I think everyone generally understands the point of exclusives, the idea of them being something either you like or don't like. But I think a lot of the complaining especially online just comes down to the collector mentality trap of "always wanting what you don't/can't have".

 

Can we give it a rest already? He’s probably not going anywhere, so if you feel like you can’t support him then please don’t. I on the other hand would like to come in here and discuss the latest BotCon development without having to dodge comments like this all the time... it’s not contributing anything to the discussion.
Also, as a gay man, I’ve learned how to cohabitate with people who do not share my “political” viewpoints or deem me as an “abomination”... I’m frankly quite alarmed by the sheer amount of white, straight, cis men here raising kane upon my (and other minorities) behalf from the disparaging comments Pete has made... like thanks, but can we kindly move on?

 

I think it goes beyond even wanting what you can't have. Spend any amount of time in the Seacons thread, for the most recent examples. It's full of people who are outraged not that the Seacons are unavailable, but that they're more expensive than normal retail figures. Accusations of gouging by Takara are rampant, and disgust that Hasbro is not selling them through mass retail channels. It's a perception of worth and value based in willful ignorance of how exclusives are produced (as often as it's explained, there's no other excuse than people simply refusing to understand or accept the facts).

 

So five figure God Neptune boxed set as a Botcon 2021 exclusive?? With a new character from Nautilator as an attendee only exclusive?  

 

So what are they odds they'll finally give us Botanica as an exclusive this time? They gave us the Tripredacus Council a few years ago, so all they need to do is slap a Botanica head and paint scheme on something vaguely tree-like and we'll finally have every cybertronian character from the Beast Era represented in toy form in some way (unless you count Diagnostic Drone, but then there's no reason Botcon can't just give us a repaint of Overboard to cover that base as well).

 

i dunno man, i heard the first nu-botcon exclusive would be an entirely new gun megatron mold that they couldn't release at retail

 

Honestly I could see it. We know demand is there, and we know Hasbro won't be doing it. If Takara doesn't do it either...

 

I understand what you're saying, but 3H were able to get exclusives produced for BotCon before they were an official Hasbro backed convention, and since they weren't technically backed by Hasbro they were able to make more interesting (IMO) characters than they were able to do during the official years because they weren't constrained by Hasbro rules or naming. The only reason they had to go the "3rd Party" route for 2004 was because of OTFCC, which had Hasbro backing, so they couldn't acquire exclusives like they used to as it would've been a conflict of interest on Hasbro's part to supply exclusives to 2 different (yet similar) conventions.

I am hoping they are able to go back to the BotCon roots when it comes to exclusives, but only time will tell whether that will be the case or not.

 

That was the ’90’s... a lot has changed since then with corporations protecting their IP. Plus, BotCon was the first and only TransFormers convention, a brand that was essentially dead in 1994... and they needed to work their way up to the bigger and more plentiful figures. With an entirely new team at Hasbro, I wouldn’t expect the same situation to happen.

 

Well, exclusive toys are confirmed. So Botcon is either able to make unlicensed toys without Hasbro caring, or it's officially licensed again. Personally I don't want them to be an outlet for international figures or share them with another online retailer, it dilutes the concept of an exclusive. I mean, really, "shared exclusive" is an oxymoron, if we want to get pedantic. Is it really a Botcon toy if Botcon is just one on a list of sellers of a Hasbro-initiated product?

 

But again, TFcon has exclusive toys... there’s nothing about Hasbro being involved (or not involved to be fair). So we’ll just have to see! But with 3D printing so easily accessible now, I would guess their exclusives will be more along the lines of what was offered at BotCon 2004, or since Pete is involved, use his contacts and make something similar to the figures offered on Night Shining. I just can’t imagine Hasbro doing limited runs of like 600 figures again, but you never know. I mean, how many people plan on going to the new BotCon when they’ve settled in with TFcon? I doubt they’ll get up into the thousands, especially since Hasbro isn’t making any sort of announcement... I assume they won’t be involved. So attendance will be low, which means exclusive numbers will be low, which means Hasbro will be less likely to produce something. Look at the transition from OTFCC 2004 to BotCon 2005... it went from roughly 2000 attendees down to 500, and that was with only like a 15 month gap, Hasbro officially sponsoring the con, AND a boxset FULL of exclusive toys. Maybe the attendee package was too high, or it was a bad location, or the time of year sucked, but also TFcon USA wasn’t around, so even with that being the only option still only 500 people came. Now maybe people were burnt out because of all the drama, but people seem to still be burnt out with BotCon for other reasons today, and there are TWO USA TFcons now (well, theoretically... guess that can still change back to one), with a higher attendance and no drama. I just can’t believe BotCon will get huge attendance no matter how you cut it, which means that I can’t imagine Hasbro doing such a small run, especially since are any of the same employees at Hasbro’s TF devision the same as they were in 2016? Would they even know what BotCon was, and would they care to do exclusives? That’s why I think they’d get shared exclusives, like BBTS or distribute their Selects figures... but I think it’s going to be the type of stuff Pete is already offering for Redman. Could be wrong, but if Hasbro wanted to make them stuff, I’d imagine it would only be if they were involved and made the Con official again... or they’d want to run it. Idk what they want with the failure of HasCon... that was the reason they killed BotCon. So who knows. But getting figures like Shockaract and TM Tigatron again are probably slim to none right now, at least until BotCon grows again... which I think they will. It’s just going to take several years. And I know Karl knows that... so I expect 2021 to be similar to BotCon 1994, 2004, and 2005

