BotCon 1994

BotCon 1994 »
Date	July 16, 1994
City	Fort Wayne, Indiana
Venue	Grand Wayne Center

The very first convention dedicated entirely to Transformers, BotCon 1994 was organized by Jon Hartman and Karl Hartman. It was the first in the long-lived series of conventions bearing the BotCon name.

Merchandise

Toys

The Botcon 94 exclusive toy was an otherwise-unreleased Generation 2 edition of the Stunticon, Breakdown. Breakdown is the only G2 Stunticon who was released at all. 300 Breakdowns were produced, with 204 of those being made specifically for the convention.

You can just taste the '90sness through your screen.

Shirts

Red and purple shirts featuring the Generation 2 faction logos were available. The shirts also displayed the name and location of the convention.

Other

All preregistrants received an individually-numbered badge and button set, and a twelve-page official program guide.

Guests

Two Hasbro employees attended the convention as guests:

• Marketing Director Tom Bowman
• Product Manager Carl Fritz

Events

Foreign Toys Presentation

Fan Tony Preto held a "foreign toys" panel, focusing on various toys released only in Japan (which were virtually unknown in the North American fandom of the time).

Hasbro Presentation

Hasbro guests Tom Bowman and Carl Fritz presented upcoming 1994 and 1995 product, including:

• Dreadwing and Smokescreen, the final product of the 1994 assortment, quoted as costing "about $24.99".

• Superspeedbots "Gearhead", "Double Clutch", "High Beam", "Firecracker", "Motormouth" and "Blowout" ("about 2-3 dollars apiece") and the Superspeedbot Racing Rig. At the time, none of the Superspeedbots had been named. Instead of being in Greasepit's deco, the Superspeedbot shown with the Racing Rig was mostly transparent clear plastic, which the presenters indicated was intentional.
• Cyberjets "Skyjack", "Space Case" and Hooligan, respectively referred to as a "stealth fighter", an "x-fighter", and an "F-18". Only Hooligan was referred to by name.
• Power Masters "Bulletbike", Ironhide, "Meanstreak" and Staxx. Only Ironhide and Staxx were mentioned by name.
• Laser Cycles "Road Rocket" and "Road Pig", referred to as "akin to a Yamaha racing bike" and "akin to a Harley".
• Auto Rollers "Dirtbag" and "Roadblock".
• Optimus Prime Octane, described as having "the Laser Rod feature" and shipping in "the spring of 1995".

• New packaging for the 1995 line was also showcased, featuring differently colored bands at the bottoms of the cards so a consumer could easily tell the sub-segments apart. Alongside proof cards of Hooligan and Staxx, an early mock-up featuring Pothole was used in the demonstration.
• The Real Action Pop-Ups 3-D Transformer Trading Cards were previewed. The presenters mentioned they "know a lot of you guys are very into the illustrations", but they acknowledged that "some of the illustrations that are done now aren't quite the quality they were in the past", because Hasbro wasn't "using the Japanese illustrators anymore" due to cost considerations.

External links

• BotCon 1994 in the BotCon archives