Botcon 2015 - Chicago June 18-21

[griffin]

I was hoping for Flywheels,

I'm not surprised about Flywheels, as it could have gone either way. We already look to have 3 Voyagers this year, so any more would really push up the price of the at-show toys. I think Flywheels is guaranteed eventually, and maybe it will be in next year's subscription set, or BotCon... or as a Store exclusive which would be their only real money-maker for the year (everyone with Battletrap is going to want one, and the scalpers will know it to buy up extras).

I'm surprised about the Waspinators being a 4-pack, as if they couldn't decide which three made the most sense to produce as toys, or at least, having one as an attendee or Custom Class toy. (I'm not surprised about the cash-grab though, as they keep expanding their number of toys every year)

The Black Skids is pretty much confirmed then, as part of the "Diaclone" 2-pack. Now to wonder what the other one might be. A Red Trailbreaker perhaps.

I don't mind Kreo... but when it comes to FunPub, that's one thing I will be happy to see go when Kreo is finally wrapped up. At least this year's set of Kreons is promised to be cheaper because they are the non-convertible kind. (like the 2013 Machine Wars Kreons)


I wonder if they've finally been taking some of my advice about not keeping all of their at-show toys secret (to help convince the fence-sitters to attend just to make sure they don't miss out), or they are just so desperate with the sluggish sales that they "thought of this themselves" out of panic.
(sure, keep a couple secret for that fun element, but why keep 10 of the 15 toys secret when you get the same "surprise" element from 2 toys, and only end up preventing (mostly American) people from attending who would have gone just to secure certain toys before they sell out, that they really really want)

[griffin]

As noted by Fatbot in the meet topic, the Schedule for this year has been released.

As I had expected, the Saturday VIP sessions, which includes all of the VIPs for photos, would mean missing panels, including the Saturday panel that looks to feature the other two Gen1 guests (Sue & John).
A lot of fan-related panels this year that aren't news or feature guests... which is nice to have included, but it's taken them 10 years, and of all the years that they finally include them, this year will have the least amount of fans attending who would be interested in supporting these panels.

And what is with nothing on Friday night for non-GT attendees. They always have something on Friday night (except 2012, which was their first year with the GT reception, so probably didn't want to stretch their resources if they didn't know how long it would go for). Even 2010 was only empty of items because they wanted to allow people to use the Disney park for its night-time events.
I think this will be a point of contention for the non-GT people not having any evening events, which includes the non-GT VIP people. I know that there is room-to-room trading that will happen, but that can happen on other nights as well, so they don't need a night completely free of events to allow for it... and the GT dinner/reception is usually only about 90 minutes, meaning that attendees have from 9pm to amuse themselves.


I wonder who Frank Todaro is... and why he and his "friends" have been called in to fill spots on the Script Reading on the Sunday.

[Krayt]

I wonder who Frank Todaro is... and why he and his "friends" have been called in to fill spots on the Script Reading on the Sunday.

Google says he is a voice actor, I could only find him in this from an old botcon

[UltraMarginal]

I wonder who Frank Todaro is... and why he and his "friends" have been called in to fill spots on the Script Reading on the Sunday.

perhaps a pseudonym for Frank Welker, rather than advertise him at that panel they are avoiding massive crowd control issues. which hopefully they're set up for everything else he's related to.

[griffin]

perhaps a pseudonym for Frank Welker, rather than advertise him at that panel they are avoiding massive crowd control issues. which hopefully they're set up for everything else he's related to.

I thought it might have had something to do with Welker (and I wish he would have been involved in the script reading), but Todaro is listed on IMDB as a voice actor, and from Krayt's post, it sounds like he has done some work for FunPub before as well.

When there is only 2 voice actor guests, plus a couple spots filled by fans in an Auditions process at the Convention, I guess they need to more "professionals" on stage.

[griffin]

Apparently IDW are not at this BotCon because they are currently moving offices.
I'm surprised that they couldn't send at least one person for a presentation or manning of a table in the Dealer Room... as those two things will be missed by me (their panel is news-worthy, and their presence in the Dealer Room allows me to catch up on all their comics without paying for postage from an online source).

[griffin]

Another update - the Trivia contest that was noted in the Brochure for Saturday has been cancelled, and they have planned something "exciting" in its place, that they may not reveal until the Convention starts.


Something with Frank Welker perhaps?

[griffin]

With the Registrations being so last minute, all their usual updates of minor elements are now all being crammed into the last two weeks.

Today we get two more updates...

1 - Artists in the Dealer Room.
Even though IDW isn't an official guest this year (due to them moving offices this month), some of their free-lance artists will still be attending, for fans to buy artworks off them or just meet up with their favourite official artists. (and some fan-favourite non-official artists too)
There are 13 listed so far, including...
Casey Coller - various IDW
Matt Frank - various IDW
Alex Milne - various IDW
Robby Musso - various IDW
Josh Burcham - various IDW
Dan Khanna - official character art used on licensed products
John-Paul Bove - various IDW
Thomas Deer - various IDW
Livio Ramondelli - various IDW
Brendan Cahill - various IDW


2 - Update of Registration packs and Welker VIP passes
They must be really struggling to sell out this year, as they are now offering Welker VIP passes to Protoforms and Minicons (both of which don't pay as much as they don't get a boxset). Too bad for anyone forced to buy a US$409 Primus pack in the first week because it was the only way to get the $200 Welker VIP pass.

