"TOYS FOR TALKERS"
Christmas Comes Early
By Patricia "Vulcana" Wright
Edited by Robert Jung, Douglas W. Dlin, and Philip N. Zeman
Additional material provided by Philip N. Zeman, et al.
Photographs by Patricia "Vulcana" Wright

Part 4

Here is a run-down of the presents, going by voice actor. (This way, I don't miss anyone or anything....) The format is as follows:

Voice Actor (Character or Title)
Toy Received (Quote on the "To:" tag on the gift)

Reaction

Donald Brown (Scorponok)
Scorponok ("For Don: You stuck it to 'em--but GOOD!")

Donald was not there.

Jim Byrnes (Inferno)
Inferno ("For Jim: For the glory of the Royalty!")

Jim had to leave early and was rather distracted, but I managed to get a picture of him. I also got him in the group shot which included the production staff. He appreciated the gift.

Gary Chalk (Optimus Primal)
TransMetal Opimus Primal ("For Gary: You're doing prime work.")
Optimal Optimus ("For Gary: No one messes with the Big Bot!")

As expected, Gary was not there. He was actually shooting an episode of the FOX TV series Millenium.

Scott McNeil noticed the big Optimal Optimus box for Gary, though, which prompted this exchange between him and me:

Ian Corlett (Cheetor, Maximal Ship computer)
Cheetor ("For Ian: The word is 'spot-on smooth!'")
TransMetal Cheetor ("For Ian: Now THAT'S gorgeous!")

Ian appreciated the gifts and really liked it that he got two toys. The crew razzed him a bit -- until they saw Scott's pile of toys.

David Kaye (Megatron)
TM Megatron ("For David: You're smooth, David, VERY smooth...")

David was not there.

Campbell Lane (Rampage)
Rampage ("For Campbell: Let it change...let it consume your shelf-space...")

Campbell had left early, so I was unable to give him his gift. However, it lay in the pile waiting for him.

Blu Mankuma (Tigatron)
Tigatron ("For Blu: Let the trails lead you where they may.")

Blu already had a Tigatron but appreciated getting the gift. He was surprised to see it.

Scott McNeil (Rattrap, Dinobot, Silverbolt, Waspinator)
Dinobot ("For Scott: In memoriam.")
TransMetal Rattrap ("For Scott: You really know how to tickle our joysticks.")
Silverbolt ("For Scott: He's pure, strong and fast. Okay, maybe not so swift...")
Waspinator ("For Scott: Wazzpinator ruuulezzz!")

Scott thought the gifts were really neat. He gratefully appreciated getting the Waspinator because he didn't have one on a card. He had seen one in the store, bought it, played with it to death, then tried to get another one -- but they weren't to be found. I did get a "Wazzpinator likes prezzents!" unsolicited out of him.

Apparently he didn't have a Silverbolt either, so he appreciated that toy as well, though he liked the Waspinator more. He was talking to the other actors about how the first season stuff were collector items, and they were really lucky to get them on the card, even. He was really happy.

Scott was kind enough to try to get me in to view the acting session, but Ace said no. It started off with Scott asking me if I was sticking around to watch the session. I said I would love to, but I wasn't allowed, since Ace had said no. At this point, Scott got kind of upset and didn't think that was fair -- he was actually more upset about it than I was! Ace was quite firm on the secrecy stuff, but Scott was really sweet about it. I did my very best not to act like a spoiler-leeching fanboy.

One other thing -- Scott had been invited to EuroBotCon in Britain. Alec was wondering why he wasn't invited. Or, more specifically, why he had never heard of it before. Scott was seriously thinking of going.

Colin Murdock (Quickstrike)
Quickstrike ("For Colin: Don't bother gettin' up, we'll just thank ya while yer down.")

Colin appreciated the gift.

Richard Newman (Rhinox)
Rhinox ("For Richard: You gotta be some kind of miracle worker!")

Richard liked the tag and thought it was cute. He was the first to realize that there was something on the other side of the tag, mainly because I flipped it over to look at it. I think they all kept their tags, which was neat.

Pauline Newstone (Airazor)
Airazor("For Pauline: We hardly knew ye. Drag ... isn't it.")

Pauline wasn't there. However, her co-stars said she is a very sweet person, and it was a shame that Airazor didn't last longer than six episodes.

Apparently, she was pretty upset about being killed off. I wished she was there; Airazor was my favorite character, and I would have liked the opportunity to tell her that.

