That Old Familiar Feeling

On Friday, I went in to work a bit early; we’ve been dealing with severely cold weather and dangerous wind chills. Rather than risk me getting frostbite, Prime took me in at noon, giving me a chance to shop. I wandered my store, until I came to the luggage, which was where I found a little something that caught my eye.

It was a small, under the seat carry on bag, just large enough to hold a couple of changes of clothes. It had a lined pocket, large enough for a laptop or a tablet and a smaller pocket meant for a cell phone. On either side, it had a zippered pocket, meant to hold a pair of shoes. It was simple but cute. Add to that the telescoping handle, and I was sold, even though I wasn’t going to purchase it that day.

I felt that old, familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach as I held that bag. That flutter of excitement, that twinge of anticipation.

Several days prior, I saw an ad on my Facebook feed, one for TF Con. It’s on October 26th this year and it’s in Chicago.

Chicago is drivable. Prime and I have taken day trips there. It’s not out of the question for me to attend this year. Needless to say, I hit the “Interested” button and shared it to my timeline.

It’s not an official convention. But I can’t make myself care about that. I’m excited for this and I want to go.

It also doesn’t help that HasCon won’t be held again until next year. We won’t be getting an “official” Transformers convention until 2019. Considering how unappealing HasCon is to me, I can’t say that I’m even thinking about going. (Hell, we probably won’t have to, as Hasbro might fart out the exclusives on HTS, rendering a plane ticket unnecessary. Why make the trip when the exclusives can be picked up online?)

I have to be honest: I feel burned. Not burned out, just burned. HasCon felt like a major letdown for me. It doesn’t help matters that we have another Transformers film due out this year and there won’t be a convention to go with it. For me, that’s a double burn, one that really stings.

Hasbro said they wouldn’t abandon us. Well, I feel pretty damn abandoned right now. A convention every two years feels that way. Don’t even get me started on the lack of a fan club or we’ll be here all night. (There are plenty of fans who are not happy about this. They want a club and we were promised a club. Look what hasn’t happened yet.)

I should support the official con. I know that. But the track record for HasCon is somewhat shaky. It’s been over a year and we have no club, which feels like a broken promise. I haven’t been given a reason to support this.

No, TF Con may not be official. But it’s a convention. And I can feel the one thing I didn’t feel last year when I posted about HasCon: excitement. Exclusives don’t matter to me. There are some things that can never be purchased. That feeling of anticipation is one of them.