The email from FunPub had a few people worried, because the title sounded like Welker was not attending anymore... but it was just noting the two elements of the email - Welker AND non-attending (boxsets).

BotCon Registration update: Welker - Non-attending

We have shuffled around the inventory for attending and non-attending packages. There is now more stock for non-attending (Iacon) packages and additional loose sets.

We also have a few Frank Welker VIP passes available for Friday and we are opening these passes to Mini-Con and Protoform packages as well. If you want to add this to your registration, you will need to call the office at 817-448-9863 between now and noon Friday. These are on a first come, first served basis.

If you have not registered, these are still available through the online system for Golden Ticket and Primus packages. Primus and Golden Ticket packages can also have the Frank Welker VIP pass added to your existing registration by calling.

If you still need to do your initial registration, please use the link at BotCon.com and do it from a computer not running IE. We have seen issues with mobile registrations and IE browsers. If you need to add something to your registration, you will need to contact the office.

Registration closes on Friday at 5 pm Central Time.

Just noting that if anyone attending still wants to add anything to their registration, you MUST do it before about 8am Saturday East Australia time (I think that's 5pm Central time in America). But you need to phone them up, to add on items, so have your credit card handy.

Last chance for anyone in Brisbane wanting me to buy an extra boxset to bring back with me, and you get the attendee figure with it for free.

The lateness of registration only allowed people 10 days to register to attend... that's really short, but not as short as the JoeCon this year, who only had about a week.

[griffin]

Registration has now closed for attendees.
Non-attendees can continue to buy Boxsets AND loose sets (still not sold out), but they will be done through the club store. Other BotCon items will be available after the convention, if they are not yet sold out.

Today is the last day for BotCon registration for ATTENDING packages.

Registration closes at 5 pm Central Time.

If you need an ATTENDING package and you are still getting non-member pricing (limited number of accounts), go ahead and process your package and send us an email so we know to process a credit. The credits won't be processed until next week.

Some of our NON-ATTENDING members are also having an issue getting the member pricing. For you, after we close ATTENDING registration today, we will move the NON-ATTENDING packages to the club store. If you are getting non-member pricing and need a NON-ATTENDING package, check the Club store tomorrow and you can order the NON-ATTENDING sets there.

PLEASE note that the store has no way to limit the loose sets to a 1:1 (must purchase box set to get loose set), but every order will be reviewed by admin for compliance.

All remaining T-shirts, assembled unpainted class figures and hats will go to the show. If there are any left, we will put them in the store after BotCon.

They have also updated the details of the Saturday night events, letting us know that the surprise element isn't something new, but just a fourth inductee to the HOF this year... which should be Frank Welker.
Hyping this up just 5 hours before Registration closes, as if such last minute news is going to suddenly draw in the masses...

We are excited to announce that at the BotCon 2015 Saturday Night Awards Dinner and Auction, the Transformers 2015 Hall of Fame induction ceremony will also be included in the nights festivities. Fans at BotCon will be first to see which character, combiner and musical act will be added to the Transformers Hall of Fame. And as a VERY special treat, Hasbro will also be inducting a human to the Hall of Fame for 2015. This legendary actor has been part of the Transformers brand since the very start. You will NOT want to miss this event!

So Saturday night will start with a dinner, then the Hall of Fame presentation, and then the Auction, which is usually done a little later as the main room/hall gets reverted back to a panel room format (from a dining room layout).
If it is Welker (it should be), then that will be another chance to see and here him over the weekend.

Also, there must have been some cancellations at the Resort since Registration started, as there seem to be some extra rooms now available... if anyone still needs one.

[griffin]

I'm not sure if I should be worried (because I'm staying there) or find it funny (that most of the fandom is now finding anything they can against FunPub), but, two of the major fansites have now posted up warnings about the Resort being listed on a bed-bug registry and having review sites mention them... plus other issues with the site.

I don't think I've ever come across a place with bed bugs before, but I think this could be an issue with any hotel, as long as it is an isolated incident and not ongoing.
On the one hand, there are only 2 or 3 reports of bedbugs in a year of thousands of guests, but on the other hand, how many other people affected would know about those reporting sites or be motivated enough to find one to report it.

It also sounds like the older parts of this Resort (the non-Tower rooms), have reviews noting that the rooms are noticeably run-down and not very well cleaned or ventilated, so when I check-in I might see if a Tower room is covered by my reservation/rate.
The reviews on the tripadvisor and yelp (at the Tformers link) were interesting reading, with a fair few rating the staff and administration as very poor, and gave the resort an overall rating of barely average... which isn't a good sign.
The San Diego hotel had a bit of a resort nature to it, and was similarly looking a bit old and run-down, but ended up being acceptable. I guess since fans have been giving feedback of preferring "cheaper" hotels, we get what we pay for. (and goes with the saying of be careful with what you wish for)