July 13th, 2001. I got ready for BotCon, triple checking everything that I was going to take to the TF convention. July 14th, I woke up at 6:00 am EST. I got dressed, ate breakfast, got my $100 spending money and headed out the door, with my dad and two brotherss at 6:40 am. We left Raleigh, North Carolina and headed to Durham. It took about 40 to 45 minutes to get to the Civic Center, where BotCon was taking place. We went to the nearest parking garage (which was across the street), and stood in line at around 7:20 am, in front of the Civic Center. The line wasn’t long to my surprise, but we stood in it for about an hour because of the problems inside.

8:45 am, when we moved a little, but the line was moving as slow as a turtle. Then, the line started to move pretty fast then before. We got into the doors, and there was a short line to the register desk. Around 8:50am, we signed up, and we were in!

We checked out all the rooms. The Dealer Room 1, Dealer Room 2, Video Room, and the Conference Room. We headed towards the Dealer Room 1, we split into two groups. My little brother, (Joshua) and Dad. And my older brother, (Justin) and me (Dallas).

There was so many dealers to choose from. Each one had something interesting, so it was very hard not to check out every single table and booth. I went to a table, that had these 4 boxes in front of it, on the floor. Filled with G1 and G2 transformers, in medium and bad conditions; no guns sad to say. That didn’t stop me from digging in the boxes. The figures in box 1 were $15 dollars each, and there were $8 dollar, $5 dollar and $3 dollar boxes as well. At that moment, my dad came and brought us 3 program guides, which were very nice and well designed.

I found 5 Soundwaves! I was tempted to get them all, but half of them were in bad shape. And it would be a waste of money to buy 5 Soundwaves with no guns. So I picked up a Soundwave, the best one I could find. I also found a G2 Sideswipe in very good condition. A Target Master figure I believe, the name is unknown. And 4 medium condition Constructicons (the stickers are still on them), there were enough to make 6 Devastators in the boxes. But, there were 2 Constructicons missing, so I only brought 4. They wanted $15 for Soundwave, $8 for the Target Master, and the G2 Sideswipe each, and $5 for each Constructicon. I thought it was a good price, since these were vintage Transformers, so I agreed. The total cost was $46.00.

Joshua brought some Transformers at the same place as well. Anyways, Justin and I proceeded our shopping spree. I came across a table, with a long poster, that read “TransFandom”. It was no doubt, TransFandom.com staff. I didn’t talk to them or anything, for I was too excited, and was to busy figuring out what to buy.

Around 9:30am EST, I stopped by a table, that was selling TF shirts, hats, buttons, key chains, and etc. I brought an Autobot and Decepticon symbol buttons, for $.75 each. It was a great price. Total cost was $1.50. I gave the dealer $2.00, and he gave me $.50 change. I pinned them to my shirt, and walked off. I now had $52.50 left.

Across from that table, there was someone who was selling these awesome, very nice, Transformer Images, Posters, Shirts, Hats and etc. I brought a Transformers: The Movie Poster that was around 36” X 24”, for $5, what a great deal! So I brought it, with out second thought, I now had $47.50.

I spotted the Bigbadtoystore.com booth! I went over, and introduced myself and Justin to Joel (Owner and Creator of Bigbadtoystore.com). There were tons, and I mean tons of different kinds of Transformers from different Transformers series! But I was low on money, and was saving for one of the BotCon Exclusives so I didn’t buy anything there.

At about 9:45am we decided to head to the Conference Room that was going to host the “G1 Voice Actors Q&A” at 10:00am. We did, there were only a few people ahead of us. The door opened, and we entered, and ran to the front row, we got perfect seats!

Then around the estimate time of 10:15am, the 3 voice actors, Michael Bell (Prowl, Sideswipe, Bombshell, Swoop, Scrapper, Duke), Gregg Berger (Grimlock, Skyfire, Long Haul), and John Stephenson (Alpha Trion, Kup, Thundercracker, Huffer, Windcharger, Devcon) entered the room. My dad handed me the video camera, and I filmed away, recording almost the whole event. It was some very interesting questions, answers, and discussions.

It was very amusing, and exciting, to see Gregg do his famous “Grimlock” voice from time to time. And to hear Michael do all these TF and non-TF voices. And it was very cool to see John to do his “Kup” and “Alpha Trion” voices. You got to hand it to these guys, they STILL sound like from the “Generation 1” cartoon series, it was very awesome to see them in PERSON while voicing those characters.

The event ended at 11:30 am. We went to Dealer Room 2. It was rather compared to the previous dealer room we were in, but it was just as interesting. We stopped by a table, and Justin brought a DBZ (Dragon Ball Z) shirt, it had Vegeta, Goku, and Trunks on it, it was very nice.

We soon left and ran in line for the “G1 Voice Actors” autograph session that was to start at 12:30pm. The doors opened, and we got in. The line was kind’a long, but it made you think twice, because the line was setup in a “Zig-Zag” formation. By the looks of it, we all thought we would get our autographs in an hour max, boy we were wrong! We found ourselves sitting down from time to time, including other people around us, for 3 hours!!!

But, it wasn’t as bad as it sounded. We got to talk to other Transformer fans of all ages. It was very enjoyable to talk to other people, who feel the same way about the long wait, and about Transformers. To my surprise, 3 quarters of the fans, were older teens, and adults! This proves that Transformers isn’t just a children’s television show, it’s a series that changed peoples lives, of all age groups.

There were people who had Transformer tattoos on them. For example, we saw a man, who had a “Unicron” tattoo on one shoulder, and an “Optimus Prime” tattoo on the other. Some of them had the Autobot and Decepticon symbol(s) on their shoulder(s). It was just amazing to see how some people take the TF series extremely serious. I loved it, it was awesome to see so many people who loved Transformers.

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