BotCon 2022 announced - AUG 25-28

[griffin]

After a false start last year (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php/26939) with Covid cancelling their first attempt at returning as an independent unofficial convention, the new owners of the BotCon trademark have announced a convention for August this year, from the 25 to 28... in Nashville Tennessee.
(I totally missed this announcement on December 31st, because it didn't show up on the main places I browse the net, so I have had to do a fair bit of research (https://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threads/botcon-2022.1222933/) this week to catch up.)

They made the announcements through facebook (https://www.facebook.com/BotConOfficial/posts/6916839128356487) and their website has been updated (https://www.botcon.com/index.html), which includes links to the hotel for bookings.

http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2022/022501.jpg


BotCon 2022 - Nashville, Tennessee August 25-28


The BotCon 2022 hotel block is now LIVE!

BotCon returns next summer, and what better way to relaunch this legendary show than by hosting the convention at the brand new Embassy Suites in downtown Nashville, TN. This trendsetting space opens its doors in 2022 and will be the largest Embassy Suites in the United States!


* Every room available is a spacious suite featuring kitchen area, dining space, front room for entertaining, and floor to ceiling windows for an amazing view of the city.

* FREE daily made to order breakfast for all guests.

* Complimentary two-hour reception for guests each night featuring appetizers, drinks, and adult beverages.

* Level 30 Rooftop Pool & Lounge overlooking downtown Nashville.

* Multiple bars & restaurants on site.

* One block away from Nashville's amazing Entertainment District.

* Only eight miles from Nashville International Airport.

Keeping with tradition, BotCon 2022 is a destination convention. A place to take family and friends to meet other fellow fans, and to explore all the sights and sounds of this world class city.


Be sure to check out all the info on the hotel and local attractions. If you think this is all pretty exciting, just wait until you see everything else we have planned for the show.

Do not miss the return of the worlds first and largest convention featuring everyone’s favorite robots. BotCon 2022, presented by the awesome crew at Agabyss.



Agabyss is the online store business that is the new owner of the BotCon trademark.
The hotel is very expensive, but apparently in a part of the city that doesn't have any other nearby cheaper options.
The normal nightly rate is said to be about us$400, but the discounted BotCon rate is about us$250... which is over au$360 per night!!! Including taxes, the four nights would cost over au$1600!
Plus, if you were parking at the hotel, it is an extra us$45 as a one-off parking fee.
The rooms are supposed to be all extra large (to fit 6-8 people), and has a number of included extras, but with most people going to these toy conventions often going on their own, there are no cheaper, smaller room options (even if you were able to find people to share with, you cram into a cheap room and spend most of your day out of it, and most of the day asleep). It seems that the point of this particular hotel is to be high-end and expensive, which isn't something a toy fan like me is wanting to splash out on, as the room will hardly be used when awake, and the priority of the budget is on buying toys.
So that's a lot for an event, before you even pay for the event or flights or buy anything at the event... an event that may yet prove to be on the small side if it doesn't attract too many sellers and attendees, because it is a new event without any Hasbro backing or toys. As it is, the location is very obscure for access to too many guests, unlike the events held in California, which is the home/workplace of most actors and voice actors we would see at Transformers conventions. (just look at the long rollcall of guests at the TFCon event in March, just because it is in California)

Where Nashville is located in America...
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2022/022502.jpg

The location of the hotel, which is supposed to be "downtown"...
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2022/022503.jpg

And the satellite view showing a lot of empty space taken up by carparks (notice that it is next to a building that has a roof shaped like a guitar (without the neck).
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2022/022504.jpg

Just note, if you are thinking of going and try to look up the hotel without going through the BotCon links, this is the third Embassy Suites hotel in Nashville, and being owned by Hilton, there is also at least one more Hilton hotel as well. On this map the two red Xs are the other two Embassy Suites hotels.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2022/022505.jpg

By the way, this particular hotel being used for BotCon this year... hasn't been completely constructed yet. It is supposed to be ready in time for June, as their website is taking bookings from then (https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/bnadees-embassy-suites-nashville-downtown/) (but doesn't note that it is not currently available). Apparently it was meant to be completed for January, but I guess with covid delays with construction, the opening is 6 months late. Wouldn't it be ironic if another covid variant surge delayed the completion again, preventing BotCon from happening... they probably shouldn't have had the convention on so close to its opening.
This was an image from google maps street-view from January 2021 (a year ago).
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2022/022506.jpg

And just 4 years before that (FEB 2017) that entire area was just a carpark (with another building under construction that will be on the far side of the hotel). Even the big building on the left side of the image above was still just starting to be built... making this whole intersection completely transformed to the locals in just 5 years.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2022/022507.jpg

It will be interesting to see who and what they announce over the next 6 months.
(I might have gone if covid wasn't a thing.... but it is just too much hassle and cost for something that may not amount to much, because the main things I would go for are not likely to be there.)

