). Inky puts a sutiably bored and disaffected face on the Professor Wellread mold, while Botarazzi adds a silver deco to the growing BotBots camera club.

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This convention exclusive set has unique, exclsuive-feel packaging, soft-goods bonus pieces, a great mold selection from across the first three series of the line, and fun chartacter choices. On the whole, the Con Crew is a very cool collection that cleverly captures con-going ‘capades and can cause cavorting among even casual or callous collectors.

Let us know what you think of the set, on the Allspark Facebook page, on the Allspark Forums, or on our Discord server!

Meet the BotBots Con Crew in this Allspark.com gallery! SDCC 2019 rolls on, bringing us the first-ever convention exclusive BotBots! As previously reported, the SDCC 2019 exclusive BotBots "Con Crew" set was released at general retail in the Philippines, and we've got a quick but comprehensive look at the three-tribe set of new arrivals.

[spekture]

While searching for more comic and anime conventions to attend, I came across Alamo City Comic Con located in… you guessed it, San Antonio (for those of you who guessed “Alamo City” no marks!), but if you’re from Texas, you should of guessed correctly. Unfortunately it was over a holiday weekend and I already had other plans for the majority of it. For many, that extra day on a holiday weekend would have made the travel just a little easier. However, since I had plans for Saturday and Monday already, I decided to make the three hour journey (each way!) and squeeze in attendance at the con on Sunday. I know, I’m crazy like that.

My daughter found out I was going and decided to tag along for the adventure. We woke up early Sunday morning to make the drive and once we arrived to town, we made a quick pit stop to fuel up with food before attempting to tackle the con. After eating, we found parking at a nearby garage by the River Walk and made our way back to the Henry B. Convention Center where the con was being held. I was not in costume this time, but my daughter wore her kangaroo onesie with a pair of my old boxing gloves for her fighting kangaroo costume.

Once we made our way inside, we headed over to the badge pick-up area. We walked up to get our badges, but to our disappointment there were no more badges and they were issuing wristbands instead. It was only an hour after opening but they were already out of badges I guess, so unfortunately we won’t be able to add ACCC badges from this year’s con, into our collection. After checking panel times I was encountered another disappointment, two of the panels I wanted to see that day were cancelled! The only upside of that was that I was able to spend more time looking around the con and not worrying about the time.

We proceeded to make our way to the exhibit hall to see the special guest, vendors, and of course, all the cosplayers that were attending. To start off, we walked through the guest area to see the actors and other guests that were present, and they had a great line-up here… many of which, my daughter had never seen. She did know a few, including Rob Schneider from ‘Grown Ups’, which is “a-maze-ing” (a little joke from one of her favorite parts, if you have seen the movie you know what I mean!). We continued around the guest area which led me to Val Kilmer, one of the speakers on a panel I wanted to watch. This was one actor I had really wanted to see, but his area was a little more secluded than some of the other guests. Walls with black curtains were put up in his area with a line of fans waiting their turn to see him. A series long-running joke from ‘Psych’ is about none other than Val Kilmer, that one being “I´d also be lying if I said Val Kilmer still looks like Val Kilmer.” Due to the small area, and large line-up, it looked like I wasn’t going to be seeing him this time… I did check on prices, but photos were crossed off the price list along with some other items. There were also signs requesting that “NO cameras or cell phones” be brought into the area. Since I wasn’t going to leave my gear with someone else (along with our phones!) that pretty much ended any plans I had about being able to see Val Kilmer that day. After realizing this, I dropped to the floor and let out a loud dramatic  “NNnnnooooOOoooo!” that could be heard for miles…. or at least that’s how I’m telling the story now!

We continued walking around through that area with more signs saying “No Pictures” so I had to keep my camera low to my waist, gunslinger style, (hey, it’s Texas!). Shortly after that, we began walking through the vendor and artist sections to see what new goodies we wanted. My daughter ended up finding a few things she really liked so we made a few purchases. With it being a Sunday, the attendance seemed kind of light in my opinion, but this was the first time I have attended this con and my previous experiences were all in much larger venues so my perception could be skewed. I did hear the previous year had a better in attendance, but with the date being different from their usual September or October dates, that might of played into part of it, as well as the holiday weekend giving some of the usual attendees other weekend adventure plans.

I continued walking around the venue snapping photos of various cosplayers as we continued down each row. After a few hours, we made our way to the guest cosplayers area to see who was there, a few of them I already knew. I hung around for a while trying to get photos, but it did take some patience as I wasn’t the only one who wanted photos or a chance to chat with them. In this hall, there was also the live drawing panel set up. We sat and watch the a few parts of the session including ‘(Light Saber Noise) – Star Wars with Dave Dorman!’ And ‘Tell me a story! – Teen Titans and Justice League Unlimited with Shannon Denton!’. After watching the Teen Titans panel and watching some of the sketching going on there, as well as watching some of the artists sketching at their own tables, I had the itch to start drawing again too. It’s been a few years, but maybe I will pick it back up.

a

We made a few more rounds of the hall just to make sure we’d seen everything, and then we then made our way upstairs to the gaming room and to see what panels were going on up there. We were not there very long before we decided to head out and do some sightseeing, since this was my daughter’s first time in San Antonio. I heard Saturday’s attendance was much better than what I experienced on Sunday, but overall it was a good con. Hopefully next year’s con is back to it’s regular schedule and I can return to see more!

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Military Demonstration team for Operation Homefront

Peter Brock arriving

Automotive legend Peter Brock

TIRES!

BRAKES!

MORE TIRES!

Alex Ventura makes a one day trip to cover the Alamo City Comic Con. #spekture #cosplay #comiccon #sanantonio #texas While searching for more comic and anime conventions to attend, I came across Alamo City Comic Con…