Pete's Robot Convention 2018 - News Roundup, Customization-Class Figure Announcements

That's a very neat surprise, two custom class figures this year! It's unfortunate that this will be the first year that the custom figures won't be considered official however. That means no tfwiki coverage.

Sweet more crap so Peter Sinclair can stroke his still damaged ego and tell people “we were totally gonna make these figures even though Hasbro always stopped us from using current molds but we were totally gonna use them even though we didn’t know about them becuase it’s now been 2 years since botcon ended and our company went under BUT WE WOULD HAVE MADE ALL THESE! SEE HASBRO! SEE WHAT YOU TOOK AWAY FROM US AND THE FANS!!”

It’s just sad.

Randomhero wrote:Sweet more crap so Peter Sinclair can stroke his still damaged ego and tell people “we were totally gonna make these figures even though Hasbro always stopped us from using current molds but we were totally gonna use them even though we didn’t know about them becuase it’s now been 2 years since botcon ended and our company went under BUT WE WOULD HAVE MADE ALL THESE! SEE HASBRO! SEE WHAT YOU TOOK AWAY FROM US AND THE FANS!!”

It’s just sad.

Um... You do realize that they aren't getting these molds directly from Hasbro this time, right? They got these by having to buy up a bunch of them from the stores like everyone else. And there's no licensing issues to contend with this time so they're now able to use whatever current molds they can get there hands on. For BotCon, the molds had to go through all the official channels, but now there none of that anymore since it's all unofficial.

And by the time the con rolls around, Swoop will be several months old, so he's not exactly a mold that Hasbro would be worried about seeing a convention release before its retail release.

Seeing that SG Swoop makes me sad that the club is gone. Sure it wasn't perfect and the prices were a bit ridiculous but it was a way to get figures out to fans that Hasbro would never do.

I'm still mildly aggravated about the loss of the Club, if only because the exclusives they were proposing would have been things I would have actually bought. Flip Sides, Rosanna, Energon Megatron (I still think he should have been done from Galvatron but now that I have Sky Shadow I think it works), Hot Shot...

Instead we got an early release of a retail figure and a kinda crummy looking Optimus that turns into a Chinese power bank. Goddamnit Hasbro.

Now we know where all those 70% off funpub sets ended up. I wonder what they will do with the Megatron pretender shells? Dont be suprised if you find a bunch of legends laser primes and combat hero megatrons on ebay without their shells.

Sabrblade wrote:

Randomhero wrote:Sweet more crap so Peter Sinclair can stroke his still damaged ego and tell people “we were totally gonna make these figures even though Hasbro always stopped us from using current molds but we were totally gonna use them even though we didn’t know about them becuase it’s now been 2 years since botcon ended and our company went under BUT WE WOULD HAVE MADE ALL THESE! SEE HASBRO! SEE WHAT YOU TOOK AWAY FROM US AND THE FANS!!”

It’s just sad.

Um... You do realize that they aren't getting these molds directly from Hasbro this time, right? They got these by having to buy up a bunch of them from the stores like everyone else. And there's no licensing issues to contend with this time so they're now able to use whatever current molds they can get there hands on. For BotCon, the molds had to go through all the official channels, but now there none of that anymore since it's all unofficial.

And by the time the con rolls around, Swoop will be several months old, so he's not exactly a mold that Hasbro would be worried about seeing a convention release before its retail release.

Of course they’re just going to buy them in stores now but before they had to go though the channels to make their exclusives and Hasbro wouldn’t allow them to use current molds for exclusives except for the final year becuase it was the final year. Multiple times they tried to use the seeker mold some years but Hasbro said no were using that mold you can’t use molds currently in production. One example is they wanted to use it the year thundercracker in generations was being released but weren’t allowed to.

What I’m talking about if the fact they’ll say “These were the figures we were going to release had Hasbro not cut our legs from under us”

No it’s the garbage so they can say “look at what we could have gotten. Look at what we could have had if we were still around” crap. It’s all BS

Oh yeah they were totally going to use the entire titans return line molds for botcon 2017. Suuuuure we were totally going to get Energon Megatron from the sky shadow mold except that sky shadow wasn’t seeing releases till June for online retailers and even later for retail chains but funpub was totally going to release a figure in that mold in April or may if botcon 2017 was to happen.

It’s all Pete Sinclair and funpub losing something and not letting go and it works! Once this stuff comes out people start cursing and throwing a fit that funpub and botcon are gone.

I think at the very least the same type of stuff would’ve been released. And I’m sure they would have gotten to these molds eventually, in a few years time.

Randomhero wrote:What I’m talking about if the fact they’ll say “These were the figures we were going to release had Hasbro not cut our legs from under us”

Except, that's not true at all. These two custom class figures are ideas that were only recently thought of, not preexisting ideas for would-be official Fun Pub figures.

Randomhero wrote:Oh yeah they were totally going to use the entire titans return line molds for botcon 2017. Suuuuure we were totally going to get Energon Megatron from the sky shadow mold except that sky shadow wasn’t seeing releases till June for online retailers and even later for retail chains but funpub was totally going to release a figure in that mold in April or may if botcon 2017 was to happen.

I think you're grossly misunderstanding what the point behind the "BotCon 2017" painted samples on display at last year's con was. Pete never claimed to have had any insider information on the entire Titans Return line before it even existed. What was meant by "This is what we would have for BotCon 2017 had it been able to happen" was that they would have picked those Titans Return molds to use for BotCon 2017 had they known about them back at the time (and which they probably would have known since Hasbro would have had to have let them know what molds would have been available for them to use at the time), and by which point all of those molds would have been far enough along in their developments/releases that they could have been used by the time BotCon 2017 rolled around since the latest of those molds, Leader Sixshot, saw release at retail as early as November 2016, seven whole months before when BotCon 2017 would have been.

Randomhero wrote:It’s all Pete Sinclair and funpub losing something and not letting go and it works! Once this stuff comes out people start cursing and throwing a fit that funpub and botcon are gone.

You do know that Pete doesn't work for Fun Pub anymore, right? Fun Pub didn't even have anything to do with last year's con.

Another news update. The following is all preliminary ideas for what was originally planned for BotCon 2016 before it was requested by Hasbro to turn it into a Combiner Wars-themed set.