[griffin]

The first guest has been announced - Michael Mcconnohie (https://www.facebook.com/BotConOfficial/posts/7484677888239272) (Gen1 voice actor for Tracks and Cosmos).

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Just having a quick check for flights alone and that's somewhat expensive. Not too sure I'd be willing to bother, especially since without Hasbro backing, it is essentially just another 3rd party fan convention, something like TFcon would be more likely to grab my attention.
Plus those room, sheesh, they're pricey! bUt they sound like a small house, since they have an attached kitchen, dining and lounge area. If you were to work with some pals or taking your family along and share the cost it would be ok. But it seems somewhat excessive and not to my tastes.

[griffin]

Yeah, way too expensive, just to stay there. If you are hiring a car to use while over there, the room rate and parking fee (and tax), would be about us$500 per night... that's almost au$700 per night. Just one night there is almost the total accommodation cost for some of my years at BotCon.
The thing that this new mob seem to have forgotten, is that most attendees are wanting to be able to spend money in the dealer room, but just like FunPub (who had people spending several hundred dollars on the dozen BotCon toys), it reduces your total spending budget at the event, which the dealers wouldn't be too happy about, as they are spending a lot of money on their registrations, but have customers who have a thousand odd dollars less to spend.
And the hotels in that area are just as expensive, meaning that a cheaper hotel could be some distance away, which would be inconvenient for any evening events or early morning events.

At least the covid restrictions between the two countries are now relaxed... but I would be surprised if anyone here goes, as this is BotCon in name only, and is unlikely to have much going for it to look or feel like a previous BotCon. I think they will have limited number of guests and dealers in the dealer room, and will have some weird non-Transformers toys that would be similar to 3rd Party toys... and I would imagine that the new owner of BotCon being a toy dealer won't care too much about 3rd Party toys being at the convention, particularly if Hasbro are not going to be involved with this new convention.

[Bidoofdude]

To an outsider like me, what's the point in having the name BotCon if it's going to be a limited dealer room with no Hasbro affiliation/license for exclusives? I know those exclusives were a terrible ordeal and outrageously expensive at the time (still salty over the impossible to obtain "Rainmaker" set), and there are plenty of other reputable conventions that don't have any Hasbro affiliation, but I would think BotCon's whole thing would be that it's the "big one", the granddaddy of all the TF conventions. To return it pretty much in name only with everything that made it such a big thing and under a prohibitive pricepoint for most fans and fan families is missing the mark- they would have made major bank essentially reviving the event as it was but with more streamlined or improved versions of those old flaws.

Thing is, are there any international conventions that are worth the trek for the average Aussie fan? The big other ones I've heard of are Auto Assembly, TFCon and TFNation, but it seems like an extraordinary amount of planning, if it's even financially viable, and a large travel and length of stay burden for a lot of them.

[KELPIE]

Well to be fair, Botcon didn't start out as officially affiliated to Hasbro. So technically they are just returning to their roots.

There was probably a non-compete clause when Hasbro decided to do their own thing which I would assume has expired now, allowing them to pick up the pieces and try and get back to doing what they love. There's a fair bit of good will in the Botcon name, so it would be silly not to use it.

I still claim that Kentucky was the best Botcon.

To answer your question about an Australian going to something... You'd probably be better saving up and just going to something like San Diego or NY Comic-Con. The way the TF specific cons are structured I wouldn't suggest its worth the money any more unless you've made friends in the hobby that you want to catch up with.

