BotCon 2000

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I'll take Vince DiCola in the center square to block.
Date	July 28, 2000
City	Fort Wayne, IN
Venue	Grand Wayne Convention Center

“	This summer, prepare to be reformatted.	”
—Pre-convention announcement flyer

BotCon 2000 was held on July 28-30 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was organized by 3H.

Venue

BotCon 2000 was held in the Grand Wayne Convention Center in downtown Fort Wayne. Spaces included a Main Hall with dealers, merchandise, and contests, a display room, an autograph session room, and video rooms.

Merchandise

Convention exclusive toys

• Apelinq - A redecoed Transmetal Optimus Primal.
• Shokaract - A redeco of Rampage.

Comics and art

• Tales from the Beast Wars: Reaching the Omega Point - Comic book, conclusion the Reaching the Omega Point story.

And ever...and ever...and ever...

• Cheetor Poster - A poster of Beast Machines Cheetor.
• BotCon 2000 Mini-poster - A poster featuring the Beast Wars characters, a pastiche of the The Transformers: The Movie poster.

Some other junk

• A collectable plate, a lanyard, a tote, and a T-shirt.

Guests

Voice actors

• Ian James Corlett
• John Moschitta
• Venus Terzo
• Alec Willows

Hasbro employees

• Joe Mattiko
• Jamie Overbey

Music

• Vince DiCola

Events

Friday

• Dinner/Opening Ceremonies, starring Seafood Louis

Saturday

• 6:00am: Dealer setup begins
• 7:00am: Preregistration check-in begins
• 9:00am: Dealer room opens
• 11:00am: John Moschitta panel
• 1:00pm: Fan Panel #1
• 2:00pm: Beast Wars / Beast Machines Voice Actor Panel
• 3:00pm: Fan Panel #2
• 4:00pm: Hasbro presentation
• 5:00pm: Charity Auction benefiting the Make-a-Wish Foundation
• 6:00pm: Dealer room and display room close
• 8:00pm: Theatrical showing of The Transformers: The Movie in Fort Wayne's Embassy Theater, an ornate 1928 movie palace. Audience participation during this event was considerable and impassioned.

Sunday

• 9:00am: Dealer room opens. MSTF panel.
• 11:00am: Fan Panel #3
• 12:00pm: Vince DiCola panel and performance
• 1:30pm: BotCon organizers panel
• 3:00pm: Dealer room closes
• 6:00pm: Video Room closes. Convention ends. But... it never ends!

Autograph/photograph sessions with Vince and the voice actors were scheduled across Saturday and Sunday.

Various contests were also slated to happen throughout the weekend:

• Trivia contest. Prize: set of Convention Exclusive toys.
• Toy Assembly contest. Prize: complete set of carded Beast Machines Dinobots.
• Quick-Change Time Trials. Prize: Transmetal Rattrap, Airazor, and Mutant Icebird. Man, no love for the time trials.
• Art contest. 1st place prize: $50; 2nd place, $25; 3rd place, convention t-shirt.

Trivia

• Bob Skir had been an invited guest but cancelled due to "other commitments". Many fans immediately jumped to the (wrong) conclusion that this was largely because of the disappointment of Beast Machines and the resulting online hostility.
• Once again 3H was "this close" to getting Frank Welker as a guest - albeit only for Friday's dinner.
• Although Men in Black were banned from attending BotCon as dealers, they ran "TransCon 2 1/2" out of their hotel room. Naturally, this meant lots of overpriced toys, an abundance of Onyx Primals, and free (stale) pretzels and water. They also tossed TransCon 2 shirts on the heads of unsuspecting fans waiting in line for the Dealer's Room on Saturday morning.
• One fan bid over $600 for a Primal Prime during the Charity Auction. He won, of course.
• A popular auction seller known as "SPQQKY" put up a Shokaract on eBay a day before 3H officially revealed it at BotCon. Sadly, this would become a trend in the future.

External links

BotCon 2000 in the BotCon archives