The original theme would have been for the critically-acclaimed Beast Wars: Uprising series, and despite these plans being scrapped for the Combiner Wars set we ended up getting, a few of these concepts (such as Megatron, Dinobot, Blackarachnia, Jetstorm, and Rattrap) did make it into the series in the long run, even if no toys for them (minus Megatron, of course) ended up getting made.

https://twitter.com/NightShiningInc/status/953764151637237766

A preliminary BotCon 2016 souvenir concept for Undermine aka Unit-3 from the BW2 Lio Convoy mold. He was actually dropped from the final proposal, but then the proposal got changed to Combiner Wars and he was added back in using the Streetwise mold.
 

https://www.facebook.com/PetesRoboCon/posts/559345394409351

Check out what would have been the convention exclusives and story for BotCon 2016 before it was recommended that it be changed to Combiner Wars. Which do you prefer? Let is know in the comments. Definitely a few here that the team what worked on the sets would have still liked to have seen!
 
Story: War has gripped Cybertron for millions of years, the deadly stalemate threatening to wipe Cybertronian civilization from existence. Both Autobot and Decepticon, their ranks depleted, have turned to creating a new generation of fighters to carry on the conflict. These Maximals and Predacons are thus forced into a lethal battle not of their making, forced to arm themselves and continue a war that they know nothing about. As the struggle rages, groups on both sides of the battlefield realize that their true enemies stand not before them, but behind them as the oligarchy at home. A new war looms, a BEAST WARS… The uprising has begun!
 
Boxed Set BEAST WARS: UPRISING
• Predacon Megatron
• Predacon Dinobot
• Predacon Blackarachnia
• Predacon Terrorsaur
• Vehicon Jetstorm
 
Attendee Free Figure
• Predacon Scorponok
 
Souvenir Set One: MAXIMAL COMMAND
• Maximal Big Convoy
• Maximal Rattrap
 
Souvenir Set Two: MAXIMAL RESISTENCE
• Maximal Silverbolt
• Predacon Scylla
 
Souvenir Set Three: MAXIMAL COMMAND SECURITY FORCE
• Maximal Command Security Force
 

https://twitter.com/NightShiningInc/status/954022779912933380

Take a look at the ideas first planned  for the BotCon 2016 exclusive action figure set:
 
https://m.facebook.com/PetesRoboCon/posts/559345394409351…
 
But first, here's a closer look at how the Maximal Security troopers' head decoes could have worked:
(Thanks to @seibertroncom for the original images)
 

The Beast Wars: Uprising set has major points in the creativity department. Some were rather straightforward (I called Dreadwing as Silverbolt, and maybe Starscream as Terrorsaur), but others like Scorponok and Big Convoy... I never would have guessed those, yet they work.

I would have tried the Robot Masters Lioconvy mold for "Undermine" instead (smaller and probably better for working out a deal), but glad to see he was still able to sneak his way in.

That would have been a much stronger set.

Counterpunch wrote:That would have been a much stronger set.

Alas, if only Hasbro and IDW hadn't taken over the plans for that con.

Then again, the Uprising prose stories we got after the con may have been quite different than how they turned out to be, and I'm very satisfied with how those turned out, so... I guess it's a blessing in disguise.

As much as I enjoyed the Botcon figures we got in 2016, these are amazing! The mold choices for these characters are spot on. I wish we had received that Kup mold for Scorponok instead of Scamper. He's just so much smaller than his teammates.

Lore Keeper wrote:As much as I enjoyed the Botcon figures we got in 2016, these are amazing! The mold choices for these characters are spot on. I wish we had received that Kup mold for Scorponok instead of Scamper. He's just so much smaller than his teammates.

To be a little fair, he was one of the smaller Season 1 Predacons in the show, along with Waspinator, whose BotCon 2006 toy was a Basic.

Sabrblade wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:That would have been a much stronger set.

Alas, if only Hasbro and IDW hadn't taken over the plans for that con.

Then again, the Uprising prose stories we got after the con may have been quite different than how they turned out to be, and I'm very satisfied with how those turned out, so... I guess it's a blessing in disguise.

I have to be honest man, I really do not like BW Uprising as a story.

It feels very raw and unpolished. The whole "Builders" thing is kind of an ugly concept.

Frankly, I always liked the Dreamwave idea that Micromaster technology was what led to the Maximal downsizing.

I realize that a lot of people put time into BWU, but to me it's one of those story paths that in a way, is too far down the rabbit hole. Like when a book series has become indecipherable to anyone who hasn't been invested for years.

Counterpunch wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:That would have been a much stronger set.

Alas, if only Hasbro and IDW hadn't taken over the plans for that con.

Then again, the Uprising prose stories we got after the con may have been quite different than how they turned out to be, and I'm very satisfied with how those turned out, so... I guess it's a blessing in disguise.

I have to be honest man, I really do not like BW Uprising as a story.

It feels very raw and unpolished. The whole "Builders" thing is kind of an ugly concept.

Frankly, I always liked the Dreamwave idea that Micromaster technology was what led to the Maximal downsizing.

I realize that a lot of people put time into BWU, but to me it's one of those story paths that in a way, is too far down the rabbit hole. Like when a book series has become indecipherable to anyone who hasn't been invested for years.

Did you read the whole series or just some of it? Cuz "raw and unpolished" sound very much like the antithesis of what that series turned out to be.

And the Micromasters are very much in there as well, playing a very pivotal role in the series's world.

If I had to recommend just one story to read, it would be the origin story for Megatron called "Identity Politics". It's well written, stars familiar characters (or at least, this world's version of those characters), and is chronologically set before all other BWU stories (so it technically takes place well before the titular Grand Uprising even begins, but, that's what happens with stories set in the past).

The more I look at these pictures, the more I feel out about them! I would sacrifice kittens to have these produced.

That Big Convoy, Dinobot, Maximal security team, and Silverbolt are awesome. The dreadwind mold was a personal favorite of mine seeing as how Dreadwing was a favorite character of mine, and it works as one of my favorite Maximals too.

Big Convoy looks so cool

I dont care for most of these. That Big Covoy might look good but that mold is horrid. Same for the irohnide mold they use for scoronok (he woudl also be waaaay too small). The only thing I like is that Undermine simply because its a reuse of a great mold.

william-james88 wrote:Same for the irohnide mold they use for scoronok (he woudl also be waaaay too small).

Not that I don't also disagree with the mold choice (for me, though, it makes him look too chunky), but you do know that Scorponok was one of the smallest Season 1 Predacons in the show, right? Only Blackarachnia was shorter than him.

william-james88 wrote:The only thing I like is that Undermine simply because its a reuse of a great mold.

