When last week started I
couldn’t have been more excited about TimeGate. You could probably
tell from the preview
I wrote. But then a bunch of stuff happened and my enthusiasm kind of
drained away.
I was going to be on an
extremely
limited budget because we are going to HeroesCon in two weeks and
that actually requires travel money. I found out that I would be
getting my trainee back this Friday. If you’ve been following the
harrowing tale of me having to deal with this “doucheknuckle” as
one of my co-workers referred to him, then you know how excited I am
about this (not at all). I found out that Mrs. Troublemaker would not
be staying at the con Saturday night, as some of her family had
chosen this weekend to visit. And finally, I was awakened on Friday
morning to the news that our air conditioner was not functioning.
Quite frankly, at that
point I wanted to crawl back under the covers and skip TimeGate
altogether.
But somehow or other I
managed to get myself all revved up again and loaded the
Troublemakers into the Troublemobile, excited to get down to the
excellent La Botana for some Tex-Mex cuisine. We discovered the place
last year before TimeGate and I’ll keep my review short and sweet –
it’s a great place to eat.
Afterwards it was time to
head down the road to the majestic Holiday Inn Chambodia for what had
the potential to be the best sci-fi con of the year. Things were
looking good before we even got into the hotel – the parking lot
was nearly full. This was a pretty big contrast to last year when we
had basically our pick of spaces in the front lot. This time we had
to park further down on the side.
Actually, let me go ahead
and mention attendance so I don’t end up repeating myself over and
over again throughout this post – from my point of view TimeGate
2013 was easily twice as populated as TimeGate 2012. I’m sure this
can be attributed to the presence of Colin Baker – an actual Doctor
– and the fact that this is the franchise’s 50th
Anniversary. Personally I suspect it is more the former than the
latter. Every day of the con was bustling with activity and there
were definitely more costumes than last year. Enthusiasm was at an
all-time high.
I was excited as the
family loaded out of the car, Lil’ Troublemaker in his Doctor Ten
costume. I had more recognition than I had last year, I knew more
what to expect from the con, I was scheduled for four (possibly five)
panels, and I had merch. It was going to be an exciting and rewarding
weekend no matter what. Because I was going to make it that way.
Picking up our badges was
a quick and easy process. I couldn’t help but be excited about the
yellow “Guest” ribbon attached to them.
The ladies running the
check-in were quite pleasant and did everything they could to make
sure we had all of the information we needed. We even got little bags
of goodies to fortify us throughout the weekend. As I was signing
myself and Mrs. Troublemaker into the Guest Book (first time I have
ever signed in as an Official Guest!), I couldn’t help but notice
Colin Baker’s room number. I had no intention of doing anything
with that rather privileged information, but I did file it away to
mention to Director Faber later. I knew he would be intrigued by such
a thing and that I might even be able to taunt him with my knowledge,
providing a bit of entertainment for one of the lonely stretches we
sometimes experience at the ol’ ESO table.
Speaking of the table,
Director Faber was already there with his new Protégé, Jen. Jen is
a good talker and a fine addition to the network. She also makes a
very good femme Doctor Nine (ha, ha – yes you were). I got my box
of stuff out of the car and set up on a corner of the table:
I had realistic
expectations about the sales potential of my shirts, stickers, and
Belligerent Monkey’s
prints. I knew this might not necessarily be the best environment for
such things. But you never know and I thought it was worthwhile to
bring them. As a matter of fact, I was so sure it would be worthwhile
that I spent two hours of my night on Wednesday going out of my way
to pick the prints up from Casa de Monkey. I’ll go ahead and tell
you right now – I made a grand total of $0 over the weekend. I
could probably have a done a bit better, but I was technically a
guest at the ESO table and thought that too much hucksterism might
make Director Faber uncomfortable. I will be bringing the merch to
the next Monstrosity Championship Wrestling
event on July 5th
to see if maybe it’s a little more popular there. After that I’ll
throw it up on eBay unless somebody has suggestions for some kind of
store. I am truly hoping to make enough off of this stuff to do
another round of shirts and maybe even some Phanties (yes – exactly
what you’re thinking).