 

With using the Botcon name, and knowing the people involved, I don't imagine they'll run the risk of alienating Hasbro by publicizing 3rd party exclusives. A 3rd party presence is probably unavoidable (on the contrary, it's probably in their best interests to have strong 3rd party participation to drive attendance), and companies may offer exclusives, but I see a difference between that, and BC Productions announcing "Get your exclusive FansToys G2 Spoiler only at Botcon!" and using the image on advertisements and so forth. Especially if they hope to secure a license in the future.

Yeah, I agree with that. I would expect Hasbro to quote BC a price on a minimum run of a figure, and unsold units would go up on Night Shining and probably be offered at Robocon until they're gone. We'd be talking anywhere from 2000-5000 units, I'd guess. They'll be operating Botcon in the red, starting out, but then most cons function that way.

I was at OTFCC both years, didn't go to Botcon 2005 due to distance, and with the exclusives being made available to non-attendees, going didn't seem of paramount importance anymore. But I've always been of the opinion that the more cons, the better, especially if they're spread out both geographically and temporally. At least for me, distance is usually the deciding factor on whether I go or not, I don't know how many more people that applies to, but you can't deny the appeal of a geographically-convenient convention. I feel like there's plenty of space on the calendar for Botcon, two TFCons, Robocon, and all the other conventions people put on, as long as they don't all try to be in the Midwest in August, or whatever.

 

I'd honestly prefer Hasbro not be involved, at all.
If TFCon can go w/o Hasbro, I'm sure the reborn BotCon would be able to do so as well.

 

I’m not sure if Karl is interested in getting Hasbro involved... that was more so Glen, and I think Pete pushed the 3P ban because he really had no choice. But an easy work around is for them to produce their own figures... or yeah, be in the red for a couple years and offer the exclusives online. I remember either Karl or Glen saying they were in the red for years when BotCon first started, so he might be willing to swing it again.

I love all the 3H love they’re giving on social media, to the BotCon legacy original characters and completely ignoring the FunPub stuff... I wonder if that’s intentional. Pretty sure Pete is running their socials, so I’m curious if that’s just to hit the nostalgic funny bone or if they intend to pick up where BotCon 2002 left off... would love to see the comics continue, although tbh I think a lot of those were conceptualized by Glen, so I’m not holding my breath. I also think I’ve mentioned before that I’d like to see the legacy characters get updates from CHUG figures, so those are the exclusives I’m hoping for... just not getting my hopes up, though

 

Excuse me, but do you mind using quote coding? Your post looks like it is conveying that you are Bret Lovell.

 

That happened before and everyone thought he was Karl...

 

How would I go about pitching comic book scripts for future conventions?

 

Interesting that they said "Exclusive Toys" and not "Exclusive Figures", "Exclusive Transformers", "Exclusive Robots", or "Official Exclusive".

Curious what the exclusives will be now, but I'm currently ruling out Official Transformers as exclusives until it seems otherwise.

 

At this point, the best thing we can hope for is they continue their fiction... preferably as comics, and also cut back on the convoluted multiverses. Would like to see one continuous story advance from year to year, but maybe offer a larger book than a standard comic.

I think they plan to move ahead with Shattered Glass since they created it and Hasbro won’t use it, but unless they dive into Beast Wars, I must say I wouldn’t be all that interested...
With their post today and all the #ShatteredGlass hashtags attached to most of their other posts, I wouldn’t be surprised. I would much rather see them pick up after The Wreckers pt. 2 and tie it into TransTech somehow... that feels more classic “BotCon” to me