But most people hate that mold.

Sabrblade wrote:

william-james88 wrote:The only thing I like is that Undermine simply because its a reuse of a great mold.

But most people hate that mold.

What do they hate about the Leo Prime mold?

And no, I didnt know Scorponok was that small. I still dislike the mold though.

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

william-james88 wrote:The only thing I like is that Undermine simply because its a reuse of a great mold.

But most people hate that mold.

What do they hate about the Leo Prime mold?

I haven't gotten to experience it myself (though I do own the smaller RobotMasters version, which is nice), but most of the complaints from those who have range from it being generally unfun to it being an overall brick whose articulation is hindered by its own gimmicks and aesthetic design.

Sabrblade wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

william-james88 wrote:The only thing I like is that Undermine simply because its a reuse of a great mold.

But most people hate that mold.

What do they hate about the Leo Prime mold?

I haven't gotten to experience it myself (though I do own the smaller RobotMasters version, which is nice), but most of the complaints from those who have range from it being generally unfun to it being an overall brick whose articulation is hindered by its own gimmicks and aesthetic design.

I don't hate the Lio Convoy mold, but it certainly is a brick, at least compared to other Beast Wars era figures.

Just received this email update for RoboCon 2018:

Good evening!

We are already less than 5 months away from Pete’s Robot Convention AKA RoboCon 2018! A couple quick updates. If you have not heard, we have added not one but TWO Custom classes to this years show. You can choose from either Shattered Glass Swoop with a new face sculpt and/or the Collectors’ Club Gorilla Pretender Shell customized in to a Pretender Shell for you Legends class Gears. (You can also add a second Gorilla Pretender Shell, the character to be announced in the next couple of weeks…)

So, if you haven’t yet registered for your attendee package and your custom classes, you can do that today at https://nightshininginc.com/pre-registration

We will also be announcing additional vendors and artists very soon! Our exhibitor hall is almost sold out so if you know any dealers that you want to see at the show tell them to get their booth ordered before they are all gone!

Any questions? Drop me a line any time.

We will have more exciting updates on both our Facebook https://www.facebook.com/PetesRoboCon/ and Twitter https://twitter.com/NightShiningInc throughout the coming months.

All the best!

- Pete

Final custom class figure option for RoboCon 2018 revealed: Double Pretender Swerve gorilla shell!

https://www.facebook.com/PetesRoboCon/posts/566172467059977

Custom Class Figure #2 - Double Pretender Swerve Gorilla Shell!

Now you can have a Pretender shell to go along with your Transformers Legends Class Gears w/ Flanker figure! At one of our two 2018 customization classes, you will be able to paint up a Transformers exclusive Double Pretender Gorilla shell to go along with one of the stars of the IDW Transformers comic series!

You can customize the previously announced Shattered Glass Swoop w/ new face sculpt or the Double Pretender Gears with additional Swerve Gorilla shell option on either Saturday from 12pm-4pm or Sunday from 8am-12pm. If you want to customize both Swoop and at least one of the Pretender shells, you should select the Saturday and Sunday option. If you are interested in customizing two Pretender Shells make sure you select that option (which includes two variations of the same shell), which again is available on either Saturday from 12pm-4pm or Sunday from 8am-12pm.

You won't want to miss out on the first year of Pete's Robot Convention custom classes and the toy(s) you will get to paint and modify!

Visit https://nightshininginc.com/robocon to register for the weekend and add your custom class(es)* today!

* Pre-registration or a general admission ticket is required to participate in the customizing classes.

Oh, mercy! - https://www.facebook.com/PetesRoboCon/posts/569672986709925

As most of you know, for the past several years many of the toys for various the Transformers lines are produced with two head sculpts allowing the Transformers team to offer fans two different characters using one base mold. In 2015, it was decided that the custom class for that years Official Transformers Convention would use the Orion Pax mold with the new head sculpt the former Official Collectors’ Club had commissioned, one that would be used to turn Orion Pax in to both Lio Convoy and Nova Prime. When the sample arrived however, the unassembled class kit included the original head sculpts of Orion Pax and the unreleased head sculpt that could have been used to make a retail version of Transformers Generations KUP! As we have been sorting the pre-production samples for display at RoboCon this year, we figured now would be a great time to show it off!

We here at Pete’s Robot Convention have taken that class kit, and with the customization skills of Shawn Tessman put together a very amazing representation of what Generations Kup could have looked like at retail complete with the unreleased production sample head. Here is the kicker… You will be able to purchase the class kit featuring the Kup head sculpt at Pete’s Robot Convention June 9-10 at the Cincinnati Marriott at RiverCenter! This, along with hundreds of other pre-production and final production Club and Convention samples will be available for sale starting at the Saturday Evening Preview Event. Check out the Kup preview as well as some of the other Club and Convention early samples that will be for sale at the show!

Pete’s Robot Convention is a show which places the emphasis on vendors, artists and the amazing robot toys and artwork they will have for sale. Like our show in 2017, we are looking to give fans another year at a great venue where they can come together and celebrate all things robots!

We will be offering Pre-Registration for anyone who wants to take part in both the Saturday evening activities as well as early admission to the full day show on Sunday. Pre-Registered attendees will also receive an exclusive t-shirt, free caricatures for the children, face painting, a badge and lanyard and more! There will also be additional options that can be purchased, including the Recycled Robots Workshop! We will also be offering at-the-door admission for Sunday. Adults and Teens are $10. Kids 12 and under are FREE!*

There are also three options for a custom class for 2018! Choose from Shattered Glass Swoop w/ new face sculpt, a Double Pretender Shell for your Legends class Gears figure and the option to add with additional Swerve Gorilla shell. Class times are Saturday from 12pm-4pm or Sunday from 8am-12pm. If you want to customize both Swoop and at least one of the Pretender shells, you should select the Saturday and Sunday option. If you are interested in customizing two Pretender Shells make sure you select that option (which includes two variations of the same shell), which again is available on either Saturday from 12pm-4pm or Sunday from 8am-12pm.

You won't want to miss out on the first year of Pete's Robot Convention custom classes and the toy(s) you will get to paint and modify! Visit https://nightshininginc.com/robocon to register for the weekend and add your custom class(es)** today!
So what are you waiting for? Visit PetesRoboCon.com to make your Friday/Saturday hotel reservation, view the vendors already registered and order your preregistration and custom classes today. We'll see you all June 9-10, 2018 at Pete's Robot Convention!

