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Posts tagged Anime Festival Orlando
FINALLY! The kids from [insert webcomic here] have finally gone home; now for #GenCon
Aug 3rd
I have been insanely occupied with about a thousand and one things in the past week. My wife celebrated her birthday this past weekend and, if my sister-in-law can get me the photos, I will do a write up regarding the masterpiece of planning I pulled off with that.
Things are hectic at “the day job” – but I won’t bore you with that.
The major vacuum sucking all my spare seconds aways is Gen Con. In just a few short days, Joey Snackpants, The Mint Chocolate Chippies, Tentacle Chris, Wasabi Anime, our friend Jingoro, and our pals over at Geeky Pinups and Cosplay Deviants will all be magically appearing the largest gaming convention in the U.S.
At the same time, half of the Wasabi Anime team is getting things together for an appearance at Anime Festival Orlando the same weekend.
In the midst of all this: I’ve gotten through the audio books The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire. I’m currently one third through the final book of the trilogy.
To top it off: my health isn’t exactly one hundred percent today.
The good news is that, according to Google Analytics, those zany kids from some web comic have stopped stalking my blog. (Yesterday was the first day without and pings from their website.) I can now continue in peace to point out that Beast Wars Sucks and that BotCon was BotFAIL. Information came my way regarding the second aforementioned opinion; it seems that other very, very interesting people also noted the failure of BotCon. People who matter more than some asshole with a blog.
That made me grin. 
The Ballad of #BotCon continues…
Jul 19th
I got back from Colorado late last night, and I’ve been swamped with getting things together for about a dozen projects. Plus, I have a bunch of great photos to post and (to top it all off) the A/C is broken in the house. True story. It died while we were out of town, it seems, and it is currently 88 degrees while I’m typing this. The A/C guy will be here tomorrow.
That said, I thought the whole BotCon aka BotFAIL arguments had subsided. Joey and I wrote our review. Silly BotCon kids got their panties in bunch. Traffic to my blog spiked. Zaniness ensued. It seems, though, that the issues with the review have extended to a new faction: people upset that we piss on their beloved Transformers series: Beast Wars. Take this brainchild from Twitter:
@TomCroom You hate Beast Wars? You know, BW was somebody’s favorite childhood show, maybe somebody too young to have seen G1
@TomCroom Of course, that was too subtle. What I meant to say was “suck it”.
Cute. The Gobots was someone’s favorite show from my childhood, too – but that didn’t stop it from sucking. As anyone who has ever attended one of the DARE! panels can tell you, I am NOT a nostalgically blinded geek. I point out the good (and the bad) in much of G1 along with newer shows like Robots in Disguise and Animated.
Thus – you’re talking out of your ass. Douche.
Next up is just a whole new level of Interwebz fun. Someone referenced the whole thing in a webcomic. Seriously.
You should go read the whole thing on the author’s website. It’s chuckle-worthy, but he got the Grimlock bit wrong. We have hosted with Gregg Berger, the voice of Grimlock… BUT, Joey and I talked tonight and we’re not opposed to hosting an entire panel talking like Grimlock.
I can see it now…
“Me Tom think Beast Wars still sucks!”
“Me Snackpants hate Bayformers and want to smash!”
Also, for the record, I have blue eyes.
So why does Beast Wars suck? Great question – and one I’ll never answer on this blog. That material is reserved for DARE! The Transformers Panel Ultimate – scheduled for many quality conventions in the coming future including Gen Con, Anime Festival Orlando and (tentatively) Anime Weekend Atlanta.
So keep posting replies, arguing on forums and writing your web comics; none of that will change the fact that BotCon was a weak convention and a good trade show.
Have Wasabi, Will Travel.
Jul 7th
Just a short note to update the world to my well being and the amount of things that keep me busy in life. Last weekend (the 4th of July) was my first weekend staying home in over a month – and things are picking up again. Here is, in no particular order, things of interest in and around my life right now…
- It seems that the discussion regarding my comments about the BotCon “Trade Show” is still alive and kicking. You can read it here.
- Next weekend I will be at Ancient City Con with the team from Wasabi Anime.
