The Energon Pub

The crew of the 2007 BotCon has submitted their latest newsletter, in which they answer some of the more frequently asked questions. The following has been taken directly from their newsletter.


"Hello _________!

I hope you are all enjoying the images of this year's outstanding BotCon figure set! I have gotten a ton of emails asking if you can order the set without attending. Also, I have gotten a lot of questions about when the cut-off is for ordering.

The first answer is YES you can order the set by downloading the Attendee Registration form from BotCon.com and choosing the Iacon (non-attending) package. The cut-off date is either when we run out or June 8, which ever comes first. After that date, we will sell any that are possibly left at the show. Late registration for non-pre-ordered sets is Friday morning (expect a line). We will also not be taking checks for attending sets after May 29th (credit cards or money orders only).

Now here is the most important news: 75% of the sets have been pre-sold, so if you are interested in obtaining one at the issue price, don't delay.

In addition, the classes and the Thursday tour are now sold out (based on the paperwork in house). All paperwork in house will be billed by next Wednesday. You will be notified in your confirmation letter in late May exactly what is confirmed for each guest. (You can check your billing statements next week to verify that the amounts equal what you requested.)

So what is still available? There are some boxed sets available, there are loose sets available, and there are movie tickets available.

If I don't have hotel reservations yet, what should I do?

We are pleased to announce our fourth hotel block for BotCon 2007 at

The Hilton Providence

Guests can call 800-221-3109 or 401-831-3900 right now to make reservations. A web link will be available in the next few days.

This final hotel room block won't last long so make your reservations now! The Hilton is one block from the Rhode Island Convention Center.

If you encounter any problems in arranging for lodging, please let us know and we will try to help you. Thanks for your support! This is going to be the greatest Botcon ever!


Brian"

If 3H still ran this, we'd all be able to get our Seekers!

Everyone who paid for them is getting them. That's one up on the last days of 3H, by my count.

-Nick

Yeah, but 3H was all about the fans and wouldn't screw us collectors this bad!

I... I just... I... you make me sad. Come, Patsy.

*sounds like two halves of coconut being banged together*

-Nick

So be it, and maybe it's just me, but with the rash of repaints in the past couple years, I'm already Anti-Hasbro, and this whole situation just grinds my gears.

Hell the only thing keeping me involved in TFs is my love of the back story. Otherwise, I'd start looking into Wheeled Warriors and TurboTeen.

I just think (corporately) we need a changing of the guard at Hasbro, and at this point a tray of day old shrimp would do better than these guys in the TF department.

Now not for nothing, I only say 3H because, I thought they did a great job. It was for the fans by the fans, and I never had a problem with them.

If others have, that sucks, and I can appreciate a sense of distain towards them. On that same note some fans are real happy with Hasbro and the Botcon people and will disagree with my stance here, and that's their right.

We are all welcome to our own oppinions.

It's all good, I'm perfectly content with paying $1000 for the set on eBay.....grrrr.....

Liege Evilmus wrote:So be it, and maybe it's just me, but with the rash of repaints in the past couple years, I'm already Anti-Hasbro, and this whole situation just grinds my gears.

Hell the only thing keeping me involved in TFs is my love of the back story. Otherwise, I'd start looking into Wheeled Warriors and TurboTeen.

I just think (corporately) we need a changing of the guard at Hasbro, and at this point a tray of day old shrimp would do better than these guys in the TF department.

Now not for nothing, I only say 3H because, I thought they did a great job. It was for the fans by the fans, and I never had a problem with them.

If others have, that sucks, and I can appreciate a sense of distain towards them. On that same note some fans are real happy with Hasbro and the Botcon people and will disagree with my stance here, and that's their right.

We are all welcome to our own oppinions.