* Limit two free kids admission per each adult paid admission.

** Pre-registration or a general admission ticket is required to participate in the customizing classes.

SG Swoop's new face sculpt is actually the built-in toy-accurate sculpt with the visor:





I only just noticed it...

Here's a blast from BotCon's past coming to this year's RoboCon - https://www.facebook.com/PetesRoboCon/posts/609089866101570

3H enterprises reunion this Summer June 9-10!

Be sure to join us for Pete’s Robot Convention at the Cincinnati Marriott at Rivercenter where you can meet and hear from the gentleman who made BotCon and the concept of an official annual Transformers Convention a reality! From the creative exclusives to the amazing fiction, here’s your chance to see them once again and get some great insight into the shows they produced.

Pre-Registration is available for anyone who wants to take part in both the Saturday Preview night and the meet and greet with Glen Hallit, Jon and Karl Hartman, the staff of Pete’s Robot Convention and your fellow fans, as well as early admission to the full day show on Sunday. Pre-Registered attendees will also receive an exclusive t-shirt, Alter Egos art print, free caricatures and face painting for accompanying children, a badge and lanyard and more! There are also additional options that can be purchased, including two custom classes and the Recycled Robots Workshop! We will also be offering at the door admission for Sunday. Adults and Teens are $10. Kids 12 and under are FREE!*

Visit PetesRoboCon.com to pre-register for the show, view the vendors for the sold out exhibitor room, book your hotel stay and to see all the current updates. We'll see you all this June at Pete's Robot Convention!

Is it a triple-threat or a handicap match?

https://www.facebook.com/PetesRoboCon/posts/621695531507670

New announcement featuring the finalized convention schedule, the unveiling of an unused Hasbro prototype Beast Machines Mega class Megatron toy head from 1999, and so much more:

We are less than two weeks away from the start of Pete's Robot Convention! What can you expect to see? Check out our photo gallery for a preview of the event!

For the full schedule, you can view that here:
https://nightshininginc.com/schedule

While pre-registration is now closed, late registration will be available at 3 pm on Saturday. Also, we have one Saturday custom class spot still available and some Sunday class spots still available. The custom Shattered Glass Swoop is almost sold out so if you are waiting be sure to snag that today! You can also still sign up to customize the Pretender shells for Gears and Swerve. For kids, we still have the Recycled Robots activity and that can be pre-ordered as well! Visit https://nightshininginc.com/pre-registration to place your order.

The show is open to the General Public on Sunday, June 10th from 10 am-4 pm. Admission can be purchased at the door. Adults and Teens are $10. Kids 12 and under are FREE!*
From 3 pm - 5 pm we will also be featuring a special event for kids with SPD and Autism. Kids 16 and under are FREE. Parents/Guardians are $10. Half of all the proceeds from those admissions will be donated to 4 Paws for Ability. For more information on the services they provide, please visit https://www.facebook.com/4pawsforability/

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us through our website https://nightshininginc.com/robocon or you can ask us right here. See you all next week!

Any reports from any of you who attended?

Seibertron wrote:Any reports from any of you who attended?

I was there. Work has been keeping me busy from creating a formal report. I'll get to making one as soon as I can, as there were some very interesting behind-the-scenes things about Combiner Wars and scrapped Fun Pub plans that were revealed at one of the panels.

Alrighty, I got my complete report from RoboCon 2018 finished and posted here - http://forum.unicron.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=6829

And now I'll share it here below. Of note is that one panel had the most newsworthy coverage, so I'll distinguish that text in burgandy for those who only care about that instead of the whole con experience.





Disclaimer: All accompanying images are used courtesy of the Pete's RoboCon Facebook and Night Shining, Inc's Twitter. Yours truly can be seen any photos that feature a guy wearing a plain orange baseball cap.


The first events began on Saturday, with the first Custom Class of the weekend running from 12:00pm to 4:00pm. Attendees in this class were given two options for customization to choose two from: Shattered Glass Swoop from Power of the Primes Deluxe class Dinobot Swoop (with an optional newly-sculpted toy-accurate face) or Pretender shells for Generations Legends class Gears and Swerve, both repainted from the BotCon 2015 Double Pretender Oilmaster shell.

In order to get all three customs, one had to sign up for both the Saturday and the Sunday custom classes, as each class only allotted enough time for the completion of either just SG Swoop or just the two Pretender shells, rather than for all three at once.



By 3:00pm, pre-registration package pick-up opened. In stark contrast to both the previous year and all of the BotCons of at least the 2010s, there was barely any wait time for this line since so many attendees were already in the custom class, allowing those who didn't take the class to go right up to the table and get their lanyard, T-shirt, raffle tickets, and Alter Egos art print that were given free to preregistrants.


Alter Egos is a mash-up of toys from Transformers, G.I. Joe, Visionaries, My Little Pony, Littlest Pet Shop, and Jem, which was originally revealed online back in April as part of an April Fool's Day joke, but was made into a(n unofficial) reality in the form of an art print (seen above) and a boxed set of fan customs (more on this later).


From 4:00pm to 6:00pm was a meet & greet with appetizers held in the upstairs bar room at a local Irish pub named Molly Malone's, which was two short blocks away from the convention.



From 6:00pm to 6:30pm was an Exhibitor-to-Exhibitor social held in the room that would later that evening serve as a preview night for the main dealer room experience to come the next day. This social allowed vendors to meet and greet with each other and get things set up in that room while the attendees were still at Molly Malone's.



6:30pm to 9:00pm was one of the two main events everyone was looking forward to that evening: The exhibitor and registered attendee preview night. Just like the preview nights that used to be offered to registered attendees on Friday nights at BotCon, so too did this enable registered attendees an early chance to get some purchases in ahead of the next day's main dealer room experience. The room was fairly small, so it was pretty crowded. But thankfully, the next day would see the much larger dealer room open for everyone.



The last event of the night, at 9:00pm, was the other big one, which had fans lining up all the way through the hotel lobby: The final liquidation sale for all leftover BotCon/TCC products from Fun Publications. This sale consisted primarily of preproduction and factory samples, as well as a number of packaged finalized versions, of figures produced from 2005 to 2016, many of which were not cheap. Though, the sale did not run dry by the evening's end, so there was plenty more Fun Pub product to sell the next day at Pete Sinclair's booth in the dealer room.


