He’s felt a supernatural kinship with the giant alien robots since they came to Earth in 1984, but Optimus Prime waited for a special occasion to officially complete his transformation.
“I changed my name to Optimus Prime when I was 30,” explains the Ohio military firefighter -- formerly Scott Edward Nall -- who’s served with the Navy and now the National Guard in Iraq and Afghanistan. “I wanted to do something outlandish for my birthday.”
This weekend, he’ll join a legion of other hugely devoted fans here for Savcon, a first-of-its-kind Transformers event at the Hilton Garden Inn Savannah/Midtown. Prime’s appearance at the convention will mark the conclusion of a key mission he recently initiated -- flying a fire rescue drone in Savcon’s honor over Afghan airspace.
“Since Sean Klabunde is doing all this hard work for Savcon, I got together with the drone unit at Forward Operating Base Spin Boldak,” Prime explains. “They actually flew the new (Transformers) toy up inside a Tigershark drone on a mission for me.”
Now Prime is Savannah-bound to present that toy to Klabunde, the convention’s founder, along with a signed certificate from the entire unit.
“He’s such a positive role model,” Klabunde, 41, says of Optimus Prime -- both his firefighter buddy and the chief Autobot who is his namesake.
“It’s an awesome thing.”
DINOSAUR JR
Optimus Prime the robot has been depicted as everything from a fire engine to a Lamborghini racer.
But his original tractor-trailer form is what hardcore Transformers fans seem to love most. That was back in the early 1980s, when the bots took off with “The Transformers” animated series, which counted among its now-canonical voice actors Gregg Berger, one of Savcon’s inaugural speakers.
“My association with Transformers goes all the way back to the original series,” Berger explains.
Since then, he's voiced a Rolodex of classic characters including Garfield's best bud Odie and Eeyore in "Kingdom Hearts 2" and other Disney projects.
Yet it’s Berger’s work as Grimlock, a cocky Transformer who moonlights as a butt-kicking mecha T-Rex, that’s earned him an extra-special place in the pantheon.
“The Transformers following is mind-bending in its loyalty and its size worldwide,” he says.
Among those fans Berger helped bring into the fold is Frankie B. Washington, an illustrator for Transformers and other robot-centric products who’s so overjoyed by superpowerful automatons he practically shouts at you.
“I’m of the generation where I remember watching it as a kid back in the early ’80s,” says Washington, whose work for Savcon will be featured on the cover of this week’s DO. “For me, when I saw (Grimlock), that was the moment.
“I’ve always been a Godzilla fan -- giant monsters, giant robots. I was like, ‘OK, thank you, got me!’”
For Robert Springer of Jonesboro, a super fan who regularly contributes to a popular Transformers podcast and is a preregistered Savcon attendee, it was love at first sight.
“I came inside from playing, and they showed this commercial for them,” Springer recalls of one grade-school afternoon, “and I was just kind of mesmerized. The next day at school we had to take standardized testing, and I was already doodling them.”
That first impression never faded.
“I’m 34, and practically my whole life since then has been devoted to Transformers,” he says, laughing. “Maybe I’m crazy.”
“When I teach, which I do irregularly now, I tell students, ‘Treat everything you do as though someone decades from now will remember it fondly,’” adds Berger, noting a host of Transformers appearances -- many international -- keep his schedule full all these years later.
“I was kinda the new kid when that show was cast. It changed my life.”
FAMILY TIES
Berger wasn’t the only one. A majority of Savcon figures, it seems, ascribe a fundamentally transformative power to their robot heroes.
“I played with my Transformers till the paint came off,” Prime recently told BotCollector.com, a Transformers fan site. “My father, Edward, passing away was very traumatic to me. Optimus Prime kinda stood like my dad -- he sounded like him.
“He was filling a void in my childhood. I didn’t have any other males in my life at the time.”
Klabunde’s Transformers origin story is similar.
“If you were a latch-key kid like I was,” he explains, “these things actually became your surrogate mother and father. You were learning right and wrong, you were learning about emotion and passion.”
That close-knit feeling carries over to today, Klabunde says -- and it’s one of the prime reasons he’s driven full-speed into making Savcon a reality.
“If you get the chance to meet a person in the Transformers fandom, it’s like family,” he explains. “All you have to do is say it and everybody knows where you’re coming from.”
It’s a kind of magic that’s unique to Transformers among all the influential work he’s been a part of, Berger says.
“For decades, audiences have held this show close, cared about the characters and stayed loyal. Conventions have become gathering places for those audiences and have given them an up-close and personal connection to the franchise.”
TEAMING UP
So what exactly will that up-close connection mean for Savcon attendees?
With any new convention, it’s hard to say, but Klabunde has lined up some pretty rare finds, including appearances by Berger, Neil Kaplan and other classic voice actors, as well as some Transformers concept cars that will turn heads in the parking lot off Abercorn Street.
“We’re gonna have (two) of them,” Klabunde says, including “a Dodge Challenger named Galvatron." Bumblebee, from the 2007 Hollywood blockbuster, was going to attend but blew an engine at the last minute.
The 140-plus preregistered attendees and 400 expected walk-ups also will get to participate in “a custom Transformers contest where we’re asking people to build their own Grimlock” and see dozens of fans, known as cosplayers, dress up as Autobots, Decepticons and even some “Star Wars” favorites.
“Storm troopers, Darth Vader -- you name it, they’ll be all over the place,” Klabunde promises.
Like GnomeCon -- the recent sci-fi/fantasy event in Pooler with which Savcon shares a security team and a number of friends -- the Transformers convention also will benefit charity. But while the gnomes gathered for Live Oak Public Libraries, the Autobots will roll out for the South Georgia Chapter of The Guardians of the Ribbon, a cancer support group.
“There are really awesome people in this fandom,” Klabunde explains. “It’s a positive thing -- it’s not anything negative.”
Says Berger: “It promises to be a very well-thought-out, very well-run and very well-organized event.”
For a first-time con, it certainly has marquee support within its fan base. And if you’re still on the fence about attending, there’s always this final argument from Klabunde.
“I mean come on, dude -- they’re giant robots!”
IF YOU GO
What: Savcon, Savannah’s Transformers convention
When: 9 a.m.-11:30 p.m. June 23; 9 a.m.-7 p.m. June 24
Where: Hilton Garden Inn Savannah/Midtown, 5711 Abercorn St.
Cost: $15; children 10 and younger free with paid adult
Info: www.savcon.net