Convention season rolls on as the annual Los Angeles gathering of Transformers fans and talent celebrate the toys, cartoons and movies featuring the robots in disguise. It was the 40th anniversary of the original G1 cartoon series with extra special guests Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, the immortal actors who brought Optimus Prime and Megatron to animated life. Additional guests included Sunbow Animation writers like Flint Dille, Buzz Dixon and Don Glut who worked across the 65 episode freight train seasons of G.I. Joe and Transformers along with voice actors like Greg Berger (Grimlock), Arthur Burghardt (Devastator), Bill Ratner (Flint), Michael Bell (Duke), Neil Ross (Shipwreck, Springer) and many, many more.
The show floor is full of Transformers toys from every era and iteration along with the latest licensed product like an actual transforming Grimlock. Comic books, merch and art prints were everywhere making it easy to spend more money than you planned to. Along with the writers and voice actors, legendary composer Vince DiCola (Rocky IV, Transformers: The Movie) and rock singer Stan Bush (Dare, The Touch, Fight To Survive, Never Surrender) were also on hand to meet the fans. A dedicated panel room hosted a Live Auction, screenings of the live action Transformers films and panels with the writers and voice actors.
For any kid raised on cartoons, hearing the folks behind G.I. Joe, Transformers, Visionaries, Inhumanoids and Pryde of the X-Men wax about the good ol’ days is always a treat. The writers talked about Joe and Transformers being in a shared world even if Hasbro did not agree. Or how a rejected pitch on another show was accepted if it could be delivered quickly due to the scale and speed of production. Voice actors reminisced about working for Voice Director and WWII tank commander Wally Burr, marathon group sessions and how they were excited when the G.I. Joe and Transformers animated films were announced only to find out most of their existing characters were being killed off…