The night ended at 10:00pm.


The next morning, the convention was in full swing with another custom class that ran from 8:00am to 12:00pm. Again, fans could make either SG Swoop or the Pretender shells for Gears and Swerve.

At 8:30am, late registration package pick up opened to those who couldn't make it to the previous evening.

At 9:00am, the dealer room opened to all registered attendees, while general admission was let in at 9:30am. And, true enough, there were still a ton of old Fun Pub samples for sale at Pete's booth.



The crown jewel of the dealer room was unambiguously the display case featuring Every. Single. BotCon. And. OTFCC. And. TCC. Exclusive. Ever. Produced! Everything from 1994 to 2016 was in that case, including all of the custom class figures and even little ol' Quickslinger, a custom repaint of Cybertron Ransack from 2005 that fans could make by themselves back in the days before the BotCon customization classes were a thing.


Also on display were a number of extremely rare and never-before-seen test shots, prototypes, and production materials of official Hasbro and TakaraTomy products from Beast Wars, Beast Machines, Universe 2.0 (along with every single release ever of the Cyclonus and Nightstick molds), and Masterpiece Beast Wars. The Transmetal 2 Cheetor seen in the case, for instance, is a version that was colored to more accurately resemble the character's initial darker appearance seen in the two-part episode "Feral Scream".


At the very bottom of the display case's prototype shelves was also a complete copy of the official storyboards for the Beast Wars episode "Code of Hero", the ONLY Beast Wars episode that was ever actually storyboarded instead of directed-on-the-fly like all the other episodes were.


The entirety of this storyboard has been uploaded to YouTube by longtime Transformers fan and podcaster Primal Sabbath, who has set the storyboard to the audio, intro, and end credits of the episode to make for a more complete viewing experience:



Throughout the day, many more events were held for both fans and kids.

At 10:00am, a small fan meet up was hosted by Allspark.com members Wheelimus and Gizmoboy. On display at this meet up were some of Gizmoboy's personalized Vehicon customs, some rare items like BotCon 1999 Sandstorm and Windrazor, Beast Wars Metals X-9 Metals Jaguar (Transmetal Ravage), and other customized items like Glyph made from a Legends class Bumblebee, a 3D-printed Allspark.com Cyber Planet Key from Shapeways, and custom painted samples done by fan customizer Rob Roberts (A.K.A. Cheetimus Primal), who himself sadly could not be there in attendance.


A Transformers trivia game was also held at this meet up, consisting of True/False questions. A prize was given to those who came in first, second, third, and fourth place. Fourth place won a French-language copy of the original Marvel Comics The Transformers #4 issue "The Last Stand". Third place was given a copy of the BotCon 2001 convention comic Transformers: The Wreckers #1 "Departure". The remaining two prizes were an art print of Robots in Disguise 2001 Optimus Prime (A.K.A. Car Robots Fire Convoy) and a coffee mug with G1 Kup's face on it (better known as one of the infamous "Kup Cups"). First place was given the choice between these two, so second place received whichever the first place winner didn't choose.

And it just so happens that the first place winner of this trivia game was none other than yours truly. But, since I wanted the BotCon 2001 comic instead of either of the first place options, I chose the Kup Cup so that I could trade it to the third place winner for the comic.

Below are the four winners of the game. From left to right: Third place, Second place, Fourth place, First place (me!).



At 10:30am and 11:00am were two events held for kids. 10:30am was the Recycled Robots event at which kids could build their own robot toys from all kinds of mixed and matched parts, and at 11:00am was a Robot Bingo game. Later at 12:00pm, there was face painting in the hall outside the dealer room, and then at 1:00pm were art caricatures held in the same area.


12:00pm also brought the main Transformers events of the day, the panels. There were three main panels everyone came to see.

The first panel was labeled by the schedule as a "Transformers Generation 1 Panel", but it was more of a Transformers toy collecting panel. It was hosted by longtime Transformers fan Harold Teitjens, who is one of the seven men who have attended every single BotCon and OTFCC, and who also co-authored with Doug Dlin the guidebook Cybertronian: The Unofficial Transformers Recognition Guide.

For the next hour or so, Harold spent his time talking to everyone about various means and methods one may utilize to keep track of their Transformers collection, and showed everyone his own personal system for cataloging his full collection of everything from G1 (and before) to today. He also discussed his thoughts on things like the Generation 1 comics and cartoons and opened up a Q&A with everyone to allow for some actual G1-related discussion, so as to give some relevance to the name that this panel was given by the schedule.

Overall, it was an interesting panel.


The next panel was scheduled to begin at 1:00pm, but didn't get started until about 1:30pm due to the previous panel having run a bit longer than it was intended, since it too started late due to everyone needing to get settled into the room for that first panel. Nevertheless, the second panel covered all that it aimed to cover (and more) within its shorter time span.

This second panel was the most newsworthy of them all. The "Night Shining, Inc. Presents" Panel. Night Shining, Inc. is the name of the new company that Pete Sinclair and Jesse Wittenrich run to make RoboCon be what it is, along with another new event called The Mutant & Monster Mayhem Toy Show, as well as their first official license being the Japanese superhero series Redman.

Two complete video recordings of this panel are available to watch on YouTube from both Primal Sabbath and Allspark TV:


If you want to see everything that this panel covered, I'd recommend watching the above videos, but for the most important things revealed at this panel, here is a rundown of the Transformers news:

Prior to the convention, the Pete's RoboCon Facebook posted the following online teaser of six unrealized figures proposed by Fun Publications.

At this panel, Jesse Wittenrich went into much more detail about these six proposals.

These are the Shattered Glass Knights of Unicron. No, not SG counterparts of the hair metal band. Rather, these three (along with TCC Nova Prime) are the SG counterparts of Galvatron, Cyclonus, Scourge, and the Sweeps from Transformers: The Movie.

Jesse explained that they had the idea to do the Knights of Unicron after they introduced SG Unicron himself in the magazine comic "Another Light: Prologue". They originally had other CHUG molds in mind at first, but when they were working on the customization class for BotCon 2016, they were allowed to use the Ratchet mold (it's the Offroad version of the mold seen in the above pics) and thought that they could get the two unused-at-the-time other heads, Trailbreaker and Hoist (meaning that plans for the 2016 custom class figure were done early enough that CW Trailbreaker hadn't been unveiled for retail release yet). Ultimately, that didn't happen since Hasbro made them use the Ratchet head instead.