[DELTAprime]

I know those exclusives were a terrible ordeal and outrageously expensive at the time (still salty over the impossible to obtain "Rainmaker" set)

I'm all for there being no "Botcon exclusive" figures from Hasbro. As terrible as it is now with limited production run figures like the Centurian Drone and the ER Coneheads, at least it's a better situation than having figures exclusive to a show most fans can never attend.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

To answer your question about an Australian going to something... You'd probably be better saving up and just going to something like San Diego or NY Comic-Con. The way the TF specific cons are structured I wouldn't suggest its worth the money any more unless you've made friends in the hobby that you want to catch up with.
Yeah, I was thinking along these lines as well.
When Botcon was Funpubbed and "official" I had some determination to go to one, but as time cranked on, I slowly came to the conclusion, that unless I arranged a trip to America as an overall holiday, it's just not really worth the effort.
And because Botcon would often be around mid-year (broadly speaking),a lot of Comic-con things would steal Botcon's thunder.

Oh, I might have to look into the Tokyo To Show actually, wonder if it's on this year.
*edit* Yes it is. But Business only.
Thinks about making up some dodgy business card...

[griffin]

Well to be fair, Botcon didn't start out as officially affiliated to Hasbro. So technically they are just returning to their roots.

There was probably a non-compete clause when Hasbro decided to do their own thing which I would assume has expired now, allowing them to pick up the pieces and try and get back to doing what they love. There's a fair bit of good will in the Botcon name, so it would be silly not to use it.

I still claim that Kentucky was the best Botcon.

To answer your question about an Australian going to something... You'd probably be better saving up and just going to something like San Diego or NY Comic-Con. The way the TF specific cons are structured I wouldn't suggest its worth the money any more unless you've made friends in the hobby that you want to catch up with.

Even though BotCon didn't become "official" until 2003, they were supported and endorsed by Hasbro from the beginning in 1994, producing exclusives and presenting panels & displays each year (except in 2004, as there was a (paid) licensed convention at the time, and Hasbro couldn't be seen to be involved in that year's BotCon).

The BotCon name is still iconic, and if Hasbro had the sense to see the value of a proper fan-run convention by working with the new BotCon people, it would draw in a lot of people (Hasbro interaction and reveals are the bigger drawcard), there is still value in the BotCon name... as a Convention, not as a brand for hocking merchandise as the new owner is doing. As one of the biggest fans of BotCon, I have no interest in buying "BotCon" merchandise that isn't "Transformers" merchandise (because they don't have licensing to do that), and doesn't have anything to do with an actual convention event, as I buy the BotCon branded items (like t-shirts) because it is a keepsake of living the event.
I know that they have had some novelty items that have proven popular over the years, but usually they have something Transformers related on the item as well.

If an Australian fan wanted to go to a Transformers convention in the next year or so, the biggest one that is exclusively Transformers would be the TFCon that they have on the West Coast or Los Angeles, as it will have the most Transformers guests (the drawback for purists though is that TFCon is mostly funded by 3rd party producers, so it is very much a "3rd party convention with Transformers guests"). Otherwise, for a convention that isn't exclusively Transformers, the SDCC is indeed one that is very popular... which can make it very difficult to get into, and expensive.

[griffin]

This kinda says it about the scope of this new event... the second BotCon guest to be announced (https://www.facebook.com/BotConOfficial/posts/7510474545659606) is someone so obscure that I didn't even know who it was (probably more because I haven't seen the Netflix cartoon, so didn't know that she was even in it) - Jeanne Carr - voice of Predacon Blackarachnia in the Netflix Kingdom cartoon.

[griffin]

All of the guests might have been announced now, and there aren't a lot (https://www.botcon.com/guests).
Then again, it could be quality over quantity...

Frank Welker - various voices (he is noted as a VIP guest, so he might not be accessible to people who don't pay for a VIP registration)
Simon Furman - writer
Bob Budiansky - writer
Michael Mcconnohie - voice of Gen1 Tracks & Cosmos
Jeanne Carr - voice of Netflix Blackarachnia
Melodee Spevack - non-Transformers roles (this version of BotCon is emphasising that they are a "all robot convention" so we could see more non-TFs guests)

Exclusives (https://www.botcon.com/exclusives). (note - the website is very slow to be updated, as all four have been revealed on social media (https://www.facebook.com/BotConOfficial/), but only two are on their website so far)
Just because they aren't partnered or supported by Hasbro, they still wanted to have toy exclusives... without resorting to unauthorised "3rd party" toys that would prevent Hasbro from having anything to do with them in the future.
So this year they have four toys that are being produced by a toy company called 52 toys, that does convertible cubes (called BeastBox and MegaBox), transforming into animals or licensed characters.
The BotCon people are saying that their exclusive redecos of four of the Megabox/BeastBox toys, homaging Transformers characters... but they aren't obvious. Again, they are probably making sure that they don't do anything obvious to upset Hasbro, because even if it is a non-Transformers mould, if it looks identical to the colours of a Transformers toy with that same beast mode, it wouldn't look good.
The toys - a white alligator (no idea what it homages), a black/purple dragon (again, no idea), an orange tiger (BW Tigatron's prototype colours), white/blue/green kangaroo (homage to Shattered Glass Soundwave).