- The weekend after that, I am going white water rafting in Colorado. I also plan on making some Man vs. Food meal stops.
- The weekend after that: Weird Al Yankovic concert in South Florida.
- Wasabi Anime has announced Orlandia’s Got Talent for Anime Festival Orlando.
- I’m loving watching season 4 of Magnum P.I. on DVD. Just sayin’
(BotCon) Bigger isn’t always better, kids!
May 26th
In December of 2009, I took the time to send an email to the organizers of BotCon 2010 about the possibility of bringing “DARE! The Transformers Panel Ultimate” to their convention. For those of you that are not as entrenched in the fan convention scene: my pal Joey Snackpants and I have been hosting a Transformers Panel for fan conventions since 2003. The panel/show has appeared a number of times (under various names) at Anime Express, Anime Festival Orlando, DreamCon, Fitcon, Florida Supercon, the FX Show, Yasumicon, and others. In all, we’ve hosted it (literally) dozens of times and have featured the following fun:
- Transformers Time Trials (how fast could you convert a Transformer correctly… complete with prizes!)
- Transformers G1 game demonstration on the PS2 (never released in the US, by the way!)
- Transforming sound effect contest (with prizes!)
- Japanese Transformers theme songs you wish you never heard.
- TF: Revenge of the Fallen Toy Giveaways sponsored by Hasbro (before the movie even came out!)
- Guest Host: Gregg Berger (the voice of Grimlock)
- Guest Host: Stan Bush (he had The Touch!)
We even elevated our geek status last year as Transformers Super Fans by singing backup for Stan Bush in concert during the song “Dare!”
This year – “DARE! The Transformers Panel Ultimate” is slated to appear at events outside of Florida including (tentatively) Anime Weekend Atlanta and Gen Con.
So back to the story… we contacted BotCon, the Official Transformers Convention, back in December of last year. I have followed up each month with a polite “are we in” email asking about whether our unique brand of Transformers fun would be welcome. I would get a polite response back, but it was always a “no decision has been made.”
Having not heard anything for another month, I emailed them again yesterday because (in case you haven’t noticed) the convention is less than one month away.
I mean, this is an officially licensed event – so they must have all their ducks in a row. At least more so that the other local fan conventions in and around Florida… right?
This has been quite an eye opener for me because the answer is a resounding no. For those keeping track, BotCon tickets went on sale just eight days ago. As of this post, less than thirty days out, there is no information under “Seminars & Panels” and “Special Events” on BotCon’s official site.
Maybe I’m just jaded from going to so many amateur conventions that announce things more than six weeks out… who knows.
Either way, we got the email yesterday that states
…at this time I don’t think we have a slot for you.
In short: No Transformers Panel from the locals. I’ll still most likely attend BotCon, but it’s just disappointing to be reminded that the professionally run national conventions don’t seem to be any more organized than your local “mom and pop” anime con.
C’est la vie.
Bad blogger, Fox 35 news, and the busy busy life of Tom…
Apr 19th
First off – yes. I know. I have been terrible at updating my blog recently. [INSERT CLEVER SELF-DEPRECATING HUMOROUS COMMENT HERE].
Instead of going on and on about how busy my life has been in the past twenty seven days (pause for dramatic “yes it really has been that long” moment), I am just going to try to hammer out some posts over the next week exhibiting all the zaniness that has ensued over the past few weeks.
The most recent event of note is the easiest: I was on Fox News in Orlando, Florida last Friday:
Some friends of mine (thanks Keith) decided to nominate and vote for me online due to my work with charities and fan conventions. (A more detailed story will be on www.wasabianime.com later this morning.)
Key things of note from the video above:
- While I have done work for Give Kids the World (especially during my time at Universal Studios), the specific instance noted in the interview actually involved The Children’s Dream Fund.
- I was hoping to mention other upcoming events that we plan on doing charity work with, but the vibe I got was that they wanted to keep it “local.” I did manage to mention Anime Festival Orlando.
- Contrary to popular belief – I did NOT plan on wearing shorts that day. I honest-to-God though I had packed jeans. As a result, though, you get to check out my SEXY AWESOME LEGS!
