Steve-o Stonebraker's OTFCC 2004 Notes
Version 2

This is a record of all the notes I took at OTFCC 2004.  The items are in
roughly chronological order.


G1 Comics Panel
o Bob Budianski, Simon Furman, and Andrew Wildman were present.  Statements
  by each person are prefaced with their first initial.
o B: Denny O'Neil didn't want to keep developing characters because some
  of his initial ideas had been rejected.  Bob revised the majority of the
  initial 28 over Thanksgiving weekend.
o B: Bob was not involved in developing the movie characters.
o S: Regarding Simon's taking over the whole coming... Bob visited Marvel UK
  and they went out to lunch.  Bob explained that he was feeling burned
  out, and offered Si the book.
o B: Don Daley, the editor, wasn't very involved in the book, even including
  the writer change.
o S: Transformers was selling 70,000 copies per month when it was cancelled
  for being too low of a seller.
o S: Simon suggested Geoff Senior as the new artist when Delbo went off
  to other projects (like... Brute Force?), but Geoff was busy at the time.
  Next he suggested Andrew Wildman, but Don Daley picked "someone who
  didn't work out".
o A: Marvel turned him down at first, but came back to him after Turner.
  He *intentionally* went really "organic" to counteract the editors'
  wishes.  "MY Transformers have teeth."
o S: Some of what he did with Megatron and Ratchet was inspired by "The Fly".
o B: Has samples and Jim Shooter's original treatment with him.  Doesn't
  know how much of it is Shooter's own work and how much came from Hasbro.
o B: When developing the characters, he looked at the model sheets and
  looked for words that evoked the picture, and stuck them together.  He
  often went to visit Hasbro to talk about development with them.  The
  style of jargon he uses in writing comes from his civil engineering
  work.
o B: Has some second thoughts about making Grimlock so inhumane.
o S: Thinks Action Masters are dumb.  Always intended to turn them back, 
  although he didn't have a plan worked out for how he was going to do it.
o S: Some of his old Last Autobot ideas found their way into War Within
  stories.  The Fallen, apparently, was part of this.
o B: The original treatment calls Sparkplug's son Spike, but it's crossed
  out with Bob's writing saying "Buster".  Hasbro might have asked him to
  change it, or it might have been his idea...  Either way, the treatment
  got to Sunbow unchanged, and they went with "Spike" for the cartoon.
o B: He did get sample toys from Hasbro.
o A: It was a bit of an odd shift for him to switch to "Marvel Style" when
  he started his US work, but he now prefers that method overall.  (Marvel
  Style is where the artist is given a plot by the writer instead of a
  full script, and lays out the pages as he wishes, and then the writer
  comes back in and scripts it based on what the artist has done.  This
  way the artist gets to play a larger role in telling the story than to
  simply draw what the writer tells them to.)
o A: When doing Marvel Style, sometimes he draws lots of open mouths in
  case the writer wants to give various characters in the panel dialogue.
  He refers to this kind of picture as a "Hallelujah Chorus".
o B: Plotted stories up to six months in advance, but it varied.
o B: Worked at Marvel for 20 years.  Didn't totally like the trend towards
  darkness; wanted to have FUN sometimes.  Liked to "mix it up" with his
  stories so readers wouldn't know what to expect next.
o A: Didn't want to do Transformers in the first place!  Before TF UK he
  drew Thundercats.  He did TF because it was paying work.  He was excited
  to work for Marvel US, but he didn't really want to draw robots.  He's
  sort of changed his mind about it since then.  :)
o S: Death's Head was not a TF idea at first.  He wasn't accepted as a 
  pitch, though, so Simon put him in Transformers to prove the character
  could carry a book.
o A: Andy jokes that Death's Head is Simon's alternate persona because 
  he "kills characters for a living".
o B: Regarding "Afterdeath".  He was looking for surprising or original
  ways to move characters off the center stage.
o S: Simon mentioned the April Fools gag they played one year where they
  proposed a story where basically every character died.  He says that Rob
  Tokar tells the "definitive version" of the story in the third issue of
  Comicculture magazine.  (Which used to have a website, but doesn't seem
  to anymore.)
o B: Designed Circuit Breaker and the Mechanic.  Gave notes on the designs 
  of Scrounge and Scraplets.  The Mechanic was based on a particularly
  handy Marvel editor.


