How I made the Cybcon 2004 exclusive Bumblebees
by crazysteve
When I think about the last two years of my life I feel I've been very lucky. I've met amazing, talented people and I've been fortunate enough to learn from them and use their influence and inspiration in my creations. I've been able to take a little hobby of mine and through that hobby I've been able to share a piece of myself-if not with the world, at least with a bunch of guys from Washington!
It's amazing to me how many influences came together to shape the course of what I thought was going to be just another simple personal kitbash. Sometimes our ideas are bigger then ourselves, and when they take flight the end result is much more than we ever expect. That's exactly what happened when I decided I'd make myself a transforming cybertronian Bumblebee, which ended up being the exclusive toy for a fan convention called Cybcon.
I'm not some expert toymaker or someone with any engineering background. I'm just a guy who thought it would be cool to make a toy representation of a transforming vehicle from an old cartoon that never got officially made. I'm an amateur resin caster who's only been at it for a little over a year and a half. It's always been my belief that if I really want to do something and I'm dedicated to seeing it through, then lack of training or experience doesn't matter. If I'm really lucky then there'll be a few other people who like what I'm doing, too!
What I was totally unprepared for and what I never imagined would happen was that two guys running a fan convention in Washington would believe in me enough to give me a shot at making their convention exclusive. And when they asked, I'm sure they didn't expect me to say I could make them an original transforming robot toy. So my thanks to Greg Gaub and Richard Mistron, who had faith that a total stranger could deliver on such an enormous promise. But that's getting ahead of myself.
With this webpage I want to show how I made the Cybcon 2004 convention exclusive Bumblebee, and along the way I want to tell the story of how my least likely idea ended up becoming my most famous.