Given the nonsense that went down at Botcon regarding the sudden hard line stance against any and all 3P products, I'd imagine the same would be true in the policies.

But they can't simply remove the vintage trade floor aspect - for TFs and GI JOES that's a huge reason why many people decide to come to the events.

 

The Star Wars brand is going pretty strong I hear.

The movie didn't, but it sounds like the comic book is doing incredibly well.

 

I honestly am not excited about this, if it is a combined convention then eh. The only property under Hasbro I care about at the moment is Transformers, then there is the possibility that it is a stationary convention unlike the moving one like Botcon sorry but if your going to stay in like say California you just alienated fans like that. Well looks like there is no more conventions for me.

 

Is that a bad thing for the fans of said smaller brands that don't have enough interest for a convention? I'd say "no".

Honestly at the end of the day the differences between some of these fandoms are all just population demographics mixed with with the societal norms for said demographics. Ultimately we're all the same with a mix of degrees of fandom, from casual to superfan to slashfic headcanon superfan.

(Hell, Star Trek fans basically invented slashfiction anyway, and people don't look down on that entire fanbase because some fraction of the fandom practices that)

 

Doesn't seem to have hurt San Diego Comic Con being held in the same place.

 

I'm just saying that about me, I can't afford to go every year to California for a convention! I was lucky I was able to back in 2011 & 2013 for Botcon.

 

Oh my, I too forgot about Hasbro's toys for other group's licenses. They probably won't push them as much as their own franchises, but they probably would want to do a fair bit to draw in fans of franchises as big as SW.

Edit:

No it's not a universally bad thing. It's just that anyone who's only interested in TF (I personally like SW, but don't have much interest in it's toys) and are hoping for a BotCon replacement will have to turn to cons not supported by Hasbro.

 

The other benefit Hasbro would get out of a combined experience is more cross-promotion and spotlighting what may be lesser-known brands for their core demographic, the kids. Some may come to check out MLP and discover and fall in love with Jem, particular those who actually liked the movie. GI Joe could get new life breathed into it. ROM and M.A.S.K. could receive new attention and buzz, generating more interest in toys and media for those lines. It would be a different experience, but I don't see it as being a bad thing at all. I'd figure the brands would each have their own sections of a convention hall, but not in any kind of isolation. We've already seen even in this thread where some would like to be able to see other properties they're already fans of, or have family members who are. The more people they can bring in as a family unit, the more sales and interest Hasbro generates and can work with.

 

Well what if they had one cross-exclusive set and then standalone others for each of the other brands?

 

That's literally exactly what I said! And on top of that, the previous guy's assertion that the brony phenomenon is still as big or universal as it was in, say, 2012 is pretty much wrong on its face-- the MLP fandom has long since plateaued from its original memetic status. Face it, there's nothing here that could conceivably "overshadow" Transformers; the inclusion of other properties can only stand to bring in others who might have stayed on the fence otherwise.

 

inb4 HasBeenCon.

Good night.

 

What about the name Hasbro Con? Would that suffice? Just throwing it out there.

 

It'll be a cold day in hell before I go to a con with a bunch of bronies. They'll take over and ruin the whole goddamn thing.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that there (likely) CAN'T be any BotCons under Hasbro, because Fun Publications owns the trademark.

Trademark Status & Document Retrieval

While it was originally owned by Jon Hartman (see earlier filing), he evidently transferred ownership of the mark to FP (not Hasbro proper) during the organizational changeover. Whether there would be a provision in FP's contract to make them hand over the name upon cession of the contract, Iunno - but from all outside appearances, the name BotCon is FunPub's intellectual property.

 

Which MLP fandom? There's already two separate groups; the fans of G4 and the vintage G1 collecting fans that existed well before Bronies.

What other property is there besides GI JOE with a strong adult fanbase? Hasbro's been teasing Jem for years but the film was one of the worst box office bombs in recent history and with Equestria Girls still going strong, Hasbro's doubling down on that front against Mattel's fashion dolls rather than trying to push Jem again.

The problem is the hard dividing line between Hasbro's properties in terms of core target audience. The only "boys toys" Hasbro even still focuses on with a marketable cartoon element are TFs and GI JOE. Everything else is solidly in the "girls toys" camp in tone, appearance, and marketability.

Plus, TFs has the added problem of being the only one of Hasbro's franchises that relied on direct corporate support to run its central convention. JoeCon's been doing its own thing for years and after the collapse of the Convention scene post-Unicon disaster, Bronycon and Everfree Northwest are the largest two "Brony" conventions on either side of the Mississippi and would not benefit from being forced to share with war toys in both clashing themes but also merch focus (IIRC pony conentions have HUGE artist alleys because almost all focus of those are of G4 only and the show is more of the draw than the simplistic and cheap toys).

Hasbro may be trying to consolidate control over its brands with a unifed convention approach, but the Botcon model just won't work when the subject franchises are incompatible.

 

I dunno. MLP might be less popular than it used to be, but I still see it a lot around the internet.

 

Without the licenses, though, will FunPub continue to exist? I mean, they could, in theory, continue smaller Joecon and Botcon conventions...but they'd no longer be able to do anything remotely official. They're now floating in the same boat as TFCon, TFExpo and Dairycon.

 

TF Fandom right now: