HasCon 2017
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 And then there is even more wailing, and stronger gnashing of teeth from the fans. | |||||||
| Date | September 8, 2017 | ||||||
| City | Providence, Rhode Island. | ||||||
| Venue | Rhode Island Convention Center and Dunkin' Donuts Center | ||||||
HasCon 2017, the first HasCon convention, was held in Providence, Rhode Island from September 8 through 10, 2017. As an expo/celebration of all brands that Hasbro owns or licenses across all age groups, Transformers had a significant presence.
Venue
The convention was held at the Rhode Island Convention Center for the main show floor, gaming rooms and smaller panels, with the adjacent Dunkin' Donuts Center arena used for the larger presentations and concerts.
The main show floor, on the first level of the Convention Center, was broken up into large areas for each brand, with toy display cases, prop displays, numerous play-tables covered in toys, and stages for presentations, autographs sessions and audience-participation games. There were face-painting and hair styling stations scattered throughout the floor as well. Transformers was the first section seen from the main entrance to the floor (and yes there was a face-painting station there to robot-ize up your kids); going forward led to Marvel Comics and Star Wars, while going right went through the games area and into My Little Pony, Hanazuki and the like, with Nerf on the far wall opposite, with plenty of firing ranges and an inflated enclosed combat zone. The not-actually-owned-by-Hasbro licenses were of course pushed more to the back of the hall but still given lots of space.
In the center of the floor was the "Boutique", where Hasbro sold retail toys (at wholesale price), as well as convention-exclusive posters, clothing and other swag, with a separate booth specifically for HasCon-exclusive "collector" toys and items (though over the course of the weekend that stock would filter into the normal checkout areas).
The main hallway outside the show floor was filled with guest services kiosks, food vendors, and other companies on display, as well as autograph areas for the less-directly-Hasbro-related guests. The back end of the call was the "Hascade", featuring free-play stations for numerous Hasbro-branded mobile games, arcade games, and the like.
The upper floor held the Magic: The Gathering play room, full of tables where a tournaments went on all weekend. Next to it was a small dealer section, primarily populated by people selling their art and hand-crafted wares, but there were a few of the normal toy resellers there to boot. Most importantly in that room though was the Dunkin' Donuts tent that offered free donut holes and small cups of Monster energy drinks all weekend. On the other end of the hall was the "FANmily Stage Room", a smaller conference room that held panels all weekend. The hall on this floor was also filled with food vendors and other companies displaying their services.
Guests
- Action Movie Kid
- Danny Amendola
- Ogie Banks
- Mary Jane Begin
- Susan Blu
- Lorenzo di Bonaventura[1]
- Mark Boudreaux
- Jackie Bradley Jr.
- Stan Bush
- Len Cabral
- Vic Cook
- Jamie Costa
- Peter Cullen
- Daya
- Derryl DePriest
- Jessica DiCicco
- "Dude Perfect"
- "Eh Bee Family"
- James Gunn
- Summer Hayes
- Zach King
- Walter Koenig
- Stan Lee
- Andrea Libman
- Marcelo Matere
- Meghan McCarthy
- Scott Menville
- Isabela Moner
- David Ortiz
- Candace Payne ("Chewbacca Mom")
- Flo Rida
- Mark Rosewater
- Chris Ryall
- Charisma Star
- Mark Wahlberg
- John Warden
- Frank Welker
- Cathy Weseluck
- James White
- Chris "Doc" Wyatt
- Hideaki Yoke
- Maddie Ziegler
Semi-technically, Hasbro's whole staff were guests, as they were brought in to cover their brands' booths and answer questions, just as they did during BotCons. Many also attended panels for their brands and fields of work, including several TakaraTomy employees.
Events
Friday September 8
- More than Meets the Eye
- Hasbro and TakaraTomy employees discussed their work on the various Transformers toylines. Began with talking about the technical issues of designing two The Last Knight sublines; the AllSpark Tech series and Knight Armor Turbo Changers. Next they discussed the Robots in Disguise combiners, working with the show to design the combined modes, how the actual combination mechanics would work.
- Then it was Power of the Primes, which was largely a new product reveal, focusing primarily on the new Dinobots, with a silhouette "teaser" for Predaking.
- This panel was not originally in this timeslot, but was moved within a few days of the event due to a travel issue with the Marvel team that was originally slated for this spot. As the very first panel of the show on a Friday with people in an exclusives line, it was lightly attended. On the other hand, the Hasbro crew remarked that it was nice to be able to put everything into the display cases so early in the weekend.
- IDW - Transformers Comics: How Artists and Writers Bring Stories to Life
- From Unicron to Megatron - Explore the Villains of Transformers
Saturday September 9
- IDW: The Hasbro Comic Revolution
- Peter and Frank Sound Off: The Voices of Optimus Prime & Megatron!
- Transformers: 'The Last Knight' in the Making
- Transformers: Special Dinner Event
Sunday September 10
While Sunday saw several panels repeat, there were some new panels and events on the schedule:
- The Prime Wars Trilogy: See the story come to life!
- Peter and Frank Sound Off: The Voices of Optimus Prime & Megatron!
- IDW - Transformers Comics: How Artists and Writers Bring Stories to Life
- The Women of Transformers
- More than Meets the Eye
Merchandise
Exclusive items from multiple brands were available at the show, but we'll focus on the Transformers-related stuff...
Purchase-at-show items included:
- Optimus Prime Power Bank
- Titans Return Arcee w/ Leinad & Ultra Magnus Titan Masters
- Magic: The Gathering promo card set w/ "Grimlock, Dinobot Leader"/"Grimlock, Ferocious King" reversible card
- San Diego Comic-Con Primitive Skateboarding Optimus Prime w/ Shreddicus Maximus Titan Master
The Hasbro "Boutique" sold regular-retail Hasbro toys at wholesale cost. Several of these items were either not yet available at retail or had only just started hitting... and largely sold out by end of show:
- Titans Return wave 1 & 2 Deluxes
- The Last Knight wave 1 & 2 Deluxes
- The Last Knight wave 1 & 2 1-Step Changers
- The Last Knight Remote Control Sqweeks
- Robots in Disguise wave 1 & 2 Combiner box sets
- Robots in Disguise wave 1 & 2 Crash Combiners
- Rescue Bots wave 1 Flip-Racer 3-packs
There were also a lot of posters and apparel on sale, both Transformers specific and HasCon-branded with Transformers characters on them (usually Optimus).
The Boutique eventually added the HasCon exclusives to their available stock over the weekend. Free shipping was offered by having the orders be fulfilled by Hasbro Toy Shop online ordering at checkout.
Throughout the weekend, numerous posters, art cards and other small swag was given away free at the various booths:
Run-up
- HasCon was announced in a Hasbro press release on October 18, 2016.
- On April 10, 2017, a video featuring Optimus Prime was released to promote the event. Hasbro also revealed that the convention would include exclusive products as well as autograph and panel sessions.
- At 12:01am on May 23, 2017, fan media were allowed to announce that the HasCon site was live and tickets were on sale. The official site and subsequent press release revealed that producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura and voice-actors Peter Cullen and Frank Welker would be in attendance for Transformers media, as well as Product Design Manager John Warden.
- On August 8 2017, Susan Blu and Stan Bush were announced as guests for autographs.[2]
- The following day, Isabela Moner was confirmed for attendance.[3] A week later, co-star Mark Wahlberg was announced as attending as well.