Hasbro Panel
o Jerry Divoin, Michelle Fields, Aaron Archer.
o Jerry was on exclusives, now on the regular line full time.
o Energon Sharkticon's design was initially based on the Nemesis.
o Slugslinger will not be in the show.
o Aaron and Don joint-designed the Alpha-Q toy.
o They say Riccochet is the start of a trend for G1 lines.
o Don helped with 20th Prime, too.
o They say Tracks is blue now because the interior was visible through
  the yellow plastic.  Not a problem with the BT version, obviously.
o Aaron chose Meister as the name because he was sick of putting names
  like "Autobot Jazz" on toys to satisfy trademark issues.
o "Market 6 alternate channel" is the name they use for stores outside their
  top 5 retailers.  (Meijer, for example.)
o A Seacons resissue!!  Wal*Mart exclusive.  The name Scalor didn't clear
  trademark searches.
o Big Convoy as "Nemesis Prime" at Target.  Carries a "Dead Matrix".
o Demolishor and Cyclonus in their Energon colors at KB.
o EN Magnus was a late filler until the toy they intended to release in that
  slot was ready.
o Cybertron starts fall 2005.  They're currently in the second wave of 
  toy designs.  A new animation partner.  Continues where Energon leaves off.
o Every deal with a car company for Alternators licensing is different.
  Hasbro prefers to make multi-car deals with the car companies.
o Implies that they want to do a BW anniversary thing, but they haven't 
  yet done any thinking about it.
o Probably won't release the new-mold Robot Master toys in the US.
o Phrase "when we start doing exclusives with Alternators" is uttered.
o Some cyborg beasts are coming, but not Digregun.
o Regarding a Primus toy, Michelle says, "that would be a really good
  idea for Cybertron..."
o The haven't yet pursued a Lamborghini license for Alternators.
o The energon weapons for the gestalts are blue.
o Hasbro usually needs more items in a toyline than Takara does, based on 
  differences in the markets.
o Some emergency vehicle might be coming up in Alternators.
o They are moving away from chrome and to "hot stamping".
o Homages -- sometimes the name comes long before the toy is an homage,
  or the colors are an afterthought, not intended for the mold from the start.
o Michelle says fiction for Alternators is quite plausible if the line
  has continued support.
o Aaron thinks of 20th Prime as belonging with Alternators.
o Aaron, regarding the idea of releasing a trailer for him...  "The trailer,
  to me, is a bit of... a box."
o Mark McCall - full time Alternators designer.
o Eric Siebenaler - drawing, works with Takara
o Mini-Cons will come back.
o A Neon Alternator is not in the works.
o Blue energon is an even more pure form, from the Spark Well.

Dreamwave panel
o Simon talking about Age of Wrath: the Autobots are on the verge of victory
  thanks to Magnus.  Decepticons, Ultracons, Predacons... all these factions,
  but then Megatron comes back.
o Pat says of Joe Ng: "I'm really excited about Joe because he has a unique
  and interesting style."
o The next GI Joe crossover, Divided Front, comes out in October.  Somehow
  connected to their first one, despite being set in the 80s.  ???  Interior
  art is by Pat.
o They'll continue to put bonus material in their trades.
o 20% RID, 80% BW -- first quarter.  Don's pencilling.  Miniseries.  May
  do more based on sales.  [In retrospect, I have no idea what the beginning
  of this line means.  They were going to put RID backups in their BW book
  or something?  No idea.]***
o The BW show characters are in it.
o James McDonnough really likes Don!
o Pat shut down somebody who asked a question out of turn.
o Pat is going back to the G1 series?
o Titan will reprint the B&W stories, possibly colored now, but probably
  not the pre-Simon color strips.  He doesn't want to see them in 
  print again.

