BotCon 2006
BotCon 2006 was the Official Transformers Convention in 2006, run by Fun Publications. It was held in Lexington, KY.
Merchandise
Vast quantities of exclusive merchandise was debuted at BotCon 2006, in addition to "exclusive" merchandise from previous Transformers conventions and FunPub-run GI Joe conventions.
Convention-Exclusive Toys
- Convention Box Set - This set of five toys was only available to those who registered for the 'Primus Package.' The set also included a badge, the Convention Comic, and five custom-designed Cyber Planet Keys made to look like the Golden Disk.
- Axalon Rattrap - An orange, silver, bronze and black redeco of Ransack.
- Axalon Rhinox - A green, brown, gold, and black redeco of Cybertron Landmine.
- Axalon Cheetor - A yellow and teal remold of Clocker with cheetah-print seat covers and a new head sculpt.
- Darksyde Dinobot - A grey, black, brown, and blue redeco of Longrack with Hoist's head.
- Axalon Optimus Primal - A black, white, red, and blue remold of Crumplezone with a new head sculpt.
- Attendee-Only Bonus Toy - Unit 2/(Tigatron), a white and teal version of the Cheetor exclusive toy with tiger-stripe seat covers, was provided as a bonus to those who picked up their 'Primus Package' box set in person.
- Convention Souvenier 2-Paks - Two sets of two bagged toys, limited to 500 of each set.
- Darksyde Megatron and Darksyde Waspinator - A purple and black remold of Cybertron Defense Red Alert with a new head and a green and yellow redeco of Machine Wars Skywarp.
- Laserbeak and Buzzsaw - Red and orange redecos of Divebomb.
Comics
- Convention Comic: Dawn of Futures Past - A prequel comic to Beast Wars that played fast and loose with continuity, based the character designs on the exclusive toys, and had a title that aped X-Men far too heavily.
- IDW Preview Comic: Transformers: Spotlight - Nightbeat - A preview of the second issue of the IDW Spotlight series, with no ads, a sketch variant cover, the two normal covers included inside at full size, and a preview of the movie adaptation comic at the back of the book.
Free copies of the then-current issue of Master Collector and small teaser posters for the Transformers movie were also distributed for free near the entrance to the dealer room. Both pre-registrants and walk-in attendees recieved these.
Guests
Hasbro Employees
Along with standbys Aaron Archer and Eric Siebenaler of the design team, Forest Lee (writer of the biographical information for the large majority of the Cybertron line) was in attendance, as were a number of Hasbro marketing and administrative persons, whose job it was presumably to make sure Aaron, Eric, and Forest didn't give away too much information during the panels.
Voice Actors
BotCon regular, veteran voice actor, and all-around-crazy-guy Scott McNeil was once again in attendance at the convention, alongside Beast Wars/Cybertron voice actor and BotCon veteran Richard Newman. Blu Mankuma and Pauline Newstone, also voice actors from Beast Wars, attended for their first BotCon.
Last, but most certainly not least, was Peter Cullen, voice of Optimus Prime both in the G1 Cartoon and the upcoming film.
Comics and Art
Chris Ryall and Dan Taylor attended to represent IDW Comics. Simon Furman, writer of a vast portion of the Transformers mythos, was also present to discuss his past projects as well as his current projects with IDW.
A majority of the artists who were currently working on Transformers art in an official capacity, including Don Figueroa, Alex Milne, Dan Khanna, Jake Isenberg, Drew Eiden, and Marcelo Matere were in attendance as well.
Events
FunPub scheduled a large number of events to take place over the course of the convention to keep attendees entertained and informed.
Wednesday and Thursday
Wednesday and Thursday were the slowest days of the convention, primarily for the benefit of preregistrants. However, there were a few panels on those days, including the classic "MSTF" spoofing of Transformers episodes on Thursday night and a Transformer customization seminar on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. (The customization panel cost extra, but the attendees got a badly-painted Scrapmetal out of it.)
Friday
Friday was the first day the convention began in earnest, though it was open to preregistrants only.
Major events included...
- A voice actor panel with Blu Mankuma, Scott McNeil, Richard Newman, and Pauline Newstone.
- A panel with the Hasbro design team, where the design process was explained and the awesomeness of Classics Cosmos (G1) was shown.
- A panel with Simon Furman.
- Autograph sessions with the Beast Wars voice actors.
- A midnight screening of the then-newly remastered Sony 20th Anniversary edition of Transformers: The Movie.
- The first round of "Fandom Feud," a trivia competition whose rules bore no resemblance to Family Feud whatsoever.
In addition, the dealer room was open from 2PM to 5PM.
Saturday
Saturday was the first day in which walk-in attendees were allowed.
Major events included...
- A panel on cartoon creation with David McDermott and Aaron Archer.
- Autograph sessions with Peter Cullen, as well as the Beast Wars actors.
- The Hasbro New Product Unveiling, the major panel of the year. Attendance was standing-room-only for walk-ins. The majority of the Classics line was shown, as well as a preview of the special features for the Sony TFTM DVD, and a "sizzle reel" for the 2007 Transformers movie. It was during this panel that the design team professed that they were huge fans of the Cincinnati Bengals.
- Another Voice Actor panel.
- A roundtable on the Transformers Club run by Brian Savage.
- A Q&A panel featuring Peter Cullen.
- The annual dinner. See below.
Sunday
Sunday was the day when the show wound down. Most of the panels were repeats, and the dealer room opened late and closed early, but most attendees still managed to enjoy themselves.
Major events included...
- More autograph time with the Beast Wars voice actors.
- The final round of Faction Feud.
- A panel with the IDW comic creators.
- A repeat of the Simon Furman panel.
