Actually, SDCC is a great example of why I don't want to see an all-brands Hasbro convention. It may well be a good thing for Hasbro, and for getting a large gathering of people together, but (IMHO!) Transformers, as a specific entity, will get short shrift compared to what we've gotten out of a Transformers-specific official convention.
except no one goes to Comicon for the Comics anymore. they go to see movie trailers and meet the cast of Twilight, my problem isnt with the MLP fandom in general, in fact I have quite a few friends that are part of it. but there is no denying the......undesirable element of the mlp fandom. the ones i shall henceforth dub the "4chan Brony" you know the type, i'm sure. trillby wearing neckbeards who have made it impossible to Google search "My Little Pony" without finding gobs of ponyporn. those are the kind of people that worry me. and yes I know every fandom has people like that, but the ones attached to mlp seem to be louder and more prevalent in my experience.
My sentiments exactly-- for all the people for whom BotCon was always inaccessible, this could very well be a godsend.
You seem to be the only person who seems to understand the benefits of combining the brands, if that is the case. There are very few brands that can support an entire convention. Combining the brands would give Hasbro an amazing amount of flexibility to represent all of their brands at a level that is appropriate in a given year.
I don't even care about MLP and agree with this sentiment. A bunch of guys who argue about robots that turn into cars are in no position to pass judgement on a bunch of guys who argue about ponies that can talk. Why not? Maybe in it's first few years there may be some growing pains, but the fan presence at these conventions will be whatever said fans bring to it. If MLP fans want to share art, or TF fans want to share customs...and the demand is there... Hasbro has the ability to grow into allowing those types of programs. And if GI Joe or TF bros want to treat the MLP/Jem fans like garbage? Hasbro will be in-house and unlikely to let that go for too long before bringing the hammer down on jerks.
While that may be the case, the existence of Comic-Con doesn't stop the existence of fan conventions for things like Supernatural, Transformers, Star Trek, Star Wars, Power Rangers, etc and as we've seen, larger "official" cons don't stop the smaller focused ones from drawing stars/talent to sign/speak/etc. Those brands which have a stronger fan presence will be able to carry their own conventions (as long as Hasbro and the Fan cons respect each others right to exist) and the brands which can't will have still have some presence at a convention that can help draw attention to them. It's like Wrestlemania weekend. The top company runs their top show in a city, and all of the wrestling fans/attention to wrestling drawn to that city for that week is leveraged by smaller/mid-market wrestling promotions who travel there and run shows of their own. In that regard, HasCon would be able to leverage Transformers, GI Joe, MLP, etc...to help bring in attention that could be leveraged to give some platform for Jem, MASK, Micronauts, and other vintage or lesser properties.
Can we please keep the TF fans out? They wanted to induct a character named Erector into their official Hall of Fame.
That part in the parenthesis gets to the basis for most of my fear. I have no faith that, if Hasbro puts their energy behind an all-brands convention, that they WILL respect the right of an official Transformers-specific convention to exist. (You said fan cons. Those can no doubt be good, but they're not the same thing. I fully expect fan cons to continue to exist, but I won't likely be traveling to them, and none have yet come near where I live)
Next year is a movie year. I fully expect an official TF convention in Pasadena in 2017. They need a con to promote the movie, which will be out before SDCC. I think a potential "Hascon" will be for their other brands, but maybe having a TF presence to draw a crowd.
If this is a fan event, I would hope that each of the major brands get their own con. I can't imagine people flying from all over the country to go to a con that is a fraction of what Botcon was. They could be treating Hascon has more of a media event and use it to introduce new products. It would essentially be a Hasbro focused toy fair. Since I'm a Transformers fan, the lure of an all Hasbro brand show isn't there. I'll wait til there is actual information before developing an opinion either way.
Yeah, promoting TF5 at HasCon will draw a crowd... of Transformers fans who want to see TF5 promotions. Will it really draw crowds of other properties, though? Hasbro seems to be taking a Field Of Dreams approach here, you know, "if you build it, they will come." And I'm just not convinced that's true.
Why this... But really, this is the heart of the matter for me. I haven no interest in dropping that kind of time and money on a convention that shares space exclusively with brands I have no interest in when I'm looking for Transformers, especially since TFs would probably wind up being overshadowed by MLP.
Hmm, I called it, like some others probably did as well. At this point I would guess that this would take place in Pasadena because we have been told that Hasbro prefers the show in that area due to proximity to talent and that many props and other items are stored nearby, thereby making it easier to transport stuff that could be used at a con. I wonder what will happen with exclusives? Maybe we will no longer get sdcc exclusives and these will go to hascon instead. Also, will we get any more box sets or have dealer rooms, etc? One other issue: if people had problems with botcon's stance against third party figures, get ready for even tougher enforcement against unofficial products when Hasbro runs the entire show.
Why are you assuming that it wouldn't be 'Botcon' plus X, Y, Z? Surely Hasbro can put on a much larger convention than FunPub.
I can say the format of D23 works really well. Disney does an excellent job of engaging all the different fan bases. There is a pretty wide range of fans, and many have specific interests. You have fans of Disney Princesses mixed in with fans of Marvel. I have yet to see any West Side Story like brawls.