Nonetheless, these characters did show up in the comic storyline "Another Light", and that's because they (the two on the left and right, that is) were originally going to be the 2016 custom class figures, but Fun Pub didn't get the heads they wanted. The left one is an SG Autotrooper while the right one is SG Checkpoint. Checkpoint would have used the Trailbreaker head while the Autotrooper would have used the Hoist head.

The third one, in the center, is a retool of Rook with another Hasbro-pretooled head. It's called out as a "Brawl head", suggesting that Hasbro originally wasn't sure if CW Brawl would be able to get his own mold or not. He did, so this head went unused. As seen here, it was going to be SG X-Brawn (possibly as a souvenir figure for BotCon 2016), but that didn't happen either. Like the others, he too appeared in the comics.

When they were doing the Combiner Wars stuff, Hasbro sent Fun Pub early looks at four combiners. The third one they sent over was Bruticus (explaining how they got to use Onslaught mold for TFSS Bludgeon) and the fourth they sent over was Computron. If you read some of the Club stories, Jesse slipped a little information into these stories. The original Computron by Hasbro was going to have the Rook mold with the Brawl head as what was originally believed by fans to be a brand new Technobot character named "Ironclad", BUT Jesse revealed that, while the "Ironclad" name was true, the identity of Ironclad was not as a new character but as a renamed G1 Ironfist!!!

But then Hasbro changed their Computron into having the same Afterburner as Takara's, so while that's still cool, Ironclad/Ironfist did not come to be. But that's where the design for SG X-Brawn's head comes from.

The reason, Jesse explained, why they showed this group at his panel was because they wanted to show off some of the unused Combiner Wars heads since the (still-rumored-at-the-time) listings for Blast Off, Wreck-Gar, Counterpunch, etc. all purportedly sported unused Combiner Wars toy heads. While we know now that Blast Off is just Takara's mold with no new head and that Punch-Counterpunch may instead be something much more than the re-headed CW figure that Fun Pub released, there is still the implication given here that Power of the Primes Wreck-Gar's head might not be a brand new tool but a preexisting pretool leftover from when Takara first made the Deluxe Groove mold in Unite Warriors!

These are Solus Prime (a retool of Generations Thrilling 30 Arcee with a new head and a recolored Forge of Solus Prime taken from Prime Beast Hunters Ultra Magnus), Liege Maximo (a redeco of Generations Skullgrin, himself a retool of Generations Darkmount/Straxus), and Maccadam A.K.A. Alchemist Prime (a redeco of Reveal the Shield Perceptor).

This was going to be a Titans Return story starring the Thirteen. It would have been one of their last subscription services, but Hasbro turned them down since, at the time, Hasbro had already had the Prime Masters in development or Power of the Primes. Solus Prime's new head was conceived with the possibility of reusing it for Override Prime.

The story involving these characters was going to take place after the Classics and Shattered Glass universes had been merged together, and after the Multiversal Singularities concept had been gotten rid of. They were going to introduce that new universe's version of the Thirteen, and then SG Rodimus Prime (who, as revealed last year, was to have been a redeco of Generations Thrilling 30 Springer) was going to try to break into the Thirteen and become the Thirteenth Prime himself instead of Optimus Prime.


After this, the Powerpoint presentation ended, but Pete came up to the stage to join Jesse and the two disclosed even more neat news.

Back before BotCon ended, they would brainstorm a ton of stuff for exclusives and some of them were just "completely oddball screwball stuff". Some made it and some got really really close. What Pete would like to do at some point is put out a book with all the concepts from over the years in it. Worst case scenario, they could still put it all online, and they have put out some things before, having shown a lot of good stuff. But this might be the last time they show us stuff in a format like this, as it's time to move on past that. But since there's no HasCon this year, they get to fill the gap a little bit. It's nice for people to have a place like this in between bigger things like TFCon and such.

"Ironfist as Ironclad" was entirely a Hasbro thing, head and name and all.

Pete revealed that there are alternate, Hasbro-pretooled heads for the Titan class Constructicons and Devastator! But Pete didn't have them with him to show off at the panel. They are based on the Build Team from Robots in Disguise 2001 (Wedge, Heavy Load, Hightower, and Grimlock) with Landfill as the combiner, and the remaining two of the six being the 1988 Autobot Targetmaster characters Scoop and Quickmix!

Pete regrets their having not done the Build Team from Titan class Devastator. He really thought Hasbro was going to do them.

Hasbro had sent concepts and toolings to Fun Pub that Hasbro ultimately didn't end up doing like CW Counterpunch, CW Toxitron (whose head was originally made for a CW Nemesis Prime), and CW Ratchet (until Takara did in Unite Warriors).

Pete regrets their having not done CW Sideswipe since that would have given us all of the 1984 Autobot Cars in combiner form. CW Sideswipe would have been a straight redeco of CW Breakdown with no new head, which is probably why they didn't do him.

There was one year that Hasbro was weird about which characters and molds Fun Pub could or couldn't use. The rules were always changing depending on how often the brand team changed. That particular year (it wasn't said which year it was), Hasbro was in this kick of "You can do that character but pick a different mold," but then Pete and them were like "But then no other mold's gonna work for that character," so they just finally kinda got away from that. And by the last two years, they were working a lot closer with Hasbro to where what Pete and them were doing was supposed to be kinda mirroring what Hasbro was doing at retail, as opposed to earlier on where Hasbro didn't want them being anywhere near retail, which is why we got things like Wings of Honor and Shattered Glass. Like, the 2017 set would have been a Titans Return set (as seen last year) like how the 2016 set was a Combiner Wars set.

As far as things went for which molds and characters they could use each year, it all just depended on the year. They would send Hasbro a proposal and then Hasbro would come back and say "No, we're using that mold," or "No, we're using that character," if the proposal was rejected.

Both the Victorion and Liokaiser sets have no alternate pretooled heads because their heads are already alternate heads.

Hasbro actually wanted Fun Pub to do Liokaiser before Hasbro ended up doing it themselves. Pete and them did not do Liokaiser because, at the time, Hasbro wouldn't tell them if there were new heads for the figures or not. Those animal heads are a necessity for those characters, and Jesse said that they were reluctant to fake it with the normal Aerialbot and Combaticon heads.

