Botcon: More Than Meets The Eye

In the mid-’80s you woke up each Saturday morning, tugged on a pair of jams and participated in The Ritual: Crunch Berries and Transformers. It was the most magical part of your week, and somewhere, in a one-off galaxy, Cybertron was maliciously birthing new Autobots and Decepticons, terrible ones that would someday be responsible for the current follow-up film series. Why didn’t that comet just destroy Cybertron and leave us the purity of the original toy, comic book and cartoon line we had decades ago? I don’t know, but I’ll go ahead and blame Megatron, warranted or not. April 25 through Sunday, the Hyatt Regency Dallas, 300 Reunion Blvd., is hosting a party for the city’s pastiest people, Transformers collectors. Hasbro’s rolling deep with toys, inductions into the Transformers Hall of Fame (yep, it exists) and even a diorama competition at Botcon, the annual celebration of Transformers. There will be panels and workshops with “insiders” who will answer your hard-hitting questions, such as “When will this film series end? Like, for real?” Botcon runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sunday; tickets range from $10 to $20. Visit botcon.com for more information and complete schedule.

Sat., April 28, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sun., April 29, 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., 2012