by Counterpunch » Fri Jul 02, 2010 7:37 am
- Motto: "Everything I do is divinely sanctioned."
- Weapon: Jawbreaker Cannon
BotCon 2010
Quite often it is easy to be critical of other people’s work, especially when you have a vested interest or care deeply about the subject matter. Opportunities for praise are a bit more rare and are just as easily over looked.
Without being overly verbose and with disregard for any kind of appearance towards sucking up, I want to take some time to acknowledge how many things at BotCon 2010 were dramatically improved from years past and how several things about the convention far exceeded expectations.
*Please note that these things I mention are not to disparage events or people past. I’ve supported the Club and Convention since its outset. I only want to recognize the significant improvements we saw this year and make public my appreciation for those improvements.
The Lines
Much has been made of this in the past. For those that don’t know, BotCon lines were a shared traumatic experience in years past. Those of us who attend regularly had accepted our fate and grown to sadistically enjoy the 4-5 hour experience of gathering up your set and toys on Thursday night. So entrenched had this ritual become that some of us (read: me) had begun to pack food and beer just in case.
The BotCon organizers responded this year by being much, MUCH better prepared. Numerous pick-up lines and times were available. Souvenir sets had 8 lines total to expedite the process. Most people were in and done in under 1.5 hours. I speak for everyone at the convention when I say “Thank you”. It appears that this growing pain is over and done with.
Saturday Night
Excluding last year’s event, the Saturday night festivities have been a hodgepodge of activities that have always garnered a luke-warm response from attendees. I have to admit personally that I expected the Hall of Fame awards ceremony to be lame, like really, really lame. But the truth was that it was great. What could have been a joke was a great community event with a lot of care applied to it. This may be due to Hasbro being involved, but that’s really not the point. If this event is going to continue, I have a tremendous amount of faith that BotCon Staff and Hasbro will repeat the genuine celebration of the characters and people we saw at the first event of its kind.
The Panels
I’ve contended previously that some panels are host to an “Us vs Them” mentality, where every question must have its answer extracted with dentist like precision. There was an obvious change this year from both TFCC and Hasbro staff. We asked, they answered…and then some. I’m an information junkie. I also know enough to realize when a corporate answer is being given. Prior panels of an industry kind were always informative, but occasionally frustrating for various reasons. At times in years past, there was a lack of info and a feeling that we weren’t going to hear anything that hadn’t been previously leaked or discussed online.
This was not the case this year. The TFCC panel gave us a revealing look at the process behind creating exclusive toys and the challenges posed by that process. Hasbro was more open with us than ever before, showing us product and hinting at even more. On both sides of the coin there was a sense that we were finally having a dialog with people who not only knew, but could anticipate what the “Fans” wanted.
The Toys
Every year brings great toys. If you have any doubt that BotCon toys are highly regarded by fans, please consult eBay completed listings and proceed to eat your hat. This year the toys were not only well done, they reached out to collectors in a way that was only comparable in 2006 with the Dawn of Future’s Past set. I know it’s difficult to pull together a set from what is available and that with each year the mold choices and ideas become tougher to bring into unison. That being said, this set is exactly the kind of exclusive that collectors who attend BotCon look forward to. Keep up the good work.
I have to admit here that I’ve been critical at times of some BotCon practices and the manner at which the Club (at least in terms of PR) handles their exclusives. That fact made it all the more important for me to sit down and really acknowledge the work and dedication for the things that go right with BotCon and the Club. That being said, I know that words only go so far. So I’ll close with this as a method of thanks:
I will be in attendance for sure next year. I will convince as many of my friends to go as possible.
That’s the best vote any of us can make.
Lastly, “The Invasion Has Begun”? Oh, I know what you’re doing…and it’s very clever. Afterall, annihilation equals victory.
)
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