Registration (https://www.agabyss.com/botcon-2022/) was opened up today, and about 12 hours later, they had sold out of one of the two custom classes. (25 places per class - currently 9 spots left)
It looks like guest autographs are an additional cost with this new mob, as the registration packs include autograph vouchers.
Kids 12 and under are free, while additional passes for family members that don't get any of the extras are us$90 each.

Custom Class - us$99
VIP ticket - us$495
Premium ticket - us$295
Regular ticket - (not yet up)
"Discounted" extra boxset (can be purchased with a Premium or VIP ticket) - us$245 (how is that discounted, as it is just four small toys, and the Premium ticket is just $50 extra for a lot of extras for the 3-day event)

The regular ticket:


3 Day pass for Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the show.
Name Badge/Lanyard.
All Pre-Registrants receive Agabucks (same as cash) towards the purchase of anything on the website!
Discounted ticket pricing compared to general admission/door pricing.
Access to ALL Botcon guest panels and guest autograph.


The Premium ticket:
Premium registrant ticket packages will include:


Limited 4-Figure Exclusive Botcon 2022 Convention 52Toys BEASTBOX Set with Pin.
FREE Bonus 52Toys BEASTBOX figure (Limited Edition, will NEVER be sold elsewhere ($50 value).
Friday Preview day Early Access ($55 value)
Sat/Sun Entry ($65 value)
Thursday Night Early Access to The BotCon Store.
Includes 2 autographs from participating guests.
Convention Comic Program
Ability to purchase an extra Botcon 52Toys box set now at a discounted price (see dropdown box below). These must be picked up at the show and WILL NOT be shipped.


Also included is the standard ticket package, which includes:


Name Badge/Lanyard.
All Pre-Registrants receive Agabucks (same as cash) towards the purchase of anything on the website!
Discounted ticket pricing compared to general admission/door pricing.
Access to ALL Botcon guest panels and guest autograph.


The VIP ticket:
VIP registrant ticket packages will include:


Original Exclusive Botcon 2022 print designed by legendary artist Bob Budiansky!
FRANK WELKER professional photo op with VIP access ($60 value) -provided as a digital print.
Limited edition FRANK WELKER character canvas print.
Autograph Voucher (Good for one autograph from FRANK WELKER (with VIP access) and ALL participating guests, a minimum $185 value).
VIP branded Lanyard


The VIP package also includes all Premium package contents:



Limited 4-Figure Exclusive Botcon 2022 Convention 52Toys BEASTBOX Set with Pin.
FREE Bonus 52Toys BEASTBOX figure (Limited Edition, will NEVER be sold elsewhere ($50 value).
Friday Preview day Early Access ($55 value)
Sat/Sun Entry ($65 value)
Thursday Night Early Access to The BotCon Store.
Convention Comic Program
Ability to purchase an extra Botcon 52Toys box set now at a discounted price (see dropdown box below). These must be picked up at the show and WILL NOT be shipped.


Also included is the standard ticket package, which includes:


Day passes for Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the show.
Name Badge/Lanyard.
All Pre-Registrants receive Agabucks (same as cash) towards the purchase of anything on the website!
Discounted ticket pricing compared to general admission/door pricing.
Access to ALL Botcon guest panels and guest autograph.


All registrations in the first day (to midnight of June 5th in their timezone) gets a bonus early-bird pin.

[KELPIE]

Furman and Budiansky at the same convention is a great outcome and obviously Welker is always good value.

52 toys do good stuff, I have a few of their cubes. I imagine news on their dealer floor will be important to this one.

All that said, too much money in a difficult climate for this one. Good luck to them though.

[griffin]

I am thinking that the dragon is probably coloured to homage Snapdragon. And the white alligator is homaging a proposed/unproduced toy for a 1997 Transformers convention (https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Albitron) (a white redeco of the BW alligator Megatron toy).

