That is true, the relationship between 3h and hasbro did strengthen with botcon01 being the first where they could use hasbro characters for their exclusives, it was a bit of a nebulous period where botcon was more or less recognized/sanctioned by hasbro but was still entirely fan run and funded with little to no hasbro oversight. I remember, it was a pretty big deal when they rebranded as otfcc because they were finally fully authorized by hasbro, which also led to its own problems like hasbro not letting them use the name nexus prime

 

I was thinking even further back to Nightracer, Onyx Primal, etc. (I'll give G2 Breakdown a pass, as that was already produced, and of course even Nightracer was a production oddity)

Not sure what you're getting at with the Nexus Prime stuff, which came quite a bit later (and led to a whole other kind of problem!).

 

Fair enough, I don’t know a whole lot about botcon pre 01, but the point still stands that it still wasn’t a fully official con till 05

 

Quite right. While I did want to add some of the nuance that those old conventions deserved (IMHO), I did not mean to sound like I was contradicting you on that main point.

 

No botcon please!

Face it, botcon lovers are always whining because they want to be elitist special fans but they're not special and definitely not elite.

Botcon was not at all representative of TF fandom, just a very small outlier group, and that's why it had to die because sanctioning botcon is endorsing a small and wrong set of fans. The real TF fandom is global instead of US-focused, inclusive instead of exclusive, families instead of manboys, a digital community instead of hotel gatherings.

How can a TF fan today whine about botcon with us having amazing exclusives at fairer prices and wider distribution, plenty of cons in a single year spread across more countries, more engagement from Hasbro through these cons and media, a more connected fandom through forums and social media, and a much more welcoming way for any fan to participate in all parts of the fandom, be it voting for your next prime, crowdfunding a unbelievable Unicron or choosing between a toy repaint 3-pack reflector or buying 3 toon reflectors at retail? The only answer is the fan that still whines whines because he thinks botcon is special, and going to a botcon makes him special, and not being able to do that makes him a normal non-special fan and that upsets him. And that's precisely why botcon can but will not co-exist with hascon, selects, pulse, sdcc, haslab... botcon-lovers shouldn't think they're any special since they're not.

Stop whining already and try to enjoy this beautiful 3-pack reflector package without bringing up botcon. Botcon is long dead, good riddance!

Fans anywhere in the world being able to own this special set without needing to go to a hascon or any con, has been the plan all along, since about a couple of years ago. This way, is perfect.

 

I wish I could like this more than once.

 

Whatever...

 

I wish I could like this more than once.

 

Really? That incredibly toxic "true fan" dribble? Please.

 

No worries, I didn’t take it as that   3h definitely had a unique arrangement with hasbro in those early days

 

Wasn't the "O" in OATFUCK (er.. OTFCC) for "Official"? I always assumed it was official since.. you know... it said "official".

 

OTFCC (Official Transformers Collectors Convention) was a rebranded botcon (they completely dropped the botcon name) that only occurred in 2003 and 2004 (if memory serves properly). Prior to that botcon was as unofficial as tfcon, though 3h enterprises made efforts to collaborate with hasbro and be as above board as they could during the unofficial days. The name botcon was resurrected when funpub took over in 2005. The OTFCC days also saw a shakeup at 3h where the Hartman brothers (2 of the 3 H’s) left the company for whatever reason. Them becoming an official convention in 2003 also allowed 3h to also produce the transformers universe tie in comic, which spun out of their transformers expanded universe wreckers comics from 2001 and 2002.

 

Ah, I wasn’t paying attention to the terminology. I was just generalizing “official” conventions, which 2005 wasn’t the first. I was confused is all.

 

People still think HasCon is coming back :]

Right around when Alternators comes off of its hiatus...

 

Tell your opinion, by all means. Don't presume to tell us ours too, though.

 

No worries   2001 was when I started paying attention to botcon stuff (mainly because of transmetal tigatron) so a lot of stuff from that time frame is burned into my memory haha

 

To add my two cents: even though Botcon exclusives have an allure of exclusivity to them, Selects is filling the "obscure character redeco" gap and selling them for retail price. As much as I like Botcon exclusives, it's nice not having to pay the extra markup.

 

Spoken like someone who's never been to a Botcon. Or any convention from the sound of it.

Botcon wasn't about elitism, it was about gathering people from all around the country/world to celebrate Transformers.
Hunting for vintage and import figures in the dealer room. Meeting people who worked on the numerous aspects of transformers. Panels and other content devoted entirely to Transformers. No Star Wars. No Bakugan, no Marvel or Twilight movie trailers.

Was funpub perfect? FUCK NO. Their treatment of international members was abysmal. And their treatment of domestic members wasn't much better. Their Internet security sucked, their exclusives were overpriced, and getting them to update with progressing technology was like trying g to pull teeth from a Coked-Up Grizzly Bear.

But for that one weekend in 2012, Dallas Texas, none of that mattered to me. I got.some damn cool figures. Found several of my Grails in the dealer room. Got to hear Derrik Wyatt talk about Animated. Met Simon Furman, Buster Jones and Gary Chalk,See the upcoming Generations line in a room with hundreds of fellow Transformers fans. And most importantly, I got to meet friends in person that I've only ever spoken to through keyboards.

Would it be nice to see Botcon go international so that fans in China, britan, Iran, and Guatamala could have the same experience I did? Of course it would! More the merrier.
The fact that Botcon traveled was one if the best thing about it. I cant afford to travel to San Diego. For Sdcc. Or Toronto for tfcon. Or england for TF Nation.
But in 2012, I was able to drive the four hours between Houston and Dallas and have the most fun of my adult life. And knowing I'll never be able to do that again is heartbreaking. Makes me wonder if the 70 years I have ahead of me are even gonna be worth it.

 

honestly i think the best convention exclusives were stuff like The Knights of Unicron figures or Ghostbusters Optimus you know figures that are bonuses for a line one offs that are weird and goofy that you really dont need to complete a series

 

I was able to go to Botcon in 2006, 2015, and 2016, and each of those times were fantastic. The spirit of Botcon is less about the toys than getting to bask in people like me. Granted, I really LIKED the toys, especially the 2006 Beast Wars set, but it was far more about the experience than anything else. It wasn't perfect, and the guy who ran Funpub was a racist ableist douche, but it's great to have a place like Botcon to feel a sense of community. And by "community" I mean physically interacting with people and being nice instead of yelling at people over the internet over disagreements about semantics. I must say that some of my friendliest fan-related interactions happened at Botcon.