BotCon discussion, on the ground and after the fact

[JediTricks]

Niiiice. I remember it being thereabouts when it came out, so to find it for the same price now is great.

At the show, most were going for $110-$120, one guy was all impressed that he had one for $100, goes "lowest at the show, if you see any lower, let me know" (which is too often Frank & Sons code for "I want to buy them all up and sell them at my price). The booth I found had 'em for $60 but put the display box WAY in the back of their booth so not a lot of interest. I finally muster up the courage to overspend after 3 days of worrying over it, and he goes into his bin of 'em, pulls out the first one and goes "oh, not this one, it's $50 but ripped" and I immediately go "I'LL TAKE THAT FOR FIFTY!!! " The tear is a teeny tiny pricetag spot on the front, like I give a crap. So I was able to walk out of the con with gas money. I almost skipped back to my car to put it in the trunk, all the while blabbering and singing "fifty bucks, fifty bucks".

EDIT:

- Universe deluxe Sunstorm from the Classics mold? Team member Joe never has a problem with Sunstreaker, always possible. And they love that mold. Stay tuned, it's not planned but on a short list.

You mean Sunstorm.

Thanks, good catch. Fixed.

Awww! That sucks, because I love hearing from the Takara team, they're so much more insightful (IMO) than the Hasbro team.

I wasn't expecting them, so I wasn't too disappointed, but I would have loved to have had them there. If Takara had shown though, I would have probably been annoyed that they didn't get their own panel or a 3rd hour at the Saturday panel.

And this is only sorta-kinda related, but it's interesting to see which figures were designed by who. For example, Classics Bumblebee and Mirae and Hound were all designed by the same guy, and some of it really shows.

I actually have a few more notes on that, but it's so hard with 5k words to put the names in and double-check to make sure they were the ones talking.

Great writeup. Lots of good info here, and it sounds like there was a good give and take between Hasbro reps and the fans.

Thanks, glad to hear you dug it! I would have liked to see Hasbro put on the spot for some of their choices, but yeah, what was there was pretty good back & forth with them. The questions I left out, and there were a dozen or so, kinda slowed down the process but I think it gave the panel time to reorganize thoughts after the previous harder questions. I wrote down over half of those questions because I didn't know where they were going with them, and then the answers because I had already written down the question. Example:
Any chance Jem returning? (Asked in a much longer way) Hasbro's shifted gears a little lately, is interested in bringing back appropriate visions of vault brands. With all these deals, if you're a fan of those vault brands, you will see more of them in the next few years.
And then I died a little inside.

I'm definately looking forward to these. If the reissues "include" these two, does that mean that others are planned?

My guess is it depends on how these do, but they didn't say.

That's an interesting idea, taking an Animated character and transferring it to another aesthetic. I might have to take a look at this one when it comes out.

It sounds like this is something they want to do more of. Lockdown looked super boss. I've got a little more news about him from the Sunday panel coming up later tonight or tomorrow, when I get finished writing it.

I'm looking forward to seeing an official picture of this one at some point. I have a complete original Bludgeon, and I'd enjoy a good homage to the character.

Oh man, this new figure is so badass, I can't understand why Hasbro wants to hold back pictures that cool.

No kidding. I had wondered for some time how City Commander or Battle Roller could be made without Hasbro putting a 'cease and desist' order on these guys who are making money off someone else's ideas. When you boil it down, the fan projects are essentially theft, no matter how creative and well-received they are by the fanbase. So I"m not surprised by Hasbro's reaction.

I had been hoping those little guys were smart enough to NOT make profit off this, then it's not as big an offense. I like what these guys are doing, and really, I just wish Hasbro recognized that the desire for this niche stuff IS out there and did it themselves, but they're not. You're absolutely right though, it is making money off of their IP. I found it especially interesting in the second answer that Greg said nobody had come to Hasbro for a license to do this stuff, that should open someone's eyes to do exactly that.

[Onslaught Six]

I wasn't expecting them, so I wasn't too disappointed, but I would have loved to have had them there. If Takara had shown though, I would have probably been annoyed that they didn't get their own panel or a 3rd hour at the Saturday panel.

Well, I'm starting to suspect they were going to be there Sunday, which explains the entirely-random Tyrese Gibson appearance during the Hasbro panel. That got a lot of WTF looks from the forumites, apparently. ("What, does he work for Hasbro now?")