3H comics panel
o Simon Furman, Guido Guidi, Dan Khanna, Rob "Tengu" Gerbracht, Glen Hallit.
o Ramulus is Tengu's id.
o The upcoming Ramulus redeco is new, not the green one, but same character.
o The script reading IS universe canon, like the last one.
o TFU comic will go monthly through Diamond distributors.
o They will also do 1/2 sized one-shots spotlighting store exclusive toys.
o Universe #0 is a primer with lots of backstory.
o Universe #1-4 are being reprinted through Diamond with additional material,
  a little more expensive, then it'll go back to the normal 2.95 price.
o Monthly Universe is through comic shops only, not the club, but alternate
  covers will still be done through 3H.
o 3H is not allowed to do Alternators.
o Wreckers(?) #3's artist is the box art guy (Marcelo Matere).  Dan says
  he does most of it.
o 3H has very little influence on the Universe toyline, outside of an
  occasional offer of opinion.  However, they do write all the bios.
o With changes from Hasbro, there have been about 5 endings to Wreckers
  as they change their toy plans.  20 pages of Wreckers 4(?) were just
  dropped to be changed because of something Hasbro didn't like.
o Dead characters can stay in Universe indefinitely, but living characters
  are likely to be sent home intact.
o Simon was asked about the Veteran, but didn't remember the story at first.
  But, he confirmed that it was Swoop when someone shouted it out.  Not
  really confidently, but... like, "Oh!  Yeah, Swoop."
o It's all early ideas... the half issues would be done for convention
  appearances and such.  They don't know how they're going to number them.
o Glen loves Squeezeplay.  Dan put his character, Blade, into one of the 
  new comics.
o Simon reiterates that there's only one Unicron.
o Glen and Tengu say the Diamond thing is WAY easier than doing comics all
  on their own.  The deal is 2 years in the making.
o 3H site update for fall.
o "Chaos Megatron" was an early name for Mega Zarak.  Glen calls him a
  "G3 Megatron" with colors from G1 Megatron, Lucky Draw Megatron, ...?

Voice actors panel
o Scott McNeil, Dan Gilvezan, Michael McConnohie.
o For Tracks' voice, Wally Burr wanted something like Steve Franken from
  Dobie Gillis.
o Scott says Terry Klassen's Armada/Energon directing is great.
o BW recording was done in group sessions.
o BW is the only show Scott has done that he really became a fan of, citing
  the strong writing as the reason.
o McConnohie was told once by a producer, "actors and writers are not part
  of the creative process in acquired animation".
o Strongarm's voice is pitched up in postproduction.
o Dan says everyone would really love to be in the movie, and not even
  just as a matter of money.
o Scott passed out twice in a Wally Burr recording session.
o 1987's actors strike -- Dan thinks Wally was partially responsible for
  it. One demand was a 4-hr day for VAs, as Wally sometimes ran 8-hr sessions.
o McC hired Wally for a video game role, and Wally couldn't redo the voice
  he auditioned with!
o Spider-Man was Dan's first animation role.  (Welker played Iceman.)
o The G1 recording booth was 20x12 feet.
o Chris Latta perspired a lot.  Standing next to him when he flailed about
  performing would get you wet.
o Scott has been replaced by... Rick Moranis, Bob Newhart, and Eric Idle.
  For the latter two, they actually played Scott's lines for them and then
  they parroted it.
o Stan Lee wanted to play J. Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man movies.
o Favorite pie: Scott - apple with ice cream, Dan - key lime, Mike - coconut
  creme.
o Scott still refers to Beast Machines as "the bad thing".

Organizer's panel
o Malin Huffman, Griffin (website), Tengu (lead staff writer), Glen, Amy
  Scott (scheduling and registration), Scott Cradle (financial).
o They are not allowed to immediately react to problems with the club or
  convention planning.  Their responses have to be approved by Hasbro.
o Especially bad is the rumor/speculation mongering, since 3H can't step
  in to make corrections.
o Defensor is RID Prime.  The smaller robot mode is Hot Spot?
o The guy who made the Energon display wants to do a workshop thing next year.
o Glen actually made some assertive comments about people being so hateful
  towards him, which was kind of refreshing.
o The exclusives "what might have been" thing will be on their website.
o Ideally, the first one day events will be held in October.
o Locations in the west and south... waiting for Hasbro's thoughts.
o Merchandise from 1-days will be available on their website also.
o Modifying the murder mystery to be Transformers-related would have taken
  the event outside of their budget, by a lot.  The murderer was... Ratchet!
  He'd been implanted with a cerebro shell.  They even wanted to get Peter
  Cullen and Frank Welker to record some lines.  The main idea was to try
  to get fans to talk with new people and have a little social event.
o Probably no more dinners, but instead a "preview session" for preregs.
o Regarding the Hyatt...  3H lost a lot of money last year, and had disputed
  bills with the Hyatt.  They couldn't agree on a payment plan.
o Did some repeat guests since it was the 20th anniversary, but will get
  some new people next year.
o More script readings are possible.
o Professor Smooth took a turn to ask a question, and strangely claimed to 
  have really enjoyed the previous year's show, and this one even more.  Weird
  to see him acting so pleasant and friendly here when he's such a pest to
  Glen online.
o Glen wants to simplify.
o Much of the stuff they advertise for the convention way in advance isn't
  set yet.  But, they HAVE to say some stuff beforehand because otherwise
  they won't be saying anything at all... most of the plans are still in flux
  until right at the very end.