1. Did the Hasbro booth give anything away this year? Did IDW?

2. How did the dealer room compare to last year? To prior Pasadena years?

3. Did you have any interactions with the guests (Jack Angel, Susan Blu, etc.)? If so, how were they? Any cool stories?

4. What were your thoughts on the Paramount Party/Event?

5. Show a pic of your customizing class figure - how did it turn out? How was the class?

6. Any "back channel" talk of where Botcon might be next year?

Any other thoughts or stories?

I'm just trying get a feel for other parts of the convention. I realize it isn't over yet, but only threads that are active about Botcon seem to be just about the future toys & exclusives that were shown at the Hasbro and FP panels.

Thanks!

 

1. no
2. panel is today, so not sure atm
3. jack angel was cool and so was susan blu. all the script folks were cool. i'll write back later with my experiences with jack and also stan bush.
4. i didn't attend; too exhausted
5. i didn't attend, but i saw my buddy's. toy was cool. wish i had attended.
6. i'll provide my feedback later

cheers  

KO

 

Hasbro gave away the Construct-A-Bots mini-figures designed to ride on the dinobots.

The Universal private experience was pretty good, except for the Dinobots panel, which didn't provide any new information on upcoming toys, or any significant behind the scenes insights on older toys.

 

Rumor mill supposedly is – and be aware I heard this from one guy who said this is what other people were saying – that BotCon will be in Pasadena permanently from now on.

Which is great for people in the SoCal area. Not so much for everyone else.

 

I heard some different stuff, I heard from a few people that Botcon will be on the East Coast next year. This is all rumor and innuendo, but I heard that FunPub wanted to have Botcon somewhere else this year, maybe the East Coast. However, Hasbro likes having it in Pasadena because they have a lot of stuff there already, like the vehicles for the movies, voice talent, etc.

As a west coaster, I'd love for Botcon to be somewhere I could get to every year. But I agree that it sucks for other folks that live in the midwest or east coast and have to make a long trip. I think that the idea of a rotating Botcon, alternating between West, centeral and East, has some merit.

 

Dealer room was small and compacked as their was another show using the convention center too.

Guest were super cool this year. Most were at the hotel bar Saturday night having drinks with us. Even a few Hasbro rep were their. And from what they told me they are the ines pushing to have botcon out in California every year. And i voice my opinion on how bad that would be.

I thought the panel that was held Saturday night 20 botcon toy you did not get was cool. Tho i would not mind getting 2 of them.

 

1. Did the Hasbro booth give anything away this year? Did IDW?

Hasbro gave away constuctbots on sat and Sunday. I know on Saturday they gave them away at 3 separate times.

2. How did the dealer room compare to last year? To prior Pasadena years?

It was IMO one of the worst I've seen. Small and cramped. Lots of ppl selling current stuff at scalper prices. Less older stuff to be found. I saved a lot of money this year.

3. Did you have any interactions with the guests (Jack Angel, Susan Blu, etc.)? If so, how were they? Any cool stories?

I'm not the type to get all up in the guest faces when they are doing their own thing. There are enough ppl doing that i dont wanna add to it. I did see the voice actress of Jem as she was hanging out at the sheridan bar. She seemed super nice. Sadly she was scared away by the Grimlock scalper dude in way too much transformers apparel telling her his life story.

4. What were your thoughts on the Paramount Party/Event?

Including universal studios in the price of a primus was cool. having the park to ourselves for a couple hours was even cooler. No lines for rides. Sadly the hour long panel they set up during this time was just a quick hall o fame thing and hasbro telling us how much everyone loves the dinobots and showing us a power point presentation. Over all a good time though.

5. Show a pic of your customizing class figure - how did it turn out? How was the class?

NA

6. Any "back channel" talk of where Botcon might be next year?\

I didnt hear chit

 

I'm not the type to get all up in the guest faces when they are doing their own thing. There are enough ppl doing that i dont wanna add to it. I did see the voice actress of Jem as she was hanging out at the sheridan bar. She seemed super nice. Sadly she was scared away by the Grimlock scalper dude in way too much transformers apparel telling her his life story.
B][/QUOTE]

Really !!!! Dude yr just mad she was drinking with me and she asked about my me, oh and I guess the hat was way to much apparel and BTW didn't you see ALL the other mp grimlocks over $125 in the dealer room get real and get over yourself

 

pretty much agree with all of this. Botcon in 2011 had it all over this Botcon. This botcon sucked balls.

