BotCon
BotCon is an annual convention for Transformers fans and collectors. The convention has been held, in one form or another, annually since 1994.
The name "BotCon" comes from both "robot convention" and the names "Autobot" and "Decepticon" used in the toyline.
Featured BotCon guests are usually involved in the creation of Transformers media in some respect, whether voice actors from the animated series, artists or writers from the Transformers comic books, or actual Hasbro employees.
Individual conventions
For details of each convention, click on the appropriate link below.
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BotCon history
The first BotCon was held in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1994. Organized by brothers Jon and Karl Hartman, the convention had 180 attendees. BotCon 1995 was organized by Raksha, a prominent figure in the fan community, and 1996 by Men in Black Productions, headed up by Dennis Barger. In 1997, the Hartmans brought Glen Hallit, a fellow fan, into the fold, forming 3H Enterprises (based upon the first letter of all three organizers' last names). During this era, the BotCon name was also licensed out for several conventions outside of the United States.
What's that? Really?
We now return you to your regularly sceduled convention.
At BotCon 2002, it was announced that 3H had secured the official Transformers convention license, as well as licenses to produce comic books and start a fan club. However, the Hartmans were pressured by Hallit out of planning or running the convention, leaving Glen Hallit as the sole organizer. As a result, the BotCon name, which was owned by the Hartmans, ceased to exist for a time, as 3H's convention was called "The Official Transformers Collectors' Convention," or OTFCC for short.
In 2004, BotCon made a comeback as an unofficial convention, which was held in Pasadena, California. The history of the BotCon franchise up to that point was covered in great detail in the BotCon Legends magazine. At the end of 2004, 3H lost all its Transformer licenses, which were soon picked up by Fun Publications, owned by Brian Savage. The Hartman brothers were invited onto and accepted places in an advisory board for the new convention, along with other prominent fans Benson Yee and Rik Alvarez, and granted use of the BotCon name once again.
Since that time, BotCon has been held once again as an annual convention, run by Fun Publications.
Special guests
Over the years, BotCon has featured many individuals who have worked to bring the Transformers multiverse to life, including voice actors, animation staff, and Hasbro design team members.
Exclusive toys
One of BotCon's most popular features is the sale of exclusive toys to the guests. In the early years, only a single toy was produced a year, but over the next decade the number of toys per year grew steadily (coincidentally enough (wink) as the franchise's retail presence did). In 2005 with the changeover to Fun Publications, the number of toys made for the show took a massive jump from 2004's four exclusives to a whopping ten (if you don't count "army-building" duplicates sold in multi-packs). The identity and design of the toys were originally kept a close secret until the opening of the convention, although in the later years of the convention the organizers often chose to reveal one or more of the exclusives ahead of time, due to repeated problems with stolen prototypes being sold on eBay, plus the need to hype the convention as awareness of Transformers grew.
In the past, the toys were sold individually as part of the convention registration process, however the current convention organizers are only offering the exclusives as part of a package deal, a move that initially caused some contention in the fandom.
Although the toys are always unique, financial costs prohibit the creation of entirely new molds. As such, the toys are redecos of previously used toys given new identities, occasionally switching allegiances and even gender. Since 2003, various toys have had new toolings added to them, most typically new heads. After the convention, exclusive toys usually become valuable collector's items in the community, particularly among fans who missed the convention.
Proposed/Unreleased exclusives
A number of toys were planned over the years but never produced, for various reasons. Note that some of these entries are essentially jokes from the organizers' brainstorming sessions, which they then later mentioned to other fans:
- Lickme, a redeco of Spittor as a Poison Arrow Frog. Function: Psychological Warfare. Mentioned at the BotCon '99 Organizers Panel.
- Jai-Alai, a black redeco of Manterror. Function: Ninja. Mentioned at the BotCon '99 Organizers Panel.
- Cataclysm, a green and purple redeco of Transmetal Cheetor. This character actually appeared in the convention storyline and was thought to be the lower priced exclusive in 2000 until Apelinq was revealed instead. It is unclear whether or not Cataclysm was ever truly intended to be released, however.
- Optimal Rodimus Primal, mentioned by the Hartmans at the organizer's panel at Botcon 2000, this would have been an updated version of Rodimus Prime made from the Optimal Optimus mold. Plans were nixed very early on as Primal Prime was going into its limited production run and Hasbro didn't give licensees the leeway they now enjoy. Optimal Rodimus Primal's events in the Wreckers storyline were revised for Primal Prime and Rodimus instead
- Blue Balls Attack Team, from an anecdote shared by Karl Hartman on the now defunct BotCon Beyond message board, a planning session for BotCon had run much later than anticipated and an exhausted Hartman proposed a pair of blue repaints of Beast Wars Retrax. Obviously not a serious proposal.
- Hot Spot, a blue redeco of Robots in Disguise Optimus Prime as a new Autobot leader modelled after the Generation One character. The toy would have featured a new headsculpt for the robot's larger "Defensor" mode. This toy was originally solicited for OTFCC 2004, then pushed back for OTFCC 2005. When the license was removed from 3H Productions, this figure was cancelled.
- Several toys were proposed for the 2005 Official Transformers Collectors' Convention. Due to 3H's loss of the Transformers license these plans never came to fruition.
- Megatron, a red redeco of Robots in Disguise Megatron as an upgraded (and resurrected) Beast Wars Megatron with a new headsculpt.
- Devcon, a blue redeco of Energon Slugslinger as the Generation One character with a new headsculpt.
- Brawn, a green redeco of Energon Strongarm as the Generation One character with a new headsculpt and snap on Energon gauntlets.
- Roadbuster, an orange and green redeco of Energon Strongarm as the Generation One character with a new headsculpt and Energon rifle.
- Sentinel Prime, originally conceived as the Cybertron Defense Hot Shot redeco for 2007. He was dropped in favor of Springer, who fit the mold and the story/theme better.
Exclusive fiction
Fiction did not really play into the first few years of BotCon. While attendees of BotCon 1995 did get an exclusive fanzine, it was just that; a magazine full of fan-written stories and fan-drawn art, none of which was approved by Hasbro.
When 3H took the convention back for 1997, one of the many ways they set out to make the show a real mother of a blowout was by adding an exclusive comic story to accompany the toys, penned by "the" Transformers scribe Simon Furman, with art by Marvel comics artist Andrew Wildman. The hugely positive response to even this little stand-alone tale that was irreconcilable with the then-running Beast Wars cartoon that it used as a setting[1] cemented the need for fiction to bring the exclusive toy characters to life, though it would take some time to settle on a format. 1998 started the multi-year "Reaching the Omega Point" story, which was kicked off with a tongue-in-cheek live script reading, followed up by a series of text stories released online, and ultimately ended in 2000 with a full-color comic that assembled the prior text stories before jumping into the final battle.
2001 started a new multi-year story, "The Wreckers", starting the trend ofeach convention having an exclusive comic book.
External links
- ↑ 3H members indicated that the story of how the various non-show characters from later storylines arrived on ancient Earth and why they weren't seen in the show would be later told, but this never happened.