It was pretty exciting being on the news set. Check out this picture I snapped while waiting for the interview:
So that’s all for this morning. I swear I’ll do my damndest to get some more updates done this week. Maybe I’ll even conclude the epic tale of Ford Motor Company.
Two weeks later…
Feb 12th
So you may have noticed that I’ve moved the blog off of Blogger and over to its own WordPress installation. That is because WordPress has finally worked in many of the features I first liked about Blogger back in 2008… so here we are.
In case you didn’t read on the old blog location, please change your RSS feed to: http://www.tomcroom.com/?feed=rss2
Now that THAT’S out of the way – things have been really, really busy with life and the newly reformed Green Mustard Entertainment, Inc. (formerly Green Mustard, LCC). I have been talking about the team at Wasabi Anime helping out with a ton of events and projects this year and next.
Yes we’re already planning for 2011.
Without giving away too much, here is how my year is starting to look:
- June 2010 – Expo Comics Cancun in Cancun, Mexico (tentatively confirmed)
- June 2010 – Florida SuperCon in Miami, Florida (as Wasabi Anime)
- June 2010 – BotCon in Orlando, Florida
- July 2010 – Ancient City Con in St. Augustine, Florida (as Wasabi Anime)
- August 2010 – Anime Festival Orlando in Orlando, Florida (as Wasabi Anime, tentatively confirmed)
- September 2010 – Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia
- September 2010 – Anime Weekend Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia (as Wasabi Anime, tentatively confirmed)
- March 2011 – Shuto Con in Lansing, Michigan (as Wasabi Anime)
- March 2011 – InvaderCON in Atlanta, Georgia (as Green Mustard Entertainment)
Throw in a couple of other side entertainment projects and consulting gigs – and you can see why I’ve been lax with my writing lately. Oh – and did I mention I have a day job?
So (again) here we are. More soon.
Pundits, Postings, Bloggers and "Bad Sushi"
Aug 3rd
First off – Anime Festival Orlando X was a blast, and congrats to the convention organizers for another successful year! (Check WasabiAnime.com later this morning for some video of our events there.)
It seems that while we were out and about for the weekend, the folks at Anime Sushi wrote a counter point to my statements from two of my previous blog posts…
* MegaCon + Anime Sushi = EPIC FAIL
* MegaCon + Anime Sushi = FOLLOW UP!
I found it by way of this article, but you can also find it posted on the Anime Sushi forums.
It is worded well and written very clearly (which lets me know who DIDN’T write it on their staff) – but it still misses the mark.
You see: Anime Sushi DID begin promoting their event five days before Anime Festival Orlando. Their event lineup DID list a guest already appearing at Anime Festival Orlando. Therefore their emails/postings WERE counter-advertising that were poorly timed.
So while they can cleverly pen a rebuttal statement, they still can’t get the gumption to say two simple words… “We’re sorry.” While they can try to defend their intent, it still doesn’t justify their actions.
As an added bonus, let’s take a look at the snarky paragraph they put in for good measure…
“Anime Sushi is disappointed, on the other hand, at the assumption of hostility on the part of a select few (and we do mean few) bloggers and “pundits” (a term used loosely and implying no actual expertise) who have spent significant time publicly deriding and decrying the events Anime Sushi has endeavored to bring to the public, and the methods by which we have organized said events. Anime Sushi is a volunteer organization, and invests significant time and money into bringing events to Anime Fans.”
* There is no assumption – just actions that were called out as poor form. “Facta non verba.”
* Bloggers and “pundits” are fans just like anyone else. I have personally (on numerous occasions) promoted Anime Sushi’s events through Wasabi Anime’s advertising channels (our forums, newsletters, etc.) and even give accolades when they are due. It should be noted that Anime Sushi does NOT extend the same courtesy… but myself and the fine folks on the Wasabi Anime have continued to due so in lieu of the personal politics of some of the Anime Sushi staff.
* “Anime Sushi… invests time and money into bringing events to Anime Fans.” – That’s funny, I thought they were paid for their work running and promoting events at MegaCon.
‘Nuff said.
