Friends of Voices of Cybertron!
The Friends of VOC was inspired by a joke in ToyFare, the FOOT (Friends Of Ol' ToyFare). Playmates and other personalities the staff writers or frequent readers happened to meet would pose with an issue of ToyFare and get their own spotlight. Well, we decided to go a step better and get personalities that actually worked on Transformers properties to endorse VOC. Besides, which would you rather have--a Playgirl hunk posing with Issue One, or Scott McNeil? (Come to think of it, some ladies might consider that to be practically the same thing!!!)
Meet
our newest Friend of VOC!
Our latest
Friend of Voices of Cybertron is the gentleman at the far
right--and he is none other than Wally Burr, the voice director
for the original series and "Transformers: the Movie".
(Mike McConnohie is in the middle, and the short dude on the left
is Peter Cullen sans cowboy hat.) In addition to being the force
behind the voice actors' performances for the G1 cartoon, Wally
also keeps archives of production materials he and the cast used
for the series. He stays busy recording for new video games and
cartoon series...read some of his credits
here
!
Now meet the rest of the gang...
Our first
Friend of VOC, seen in the middle wearing the cowboy hat, is
actually an honorary recipient. Peter Cullen, voice of the
original (many would say only) Optimus Prime and currently the
voice behind Cartoon Network's Toonami, sat down with us
at BotCon '97 when this photo was taken. This was actually two
years before VOC was even in the works, but he was kind enough to
give us some of his time that Saturday--and as busy as Peter is,
that was a definite treat. To his right is VOC editor Daryn
Broussard and to his left is VOC editor Sharon "Tut"
LaBorde.
We called it first! On the right is Scott McNeil, everyone's favorite Beast Wars voice actor and all-around loveable screwball. To the left is Kirby Morrow, who at the time of this photo--Labor Day 2001--had no Transformers titles to his credit. A year later, though, he got the role of Rad, one of the kids in Armada. As a congratulation, we signed an art print for him "Good for Unlimited Robot Points".
SSay hello
to Neil Kaplan, left, and Peter Spellos, right, both voice actors
for Robots in Disguise. Neil was RiD Optimus Prime, and
Peter was Skybite. They got to look around the dealer room at
BotCon 2002, which is typically rare for guest actors. They're
both happy to stop and talk with fans, and insist on going by
first names. Said Peter Spellos, "I live in an apartment
with two cats and I wash my own dishes; just call me Peter."
In the foreground obviously are VOC's own tired/stoned-looking editors, but the very sweet lady behind us is Melodee Spevack. She didn't do any Transformers voices, but she attended BotCon 2K2 with Mike McConnohie, voice of Tracks and Cosmos. She also had a role in Digimon--in fact, she scribbled on the back of her guest tag, "I'm just a Digimon, ignore me"! She made sure Mike got the print seen in this photo, and also took time to give us some great stories and insights into voice acting. Her Flipper impression turned a few heads in the dealer room, too...!
This is the best TF costume EVER, and ironically it
wasn't at a BotCon! Say hi to Jace b.k.a. Starscream, who graced
fans with an appearance at Project A-kon 14. Starscream certainly
got some attention there, having to stop practically every few
feet for photo ops--ah, the price of fame!
Each year we go new places and meet new Friends, and when we do you'll be sure to find them here!
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