BOTCON REGISTRATION IS LIVE!!!!!

[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, 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.