BOTCON REGISTRATION IS LIVE!!!!!

[Krayt]

Daily check paid off, complete before the club announced :o

TO REGISTER - GO HERE (http://www.botcon.com/BotCon2013/registernow.cfm). (have your credit card and membership/password details ready)

[griffin]

Thanks to the wake-up call by Demonac, I managed to register before anything was sold out.
I wasn't expecting there to still be a choice of Custom Classes, so ended up getting the Wednesday one, and the Seaworld tour on the Thursday.

It's already been charged to the credit card.... but now I just have to wait to see if their manual processing of the registrations has any issues.

[UltraMarginal]

nice work guys, I've just had a look and the custom class is still available, looks like making the figre available otherwise has slowed down custom class registration.
Get in there and register kids. :D
I hope you all have a great time this year, I wish I was going, hopefully next year.

[Krayt]

I was gonna message you Griffin, but no idea if the number i had was current.

Shoulda planned ahaed to see if you could get an extra assembled class figure once you had signed up to the class.... guess it still sucks being a non-attendee :-(

[Paul Agnew]

ended up getting the Wednesday one

Looking forward to seeing you there, Griffin. ;)

[griffin]

Looks like the perceived drop in hype and support of the official convention (going over to fan-run conventions that have locations and details out a year in advance) is definitely taking its toll. Last year they were just short on selling out of their boxsets (1500-ish - with a portion going to non-attendees), and this year the registrations appear to be even more sluggish.
They tweeted several hours after opening up registration to say that they've only sold 25% of their boxsets. Usually by the end of the first day they are 50-80% sold.
And they mentioned that the Wednesday Custom Class is not yet sold out either, which surprises me, as Wednesday always sells out so fast, it is usually listed as sold-out before they even make the official announcements. I wonder if it means that the Wednesday tour is more popular than the Thursday tour.

If they want to get more excitement in BotCon from the dedicated fans, just to sell about a thousand boxsets, they need to get more than one Transformers Fan on the Organising Team. A convention run by fans of a different fandom will keep missing the mark, and now their honeymoon period is over (riding on the success of the BotCon brand before they got it).
Either that, or they need to hand in their "official" license, so that their hands aren't tied by Hasbro needing to approve everything... which takes months for a low-priority element (to Hasbro).

[Doubledealer]

Looking forward to seeing you there, Griffin. ;)

See you both at the Wednesday custom class! :)

[gekisou]

I did my registration early in the morning so I got to everything before they sold out. However, since I can't make the classes anyway (don't ask), I got the assembled unpainted fig instead.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Sigh, maybe someday I'll see all you guys there... someday :(

[griffin]

18 & 1/2 hours after opening up registration, they've only sold 30% of the boxsets (which I includes non-attendees, and in previous years they had to wait a couple weeks before they could buy up non-attendee sets).

Also in the email they sent out a couple hours ago, there were still 2 seats left in the Thursday Custom Class. (might be gone now though)
(they also mention that there is only a few more hours to get the first-day pin... yeah, big deal)


Damn... it's gonna be a quieter convention this year if they can only get about 300 people (my estimate) to pre-register as attendees on the first day.
That's like with their club exclusive toys - the bulk of the sales are in the first day, and then very little interest after that, because their sales are by people who follow twitter, facebook and the global fan-sites, who know immediately when these things are available and purchase them that day.
I have a feeling that they will struggle to get past 50% this year... but it will be interesting to follow their updates over the next few days.

[UltraMarginal]

Perhaps they've become too greedy for their own good and have ordered a lot more sets than last year. Registration is probably a little down due to the last two years of debacles, but I'm surprised it's that much. Either way it should be fun.

[griffin]

After doing up a pre-order posting for at-show toys, I looked at the Loose set prices during Fun-Pub's time (http://gbblackrock.zzl.org/), and they've certainly been climbing.

2005 - 140
2006 - 129
2007 - 179
2008 - 189
2009 - 199
2010 - 210
2011 - 210
2012 - 250
2013 - 275

A doubling of prices makes it difficult to attract interest from other people with these, as I like to get the extra figures to help out people here. But at this year's pricing, it means an uncarded Deluxe is now $40 - not a huge increase from our Retail prices here considering it is a limited edition toy, but for Americans it is effectively triple their Retail pricing for a toy that doesn't even come carded or boxed. And that's IF a person doesn't try to make any money (profit) from the extra toys.
It is also worth noting that the loose set this year is $10 more than the Boxed set in the first two years, and close to the price in the third year, of which those prices also included the full convention experience.

[Skript]

yeah.. signed up for membership for the subscription, but was hoping to go for the non attending, saw the price..
think i need a new job to feed my addiction.
love to get my first lot of botcon sets, but with the selection, the price, the shipping.

might be worth trying to save money to actually attend next year

[griffin]

10 days after going live, FunPub have sent out an email to say that they are just up to 60% sold on the boxsets.
They also mentioned that if you are wanting a non-attendee set, they don't have many left. (but if they don't sell out, even after the convention, they will be available on their site store later)

[griffin]

Email was just sent out today to say that the non-attendee sets have finally sold out, and that there are still so many "attendee boxsets" available, that they are looking at transferring more across to the non-attendee option.
Otherwise, they will sell the extra sets at the convention, and on their site after the convention.