I actually have a few more notes on that, but it's so hard with 5k words to put the names in and double-check to make sure they were the ones talking.

Mmm, I can sympathize.

Oh man, this new figure is so badass, I can't understand why Hasbro wants to hold back pictures that cool.

I know, this no-pictures no-video policy is really stupidly retarded. Anime conventions allow pics and video 'all the time.' Sure, they're not showing the kind of things Hasbro is showing, but honestly, these pics are going to hit us eventually, so why not 'now?' I mean, honestly, all it would do is *better* inform us so we can make smarter buying decisions. I am now holding off on MegaScream because of LeaderScream.

I found it especially interesting in the second answer that Greg said nobody had come to Hasbro for a license to do this stuff, that should open someone's eyes to do exactly that.

I largely expect that they didn't do so because they figured Hasbro would say no. And then they know you were planning on doing it, so the radar on you is already going to be big.

[JediTricks]

Well, I'm starting to suspect they were going to be there Sunday, which explains the entirely-random Tyrese Gibson appearance during the Hasbro panel. That got a lot of WTF looks from the forumites, apparently. ("What, does he work for Hasbro now?")

That annoyed the crap out of me, they hurried up the panel and cut Q&A simply to have a celeb there. I am pretty sure they had him booked for it, he spent an hour or so afterwards signing in the booth, and he had security and I think studio handlers with him, a lot of folks to get there at the last minute. That panel should have been an hour and a half as well, they had plenty of time at the end to push back the Cosplay panel.

I know, this no-pictures no-video policy is really stupidly retarded. Anime conventions allow pics and video 'all the time.' Sure, they're not showing the kind of things Hasbro is showing, but honestly, these pics are going to hit us eventually, so why not 'now?' I mean, honestly, all it would do is *better* inform us so we can make smarter buying decisions. I am now holding off on MegaScream because of LeaderScream.

What really kills me is what happened to me at SDCC last year. Friday I cover the Hasbro SW panel and at the end of the slideshow, I ask the team for a copy of the powerpoint file and they have their PR person give it to me and any other outlet who asks. Saturday, I cover the Hasbro TF panel and at the end of the slideshow, I ask the team for a copy (they hand me off to Archer) and I catch attitude for asking.

My only guess in their favor is that they want viral conversation, people like me who saw the pics and can talk it up and spur your imaginations but without holding the larger audience's expectations to a specific image in case they take out a feature or something down the road. It's dubious though, they should bring their fans into the fold to keep them feeling appreciated. I'm also holding off on the Voyager Screamer for that Leader, well, that and the dippy tattoos and the giant hands and guns sticking out the back, foolish cost-cutting move.

I largely expect that they didn't do so because they figured Hasbro would say no. And then they know you were planning on doing it, so the radar on you is already going to be big.

If they have the resources, and know they're eventually going to be shut down, they may as well try, worst that happens is Hasbro drafts a TRO and stops them from doing something illegal anyway. But Hasbro COULD say "yes" and now they'll never know. Actually, I would think a smarter thing would be to bypass Hasbro and ask TakaraTomy for that license overseas since they're more likely to give a license anyway, the Japanese do smaller niche stuff like that far more often.

[JediTricks]

Sunday Sunday SUNDAY! It's the Hasbro Designers panel write-up, super short because it was a mere 14 minutes long:

http://www.actionfigs.com/index.php?cat ... cleid=3104

I left out the part about Ben Yee commenting to Tyreese about the article in Men's Fitness magazine where he got in shape for the movie. It wasn't action figure related, but I figured you guys would like to know. I actually have notes on the whole Tyreese talk with Archer and the audience Q&A, but I believe there's a youtube vid out there of it.

[Onslaught Six]

That annoyed the crap out of me, they hurried up the panel and cut Q&A simply to have a celeb there. I am pretty sure they had him booked for it, he spent an hour or so afterwards signing in the booth, and he had security and I think studio handlers with him, a lot of folks to get there at the last minute. That panel should have been an hour and a half as well, they had plenty of time at the end to push back the Cosplay panel.

Well, I don't think it was 'last-minute,' more like they'd been planning on Takara showing up to the panel for months and months and then last weekend they told them, "Sorry, can't come, swine flu." So Hasbro chucks in Tyrese and calls it a day.

