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Looks like unless Anime Expo is good this year, or I move, I will be going to Botcon! It's just a 3-4 hour drive from where I live!

New York is never going to see botcon again is it, hey hasbro how about changing it up a bit and pick different states instead of using the same ones over & over

I know that Fun Pub is based in TX, but damn, show the east coast some love!!

No Botcon for me this year.

I swear that is the CDT red alert mold in the left of the picture...

As for location... Oh well, I'm still in Asia.

gavinfuzzy wrote:I swear that is the CDT red alert mold in the left of the picture...

Yeah, I tried to take a look at the (blurry) artwork in the back.

My eyesight is crap already, trying to look at it just gave me a massive headache.

So, is Botcon wanting people not to come? This is, yet again, a deal breaker for me. I'm starting to wonder if Hasbro knows that there are other states aside from California. Why not hold it on the east coast? I hear Atlanta is a pretty darn big city with a very capable airport.

I'm not booking a four hour flight to California to buy toys that I could have mailed to me instead. Sorry Hasbro, not getting my money at Botcon this year.

gavinfuzzy wrote:I swear that is the CDT red alert mold in the left of the picture...

As for location... Oh well, I'm still in Asia.

I always wondered why no one has done a Machine Wars Soundwave out of that mold. COuld this be th year?

As for BotCon...

F*#k you FunPub. Screwing everyone east of the ROckies as usual. I miss the Chicago shows. I won't be going. DOn't they watch the news about the damned economy? You really want to hold it in one of the most expensive cities in the US? I seriously want to punch someone in the face...

Glad to at least know the date and location.

heh ... can't go because it's more than a four hour plane flight?

Think of all the international fans who can't make it.

Mindmaster wrote:California?

Guess who isn't going this year (as usual, sadly).

Just have to remember Charticon whenever it comes up. What are the dates for that again?

Charticon is in Charlotte North Carolina from August 9-11. I think it's there first year but it looks like a number of siebertronians are going. Jon 3.0 is even a guest.

Burn wrote:heh ... can't go because it's more than a four hour plane flight?

Think of all the international fans who can't make it.

It's not the flight so much as the distance. Work week for me tipicaly is 6 days a week, 8 hour days with three different rotating shifts. Now, I know that no two people's circumstances are the same, but, more often than not, I just can't get time off for things that are out of driving distance xD.

Having defended my reasons for being unable to book a four hour flight, I think it's safe to say that there are others who are kinda miffed about the convention and it's love of California besides myself xD.

International fans...well...you guys just get the short end of the Hasbro stick all the time D=. Except for having access to awesome figures, of course...like G1 Overlord xD

Heh, I'm in Florida and this will be my eighth year going. Cali is cool and at least it's a different place this time. I loved Pasadena since everything was convenient to get to. Hoping for a similar experience here.

FracturedKoi wrote:Work week for me tipicaly is 6 days a week, 8 hour days with three different rotating shifts.

40-46 hours a week for me depending on how much work there is to do. Plus maybe 4-6 hours a month in community groups.

Having defended my reasons for being unable to book a four hour flight, I think it's safe to say that there are others who are kinda miffed about the convention and it's love of California besides myself xD.

Well i'm just miffed about it always being in America.

But then again, it's organised by FunPub. They probably need to stay close to their bunker for the next time they screw up and have to go into hiding.

International fans...well...you guys just get the short end of the Hasbro stick all the time D=. Except for having access to awesome figures, of course...like G1 Overlord xD

No no, it's not Hasbro's fault. It's the retailers who insist on ridiculously jacking up the retail prices!

WTF? Really? SD gets Comicon and now Botcon? I'm super pissed...it's dang time the show came back to Midwest. I really thought a return to Chicago was in the works. But heck no... much easier and cheaper for child labor produced figures to come into California and for the entire rest of US to eat the extra costs and extreme scalping. Not to mention what shipping from California costs. Botcon organizers can suck it. Looks like I'll be saving money again this year. Total Buzzkill.

How interesting. In order to afford this trip I would have to stop buying Transformers for the year.

An east coast, or even Great Lakes location might have been doable. Oh well.

FunPub...screw up? Oh they'd neeeeever do that, Burn xD. What's the closets thing y'all have to a Botcon anyhow?

FracturedKoi wrote:What's the closets thing y'all have to a Botcon anyhow?

Ron and I running into each other at a garage sale.

Calling Jason from up from downstairs at work when I get a new TF in the mail.

was just thinking of all the Midwest cities that have seen a gijoecon in the last few years......Indianapolis, st Louis etc. i would have thought that would be in California this year with retaliation coming out in may. Would love to get a botcon that is at least near those. Last one was in 2008 in Cincinnati. After that it went Pasadena, Orlando, Pasadena, Dallas, and now San Diego. Does Funpub have something against the rest of the country? No wonder their forums weren't up and running when they announced this, they didn't want the backlash.

No cons at all? Gah xD

It's amazing at how "mature" some of these fans are. Do they take the time to learn, much less realize, how complicated it is to set up a convention?