We have run through our allotment of Iacon (non-attending sets) and are considering moving some of the Primus attending sets over to Iacon non-attending.

However, we don't want to do this until we are confident that everyone has registered that intends on coming to San Diego. So, we will re-visit the numbers in the next few days and make a decision as how to assist those who can't come but want the figure sets.

[UltraMarginal]

it feels to me like they have a lot of sets left over, and this is a way of increasing "potential worry that I might miss out if I don't buy one now".
I think this years set is awesome, I just don't have enough funds, and I'm not going so I don't have the same compulsion to buy it.

I wonder if sales are down overall as a reflection of peoples dissapointment with credit card data loss, poor handling of nearly everything Fun Pub does.

Alternatively they could have been too greedy and ordered way too many sets...

the annual price increases are a bit hard to stomach also. that could be putting some people off.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

That's an interesting turnaround. Normally they never bother increasing the iacon sets.

I think the amount of sets available is due to funpubs crapness, a fairly niche theme this year and a bit of fallout from the drab characters of last year's botcon. Maybe they are running out of ideas.

[griffin]

Generating so many toys each year means they can run out of ideas fast. Remember the Beast Era BotCons which led into the Wreckers.... they had a story that spread over five years with a dozen toys (less than FunPub produce in one year).

1999 was the first chapter, with Sandstorm and Windrazor.
2000 followed up with a climactic battle with Unicron, featuring Shocaract and Apelinq
2001 was then the bridge between the Beast Wars and the Wreckers, with Tigatron and Arcee.
2002 set up the new Wreckers team, with Cyclonus and Cat-Scan.
2003 continued the Wreckers story, with ShadowStriker, Roulette, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.


The main problem with FunPub is that they used their GIJoe format on their Transformers venture, which meant prioritising a lot of toys as the backbone of the Convention, rather than it being the souvenirs... But that's what happens when you have a convention of one fandom, run by fans of another fandom that has a significantly different demographic, focus and demands.
Some of their better years could have been chapters over 3 or 4 years, with 3 or 4 toys each year (two with the pre-registration, and one or two at the show). But it's a business after all, and I think they've got a bit too drunk on the massive amount of money the Transformers franchise is earning them after years of earning a lot less from just the GIJoe club (I was looking at their latest GIJoe convention photos, and it is a tenth of the size of BotCon).

[Paulbot]

I'm being encouraged to take a holiday (and I do need one) so I'm reconsidering BotCon again. (Since it's fun although not relaxing)

Shouldn't the attending package be available until closer to the actual event date? I can understand a need for a cut off date but it seems a bit soon.

None of the figures are all that interesting to me though. I love the comic book art that Josh Burcham is producing but I can get that at the local comic shop.

I agree that only a few are actually required. But then I don't go for the collectables. I'm actually looking to get rid of all my BotCon toys except the Stunticons.

[UltraMarginal]

I'm being encouraged to take a holiday (and I do need one) so I'm reconsidering BotCon again. (Since it's fun although not relaxing)

Shouldn't the attending package be available until closer to the actual event date? I can understand a need for a cut off date but it seems a bit soon.

None of the figures are all that interesting to me though. I love the comic book art that Josh Burcham is producing but I can get that at the local comic shop.

I agree that only a few are actually required. But then I don't go for the collectables. I'm actually looking to get rid of all my BotCon toys except the Stunticons.

Dude, if you've got the time and the money, get over there. I'd really like to go this year, but I'm saving up my moolas for next year.
Personally I really like this years set, I think it's a pretty good use of existing molds, is is a little disjointed with the different toyline styles but they are all great molds in some way or other.

and if all else fails and you decide you don't like the figures, sell them to cover some of your cost of going to the convention.

[griffin]

An updated email was sent out (which can be seen here (http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/botcon-nonattending-allotment-and-club-updates/27202/)), confirming that more boxsets were added to the non-attendee menu order form.
They also mention that they will have some of this year's membership figure for sale as well, "on card", but a limited number.

This is because their membership toys and subscription figures are all arriving with their BotCon toys, so won't be available until after the convention in July (http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/tcc-funpub-announce-subscription-toys-due-to-ship-after-botcon-2013/27200/).

[griffin]

Another email update was sent out, letting the members know that Pre-registration cut-off is Tuesday June 11th (Texas time)... and any left over after that day will be available at the Convention.

[UltraMarginal]

Another email update was sent out, letting the members know that Pre-registration cut-off is Tuesday June 11th (Texas time)... and any left over after that day will be available at the Convention.

Hopefully there are a few left so I can pick one up next year.:D

[BigTransformerTrev]

Apparently you can get a non-attending pack, but even with a members discount it's $350 before shipping!:mad: I may have considered it for the Animated Stunticons, but no way for these obscurse Machine Wars characters