Botcon 2015 - Chicago June 18-21

[reillyd]

That is kind of cool, being the only new pretender toy with a shell since the 80's .

And what's better than a new toy design? An UNRELEASED design!

[fatbot]

the brochure is up, a total of $us1009, for the boxset, golden ticket & Frank Welker VIP ticket

http://www.botcon.com/BotCon2015/StCharles2015.pdf

$us120 for custonising class.

may have airport shuttle bus

[UltraMarginal]

wow, the golden ticket has gone up $100 from last year!
but it does include some Frank Welker extras that make it less appealing to get the Frank Welker Package as well. It's good of them to provide the two options.

it's pretty exciting, wish I was going.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

The inclusion of the Pretender shell has piqued my interest, but much like Scorponok last year, I feel that it should have been a general release for the anniversary or something.

Hats off to funpub for pulling that off though, although it still isn't enough for me to want to give them my money ever again. If I were still a club member, I'd probably be pretty happy with this box set. Aside from that super lazy SG Stepper/ricochet/boredom character.

[Zippo]

Wow, look at those prices!

[griffin]

I wonder if they will rush out the Registration for this weekend... or give people a week to digest the brochure.
I'm hoping it is next week, so that I'm back to be able to more easily register.

They said that they would be trimming back on toy numbers this year, but maybe they only meant the at-show toys, as the boxset figures have double the amount of loose sets to last year, which would mean a LOT less boxsets than last year if the total number was indeed reduced.
Last year had 1600 boxsets and 250 loose sets.
This year has 500 loose sets, which would mean about 1350 boxsets if they have the same total number as last year.

The boxset price is lower than I had predicted, but not by much.

The two pre-con tours are pretty much what I expected, as there isn't too much for tourists in Chicago.

The increase in Golden Ticket price AND an additional 10 tickets available, is a lot of extra money for them... which I hope is helping pay for the guests like Welker.

Seeing that you get an autograph and photo with Welker for the GT, plus close to the front seating at his panel (just a couple rows back from the front for the VIP pass holders), I'm not sure if I might get the VIP pass now.
The exclusive pin and print isn't that desirable as they will probably just end up in a box somewhere as worthless trinkets... but the personal signing of something is really the only thing I'd want, but maybe not for $200 (which is the only thing extra I would be getting for the $200). The Golden Ticket holders get an autograph card with his signature on it, which is all I care about when it comes to autographs.

I wonder if the Custom Class will have the alternate colour Pretender Shell with a small inner toy... just to get a little more usage from the mould.

The Saturday night dinner is a more formal event this year, which I like having something mature/serious at the convention.

[fatbot]

I wonder if they will rush out the Registration for this weekend... or give people a week to digest the brochure.
I'm hoping it is next week, so that I'm back to be able to more easily register.


The two pre-con tours are pretty much what I expected, as there isn't too much for tourists in Chicago.



I wonder if the Custom Class will have the alternate colour Pretender Shell with a small inner toy... just to get a little more usage from the mould.

The Saturday night dinner is a more formal event this year, which I like having something mature/serious at the convention.

As much as I'd like to get the VIP ticket, I won't be, I don't think its worth it.

with regards to registration, why not ask a family member or friend to do it for you if you're still in Hong Kong?

[griffin]

If they start Registration at their usual time of around 7am EAST on Saturday, I should be okay to do it from here, as I'm likely to spend the day in Macau, and can leave as late as I want... but with the VIP pass no longer having the same appeal, while the GT is US$100 more, I just want more time than a couple days to decide what to do.
You just never want to find out later, that the VIP people were treated to something spontaneous and unplanned with Welker that you would have considered worth the $200 if you'd known about it happening.


When you take into account the exchange rate, the US$809 for just the Boxset and GT, is over a Grand in AU$.
Plus the cost of a pre-con tour and custom class, AND a set of the 7+ at-show toys... that's going to be another US$550-600 (or about AU$800), before a dollar is even spent in the dealer room.
I can imagine people with dealer tables are making less profit-after-expenses these days, as less people go to BotCon, and less people who do go are having as much money left to spend on non-Convention purchases.


(BTW fatbot, don't txt me if it does start this weekend while I'm away, but if I see it first, I'll send you a txt... just don't reply to it, as it will cost us both money.)

[griffin]

Some interesting bits about this year's BotCon.

Hasbro/FunPub are again prohibiting unlicensed/unauthorised toys based on Transformers characters... which they did a few years ago, but then went back to not caring in the last couple years.

Plus, Jon and Karl Hartman have decided to sell of the rest of their collection at this BotCon, covering 1998 to 2006 when they stopped collecting. It was also the year that they sold off half of their collection of pre-1998 toys, and a lot of good prices were had by many.
I'm surprised that they sat on over a thousand toys for the last nine years, and it is sad that it is them finally done with Transformers, after being such iconic collectors in the fandom, who set the bar in terms of sheer numbers and rarities.

The last of the Boxset toys (Oilmaster) has had its official pre-production images added to the BotCon website.

[TAAUBlaster]

Wow, I would love to go shopping at the Hartman's booth.