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Retro Con 2015 Charity Auction
If you’re an 80’s cartoon aficionado, you won’t want to miss Retro Con’s charity auction this year! Voice actor (and Retro Con 2013 guest) Neil Ross has generously donated his remaining scripts from his voice-over work from back in the day. We have sorted through these and put together a catalog of them to be auctioned off at the show!
These are genuine dialogue scripts used by Neil in the recording studio while working on such classic shows as Transformers, GI Joe, and Voltron! Some include the call sheets, and many have hand-written notes in the sidebars and even the occasional doodle or other artifact. Many of these scripts also have differences to what made it into the final episodes, such as alternate lines of dialogue, and some instances where lines (and even scenes) were removed altogether from the finished shows! As huge fans of these shows ourselves, these scripts have made for most interesting reading!
And to make the scripts even more interesting, we have sent them out to several other voice actors that worked on these series, who have kindly autographed them for us! A special thanks to Neil Ross, Michael Bell, Corey Burton, Sue Blu, Alan Oppenheimer, Gregg Berger, Paul Eiding, Zack Hoffman, Morgan Lofting, John Moschitta, BJ Ward, Jack Angel, and Frank Welker for their assistance on this charity project!
The event will be held on Saturday afternoon at the show, and our auctioneer will be none other than America’s favorite fast talker himself: John Moschitta Jr!
100% of proceeds earned will be donated amongst a few different charities. These include Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), Cat Angel Network (a no-kill cat rescue in southeast PA), and other charities that will be selected by our 2015 guests who have participated in this auction project.
Retro Con 2015 Commercial by SEO Toy Review!
Our friend Kevin Jones from SEO Toy Review has created this awesome stop-motion commercial to help us promote Retro Con 2015! It includes voice acting by Retro Con guests John Moschitta Jr, Larry, Kenney, and Doug Stone!
A huge thanks to them all for lending their talent to this promo!!
Retro Con 2015 Commercial by NGSMOOV
Check out a cool Retro Con 2015 commercial created by Randall Ng of NGSMOOV, with voices by John Moschitta Jr., Michael McConnohie, and Larry Kenney! A big thanks to them all for lending their talent!!
Live Taping of Captain Kyle’s Cosplay Spotlight at Retro Con!
Join the fun as Captain Kyle’s Cosplay Spotlight records a LIVE episode of their show at Retro Con 2015!
Be part of the live audience… cheer… groan… laugh… as Captain Kyle interviews a cosplayer TWICE… first as the character, and then as the cosplayer behind the costume!
Captain Kyle will be scouting the con on Sunday for a cosplayer to interview… could it be you? If you know your character and can play the role well, you might be chosen to be on this very special episode! Plus throughout the day Constance will be interviewing cosplayers, taping trivia battles and much more!
Don’t miss the first taping of this show live at a con… and not just any con… RETRO CON!!
Check out their commercial at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ_0Izlzkvw
Cinevore Studios at Retro Con!
The Cinevore gang will be hosting a panel at the show on Saturday called…
“Children of the ‘80s”
Presented by Stephanie Yuhas, Matt Conant. Michael Licisyn & Sarah Braun
In their own words…
“The movies, shows, games, and toys we surround ourselves with as children can directly shape our personal, social and professional decisions made throughout our lives.
Our panelists’ love of pop culture lead them from being fans to filmmakers that produce projects involving the Philadelphia Phillies, Nintendo, LEGO, Dungeons & Dragons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Wars, Back to the Future, and Mystery Science Theater 3000 Turkey Day (but not all at the same time. Boy, that would be bananas).
Learn why we take pride in our nerdy hobbies, how we’ve shaped them into careers and lifestyles, and how to do the same with your own passions. Join the conversation!”
Signing at the Cinevore booth will follow immediately after panel.
About the Panelists…
Stephanie Yuhas learned English from Bugs Bunny cartoons, and her interest in video games, Dracula, and Barbies led to the publication of her first book, American Goulash.
Matt Conant’s experiences designing worlds in games like Civilization and Dungeons & Dragons helped him become a successful entrepreneur and filmmaker at Cinevore Studios.
Michael Licisyn’s childhood love of both retro gaming and baseball has shaped his career to this day as the creator of Living in 8-Bits and editor at the Philadelphia Phillies.
Sarah Braun’s early years playing role-playing games developed her skills and personality as an award-winning actress.
We look forward to seeing what Cinevore brings to the show and we thank them immensely for coming back for another year!
Author Caseen Gaines to attend Retro Con 2015!
We welcome pop culture author Caseen Gaines to Retro Con 2015!
Caseen is author of the book We Don’t Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy, which was published this June to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the popular film franchise, as well as the year Marty travels to in Back to the Future Part II!
The book has received praise from New York Times bestselling author Ernest Cline (Ready Player One and Armada), and has been featured by NPR, The Hollywood Reporter, Vanity Fair, Entertainment Tonight, People Magazine, and other national publications!
His first book, Inside Pee-wee’s Playhouse, received the 2012 Independent Publisher Book Award Silver Medal winner in the Popular Culture / Leisure category. Playhouse, and it’s follow up, A Christmas Story: Behind the Scenes of a Holiday Classic, which includes a foreword from Wil Wheaton, has received positive reviews from Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and journalists from The Village Voice, In Touch Weekly, VH1, and The TV Guide Network.
Caseen will have a table at the show for attendees to purchase his books and have them signed by the author. The themes of his books are perfectly in line with what Retro Con is all about, so we thank him for reaching out to us to be part of the show this year!
Caseen can be found on Facebook (www.facebook.com/caseengaines), Twitter, and Instagam (both @caseengaines), and at his own website: http://www.caseengaines.com/
Eric “The Smoke” Moran at Retro Con 2015!
