Today was the big day. My second Transformers con (third if you count the mini-con held in Predaking’s apartment, I kinda don’t). After four and a half hours by train I arrived at the hotel in Uppsala, ready for Auto Assembly Europe 2011.

Arriving right on schedule, I was happy to see the con hadn’t started, so there was some time to piece my Supreme Smokescreen together in the lobby.

Having entered as one of the last participants, I entered a room filled with Transformers fans browsing the seller tables. There was a lot to choose from: a huge bunch of everything (the fan sales table, where I also had some stuff to sell), a collection of pretty much all the Transformers video games, another largish selection of random stuff, and a table specifically for Japanese classics (Henkei, United and some E-hobby). People were already scouring the tables and a Fortress Maximus I spotted briefly was sold almost right away.

With everything settled down, there was a rather nice Q&A session with Simon Furman, lead writer of the comics since way back. I scheduled an interview with him for tomorrow for a more in-depth discussion, but there were some nice tidbits about the upcoming Transformers #80.5 and #81, following up on the original series.

Simon Furman (left) told a story about how they sent a fake storyline to Hasbro around 1990, for April Fools, just to see how much they cared at that point. Apparently not enough to see anything strange with an exploding sheep…

There was a charity auction, the first of two. The stuff I was waiting for didn’t show up, so I saved my money for now. Instead I took a look at the tables, and eventually bought a Henkei Jetfire (to replace the one I repainted into Dreadwing), a Classics Bumblebee (that will be turned into Goldbug), the rather ugly Titanium Ultra Magnus to fill in my movie shelf, and near the end of the evening a pack of Transformers themed Hostess cakes (!). I felt much like a scavenger or an evil doctor, looking for suitable parts for my builds, as I’ve mostly bought the figures I actually want at this point. If only there could have been a G1 Shockwave…

For dinner I called a friend and we went out to discover Uppsala cuisine. Well, we were trying to but the place we wanted was full, so we visited a Mongolian BBQ place and had a great meal, but I’ve been there before so it wasn’t entirely new. After a quick walk to the local hangout we played a few Street Fighter IV matches before it was time to return.

Back at the hotel there were a few more events. A taping of a voice actor show was shown. Some funny stuff but I don’t generally care much for the cartoon or its actors. Luckily there was a bunch of Beast Wars, a show I’ve actually watched. There was also a competition to recognize voices, which I sat out on for the same reason. I’m taking my chances with the kitbash competition tomorrow. A selection of various fan-made funny stuff was also shown.

So far, a pleasant stay, and I’ve actually earned some money so far, as all of the things I brought with me have been sold. So I’m well below my budget, but I just wish the shop could have brought some Masterpieces. Then… I wouldn’t be.