Doug Parker (Terrorsaur)
Terrorsaur ("For Doug: Aaah, it's good to be a Predacon.")

Doug was not there.

Venus Terzo (Blackarachnia)
Blackarachnia ("For Venus: The brains of this outfit, and then some.")

As expected, Venus was not there.

Alec Willows (Tarantulas)
Tarantulas ("For Alec: For all the laughter...")
TransMetal Tarantulas ("For Alec: You'll return. You ALWAYS return! And this time, it will be soon...")

Alec appreciated the gifts, and found it incredible that he got something. He asked if I was from Hasbro. I said no, I was just a fan.

Scott was also working on him to come to BotCon. He had a copy of one of Dan Khanna's BotCon art contest entries of Tarantulas, which Scott gave to Alec. I remarked I should have brought my BotCon photos. Scott then almost killed me because I didn't bring them. Alec really appreciated the picture and the level of detail in the art work. He asked Scott where he got it and was surprised when Scott replied, "That BotCon thing I've been trying to get you to go to for the past few months!" Maybe this will convince him to go.

David Sobolov (Depthcharge)
Depthcharge ("For David: Slag the High Council, just take the toy.")

David must have been the one I had talked to the most, since he was in on the original plans. He grabbed a silver pen and got everyone there to sign his box -- and I mean everyone!! He even had me sign it! David even read his tag in Depthcharge's voice. He was really excited about the gifts even though he knew about them in advance.

According to David, out of all the shows that he has worked on, this was the first time anything like this had ever happened. He was really excited to get the gift and wanted to know if he could get copies of the photos. I told him that they would most likely be up on Ben Yee's site. [Ed. note -- Ben and Patricia graciously allowed Altered States Magazine to have the photos as well.]

David also mentioned that he may have to take his own web site down; Beast Wars has really increased the popularity of his site, and the previous week he had over 200 hits. Since he was running it for free off of his friend's server, he didn't think it was fair to load it down that much. However, if he moved it to a commerical site, he didn't think he can afford it.

I talked to him a bit about BotCon. He said he would go if he were invited, but he wasn't invited this year. He figured he wasn't invited because they would have to pay to fly him out there, and therefore they are limited in the number of actors they can bring.

Susan Blu (Voice Director, Transmutate)
TransMetal Rattrap ("For Sue: From your Great Nephew.")

The look of astonishment on Sue's face as I gave the present was great. She really enjoyed the gift, and really appreciated that we fans would do something like this for them. I believe she planned to mount it on the wall in her office.

Elizabeth Carol Savenkoff (Predacon Ship Computer)
Jetstorm ("For Carol: Warning -- Unknown energy signature detected within.")

Carol was by far the most excited about getting a gift. I handed hers out in the middle of the presents, and the look of joy on her face was a sight to behold. She jumped up and down because she was getting a gift -- I think she was ignored a lot as far as publicity was concerned -- and we had to get her to stop bouncing long enough to take a photo. I'm glad we managed to find something for her; it was almost as if she expected to be missed. She kept asking what it was and if could she open it right away.

All in all, I think it was a success. Ace seemed to be fairly pleased with the way things turned out.

I still have two toys on the way that I will wrap and send later -- a TransMetal Rattrap for Scott McNeil and a Japanese Shadow Panther for Lee Tockar (Ravage) -- but I guess I will survive. And there is still the possibility of the Ultra toys getting to me in the near future, so perhaps the "T4T Set" will get completed.

I have one final note. Remember how I said I wanted to wrap Optimal Optimus so I would have enough wrapping paper left? Well, it was a good thing I did. I ended up with just enough wrapping paper on two spools to wrap the Rattrap and Shadow Panther when they come in. Phew! I'm glad I bought the quantity of paper I did, even though at the time I thought I was being a bit excessive. As it was, I had to go back for two more spools of ribbon. I was tempted to get only one, but I got two just in case. It was a good thing too because I used the second-to-last one up on Sunday wrapping the remaining gifts.

Of course, if the two Ultra Toys do make it, Patricia will have to go get more wrapping paper.... But this not the end of the story....

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 5 || Part 6

Patricia Wright can be E-mailed at pawright@eyrie.org.
Robert Jung can be E-mailed at rjung@netcom.com.
Doug Dlin can be E-mailed at apcog@hotmail.com.
Philip N. Zeman can be E-mailed at asm_zeman@skyjammer.com.

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