DE 
EN 
If you happen upon a Transformes Fan Convention, you never quite know what you get upon entering the door. Sure, there will be lots of tables full of Transformers figures. That’s pretty much why you go there in the first place. One or more special guests will be there, too, one can safely assume. A lot of fellow fans, naturally, with whom you can chew the fat and compete for the limited number of rare exclusive figures or whatnot. But just like with Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, a C.O.N.S. can sometimes contain more than you expect.
Because let’s be honest: who ever expected to see a figure display from a third party company at a German TF fan convention, including a presentation with never-shown-before prototype pictures to boot? Certainly not me. Thanks to Fans Hobby, though, we got a big package full of display figures. Sure, we couldn’t keep them, and we did have to send out Reyjin for some hot glue, but it was still great. It also offered me the opportunity, after eleven straight turns as the convention’s show master, to finally work on building up my successor. The Fans Hobby presentation was co-hosted by my show master apprentice Reyjin, who did a great job up there.
But we were talking about surprises and the unexpected. What surprised me, for instance, was the great T-shirt worn by John-Paul Bove, who graced us the sixth year in a row. And John-Paul is a great guy not opposed to wearing an in-joke from last year on his chest (hint: 368, for those who were there). Unexpected, on the other hand, was Jack Lawrence’s confession that most of the fans at various conventions around the world just want him to draw kissing robots these days. But the biggest surprise came from Frederic Pham Chuong, who tore down the house by casually presenting a concept drawing of a maybe, possibly, hopefully soon-to-be-made Knight Rider crossover Transformer. He really blew us away.
Of course not all surprises are positive. Sadly the participation in this year’s cosplayer contest was surprisingly low, but to make up for the lacking numbers the two kids who did turn up really gave their all as Bumblebee (the Pretender version, I assume, given the human face) and Bavarian-Bee (wearing a Dirndl dress). And speaking of Bumblebee: while it was not surprising that he had a hefty presence in this year’s raffle once again, but the things he was represented by… well, let’s just congratulate the winners of the relaxing Bumblebee Bubble Bath (what better way to relax after a C.O.N.S.?) and the Bumblebee Eau de Toilette (to mask that penchy C.O.N.S. sweat). Really, who needs a Zeta Toys Dinokong if he can have those things instead? Well, my niece, among others, who was really disappointed that she did not win “the Dragon”.
Not really surprising, but interesting: Germany’s most beloved Transformers character is, apparently, Soundwave. We determined this in this year’s live episode of the Teutonicons on stage. Using a representative survey of the thousands upon thousands of guests, Soundwave came out the clear favorite. We also learned that most of those present started out as original Geeewunnners (hardly surpriring) and that there are practically no fans of G2 (not surprising at all).
Of course we would also like to offer our thanks to Hasbro, who sadly did not have a representative on location this year, but once again came through with a big number of toys that went directly into the raffle. Said raffle ran like a well-oiled machine this year, thanks to not one but two hard-working assistants, who handed out the goods almost faster than we could draw the numbers on stage.
To bring our topic about surprises to a close now: what was not surprising in the least was that Lucy and Alex came through for the eleventh year in a row and put on a great show for us all. Extra brownie points to Alex, who did all this with a bad back. Thankfully the CONS is supported mostly by her nerves, not her shoulders. Just as unsurprising: the entire team did a great job this year, too. Well, mostly. The supposed ironclad rule that everyone who touches the Fans Hobby display figures will be put to death immediately was not applied consistently. Well, there is always next year, isn’t there?
And speaking of next year, there is one more surprise yet in store. After four years we are now living the Kolpinghaus in Viersen behind and moving our convention to the Krahnendonkhalle in Neuwrk. Close by, but three times the size and with its own parking lot to boot. So we’re talking broader corridors, more vendors, and many, many more Transformers. What more can you possibly ask from a box of chocolates anyway?
See you next year than, October 11, 2020. Until then, I remain humbly yours,
Phil
Update 2020: As it would turn out, something called Covid-19 came along in early 2020 and the next C.O.N.S. convention would not take place until 2022.
