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Thread: Australian Transformers Convention

  1. #61
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    I've organised music events (when I was younger) and community events more recently, ranging from attendance in the hundreds to thousands (low end thousands though).

    I just can't see TF being a big enough draw to be worth it, even as a tax write-off.

    I've seen a well-funded Star Wars event, run during the prime of the prequels, with BIG-NAME guests, fail to hit 50 attendees. This was also well publicised.

    I think you'd be much better off just organising something at a town hall, but again, you're stuck with the issue of content.

    Why should people go to this event, as opposed to discussing things online for free? What are the attractions? What can you offer?

    Even at Supanova, TF events haven't done all that well, from my observations.

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    Yeah, SupaNova has plenty of other toy dealers who sell TF toys, so the challenge would be to make yourself stand out from those other dealers. Exclusive merchandise would be cool, but then there's the "challenge" of dealing with Hasbro Australia (cough) who insist on a minimum order of 1000 units for an exclusive toy (are you really gonna sell that many??) and $10,000 for licensing.

    You can't make and sell fan-made stuff, cos Hasbro definitely doesn't like that. We charged money for the 2003 OzFormer comic at SupaNova and Hasbro was NOT happy with that (thankfully they chose not to take any legal action, but did tell me not to do it again). So for 2004 we gave away all the exclusive unlicensed comics and toys as free gifts to attendees. Likewise at SMASH! 2009 the comics were given away to anyone who played the TF trivia game, and the exclusive toy was a lucky draw prize - so we never explicitly charged anyone for any of the exclusive unlicensed stuff.

    One possibility that Hasbro Australia would be willing to let you do is to sell BotCon exclusive toys at your booth/stall. You will need to order them directly from Hasbro AU - paid in full, then it's up to you to sell it. But consider the following:
    + BotCon AU can only offer you previous BotCon toys, like the ones from last year. They cannot offer you toys from this year's BotCon.
    + Most hardcore fans who seriously wanted previous years' BotCon toys probably already have them -- even if they had to shell out some stupid amount on eBay for them.
    + See how much Hasbro AU's gonna charge you for them and how much you can sell them for. Try to keep them cheap, because that's gonna be your main advantage over say people just going online and buying them. Don't make the same mistake that some brick and mortar stores do by making their products more expensive than online sources.
    + Hasbro AU's going to insist on a minimum order amount. I don't remember how much it was - but then again, I was making these enquiries in 2003-04, back when BotCon only made individual exclusive figures rather than box sets like they do now. You need to consider whether or not you'll be able to sell all these figures that you would have already paid for at the convention. If not, will you try to sell them here on the board? (I'd buy some! )

    Now I personally would love to attend a convention if you guys were selling BotCon toys, because my BotCon toy collection is quite small (because I don't believe in paying inflated prices); and if you sold the toys at or close to their original sale prices, then I'd seriously considering filling in the gaps in my BotCon collection and buy off you. And if the convention were outside of Sydney and at a time that I couldn't make (because for some daft reason conventions always seem to occur outside of school holidays!!), then I would definitely be interested in ordering some of those toys off you (again, if the price was right ).

    Transformer themed games and what not are fun, but I think the one draw-factor that would pull in a crowd more than anything else would be some kind of exclusive merchandise. I mean, look at Micron Aimless -- I managed to pick up two of them in Japan because some retailers give them to you as a free exclusive toy when you spend 3000JPY or more on Transformers. That's the only official way to get this toy (and the other campaign exclusive Microns, I also have Fracas) -- but look at the stupid prices that people are selling them for on eBay! Just for some repaints of Power Core Combiner Mini-Cons... far out (I don't know what's scarier... that people are charging these outrageous prices or that people would be willing to pay such outrageous prices). But anyway, TF collectors are suckers for exclusive stuff... so ya know...

  3. #63
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cat View Post
    I've organised music events (when I was younger) and community events more recently, ranging from attendance in the hundreds to thousands (low end thousands though).

    I just can't see TF being a big enough draw to be worth it, even as a tax write-off.

    I've seen a well-funded Star Wars event, run during the prime of the prequels, with BIG-NAME guests, fail to hit 50 attendees. This was also well publicised.

    I think you'd be much better off just organising something at a town hall, but again, you're stuck with the issue of content.

    Why should people go to this event, as opposed to discussing things online for free? What are the attractions? What can you offer?

    Even at Supanova, TF events haven't done all that well, from my observations.
    I am afraid that this contributes to my believe and fear that Australian society does not harbor much of a geek culture unlike other countries.

