BotCon ATTENDING registration open - non-attending should be NEXT WEEK

[griffin]

I got an email confirmation as well, 80 minutes after I registered. Was yours about the same amount of time?
I saw on TFW that some people got their email confirmation within 10 minutes (so I was getting worried), but maybe they were one of the first.

The Thursday Custom Class appears to have sold out within the first hour, and before the Wednesday one, which would be a first (people usually try to be the first with the figure), so maybe the drop in interest in BotCon has affected the amount of days people are willing to be there (only going for 4 days instead of 5).

Sounds like the loose set sold out somewhere between 30 to 50 minutes... which could mean some people buying up several boxsets and several loose sets, as the invoice numbers people are posting up suggest only about 230 people registered in the first hour. (but consider that items will show as "out of stock" while they are carted, so if some didn't get approved or were testing to see what was still available, it might have been a bit longer than that)
But don't panic if you are a non-attendee planning to get a loose set for someone else, as they said that they've kept some aside for Non-Attendees. (probably about 50 of the 250)
I wanted to wait for my approval email before trying to get another set, but it looks like they ran out before I got my email.

The invoice numbers suggest that about 230 people registered in the first hour, but the "invoice numbers" were sometimes not properly generated in previous years... but it was interesting to note that after the first hour and loose sets had sold out, there wasn't too many people posting on the global fansites to say that they had just registered.

I think it means that Scorponok probably is the driving factor this year, so once the scalpers got their share, the "loyal" attendees didn't amount to much more than a couple hundred. I think the boxset will sell out after the non-attendees are given access, so am expecting people to charge a minimum of $200 for Scorponok as soon as they all sell out.

FunPub are claiming to reveal the production numbers for last year, and this year... as they were rather secretive about how many they made. They emphasise "limited" but don't tell us how limited. It would be good for future reference to have the figures too.

[griffin]

Some stats from FunPub for the first 18 hours (tweeted an hour ago) ....

- About a dozen left of the Golden Tickets, from their 100. Since 2012 only had 75 GTs, and last year had 100 available like this year, they must have sold less than 85 last year, as they are claiming to have sold more this year than both previous years.

- Loose sets are sold out, but for some reason they have some still available for the remaining Golden Tickets (a secret perk it seems - to have sets reserved for GT purchases).
(don't forget that there are some held back for non-attendee registrations next week)

- Thursday Custom Class is indeed sold out, and there are only 7 seats left for Wednesday, meaning 113 seats sold already.

- 50% of the Primus packs are sold, but we don't know how many there were to start with... or how the actual number compares to previous years.

- They boasted about being on track to outsell last year, but that was expected, being a movie year, being in LA, and having a very popular figure in the boxset (Scorponok). Last year had a bad location, an ordinary boxset, and nothing too significant for the year... so I think it would have been more surprising if they weren't selling more than last year.

[1AZRAEL1]

Will the date of the registration for the non attendee sets be as up with in the air? Seems I may have found a way to get a set that way, but I have no twitter or way to find out when it goes live.

Is anyone keeping an eye out for when non attendee registration goes live and able to drop me an sms?

[Krayt]

Yeah we can let you know... Pm me your no

[griffin]

Sounds like the 3 hours at Universal Studios after it closes to the public, have some things planned... not necessarily having 3 hours of exclusive access to the themepark rides.

I was thinking that maybe they were planning to have a full advance screening of the movie... as I'm sure they'd have a proper movie theatre at Universal Studios to test-run movies, but would Paramount allow a rival movie distributor have the privilege of premiering the movie.
Actually, they'd need 3 or 4 theatres, as there would be at least 1500 Primus and Minicon attendees who are eligible for this event.
It makes me wonder what they could be planning for that many people... and must be something significant to replace the expense of a Saturday Dinner event. (at least, it had better be to end up having a fairly empty Saturday night)

[griffin]

For those planning to get a non-attendee set, or are yet to register as an attendee... print out the screen "invoice" at the end, as some people have noted that when they chased up FunPub after not getting an email confirmation, they said it was never generated in their system or charged... but have honoured people who showed them a print-out of the completed order/invoice.

I'm still keeping an eye out on the tweets for the non-attendee sets, but am surprised at the lack of tweets since the first day to keep promoting the pre-registration, suggesting that pretty much everyone who was interested in going have already registered (which was only 50% of the boxsets at last tweet).
I'm not surprised if everyone intending to go did pre-register in that first day, as there was so much advance warning in the week leading up to it. People registering to attend from now on would mostly be those who couldn't afford it yet, or have a last minute change of plans.