This swine flu thing isn't just Takara, though, apparently all of Japan is discouraged from flying. E3 is this week, and some Capcom folk were supposed to show up to do a presentation on Dead Rising 2, but had to pull out last week. Apparently the danger isn't from possibly *getting* swine flu from over here, but from spreading it 'from' Japan, since apparently there's outbreaks in a few major cities.

What really kills me is what happened to me at SDCC last year. Friday I cover the Hasbro SW panel and at the end of the slideshow, I ask the team for a copy of the powerpoint file and they have their PR person give it to me and any other outlet who asks. Saturday, I cover the Hasbro TF panel and at the end of the slideshow, I ask the team for a copy (they hand me off to Archer) and I catch attitude for asking.

My only guess in their favor is that they want viral conversation, people like me who saw the pics and can talk it up and spur your imaginations but without holding the larger audience's expectations to a specific image in case they take out a feature or something down the road. It's dubious though, they should bring their fans into the fold to keep them feeling appreciated. I'm also holding off on the Voyager Screamer for that Leader, well, that and the dippy tattoos and the giant hands and guns sticking out the back, foolish cost-cutting move.

I see where they're going with that, but I'm always just *so* annoyed going off of secondhand descriptions of 'anything,' always have.

I used to be very active in the fan community for WWF No Mercy. Turns out, many years ago, one guy found a bunch of hidden animations for the full entrances. (No Mercy had truncated entrances compared to previous games like WCW/nWo Revenge and Wrestlemania 2000.) A lot of these came from the Japanese game Virtual Pro Wrestling 2. But he'd identified them with *really* generic terms like "Arm raise" and "Looks at crowd." These were just so vague that nobody could possibly 'use' them for anything constructive. I had to go in myself and figure out who they specifically belonged to.

If they have the resources, and know they're eventually going to be shut down, they may as well try, worst that happens is Hasbro drafts a TRO and stops them from doing something illegal anyway. But Hasbro COULD say "yes" and now they'll never know. Actually, I would think a smarter thing would be to bypass Hasbro and ask TakaraTomy for that license overseas since they're more likely to give a license anyway, the Japanese do smaller niche stuff like that far more often.

Yeah, they'd be better off hitting up Takara, I'd imagine.

[Onslaught Six]

Next up, the 25th Anniversary reissue Insecticons. Joe on the panel says that they have all their vac-metallization and pushed hard because some of the other reissues were missing their vac-metal.

...Because those parts were missiles.

Blackout. He's not in a Cybertron mode because they needed a helicopter in this line. Hasbro admits to bending the rules by making an animated character out of a movie character.

I'm not sure *why.* A TF is a TF. I'd personally have loved to see more Animated Movie characters. Brawl and Barricade! Hell, do *Bonecrusher!* Hate!

[Dominic]

I can objectively see Hasbro's point. They want to preserve their intellectual property, and avoid awkward moments with paying license holders.

On the other hand, this kind of crack-down can serve to raise ire among collectors. And, there is precedent for semi-guerilla items being accepted. Unicron.com has sold items through the *official* fan-club. What is going to happen with them?

Dom

[Onslaught Six]

I can objectively see Hasbro's point. They want to preserve their intellectual property, and avoid awkward moments with paying license holders.

Yeah, I'm already seeing some profanity-laden posts from immature folk about this who seem to be 'legit angry' at Hasbro over this. Frankly, I could care less either way, as all the FansProject and related things are way out of my price range, so either way it doesn't *really* affect me.

On the other hand, this kind of crack-down can serve to raise ire among collectors. And, there is precedent for semi-guerilla items being accepted. Unicron.com has sold items through the *official* fan-club. What is going to happen with them?

I dunno. Those guys generally only do stuff that's, at its best, marginally TF-related. Don't they mostly make stuff like clear plastic stands and Energon cubes?

[138 Scourge]

I wrote down over half of those questions because I didn't know where they were going with them, and then the answers because I had already written down the question. Example:
Any chance Jem returning? (Asked in a much longer way) Hasbro's shifted gears a little lately, is interested in bringing back appropriate visions of vault brands. With all these deals, if you're a fan of those vault brands, you will see more of them in the next few years.

All I'm sayin' 'bout this is, if the "Evil Girl Band" is still called the Misfits, they better god damn well earn it this time. Though, it'd be kinda funny if the current lineup of the Misfits replaced the cartoon version on a revitalized Jem...

...Okay, I just should shut my face, shouldn't I oughtta?

[Onslaught Six]

Well, yes, considering Michael Graves is no longer with the band.