    I don't think population size or spread is the issue, it's just that there isn't enough ratio within that population that would be interested in attending such an event even if they were local.

    If a convention is to succeed, it can't be just about Transformers or even Sci-Fi, it has to engulf every aspect of popular culture (even sports) to succeed here.

  4. #64
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    Quote Originally Posted by kup View Post
    I am afraid that this contributes to my believe and fear that Australian society does not harbor much of a geek culture unlike other countries.

    I don't think population size or spread is the issue, it's just that there isn't enough ratio within that population that would be interested in attending such an event even if they were local.

    If a convention is to succeed, it can't be just about Transformers or even Sci-Fi, it has to engulf every aspect of popular culture (even sports) to succeed here.
    Exactly.

    What is the drawcard?

    What are people going to be entertained with at YOUR convention?

    You'll struggle to fill up 2 hours, let alone a whole day, let ALONE a whole weekend, and that's including the hypothetical special guest making it appealing to your audience (who you have to pay, feed, cover hotel etc. You'd better be able to pull that money back, or you're already ruined months before anything's been done).

    It's just sadly, not feasible on the level we wish it was.

    And that's simply not going to change.

    We have the broader Supanova, and even that doesn't have the rock-solid success and associated finances you'd expect.

    That's as good as we're gonna get. Hell, Comic-Con in Adelaide? That alone is going to be interesting.

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    I'd rather try a stall/booth before anything else. If that is popular then we could try for a full convention. If a stall at another event falls flat on its face, at least the losses won't be as bad.

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    Quote Originally Posted by jena View Post
    I'd rather try a stall/booth before anything else. If that is popular then we could try for a full convention. If a stall at another event falls flat on its face, at least the losses won't be as bad.

    It's easy to put a stall but what do we do in it? We don't have much to sell that would be of interest to crowds so how can we entertain them? It has to last for about 2 full days and people have a tendency to do 'rounds' at an event so we can't be too repetitive or just be a 'sales' table.

    I am just trying to encourage ideas..If we can have a decently organized plan for this stall, then we can progress from there. Remember that our main audience is still the 'passing fan' that just remembers Transformers from his childhood or the Bay movies.

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    I don't know if this idea is dumb or not, but there are a lot of talented toy photographers on this forum, so we could sell prints of their photos.

    I wonder if maybe some of the people who do awesome customs could come along, display some previous work and maybe even do a repaint during the weekend to auction off? Or even little tutorials.

  8. #68
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    Quote Originally Posted by jena View Post
    I don't know if this idea is dumb or not, but there are a lot of talented toy photographers on this forum, so we could sell prints of their photos.

    I wonder if maybe some of the people who do awesome customs could come along, display some previous work and maybe even do a repaint during the weekend to auction off? Or even little tutorials.
    That is not a dumb idea at all! It is actually pretty good if done with that professional quality we have seen from members.

    However that is one idea and if priced well enough, it may be of appeal to several people but may not be all. So we would need more ideas to cover that 'wide appeal' margin.

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    Quote Originally Posted by kup View Post
    That is not a dumb idea at all! It is actually pretty good if done with that professional quality we have seen from members.

    However that is one idea and if priced well enough, it may be of appeal to several people but may not be all. So we would need more ideas to cover that 'wide appeal' margin.
    Cool! I don't have any other ideas at this point, sadly.

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    Personally guys we need to advertise this as a pop culture convention honestly another one won't hurt Australia because we don't have the numbers for a stand alone tf convention. If it was pure anime then yes we would but tf's no sadly.

    If we can draw teh attention of the Anime fans then quite possibly as they would be come since the tf voice actors are the harder to get anime voice actors especially for the final fantasy games. Also we need to advertise to the population in full, comic shops every where as well as larger book shops like kinokuniya in Sydney.

    If you are serious about doing a stand alone tf convention I could ask the guys I know to see if they would like to help and ask one of my contacts to see who he knows and contacts for them. But if you did you would have to seel other items besides transformers, selling items from other series that the voice actors are a good idea becuse that way the fans can get what they want as well besides from transformers and get that signed.

    As for competitions cosplay comps are good to do but it will lacking if it is limited to just transformers. Also you may want to do the racing comp as well as a kitbash comp, but also have other competitions that non transformer fans can enter as that way every one can enjoy them selves and have a good time.

    So if any one wants I can help out but I need to know what we are doing before I can help.

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