The promo material says that the orange tiger is an "unused 90’s color scheme", which isn't true as of the end of last year, with the Golden Disk Tigatron - so even if this toy and promo material were planned before that, they have had 6-9 months to change the wording.
(the wording in the toy reveals goes to great lengths to avoid any Transformers names, terms, or concepts when describing each figure, except the one that is homaging Shattered Glass Soundwave)


Things are already getting nasty with this new convention.
Not only will TFW refuse to post anything on their news page out of spite over the previous convention organisers (TFW post up news about several other fan conventions - they won't even allow people post new BotCon topics in the news section of their board)... but the people who run the TFCon conventions have registered a BotCon website in Canada (https://www.botcon.ca/)to convince people that TFCon is the only fan convention on this year in North America, and goes on about the benefits of TFCon. They also note as a disclaimer at the bottom, that the site is "an information resource only and not intended to infringe on any trademarks." I know that BotCon is a registered trademark in America, so it will be interesting to see if a Canadian hosted website that is marketing events within America, can really be claiming that it is not infringing on any trademarks.
Aside from the trademark issue, I think it is a really low act for one Transformers fan convention to try to undermine another Transformers fan convention. It's not a competition, and the conventions need as much support as they can get to be successful and attract support from Hasbro... which will be harder to do if fans are forced to only attend particular conventions and they all suffer in numbers. It will also mean Hasbro will be more likely to keep their distance from all conventions if they see very public nastiness from any of them.
I was a bit on the fence before with TFCon, willing to ignore their focus on promoting 3rd Party toys over the real things, for the benefit of seeing Transformers guests and feeling the atmosphere of a dedicated Transformers convention... but this side of the people running has me not wanting to support them at all now. The new BotCon people didn't appear to have targetted the TFCon convention with their promotions, and this new BotCon is not going to be anything close to being competition to TFCon, so this attempt at drawing people away from BotCon 2022 was very petty and unnecessary, and gives the fandom a bad image.

[Dkaris]

I have a few Beastbox cubes and love them. The tiger and Dragon look really cool.

[Trent]

I am thinking that the dragon is probably coloured to homage Snapdragon. And the white alligator is homaging a proposed/unproduced toy for a 1997 Transformers convention (https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Albitron) (a white redeco of the BW alligator Megatron toy).

The promo material says that the orange tiger is an "unused 90’s color scheme", which isn't true as of the end of last year, with the Golden Disk Tigatron - so even if this toy and promo material were planned before that, they have had 6-9 months to change the wording.
(the wording in the toy reveals goes to great lengths to avoid any Transformers names, terms, or concepts when describing each figure, except the one that is homaging Shattered Glass Soundwave)


Things are already getting nasty with this new convention.
Not only will TFW refuse to post anything on their news page out of spite over the previous convention organisers (TFW post up news about several other fan conventions - they won't even allow people post new BotCon topics in the news section of their board)... but the people who run the TFCon conventions have registered a BotCon website in Canada (https://www.botcon.ca/)to convince people that TFCon is the only fan convention on this year in North America, and goes on about the benefits of TFCon. They also note as a disclaimer at the bottom, that the site is "an information resource only and not intended to infringe on any trademarks." I know that BotCon is a registered trademark in America, so it will be interesting to see if a Canadian hosted website that is marketing events within America, can really be claiming that it is not infringing on any trademarks.
Aside from the trademark issue, I think it is a really low act for one Transformers fan convention to try to undermine another Transformers fan convention. It's not a competition, and the conventions need as much support as they can get to be successful and attract support from Hasbro... which will be harder to do if fans are forced to only attend particular conventions and they all suffer in numbers. It will also mean Hasbro will be more likely to keep their distance from all conventions if they see very public nastiness from any of them.
I was a bit on the fence before with TFCon, willing to ignore their focus on promoting 3rd Party toys over the real things, for the benefit of seeing Transformers guests and feeling the atmosphere of a dedicated Transformers convention... but this side of the people running has me not wanting to support them at all now. The new BotCon people didn't appear to have targetted the TFCon convention with their promotions, and this new BotCon is not going to be anything close to being competition to TFCon, so this attempt at drawing people away from BotCon 2022 was very petty and unnecessary, and gives the fandom a bad image.

