To an outsider like me, what's the point in having the name BotCon if it's going to be a limited dealer room with no Hasbro affiliation/license for exclusives? I know those exclusives were a terrible ordeal and outrageously expensive at the time (still salty over the impossible to obtain "Rainmaker" set), and there are plenty of other reputable conventions that don't have any Hasbro affiliation, but I would think BotCon's whole thing would be that it's the "big one", the granddaddy of all the TF conventions. To return it pretty much in name only with everything that made it such a big thing and under a prohibitive pricepoint for most fans and fan families is missing the mark- they would have made major bank essentially reviving the event as it was but with more streamlined or improved versions of those old flaws.

Thing is, are there any international conventions that are worth the trek for the average Aussie fan? The big other ones I've heard of are Auto Assembly, TFCon and TFNation, but it seems like an extraordinary amount of planning, if it's even financially viable, and a large travel and length of stay burden for a lot of them.