BotCon

BotCon
Status Active
Genre Transformers
Inaugurated 1994
Organized by Fun Publications
Filing status Private Company
Website
http://www.botcon.com/

BotCon, briefly known as "The Official Transformers Collectors' Convention" (or OTFCC), is an annual convention for Transformers fans and collectors. BotCon has been held annually since 1994. BotCon is a syllabic abbreviation for "Robot Convention"[1] but also refers to "Autobot" and "Decepticon",[2] the protagonist and antagonist robot factions in the Transformers franchise.

Featured BotCon guests are usually involved in the creation of Transformers media in some respect, whether as voice actors from the animated series, artists or writers from the comic books, or actual Hasbro employees. Fun Publications has held the convention for a number of years, with 2016 being the final year it would do so. [3]

History

Display cases for upcoming Transformers at BotCon 2006
Some of the many cosplayers present at BotCon

The first BotCon was held in Fort Wayne, Indiana[2] in 1994. Organized by brothers Jon and Karl Hartman, the convention had 180 attendees. BotCon was organized in 1995 by Raksha, a prominent figure in the fan community, and in 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).

At BotCon 2002, Hallit announced that 3H had secured the official Transformers convention license, as well as licenses to produce comic books and start a fan club. Shortly thereafter, the Hartmans were removed from their organizational duties, leaving Glen Hallit as the sole organizer of the new company, 3H Productions, Inc.

In the winter of 2002, 3H sought to expand to Europe, holding its first ever official European convention in Cheshunt, UK. Unfortunately, the event, which was held in conjunction with the main BotCon 2002 in the USA, had much less advertising and the registration did not open until a couple of weeks before the convention. Since the attendance at the European BotCon had been much smaller than the main show that summer, 3H decided it was too much work to hold two separate conventions, and officially announced that they would never hold BotCon outside the USA again.

In 2003, the convention changed its name to "The Official Transformers Collectors' Convention", OTFCC for short, due to the Hartmans' ownership of the BotCon service mark. The fandom held dueling conventions in 2004, as 3H held OTFCC in Chicago, Illinois, while the Hartman brothers revived the BotCon name for their final convention in Pasadena, California. In the fall of that year, 3H Productions lost all of its Transformers-related licenses, leaving the convention in a state of limbo.

In early January 2005, Hasbro announced on its official Web site that Fun Publications, owned by Brian Savage, had been awarded the convention and fan club licenses. The Hartman brothers and other prominent fans Pete Sinclair, Benson Yee, and Rik Alvarez were invited to form an advisory council to help ease the transition of organizing the convention for the new owners. Once the Hartmans' service mark was transferred to Fun Publications, BotCon regained its status of being the official Transformers collectors' convention.

Locations

BotCon gets special attention from Transformers licensees, as shown by this promo for the 2007 Transformers movie indicates
Panorama of the Dealer Room at BotCon 2008

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. BotCon guests include:

Transformers Hall of Fame

At the 2010 BotCon, Hasbro introduced a "Hall of Fame" awards ceremony to commemorate the people and characters of the franchise. Hasbro selected the first four robot inductees, while fans worldwide voted for the fifth. In the end, Dinobot from Beast Wars: Transformers won the votes. Among the human inductees were Bob Budiansky for helping create the franchise through comics and personality profiles, Peter Cullen for giving Optimus Prime his voice, Hideaki Yoke and Kohjin Ohno of Takara Tomy for creating many of the franchise's toys.

For 2011, Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay were inducted for the success of the Transformers live-action film franchise.

In 2012, the first posthumous award was given to voice actor Chris Latta, who died in 1994. Wheeljack, one of the characters he voiced in the original series, was selected as the Fan's Choice recipient.

2010
Robots: Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream, Bumblebee, Dinobot (Fan's Choice)[51]
Humans: Bob Budiansky, Peter Cullen, Hideaki Yoke, Kohjin Ohno[52]
2011
Robots: Ironhide, Ratchet, Soundwave, Waspinator (Fan's Choice)[53]
Humans: Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay[54]
2012
Robots: Grimlock, Jazz, Shockwave, Wheeljack (Fan's Choice)
Humans: Chris Latta, Simon Furman
2016
Robots: Optimus Primal, Cosmos
Humans: "Weird Al" Yankovic

Exclusive toys

One of BotCon's most popular features is the exclusive toys made available to the attendees. The toys are different every year and are not retailed anywhere in the world. The number of exclusive toys increased significantly in 2005 after Fun Publications became the official license holder of the convention. The identities and designs of the toys were originally kept a close secret until the opening of the convention, but 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. In 2008, organizer Brian Savage ordered all eBay users selling these prototypes to return them to their rightful owners.[55]

Although the toys are always unique, financial costs prohibit the creation of entirely new molds. As such, the toys are redecos, repaints, or retools of previously used toys given new identities, occasionally switching allegiances and even gender. Beginning in 2003, some of the exclusives were given new, retooled heads to further differentiate the new characters from previous uses of a mold. As the number of exclusives offered at each convention grew, so did the number of retooled parts. Since then, it has been standard practice to produce 3-4 newly tooled heads (or other parts such as wings in the case of 2007) for each BotCon. After the convention, exclusive toys usually become valuable collector's items in the community, particularly among fans who missed the convention.

The Transformers Collector's Club also releases exclusive figures, which are also remolds and repaints of regular Transformers figures.

1995-2000

2001-2002

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

Revolving around the storyline "Dawn of Predacus," these toys celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Beast Wars.