We welcome our good friend Eric Moran to our 2015 guest list!
Puppeteer Jim Martin to Attend Retro Con!
“Well… HELLO There!
This Gary Gnu
And The No Gnews IS Good Gnews Show!
The Only TV Program Guaranteed To Contain No Gnews Whatsoever!”
But if you were a kid in the 80’s, you most likely remember a little TV program called The Great Space Coaster. The show with the super-catchy theme song and eclectic cast of characters ran for 250 episodes from 1981 to 1986 and is still widely revered to this day. Well, Jim had the distinction of puppeteering and voicing fan-favorite “No Gnewscaster” Gary Gnu on the series!
With a tendency to add a hard “G” sound to words such as “g-naturally” and “g-nice”, in his segments Gary would introduce film clips of weird sporting events, people in silly situations, bizarre inventions, etc., and would give his own insightful commentary on them. Things would be punctuated by Gary’s “film crew” that would often heckle him and toss items into frame.
A few years ago, Jim bought the rights to The Great Space Coaster and is working hard to digitize the 2 inch reel-to-reel video tapes that contain the last remaining copies of the original series. Since TGSC is a time capsule of the 80’s, including iconic music and celebrity appearances, it is definitely worth preserving!!
Behind the scenes with Gary Gnu, plus a cameo on TGSC by Mark Hamill circa 1981!
Yo Joe! The Voice of Duke, Michael Bell, to attend Retro Con 2015!
We’d like to welcome the venerable Michael Bell to Retro Con 2015!
With nearly 60 years of professional acting experience (over 40 of them as a voice actor), Michael is a true legend in the industry! Though widely known for his voice work, you may also have seen Michael in character parts in such classic TV shows as Get Smart, The Monkees, CHiPs, Three’s Company, Charlie’s Angels, and Star Trek. Michael also ran his own voice acting workshop, which he used to train well-known voice actors such as Cam Clarke and Corey Burton, and he also currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Screen Actors Guild. He is married to actress Victoria Carroll, and you may also know of their daughter, actress Ashley Bell!
Michael’s most notable role for retro fans is probably that of First Sergeant Conrad “Duke” Hauser in the Sunbow GI Joe: A Real American Hero cartoon series! He voiced the confident field leader of the Joe team in the two original miniseries, both seasons of the syndicated tv show, and in the GI Joe animated movie (1987). Though originally written to be killed off in the movie, a severe backlash over the death of Optimus Prime in the Transformers movie spurred producers to spare the character of Duke. So in lieu of dying in a battle with Serpentor, Duke would slip into a coma and later reawaken.
Michael gave voice and personality to several other Joe and Cobra characters on the show too: Major Bludd, Scrap-Iron, Xamot, Blowtorch, and many more!
Mr. Bell is also popular for his work on G1 Transformers, with his most prominent role arguably being military strategist Prowl! A highly capable Autobot, Prowl was known for his straight-laced and logical personality. He also stood out with his unique police-themed robot and car design. Unfortunately, Prowl met his demise in the 1986 Transformers movie at the hands of a Decepticon raiding party while co-piloting an Autobot shuttle on its way to Earth. ☠
And just like GI Joe, Michael also provided voices for many other characters on Transformers as well! Among them were Dinobot Swoop, warrior Sideswipe, Insecticon Bombshell, and Constructicon leader Scrapper.
Other highlights in Mr. Bell’s voice acting career include: Zan of the Wonder Twins (along with space monkey Gleek), Lance and Sven on Voltron, Chas Finster on Rugrats, Handy, Grouchy, and Lazy Smurf, and Plastic Man!
Michael will be on hand all weekend to sign autographs for retro fanatics, so bring along your cartoon memorabilia! Michael is also a huge animal rights activist, so we will be donating part of the totals of the Retro Con 2015 charity auction to an animal foundation of his choice!
The Nostalgia Critic & Angry Video Game Nerd to attend Retro Con 2015!
We are pleased to announce the return of two Retro Con alumni for this year’s show: Doug Walker, aka The Nostalgia Critic, and James Rolfe, aka The Angry Video Game Nerd!
Though at one time they shared a faux rivalry, they’ve always remained good friends and now often collaborate on videos together. One of the more recent being an extended review of the 2014 TMNT movie!
“I remember it so you don’t have to!”
Doug Walker is best known for his video reviews as ‘The Nostalgia Critic’. The show involves the title character looking back at movies and tv shows from the 80’s and 90’s, and pointing out why they may not be quite as classic as we remember them. He also reviews newer movies, along with oddities from the past such as this crazy animated Titanic movie featuring a rapping canine! With humorous insights and a frenetic style, the show has been a huge hit since 2008 and is still going strong. You can check out his team’s work over at Channel Awesome!
“What were they thinking?!”
James is best known for his hilarious reviews of classic video games as the character ‘The Angry Video Game Nerd’, which mix together insightful commentary, over-the-top language, physical comedy, and various theatrical elements. In addition he’s made videos reviewing retro movies, toys, board games, and more. Last year he also released a feature-length movie based around his AVGN character. Check out his team’s huge body of work over at Cinemassacre.com!
Doug will be available at the show both Saturday and Sunday for autographs and pictures. He will also be hosting a Q&A panel on Sunday afternoon.
James will be at the show for autographs and pictures on **SUNDAY ONLY** and will be signing from 11am to 2pm. James will be part of the same Q&A panel as Doug at 2pm.
PRE-REG NOW LIVE!
Vendor Table Info Below!
Sponsors!
Retro Con would like to thank all those that helped to sponsor this show!
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98.5 WXPM The Phoenix
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The Retro Network
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Rediscover The 80s
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Friends of Retro Con!
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The Breaux Show
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Fandom Spotlite
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Toy Spotlite
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The Very Best
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retrocons.com 