I sat at the table and
chatted with con-goers and whatnot for a while. Thankfully Little
Pond and the Grand Hoff were already there, so the family had some
folks to hang out with. Lil’ Troublemaker loves those two and
they’re really good with him. Of course, me being me, he still
stayed by the ESO table most of the time.
The Vendor Room was
scheduled to open at 6 PM. I wanted to check it out before my
schedule (and the room) got too busy, so I headed over at around
6:15. The guys outside told me that it wasn’t open yet. Bummer.
My first panel was at 7
PM and it was the DC versus Marvel one. I have to admit that I was a
bit reassured that Director Faber was on it with me. I have no
shortage of self-confidence when it comes to these things, but it’s
always nice to know for sure that I’m going to have somebody around
that I have a good chemistry with. Thankfully, this was not an issue
at any of my panels all weekend.
The panel went quite
well, with Jen Wood joining us. I’m not going to belittle her voice
by laying the “female perspective” thing on her. She had some
great insights and opinions that played well with me and Faber. We
all discussed out fandom and – despite my intentions going in –
basically bashed the shit out of DC. What can I say? They’ve been
making absolutely horrendous mistakes in both TV and comics for the
past two years. They had it coming. Marvel didn’t escape
untarnished, but certainly got more love than their Distinguished
Competition. I also remembered to mention the TimeGate mobile phone
app and suggest that folks rate the panel.
The audience seemed to
enjoy what we put out there, and as of now the panel has 4.5/5 stars.
Right after that I got to
experience what was definitely the high point of the weekend (or so I
thought at the time – I’ll get to the others). A select few
podcasters had the privilege of sitting down for an intimate Q&A
with the sixth Doctor – Colin Baker! I couldn’t believe I was
getting that opportunity and I owe HUGE thanks to Director Faber for
helping me get to that point.
For his part Mr. Baker
was kind, gracious, and very entertaining. I only really had one
question, and while the answer wasn’t quite what I expected our
interaction was very rewarding and fun. If you want to know what
happened, you’re going to have to listen to the podcast:
It was an amazing
experience that I am going to remember for the rest of my life.
After the interview I had
to dash to my next panel, which started at 9 PM. It was a discussion
of Return
of the Jedi
since this was the 30th
Anniversary, as well as a look at the possible post-Disney-buyout
future of the franchise. I was on this one with two fellas I was
previously unfamiliar with – Matt Sweatman and Adam Throne.
Everybody had some fun memories and I think the audience had a really
good time at this one, as well. We covered Return
of the Jedi
much more thoroughly than I had expected we would and I rediscovered
just how important that movie is to me. I’ve written about the fact
that it was one of the few movies I saw with just my dad before, but
it’s a whole other thing to sit there and talk about it.
Once again I reminded the
audience – a fairly sizeable group, but the smallest for any of my
panels – to download the app and rate the panel. As of right now
we’ve got 4 ¼ out of 5 stars. I’ll take it.
It was about 10 PM by the
time I found the family and definitely time to go. It seemed like
everybody had a good time, though Mrs. Troublemaker looked pretty
tired. Lil’ Troublemaker was having a blast playing with his
massively overpriced Character Building Doctor Who figures with the
Grand Hoff, which reminded me I wanted to run into the Vendor Room.
Unfortunately it was closed. I decided to take this as a sign that I
did not need to go in there. I was already planning on spending as
little money as possible – the ESO dinner was likely to be my
biggest expense, and I’ll tell you all about that tomorrow – so
it was just as well I couldn’t get into that huge money-suck.
That’s it for now. Come
back tomorrow for a few more panels and the dreaded return of…
The
ESO Dinner!
-Phantom
Merch can be a hard sell when you don't have a huge following, I learned after spending $400 on tshirts nobody wanted to buy.. I think that money would be better spent on freebie items, like bumper stickers, pens or some other type of cool, cheap promo to simply give away.
ReplyDeleteOh, man - I didn't pay for any of it. I won a contest to have it all printed. That's the only way I'll ever do merch. I can't afford to be giving stuff away!
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