Remember in its last 3 or so years when Botcon officially allied with Siebertron and wouldn’t let TFW post Botcon news? I’d say that considering there are still people involved from previous Botcons in the new one that that would have something to do with TFW’s stance. TFW has always heavily promoted TFCon, but it wasn’t at the expense of Botcon. The Botcon crew were dirty that they weren’t the only show in town. Plus also the ongoing shit fight between Pete Sinclair and anyone on twitter that dares to have an opinion on Botcon is not casting them in a good light.

[KELPIE]

I always understood that TFW had some part of running/owning TFCon?

Seibertron has never played nice in the Fandom. I remember the owner dancing with glee at Archer and the team being replaced.

[griffin]

Only 2 weeks to go for the first new BotCon... and even though I see a fair few reposts of their facebook announcements, I still don't feel the hype of this one, so I guess we just wait and see how it goes.
At least with it being held in a very red (republican) state, they won't have any restrictions or lockdowns, even if they were hit with a really contagious wave of Covid.

One thing I have noticed that is commented on frequently (https://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threads/botcon-2022-august-25-28-2022.1222933/), is the cost of staying and even the cost of parking there, particularly for the vendors/dealers, as many have trailers for their stock, that may not be easily accommodated nearby (they will have a loading dock, but where to park their trailers for a week is the problem).
The key problem is how centrally located this hotel and convention centre is, and how built up it is around it.
The location may well be good for people to be able to go out and do things, but most of the people who usually go to this sort of event who is only staying the minimum amount of time they are at the convention, don't go out beyond hunting down sources of food. And this hotel is waaaay too expensive to spend extra nights if they don't need to (if they are from out-of-town and want to be a tourist).

Fan convention organisers who claim to be fans themselves, should know that attendees don't want fancy expensive hotels, because every dollar (or hundreds of dollars) wasted on a room is money they don't have at the convention (making it profitable for the vendors to want to come back again)... and spending money at the event is one of the 3-ish main reasons for going (buying stuff, meeting friends/fans, meeting the guests). For a room that most people spend 2-3 waking hours each day inside, if it costs more than a couple hundred dollars per night is just stupid. An event run by fans who used to attend conventions themselves would be somewhere a lot more affordable, even if it is outside of the main centre the city... because about 90% of people who plan ahead to attend are coming from long distance, so they are already spending a lot of money on flights or fuel, and then a lot of money on registration - I have been to a couple of BotCons where I had spent most of my entire budget on just getting there, and since I didn't have more than $50-100 to spend at the event, it really soured the whole experience (actually, for 2004, I don't know why I was short on funds that year, or why I was there for a whole week for a 3-day event, but I only had enough money available at the convention to only buy two Deluxe toys from a nearby retail store - I had no money for anything at all from the dealer room, or any extra food after I had bought some items on the first day... and that remains one of the 10-12 most significant things I remember from that year).
Really, no matter how much you budget for a specialised event like this (or TFCon), you don't want to be spending 2-3 thousand dollars just to get into the event (travel, hotel, registration, food/transport while there), and then feel the need to limit your spending budget while you are there.

[griffin]

The new BotCon was on last weekend, and they posted up various images,videos and info over the weekend on their facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/BotConOfficial/).

It includes details of their various exclusive items (nothing from Hasbro) and merchandise (most of it is still available), including their "Custom Class toy" (the Kingdom Cheetor toy that they were able to re-paint and add some new parts and accessories).


The images of the dealer room and queues were very small, so they certainly struggled to regain fans of the old BotCon who would attend just because of the name. It was after all a decent Transformers themed convention, so it would have attracted people near and far, but the location was very expensive (the hotel) and not very exciting (city) unless you are a country music fan.

I was also disappointed, but not surprised, to see in some photos of the dealer room, the hosting company of the convention had in its store and on display unlicensed "3rd party" toys. It was one thing the previous BotCon had as a policy against it in its later years, mostly required by Hasbro if FunPub wanted to keep their license and get exclusive toys.
It may not seem like a big deal now, considering how the other Transformers conventions allow them (and TFCon is more of a 3rd Party convention than a Transformers convention), but I think that it would make it harder to convince Hasbro to come back to working with BotCon if they were not only allowing unlicensed Transformers, but selling them themselves.
(the other disappointing thing about this BotCon, which was not surprising, is the large portion of dealers who didn't have anything for sale that was even related to Transformers - something that must have been chased up by the convention organisers in desperation to have a decent number of dealers in the dealer room)