Lets say that it comes to the east coast. This would cost them extra when it comes to shipping their computers and extra supplies. Then there is the fact that if anything does happen, they are that much further from their base of operations. And atop of that, they are not guaranteed the same numbers that they traditionally get in the areas they seem to focus on.

Mind you guys, my first Anime Expo was in 2007. So if you want to complain about the location, then compare it to what might be the last Anime Expo in Long Beach. Now consider the fact that the very same thing could happen to Fun Pub, and how much more complicated it would be if you guys had it your way and they managed to go to the east coast. Mind you, this was reported as one of their worst years, but it can also happen to Botcon.

Point being is that you guys are supposed to be fans... Not children who have a meltdown just because they figured the best location is closer to their base of operations and should have an even larger number of fans there. And if you want a convention over there, then find the means of having one brought there! Or even write to Fun Pub suggesting that the 2014 Botcon should be closer to the east coast.

Either way, wasting your time chewing them out and having fits just because you did not have things your way reflects poorly on you, the fan. Those outside this forum may also ignorantly bunch the rest of us to you, causing the fanbase here to appear like we are a preschool... Not a site-based fanbase. And I can even dig deeper, but I will not as I had this kind of behavior kill the fun I had elsewhere. Do not need to be reminded of that. So I will just say this - You have the following options:

1) Attend Botcon and hope the decision was worth it.
2) Not attend Botcon and hope the decision was worth it.

Either way, you can always look for or help organize smaller events with like-minded fans... Write to Fun Pub in BOTH a constructive AND respectful manner suggesting areas that may be a good spot for Botcon 2014... AND always look for east-coast Transformers conventions that you can attend. Because the difference between this and the fits are simple: Your reputation is based on what decisions you make, not what you own and/or how many Transformers you own. So if you want a good reputation, do what is right for your share of the community - Not what you want to do.

Just saying.

ive found a lot of comments saying 'its like they want botcon to fail' quite hilarious today, its possibly the stupidest comment ive ever heard in this fandom.

no they dont, and it wont.

KUMA-NIN Maximus is totally right, if i was based in one part of the country, id hold a con in that part of the country. the logistics and practicality of transporting gear across a continent is damn expensive, and no matter how many butthurt fans might say 'well we pay them enought money' the simple fact is no, you probably dont, not enough to potentially double the cost and time involved in running the show. Every year i have to accept i wont make it to botcon or tfcon, because its just too expensive to justify, fine im an international, but if youre on one seaboard and the con is on another, then just accept youre missing a crowded, sweaty, smelly convention hall and occasionally piss poor customer service, buy the figures online and ask a bro to give you updates from the con. I went to Auto Assembly last year and messaged a mate that couldnt go with updates all weekend, it really cheered him up, thats a bro thing to do. please nobody respond to this with their armchair business opinions on why it IS financially viable to run cons on the west coast or whatever, because its funpub and hasbros call, not our, so its just wasted text.

as the fella above me said, go or dont go. its simple, make the sacrifice and accept somebody closer to the con gets to spend less money on the trip than you, or dont go. stay home and live your life. acting like whiney entitled children is not ok, its makes the rest of us that CAN take dissappointment like a grown up look guilty by association.

I know it's about making money, but i think i would rather them come out and say "hey, we're going to have botcon in California every year." This way there's no getting hopes up for most people just to be let down and allow those who may need some extra time to save the option. As for me the question isn't about cost it's about having a toddler that can no way take a 30+ hour car trip, it would add days to the plan. Ideally they should take a cue from wizard world cons and have multiple cons in different locations. Their VIP packages cost almost as much as botcon without the toys, and (no offense) have bigger celebrities to boot. I doubt that will ever happen but it would shut a lot of us up that are saying California, again? We could go to botcon Chicago, our botcon Philly, or wherever. I think most of us would just like it to go Cali, Cali, Pittsburgh, Cali, Cali, St Louis, Cali, Cali, Boston. Or something to that effect. I also think it hurts because the first few years they went Texas, Kentucky, Rhode island, Ohio, California, Orlando. It was a good mix criss crossing areas, every few years it was in your neck of the woods, whether that was.

Looks like I'll be saving my time and money this year. San Diego is way too far, and I've gone to southern California once in each of the last 2 years. (To BotCon 2011 and to visit friends this summer) I'm kinda tired of looking at desert. And the convention is way too much of a hassle any more. Not worth all the hoopla. Maybe, if I didn't have to go so far, and the exclusives were much better, I would have considered it.

BTW, FunPub, you do realize there's more to the United States than California, right?

I'm still curious as to what molds they will use for the Machine Wars set, If it's something really interesting, with a good paint scheme, I might order the set through the mail. Or split it with someone here. Again.

F*ck...even though I'm fortunate that it's only a 45 min drive from OC I'm not sure if it's doable for me to attend. Sorry to read about all the disappointments on the location this year. I personally give props to those who travel internationally to attend a Botcon...wow!


So can anyone give a guestimate the cost needed in fees alone to attend the whole event not including hotels and other?

Figures that it's back in Cali...

Waaaaaaaay to expensive to make that trek & attend. Wish it'd come to the north east :/