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"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 5
Patricia and the rest of the group didn't expect anything else to
come of this, and in fact, the report had been written and sent in.
But the story didn't end with the visit to Mainframe. In the middle
of December, a surprise came to Patricia through the mail, and she
was kind enough to send an addendum to the report....
I just got a cute Christmas card from Mainframe.
On the front of this fold out card it says,
"Peace on Earth, good will towards men..."
Underneath is GraveHeart from War Planets holding a large present.
The inside of the card has the following captions and characters:
"And women" : Dot - Reboot, Lady Cera -Shadow Raiders, and two unknown
characters
"And Robots" : Unknown robot
"And Lizards!" : Femer - ShadowRaiders
"And Fish" : Unknown fish
"And Whatevers" : Unknown characters.
The caption on the final interior section says,
"Happy Holidays from Mainframe Entertainment, Inc."
Barb Dawson penned a handwritten note as well.
"Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. Thanks so much for everything.
From all the Beastwars Crew, Barbara & Ace :)"
Yes, they put that smilie in there.
The back of the cover shows Transmetal Rattrap with this caption:
"What about robotic rats?"
Also within a card, I received a piece of paper. On one side (the
reverse side, as I found out), was this note:
"This is from all the animators from the first episode of Season III.
Thanks for watching."
The other side of the paper was black with this caption:
Beast Wars 40 "Optimal Situation"
Animation Wrapped May 22, 1998
Also, 12 signatures in silver pen graced this side.
You know... I think we have been thanked.
That's not all. On January 5th, Patricia received an interesting
phone call, and, well, here's another addition....
Campbell Lane just called!
He was sorry for being so late in responding, but he wanted to let
the entire group know he really appreciated the gift. He also
apologized for missing the meeting, but he had a commerical to shoot.
If it weren't for that, nothing else could have dragged him away.
After I told him that pictures and a write up would appear on the
Internet, he commented that he didn't have a computer. His wife worked
with a computer at Canadian Airlines, but he didn't have one himself.
Why not?
He's scared of computers. Well, not really scared, but he doesn't
understand them. His 7-year old twin nephews did understand them,
however, and occasionally when inquiring about the computers, they
give him a response like "It's easy, Uncle Campbell, let me show you!"
It's at this point he backs off and says, "No, no, you go ahead."
He is constantly amazed by the stuff his friends show him on the
Internet, though.
He again expressed how grateful he was for the gift and how he
was apologetic for his tardiness. His character is such that he believes
in expressing his gratitude to others.
With regards to the toy itself, he was amazed at the complexity of Rampage,
and he praised Hasbro for making such a neat toy. It was a joy watching
his nephews playing with it, he said.
During the course of our conversation, the original Transformers series
came up. Campbell was familiar with the series, and he thought it was
okay. I, personally, agreed with him that it was fine, but only until
the third season, when the original characters were gone.
Staying within the context of the third season, we then talked about
Sue Blu, who, of course, made her debut as Arcee. Campbell had high
praises for Sue as the voice director. Apparently, he had five
sessions with her as director when he played Skeletor on He-Man. He
said she was a great voice actor and a great director. It is very hard
to jump from voice acting to directing, for the actor needs to bury his
or her own ego. Sue managed to bury her ego very well, and she can
bring the best out of everyone.
All in all, he was very gracious and kind.
CREDITS
This project would not have been a success without the help of the group
of fans Doug initially contacted. Whether it was coordination, a toy,
finding a willing fan with the toy, or simply providing words of encouragement,
this was a team effort from the very beginning.
Extra special thanks go to the head contacts of this operation:
And here are the rest who participated in this project (in alphabetical order):
You can see more pictures of the opening in the next part....
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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