 

So what was shown in the unused Botcon ideas panel...the one I was most interested in and and somehow didn't see a report for that one panel  

 

Didn't write them down so just going by memory (sure someone will post the whole list of 20). But there was a Marlboro Wheeljack using the Deluxe Lockdown/Axor mold, Bruton from FOC Grimlock, a MLP Twilight Sparkle crossover using the Battle Unicorn and the worst had to be the last one, Rodimus Prime from Beast Wars Transmetal Rattrap (!)

 

2. How did the dealer room compare to last year? To prior Pasadena years?
It did seem smaller than previous years.

3. Did you have any interactions with the guests (Jack Angel, Susan Blu, etc.)? If so, how were they? Any cool stories?

Besides chatting a bit with the voice actors during the autograph sessions, I was able to hook up Hal Rayle with an old Transformers Snarl action card - he had Shrapnel but not Snarl's card. At the GT reception, my nephew and I sat with Michael McConnohie and he talked about voicing Booger Man from the video game. Later on Hal stopped by for a bit as well as a Takara Tomy designer who we found out worked on Dinobot Scorn and Snarl from the AOE toyline.

4. What were your thoughts on the Paramount Party/Event?

Other than waiting outside in the sun for the bus, the Universal Studios visit was awesome, especially after we had the park to ourselves after 8pm, did the Transformers ride twice (when we first got to the park the announced wait time was 80 minutes) Did most of the rides and front seat too. The Hasbro panel was so-so, coulda used the time for more rides  

5. Show a pic of your customizing class figure - how did it turn out? How was the class?

It was fun putting together other than some tight ball joints. Love the red translucent plastic - was almost reluctant to paint over it. I pretty much followed the book except I left the lower legs unpainted.

 

2. The dealer room was dark, cramped, and smaller compared to previous years. Few booths had bargains. Captured Prey had the best prices in my opinion. I should have picked up more stuff from them. But the rest of it was kind of a disappointment for me. Maybe next time I will comeback right before the dealer room closes in order to receive the best deals.

 

I want to thank everybody who contributed to this thread and shared their Botcon 2014 experiences here. Like the OP has said: save for a few pics of photo galleries, most of us here at home have been living in a virtual "Botcon black-out".

But now that I'm getting then skinny on the ins and outs of this years venue, sounds like it was a total bust...Bummer.

My wife has recently shown some interest in wanting to attend a Botcon, but hearing this... the last thing I would want to do is subject her to a bad experience that turns he off to the idea of transformers completely.

I can only hope that they turn this venue around before the fandom jumps ship. I've noticed a huge following centering around TFcon. I kinda' Wonder if this is the new groove were all heading in.

 

Genuine question regarding the cramped dealer room area (not trying to start something or be cynical, I just don't know the convention center very well, this weekend was my first time ever being there) - Could the dealer room have been cramped because not as many dealers signed up, allowing the convention center to cram the Botcon dealer room off into a smaller area rather than allow it to be more spread out, or was it just because of the craft market being held the same weekend and swallowing up more space that could normally go to the dealer room?

 

I know for sure either in 09 or 11 (maybe both) there was another event happening in the same building. Both times the dealer room was on the end closer to the sheridan and the room we got this year as our dealer room was the panel room. This years panel room was in the other building. Btw the other building is where all of botcon 04 was held. It deffinatly felt like less dealers. Dealers ive delt with in the past at multiple botcons just not being there.

Dpok this botcon wasnt a total bust. It was just an average botcon. it ranked even with 2010 in my opinion. It even felt like the linecon everyone knows it as was a little more well oiled. With universal being included and the box set being better than some we've gotten in years past you deffinatly got your moneys worth.

 

I agree, this Botcon was pretty good. Last year's botcon was a bit of a disappointment in San Diego. Dealer room wasn't great, and box set was disappointing. However, this year's box set was much better, the panels were very good, especially James Roberts! I also saw and met a lot of great people at the official hotel, so that probably helped. The dealer room wasn't huge, true, but it wasn't horrible. There was some good stuff there. This was my third Botcon, 2011 in Pasadena probably had the largest dealer room I have seen.

 

Wait, I thought you were selling your Grimlocks to your friends?

 

4 of the 6 were sold to friends 1 was mine and sold one to a board member

 

Here's my custom class Primal Prime with Apelinq, I couldn't bear to paint over the lovely translucent red plastic of his lower legs. I never got the old Cybertron figure or the original Primal Prime and Apelinq so I was happy to add these two apes to my collection.