Hasbro also actually gave them the options of doing Landfill or G2 Devastator from the Titan class figure. The reason Pete and them didn't do either of those was because they would have been tough to do with the markup that Fun Pub would have charged. Something like that would have probably been like a $400 dollar item.

When Takara pulled out the G1 Fortress Maximus mold for the Encore release, they found the Grand Maximus Pretender shell along with the main toy mold, and e-HOBBY wanted Fun Pub to do a full blown reissue of Grand Maximus! Again, that wouldn't have been realistically marketable (even if it might have ended up being cheaper than what the original G1 release went for at the time on the secondary market). They at least did end up using the Pretender shell.

As for Pete's Robot Convention ever having an exclusive, that's what they tried to do with the custom classes for this year, but of course they had to be unofficial due to Night Shining, Inc. not having any Transformers license with Hasbro. But it's still the same kind of custom class that Shawn Tessman has run and overseen for the past 10+ years, and people really dig his customs and he's worked with a lot of people at BotCon. As for an official exclusive product, there's people they've talked to; licenses and things they're still pursuing. It just takes a long time. They've been going after one of these companies for well over two years now. They just keep working on it. The Redman license, for instance, took them months to get, and there might be more (non-robot) properties coming from that company.

The toy industry itself is becoming more and more consolidated these days, what with Hasbro buying up more properties like Power Rangers and Saban Brands folding as a result. So it's kinda scary with everything being consolidated, and so they have to look for some opportunities with maybe some smaller companies. There's always gonna be upstarts. It's a very cyclical thing, like how in the 90s everyone on the road was making toys and there were 50 other toy companies out there. We might see something like that again, but right now it's not where we're at. It's a very monopoly-type environment right now. So, everything's a little tougher on them, but they'll keep trying. Like with younger people like Boss Fight Studios. But with things like Toys'R'Us being gone right now, and places like Walmart and Target determining what toys get made, and KB Toys possibly coming back in some format, and things like Amazon and Big Bad Toy Store continuing to grow, we're just in a very weird place right now. It's not a place they're used to being in, where you never know what's going on now, LOL.

Pete and Jesse have no inside information on why retail distribution is the way it is with all the issues it has right now. They can only guess and speculate just like the rest of us, and don't understand why the way it currently is keeps happening over and over again.

Pete's favorite convention sets that they did are the Beast Wars one from 2006 and the Shattered Glass one from 2008. The best convention for him was the 2009 one, which had an ad on Cartoon Network and about 7,000 people in attendance. He also likes what he can remember from the very first BotCon back in 1994, and BotCon 1996 was a lot of fun for him; he got to hang out with Glen Hallit, Jon Hartman, and Karl Hartman that year. 1996 was also the first show that Hasbro really got more involved in. They had prototypes on display and an auction for production samples, and it was smaller scaled like this convention.

Jesse's favorite BotCon set is the 2011 Animated set.

After that, the panel concluded.


Next came the last panel of the day at 2:00pm, the 3H Enterprises Panel. This panel marked the legendary reunion of the Big 3 of BotCon's past: Jon Hartman, Karl Hartman, and Glen Hallit, who all ran and organized BotCon together in the pre-Fun Pub years from 1996 to 2002. Seeing them together again for the first time ever and reminiscing about the BotCons of old was a sight to behold.

And like the previous panel, this too was recorded by both Primal Sabbath and Allspark TV:


Check out these videos to hear all of 3H's personal anecdotes from their childhoods to their BotCon years and beyond.


Towards the end of the day, at 3:45pm, there was a raffle held for the Grand Prize of the convention. Like how last year's grand prize was a set of hand painted customs, so too was this year's prize. Said Grand Prize was the complete boxed set of Alter Egos figures made especially to be raffled off to one lucky winner at this convention.



The dealer room closed at 4:00pm, and the whole convention itself ended at 5:00pm.

For myself, I walked away from the con with a nice haul of nine acquisitions from the dealer room:

• Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015) Thermidor
• Transformers: Adventure TAV60 Bisk
• Transformers: Adventure TAV54 Scorponok
• Beast Wars Neo VS-36 Mach Kick VS Archadis
• Beast Wars Telemocha Series TM-07 Cohrada
• Beast Wars Telemocha Series TM-08 Archadis (yes, I got two of Archadis)
• Transformers: Car Robots C-002 Wildride (X-Brawn)
• Transformers: Car Robots C-004 Speedbreaker (Side Burn)
• Transformers: Car Robots C-027 BRAVE MAXIMUS!!!!!!!

All in all, this was another year of great fun, and far less stressful than most BotCons ended up being in their later years, always trying to go bigger and bigger. The scale is far more manageable and the lack of exclusives greatly reduces the feeling of "Gotta Have It!" that often reduced the amount of purchases one could make in the dealer room's treasure trove of Transformers.

Pete's Robot Convention is set to return next year in June, but an exact date has yet to be announced. 'Til then, live long and stay frosty, RoboCon!

Too bad no pics of the AltDev/Constructicon heads. Even more wasted opportunity was the none release of an official Encore Grand Maximus with the Pretender Grand.

*looks at the colored text with really big interest, then at the photos*



Didn't we call Landfill out of Devastator a few years back?
And Ironclad is Ironfist? Wow, we've been blind this whole time.

Landfill would have been cool and all, but I always hoped there would have been a prowlesator alt head...or a six builder redeco but that has less chance then anything else

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Didn't we call Landfill out of Devastator a few years back?

Actually it was Hasbro that called it at Toy Fair 2015. Somebody there at the full reveal back when it looked like all combiners were getting some sort of repaint, that made a comment along the lines of, "wouldn't a Build Team repaint be cool?" Who knew that was more than just a tongue-in-cheek comment?

Anyway, great read. Seems strange that they passed on a massive Titan Class repaint for $400 when smaller box sets were quickly approaching that price. Seems like a steal for a BotCon set that big.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:Anyway, great read. Seems strange that they passed on a massive Titan Class repaint for $400 when smaller box sets were quickly approaching that price. Seems like a steal for a BotCon set that big.

From the way they were talking about why they didn't do the Titan class stuff or the Grand Max reissue, while they didn't state it outright, the vibe I got from their tones and reasons was that those offers were suggested to Fun Pub not as BotCon boxed sets but as ordinary Club exclusives, like those that were sold in the Club Store and such, which would have definitely been out of Fun Pub's league, especially considering how people were already wincing (and still do to this day) at having to pay $100-$150 for just the normal Hasbro retail versions, and about $200-$250 for the Takara versions, of Titan class figures.

