Botcon was not official until 2002

 

If Pete's getting money, then, I reiterate, I hope this fails utterly.

 

And make them exclusive characters/unique versions of characters, instead of so they're cool extras to have, rather than needed pieces. While I like my 3H Botcon figures, none have ever felt essential to my lineup, nor do I feel I'm missing something because I missed them. Snatching up much-anticipated redecos for their convention always seemed like a huge extended middle digit to anyone who couldn't attend. Ratchet and Ironhide from Towline should have been the Universe toys, not that trainwreck of a mold we got. The Seekers should not have been (initially) completed through a Botcon set. RiD Scourge should been a Universe retail release. Seriously, I never even saw the CHUG Laser Prime mold, in any incarnation, in a regular store. And the deco I wanted most was a slagging overpriced FubPub exclusive?!?

I'd rather never have a Botcon again than see it run like FubPub did it.

 

The only 3h exclusive that I ever saw as a necessity for me was tm tigatron (big shocker right), but even then he’s not a necessity for a normal bw show cast collection. The 3h exclusives were just handled better in my opinion for the most part

 

Two or three exclusives, kept secret until the convention. The guest list announced months in advance. In other words, the precise opposite of how FunPub did it. I never went to Botcon for the show toys. I went to meet the guests and other fans.

 

They don't have to license anything, though. Hasbro can just "dub" it the official convention and appear with Generations Select figures in hand. That's why we should wait and see before making broad assumptions in the very early morning of this con.

 

That’s basically how they handled botcon pre 02 isn’t it? There was no license, it was a fan convention that hasbro basically gave its blessing to

 

The toys were always the biggest draw to me. I've rubbed elbows with enough Transformers celebrities now that I can relax on feeling like I need to meet guests. Except for Flint and Sumalee. I'm friends with Flint on Facebook and occasionally chat with him so I'd welcome a chance to hang out with him a bit. And Sumalee was a riot to hang with. We (the organizers) celebrated her birthday at TFExpo.

 

More or less. Although Hasbro announced new product and did Q&A there too. Hasbro was very active with Botcon, making it essentially The Official Transformers Convention in spirit, if nothing else.

 

Ugh really, this is happening? Hasbro doesn't have enough confidence in their own event all of a sudden? Not a great development.

 

Their own event was a joke.

 

Just have to shake my head at all the hate for Pete in here - apparently to the point that they would hope for failure if he's at all involved. It also seems some of you think he was a lot further up in FunPub's hierarchy than he was. Personally, I've never gotten the vibe that he'd be someone cool to hang out with, but I've never had a bad experience with him either. People like to jump all over FP over rumors, outright lies, misunderstandings, etc. in the same manner that they do John Warden.

 

If I'm not mistaken the company behind the China Cybertron Convention has the official world wide license for Transformers related conventions and expos. They just haven't used it yet outside of Asia yet.

 

So we have a vague announcement for an unofficial convention run by the guys who used to run the official convention that, judging by most of what I’ve seen online, went downhill in it’s later years, with the store being run by the guy who used the Botcon twitter to retweet racist and homophobic shit.


I mean, there’s just so much to get excited about.

 

Which I'm okay with. But they could always go back to the old handshake deal they had during the 90s. Nothing official. They show up. Let em use a few molds. Let em make a story and that's that.
I'd absolutely be on board with that.

But it wasn't. The official show in 04 was OTFCC Botcon was not official.
Botcon never became officially official until 02. They just got to use some Hasbro molds and characters for toys and stories..

 

This is pretty much my take on it as well.

 

*sigh* Statements are getting conflated.

BotCon 2004, an unofficial convention after OTFCC was created in 2003, had an unofficial exclusive (AM G2 Breakdown).

BotCon was never an official convention at all until 2002, but even before that, all BotCon exclusives had been provided by Hasbro, and were thus official.

OTFCC broke away from BotCon in 2003. There was no BotCon in 2003, and BotCon 2004 was entirely separate.

BotCon 2005 was official again, under entirely new management (FunPub), and this situation was the case until the end of BotCon in 2016.

 

If Pete is involved in any way, that means Pete is getting money from this convention. If people are ok to associate with a person like Pete, then.. What makes them any different? I'd rather my money go to cons that are ok with everybody who loves the Transformers brand, because at its heart, the TF community is supportive of everyone.

 

These baseless accusations are no good for anyone here.
That said his current show, Robocon has been open and welcoming to all from various races, sexual orientations and beliefs.

 

He used the Botcon twitter to retweet racist images and made racist jokes on it. In other words there is quite a bit of base to what is being said.