BotCon 2022 announced - AUG 25-28

[griffin]

All of the guests might have been announced now, and there aren't a lot.
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. (note - the website is very slow to be updated, as all four have been revealed on social media, 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 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 (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 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 (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 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, 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.

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)