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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 :/

For those of you complaining about the location, Seibertron.com's traffic from the past year should say all you need to know about why they keep going to California. There are almost double the number of visitors from Texas. The largest number of Transformers fans in one state, plus Universal Studios Transformers ride, plus Hasbro Studios and many of the actors and voice actors are out in California.

My only complaint is that I wish they'd just pick a place and pick a weekend and have it there every year at the same time. It'd make planning our lives around this event much easier. This hobby has gotten way too big to have a traveling circus every year for our convention. They'd gain a lot more business if it was in the same location and same time so that people could plan a trip around it.

KUMA-NIN Maximus wrote: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?

We're fully aware, quite a few of us know the people who run or have been to several of the smaller conventions. We've also had the experiences of Botcon first hand....

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.

You do realize that Fun Pub is located in Fort Worth, Texas, right? Southern California is just as far away as doing anything in the Great Lakes, Midwest, or East Coast. As for walk ins, which seems to be the only number Hasbro/Fun Pub care about, that really depends on the relative location to a large population center. Obviously Chicago or Los Angeles will have more walk ins than Lexington, KY or San Diego.

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.

It may be coincidence, but have you thought about the location being a factor as to why Anime Expo is ending? Botcon has been rumored to desiring a permanent spot in Southern California. What makes you think the same thing won't happen if they do that too?

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.

Again, you are aware their base of operations is in Texas, right? Can't even say Hasbro's HQ is there, as that is in Providence, Rhode Island. I personally think the outcry is that 4 out of the last 9 Botcons have been in Southern California. Chances are, with Movie 4 coming out next year, it will again be in San Diego/Pasadena. So that makes 5 of the last 10. HALF! Considering Botcon originally started in the Great Lakes area (Indiana to be precise) and it was known for moving around, to get stuck in this Southern California rut is a turn off to quite a few people.

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.

It's easy to put yourself on a pedestal when the convention is in your backyard. Hell, it's easy to wish for a permanent location...when you live near that location. Point is, the majority of the fandom does not live in Southern California and to continue to stay in that small corner of the country is beginning to take it's toll on the American fandom.

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.

And that's why Dairycon, Slagacon, Charticon, and TFCon exist. As you will notice, all these conventions are in the north and the east. There is a serious vacuum left open with the absense of Botcon in the northeast. People have tried to influence Botcons decision making, but nothing the fandom will say will affect it.

As long as Botcon stays in the southern 1/3 of the country, I won't be going. I'll instead opt for the other smaller conventions and possibly TFCon.

Nemesis Destron wrote: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?

If you want all of the exclusives, it should cost about $600 for the Primus package (which includes the box set, the "free" attendee figure, attendance to the event) as well as the 1/2 dozen or so exclusives you can only buy at the show itself (for a total of 12 or 13 exclusive figures). If there's something you don't want, you sell it and it goes toward lowering your cost of the convention.

Totally agree with Fender Bender. My question is, if California is so great for making money on conventions, why didn't Funpub put gijoecon there as much also? It's only been there twice in 11 years. The keep mixing up regions for it why not botcon?

Fender Bender wrote:It's easy to put yourself on a pedestal when the convention is in your backyard. Hell, it's easy to wish for a permanent location...when you live near that location. Point is, the majority of the fandom does not live in Southern California and to continue to stay in that small corner of the country is beginning to take it's toll on the American fandom.

You guys are wrong about this "majority" idea. California's got the largest piece of the pie according to Seibertron.com's traffic map from the past year. That should say all you guys need to know about why California keeps getting picked (that, and the fact that Activision, Hasbro Studios, Paramount, IDW, Universal Studios and many of the actors and talent reside in California).

I've never pondered this before ... it's probably a lot cheaper for them to have the convention exclusives shipped from a receiving port in California to a location in California than it is to ship that massive amount of exclusives from the shipping port to somewhere else in the country. Can you imagine their cost to ship the exclusives to the northeast part of the country?