Figure Subscription Service

G.I. Joe Crossover Figures

Unproduced

Various toys for Botcon and the Transformers Collector's Club have been considered but gone unproduced, including the following:[97]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Ceply, Michael,(May 29 2009), New York Times
  2. http://tformers.com/botcon-2016-last-transformers-convention-from-fun-publications-/28918/news.html
  3. BotCon 1994 Overview
  4. BotCon 1995 Overview
  5. BotCon 1996 Overview
  6. BotCon 1997 Overview
  7. BotCon Japan 1997 Overview
  8. BotCon 1998 Overview
  9. BotCon Japan 1998 Overview
  10. BotCon 1999 Overview
  11. BotCon Europe 1999 Overview
  12. BotCon 2000 Overview
  13. BotCon Japan 2000 Overview
  14. BotCon 2001 Overview
  15. BotCon 2002 Overview
  16. BotCon Europe 2002 Overview
  17. BotCon 2004 Overview
  18. BotCon 2005 Overview
  19. BotCon 2006 Overview
  20. BotCon 2007 Overview
  21. BotCon 2008 Overview
  22. BotCon 2009 Overview
  23. TFW2005.com - BotCon 2011 Location Revealed
  24. BotCon 2014 Overview
  25. BotCon 1994 Guest List
  26. BotCon 1996 Guest List
  27. BotCon 1997 Guest List
  28. BotCon 1998 Guest List
  29. BotCon Japan 1998 Guest List
  30. BotCon 1999 Guest List
  31. BotCon 2000 Guest List
  32. BotCon Japan 2000 Guest List
  33. BotCon 2001 Guest List
  34. BotCon 2002 Guest List
  35. BotCon Europe 2002 Guest List
  36. BotCon 2004 Guest List
  37. BotCon 2005 Guest Preview
  38. BotCon 2006 Guest List
  39. Roberto Orci at IMDb
  40. Alex Kurtzman at IMDb
  41. BotCon 2008 Guest List
  42. BotCon 2009 Guest List
  43. BotCon 2010 Guest List
  44. http://www.botcon.com/botcon2012/guests12.cfm
  45. http://www.botcon.com/botcon2014/BC14guests.html
  46. http://www.botcon.com/botcon2015/bc15guests.cfm
  47. Hasbro.com - Hall of Fame Robots
  48. Hasbro.com - Hall of Fame Humans
  49. TFW2005.com - Waspinator Wins BotCon 2011 Hall of Fame Fan's Choice
  50. TFW2004.com - Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg to Be Inducted into Transformers Hall of Fame
  51. BotCon Threatens Legal Action Over Stolen Toys
  52. 1 2 http://www.botcon.com/archive/story/characters/index.html
  53. http://www.botcon.com/exclusives.html
  54. 1 2 http://transformersclub.com/TCCexclusives.cfm
  55. http://www.botcon.com/botcon06figures.cfm
  56. http://www.botcon.com/botcon07/BotCon07preview.cfm
  57. http://www.botcon.com/botcon07/BotCon07souvenirs.cfm
  58. http://www.transformersclub.com/astro07.cfm
  59. http://www.transformersclub.com/airazor07.cfm
  60. http://botcon.com/Botcon08/08souvenirs.cfm
  61. http://botcon.com/botcon08/08figures.cfm
  62. http://www.transformersclub.com/topspin08.cfm
  63. http://www.transformersclub.com/seacons08.cfm
  64. http://www.transformersclub.com/nightbeat08.cfm
  65. http://www.botcon.com/botcon09/SOUVENIRfigures09.cfm
  66. http://www.botcon.com/botcon09/figurePRE09.cfm
  67. http://www.transformersclub.com/heatwave09.cfm
  68. http://www.botcon.com/BotCon10/con10g2set.cfm
  69. http://www.transformersclub.com/dion10.cfm
  70. http://www.transformersclub.com/punch10.cfm
  71. http://www.transformersclub.com/cyclonus10.cfm
  72. http://www.botcon.com/botcon2011/BotCon11souvenirs.cfm
  73. http://www.botcon.com/botcon2011/BC11boxset.cfm
  74. http://transformersclub.com/ttcheetor11.cfm
  75. http://transformersclub.com/ramjet11.cfm
  76. http://transformersclub.com/sideburn11.cfm
  77. http://www.botcon.com/botcon2012/bc12boxset.cfm
  78. http://transformersclub.com/drift12.cfm
  79. http://transformersclub.com/runabout12.cfm
  80. http://transformersclub.com/runamuck12.cfm
  81. http://www.botcon.com/BotCon2013/bc13exclusives.cfm
  82. http://transformersclub.com/depthcharge13.cfm
  83. 1 2 http://www.botcon.com/botcon2014/BC14exclusives.html
  84. http://transformersclub.com/transmutate14.cfm
  85. http://transformersclub.com/rampage14.cfm
  86. http://www.botcon.com/botcon2015/bc15exclusives.cfm
  87. http://www.botcon.com/botcon2015/bc15exclusives2.cfm
  88. http://www.botcon.com/BotCon2016/bc16exclusives.cfm
  89. http://transformersclub.com/TCC_FSS.cfm
  90. http://transformersclub.com/TCC_FSS2.cfm
  91. http://transformersclub.com/TCC_FSS3.cfm
  92. http://transformersclub.com/TCC_FSS4.cfm
  93. http://www.toycollectors.com.au/bc14/bc14br.html

External links

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