Talking Iacon One with Malin Huffman

With Iacon One just a few days away, I decided to talk to Malin Huffman again to see how things were coming along. Since the last time we talked a lot of news about Iacon One has come out, and I wanted to get Malin’s thoughts about it.

: Before I start to ask you question Malin, I would like to thank you again for agreeing to do a second interview. I have really enjoyed working with you on the last interview and helping get the word out about Iacon One.

Malin Huffman: Thanks for your interest... Seibertron has been a great partner in covering Iacon One and I really appreciate it.

: With Iacon One right around the corner how are you feeling?

Malin Huffman: A mixture of excitement, relief, frenzied activity, and plain exhaustion, really! (in no particular order)

: So far the souvenir sets of the Golden disks and Megatron’s disk projector have received a positive from the fandom. How did the idea for these to be the convention souvenir’s come about?

Malin Huffman: t began with the usual crazy brainstorming... there's no lack of cool things to do, just time/money.
As it turned out, the Lukis brothers from unicron.com had the golden disks in mind, and by combining resources we were also able to also pull off the projector to interact with the disks and the Transmetal Megatron figure. The result is a set that I think every Beast Wars fan will enjoy.

The announcement of the projector seemed to get more buzz than the earlier announcement of the disks themselves, which surprised me - I don't know if it was the fact that it adds more play value than just putting the disks in a hand/claw, or that it was the last piece in the set so people were responding to it all as a whole, or something else entirely...

: fter the convention will the souvenirs be for sale to those who did not attend Iacon One?

Malin Huffman: If there are leftovers, we'll offer them for sale. Got to pay the bills, and my closet has enough junk in it!

: Out of all the souvenirs being offered, which one is your favorite and why?

Malin Huffman: The golden disks... they turned out just right. "Show accurate", the real metal look/feel, and it's pretty cool to have hundreds of them in my living room right now!

Don's art for our autograph prints is cool too... we've shown a partial black and white preview, but at this point, I'm keeping the full art and the color versions a surprise for people to see at the show, because that sort of thing is fun.

: With Iacon One only a short time away will there be anymore announcements or surprises about souvenirs, guests, or events, or have you already announced everything?

Malin Huffman: We're pretty much done in that department - what, 5 big name guests and two cool souvenir options isn't enough?

One item of interest is that our art/exhibiit room will feature some cool Transformers-related rarities, including Armada/Energon/Cybertron character concept art and color guides, and from Transformers: The Movie, storyboards and parts of Vince DiCola's original musical score, which I obtained a couple of years ago.

We did have some plans that had to be scrapped late in the game to keep the budget under control, because to be honest the pre-reg. response to the show wasn't as strong as I expected. Some of that stuff will hopefully see the light of day in the future.

: If you could give Transformers fans one reason to go to Iacon One, what would it be?

Malin Huffman: Guests are the main reason I go to a con - to meet the people behind the screen, page, creative process, etc.
Other attractions are great - however, souvenirs you can usually get somewhere else if you really want them, even if you pay a little more, friends you can always arrange to see or talk to. But an appearance by professional guests doesn't happen every day, that's a reason to get out of the house and come to the con, especially when it's as affordable as Iacon One.

Our guest list should have something for everyone. We've got both 'old favorite' and new guests.

We've got 3 extremely nice voice actors on hand to celebrate Beast Wars, a series that still holds up 10 years later as an example of good characterization and storytelling. It can appeal to different audiences on different levels, and that's one reason it's still so highly regarded.

Venus hasn't attended a TF con since BotCon 2000, this is David's first TF convention appearance, and Scott's - well, first TF con of the summer - but as I said when we announced him, how can you have a Beast Wars celebration without Scott McNeil?

Don's the hottest Transformers artist of the day, and Bob's about to come full circle with a new TF comics project courtesy of IDW. I think it's a tough act to top!

: What is the one event at Iacon One that you are looking forward to the most and which one do you think the fans will like the most?

Malin Huffman: Well, as I said, for me it's first and foremost about the guests.
With that in mind, I'm looking forward to the Beast Wars anniversary celebration event on Saturday night (sorry, for pre-registrants only!) Beyond the regular Q&A, it'll be a chance to relax a little more with the voice actors, we'll watch some video clips and get their commentary/feedback on their own performances, which should be entertaining and bring some more stories to light from the Beast Wars production days.

: Last time we talked you mentioned a charity auction for Hasbro Children’s Hospital, something I think is great. How is that coming along, and how can fans who want to help but can not go to Iacon One help out?

Malin Huffman: We have put together a list of items for the auction, mostly related to our guests for obvious reasons. Attendees and dealers are also welcome to donate items. Proceeds will be donated to the HCH.

If you won't be at Iacon One but would like to help support this worthy cause, you might consider making a personal donation directly to the HCH, in our name. For more information, visit their web site: http://www.lifespan.org/hch/donors/

: Also last time you mentioned you would like to be a fan organization/event that gives back to the community. Can we expect to hear more about that in the near future?

Malin Huffman: We'd planned for the 'good works' angle to be a larger part of Iacon One's message this year, but as with some of our more ambitious guests/souvenir ideas, budget concerns and the number of signups limited what we could do. Our donation will be smaller than I hoped, but we'll do it. I still think it's a good 'mission' for a fan activity and if we can find a way to make it work in the future, we will.

: If you had to guess right now, do you think there will be an Iacon One next year?

Malin Huffman: In the form it existed this year? No. If there's another Iacon One, it will be a different sort of beast.
In the short term, I'm looking forward to turning my attention to other projects. As with any experiment, there were things that went well and things that didn't, and if we do another event we'll refine, most notably just getting started earlier. I don't think our plan this year was unrealistic, but certain things took much longer to get confirmed than they needed to, and that in turn put other things behind and made the last month or so very hectic. I'll talk more about the nuts and bolts at the organizers' panel on Saturday.

: Once again thank you Malin for doing this interview. I wish you the best and hope Iacon One is very successful. I also hope to be working with you again real soon.

Malin Huffman: In closing, I hope that anyone within driving distance will consider coming to the show on Saturday the 8th.
We'll be open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., just $15 to get in the door, shop our dealer hall, and check out our guest panels, the MSTF parody sessions, and art exhibit, and purchase our golden disk souvenirs and autographs.

You can still purchase admission in advance on our web site (http://www.iaconone.com).

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