EDIT: Actually, you know what? I can just go ask Jesse himself about this and see what's what rather than trying to guess what he and Pete meant. I'll see if he might have an answer.

Aaaaaand, here's his response:

The Devastators were mentioned while BotCon brainstorming was taking place. So while not technically specifically mentioned for BotCon, heavily implied.

As for the $400, that's where the toys themselves would have been starting. Before adding on the dinner, admission, etc. that went into bumping the BotCon price past the price of just the figures.

So $400 would have been about the base price of just the figure set before the rest of the convention's offerings would have been added on, making the total Primus Package price go well over $400, whereas the most expensive Primus Package (in 2015) totaled out at $409 for club members.

Hmm. O gotta be honest, I got onboard with RID and aa much as I would have loved to have seen some Neo-G1 build team guys, I dont think I woulda gotten that. Landfill as a combiner is a unique looking design, and part of the alure to Titan Devy is thar he is a wholy unique goliath. Not that I mind Repaints for figures, but Devastator just needs to be Devastator and thats it. Devy as Landfill wouldnt have been good enough for me to be Landfill, and woulda detracted from Titan Devastator, whixh wpulda made it not worth the $400 for me

It is a shame we didnt get Sideswipe, I think that was one we were kinda counting on FunPub for.

I totally woulda gotten a Maccadam. Liege Maximo is bot a design I think of adaptinf to a Transformers Toy well. Tje Prime/Idw concept just hasbt been ised enough to pull me away from the original giant spily dude of G2. But it is kinda cool. My only complaint with Solus Prime is rhe hands on the mold not holding that hammer well. But I like that head as Override and I could really use some Primes to go against my collection of Minions of Unicron

Speaking of, I really wanted those Autotroopers and X Brawn.

I had actually looked at the Rook mold and womdered if we coulda gotten an Ironfist out of it. Guess I was right.

Flashwave wrote:It is a shame we didnt get Sideswipe, I think that was one we were kinda counting on FunPub for.

I wonder what would have been preferable: a badly executed retool, or a wonderfully done redeco.

I totally woulda gotten a Maccadam. Liege Maximo is bot a design I think of adaptinf to a Transformers Toy well. Tje Prime/Idw concept just hasbt been ised enough to pull me away from the original giant spily dude of G2. But it is kinda cool. My only complaint with Solus Prime is rhe hands on the mold not holding that hammer well. But I like that head as Override and I could really use some Primes to go against my collection of Minions of Unicron

You forget, the Gen. Arcee mold has two styles of hands: the slot kind from the original release, and the 5mm-compatible one from the Combiner Hunters set. It does raise the question which would have been used.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

I totally woulda gotten a Maccadam. Liege Maximo is bot a design I think of adaptinf to a Transformers Toy well. Tje Prime/Idw concept just hasbt been ised enough to pull me away from the original giant spily dude of G2. But it is kinda cool. My only complaint with Solus Prime is rhe hands on the mold not holding that hammer well. But I like that head as Override and I could really use some Primes to go against my collection of Minions of Unicron

You forget, the Gen. Arcee mold has two styles of hands: the slot kind from the original release, and the 5mm-compatible one from the Combiner Hunters set. It does raise the question which would have been used.

In this case, they likely would have tried for the 5mm Combiner Hunters hands.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Flashwave wrote:It is a shame we didnt get Sideswipe, I think that was one we were kinda counting on FunPub for.

I wonder what would have been preferable: a badly executed retool, or a wonderfully done redeco.

I totally woulda gotten a Maccadam. Liege Maximo is bot a design I think of adaptinf to a Transformers Toy well. Tje Prime/Idw concept just hasbt been ised enough to pull me away from the original giant spily dude of G2. But it is kinda cool. My only complaint with Solus Prime is rhe hands on the mold not holding that hammer well. But I like that head as Override and I could really use some Primes to go against my collection of Minions of Unicron

You forget, the Gen. Arcee mold has two styles of hands: the slot kind from the original release, and the 5mm-compatible one from the Combiner Hunters set. It does raise the question which would have been used.

Yep, totally forgot about that Remold. I was only thinking of the open/closed hamd varients

RoboCon 2019 Pre-Registration is now open!

The subject line says it all!

Any questions, feel free to drop us a line. We will be making the full announcement on social media tomorrow but we wanted to let everyone who has supported us through the first two years know before that!

Hope to see you all at RoboCon 2019!

https://nightshininginc.com/robocon#

Best!

- Pete

And...

This years custom class toy will be Shattered Glass Sideswipe made from the Siege for Cybertron Sideswipe. The class will run from 5pm-10pm Friday evening. Class spots are limited.

Ugh, why did the Shattered Glass repaint have to be an unofficial custom figure for a convention i won't be able to go to

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Ugh, why did the Shattered Glass repaint have to be an unofficial custom figure for a convention i won't be able to go to

You busy that weekend?

Sabrblade wrote:

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Ugh, why did the Shattered Glass repaint have to be an unofficial custom figure for a convention i won't be able to go to

You busy that weekend?

That's Father's day weekend, yes

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Ugh, why did the Shattered Glass repaint have to be an unofficial custom figure for a convention i won't be able to go to

You busy that weekend?

That's Father's day weekend, yes

Bring him along. The more then merrier.

In all seriousness, me and my own dad have been treating BotCon (and now RoboCon) weekend trips as father-son vacations since 2010. While I'm at the con he goes sightseeing, meets up with old friends, or goes to local ballgames. Then we do stuff together when I'm not at the con. Last year, for instance, we spent the day before RoboCon together at a local museum.

Sabrblade wrote:

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Ugh, why did the Shattered Glass repaint have to be an unofficial custom figure for a convention i won't be able to go to

You busy that weekend?

That's Father's day weekend, yes

Bring him along. The more then merrier.

In all seriousness, me and my own dad have been treating BotCon (and now RoboCon) weekend trips as father-son vacations since 2010. While I'm at the con he goes sightseeing, meets up with old friends, or goes to local ballgames. Then we do stuff together when I'm not at the con. Last year, for instance, we spent the day before RoboCon together at a local museum.

See, I would love to, but there is an annual thing we go and spend all day Saturday at, unless there actually is more to see on Friday and then the custom class is Friday night, and then Saturday is the 2nd wrap up day?