I know how you feel, except the Movie-hype with AVP designs and repaints of toys I own from Energon and the lack of a current line plus the fact Hasbro releases the 6-inch Titaniums here and I still HAVEN'T found a Classics Jetfire. Thanks to IDW and Transformers past, I'm still here. However with the rate of a wallet-eating Movieline, SWTF which are the worst crap since Animorphs Transformers, somewhat okay Titaniums line is just about enough to make me pray someone sacks Aaron Archer. Yet Hasbro makes useless crap like Robot Heroes which is basically an insult to us G1 fans because they are for babies. If they don't shape up (Takara too with all their weird fetish lines with Transformers) I hope the fandom turns against them and give them a huge wakeup call.

Liege Evilmus wrote:If 3H still ran this, we'd all be able to get our Seekers!

Sure we would, let's see how that theory would pan out based on previous OTFCC's:

Dirge would be sold at the convention in a cheap package for about $30.00.

Thundercracker would be a Hotel exclusive only available to those who stay in the convention Hotel (which means only 1/4 of the people going will get one)

Thrust would have NO remolded wings, and would be in a twin pack with Sunstorm, once again in cheap packaging, for about $60.00.

Dreadwing wouldn't even be at the convention because of delays (aka the Sentinel Maximus Syndrome, SMS) and Hasbro would have to once again come to the rescue and foot the bill.

And that would be it, no more exclusives for the year. Currently, we have the chance to obtain 10 or more exclusives from Botcon alone, then you add on the 2 potential Club Exclusives, and the 1 free figure for the year. That's 13 total!

Compare that to a Glen-Con, where you SHOULD get about 5 for the year, and maybe a PVC figure, but you're lucky if you can get 3 or 4 of the 5.

I'll stick with Fun Pub, thank you very much.

With that said, I'll refer you to this.

I am tempted to buy the set . I was going to go only I changed my job and did not feel right in asking for a lot of time off

Fender Bender wrote:

Liege Evilmus wrote:If 3H still ran this, we'd all be able to get our Seekers!

Sure we would, let's see how that theory would pan out based on previous OTFCC's:

Dirge would be sold at the convention in a cheap package for about $30.00.

Thundercracker would be a Hotel exclusive only available to those who stay in the convention Hotel (which means only 1/4 of the people going will get one)

Thrust would have NO remolded wings, and would be in a twin pack with Sunstorm, once again in cheap packaging, for about $60.00.

Dreadwing wouldn't even be at the convention because of delays (aka the Sentinel Maximus Syndrome, SMS) and Hasbro would have to once again come to the rescue and foot the bill.

And that would be it, no more exclusives for the year. Currently, we have the chance to obtain 10 or more exclusives from Botcon alone, then you add on the 2 potential Club Exclusives, and the 1 free figure for the year. That's 13 total!

Compare that to a Glen-Con, where you SHOULD get about 5 for the year, and maybe a PVC figure, but you're lucky if you can get 3 or 4 of the 5.

I'll stick with Fun Pub, thank you very much.

With that said, I'll refer you to this.

Good stuff, but you're totaly missing the point. Exclusives like last years Wars of Future Past(or whatever they called it) and figures like Nemisis Prime are fine as exclusives.

Why? They are very cool ideas that nobodies previously been clamoring for.

Now go back into any thread about Classics StarScream or RamJet and you'll find plenty of replies stating "great ThunderCracker and the rest should be around soon" We all want this, and they should be retail releases.

I think the idea of convention exclusives are great, but stick with the origional ideas like TimeLines and figures like Onyx Primal and an Arcee that looks nothing like her, and stop burning the fans. The Seekers are pretty much like a royalty in this fandom, and this whole situation sucks. It realy proves that the corporations in charge here truely DO NOT care about their continuious patrons what so ever, and brings up the question even further of why we should continue to stay loyal?

And to everyone saying this isn't so bad, well good for you if you have the money to buy this and go to the convention, that's great. But trust me if you couldn't attend and didn't have the cash for this, you'd be pissed too!

But you know what, whats done is done, and they obviously don't care anyway about what we the PATRONS have to say. I just wanna see how the fanbase will react when they eventualy retool G1 Blur into G1 Arcee and charge $500 for that!?!

F___ 'EM!