Dealers Will Not Be Able to Sell Third Party Figures at BotCon 2012

[Lord_Onslaught]

I've already heard from some dealers they will still be selling 3rd party products. apparently they can not sell it in the dealer room but they can elsewhere at Botcon

Which would be fine, and they probably wouldn't care about. I think it's more of a general out in open thing.

 

It's more of Hasbro not having the right but being allowed and flaunting the rules

Botcon used to be fun but every year they get more stringent with the rules that have made it anything but fun.

Botcon was never like this before, and you could sell your own customs or anything else that you wanted buy sell trade, ask the questions you wanted to ask without having to be screened before hand

Yeah, I know. In fact, I really miss the old hippy (for lack of better term) community vibe that has been gone since 04. But as TF becomes a bigger brand, Hasbro is going to be more and more militant about their property and we are seeing that right before our eyes. Basically, things change, regardless if we like it or not.

 

Back in the day when you didn't have to worry about or deal with official this or official that. Especially when in the end it doesn't matter what is official and what is not. That was Botcon just a bunch of fans getting together

and having fun and meeting their favorite Voice Actors or actors. And when you actually got information out of Hasbro, instead of their. We are not saying anything for no reason other then to piss you off.

Which is one reason why I like to get my TF's before their street date release

[robo_rob]

Yeah, we can all agree that we miss the good old days. I guess I'm just more excepting to these kind of things. I mean, try to find unofficial Disney stuff at Disney world. Your gonna have to go a few miles downtown.

 

I remember the time I went to a Megadeath concert with some friends and one was wearing a bootleg MD shirt he got at a flea market. Later Dave wouldn't sign it cuz it was a bootleg. *shrug*

[Lord_Onslaught]

Yeah, we can all agree that we miss the good old days. I guess I'm just more excepting to these kind of things. I mean, try to find unofficial Disney stuff at Disney world. Your gonna have to go a few miles downtown.

 

I remember the time I went to a Megadeath concert with some friends and one was wearing a bootleg MD shirt he got at a flea market. Later Dave wouldn't sign it cuz it was a bootleg. *shrug*

 

Heh, I got Rob Zombie to sign a bootleg version of Hellbilly Deluxe, he thought it was cool that I brought my bootleg version

 

You are definitely more accepting then I am. I buy 3rd party products and do not see how they effect Hasbro since Hasbro has not made them, and because they are original molds (except IGEAR and the Mini MPs) or upgrades for Hasbro product there is no issue as far as I am concerned. What I see is Hasbro trying to get rid of the older fans, as we are the ones who complain the most and the loudest, which I bet they think effects the younger generations of fans. So they pretend the collectors make up 5% and out of that 5% the older collectors make up about 20% of that 5%. Ignoring the fact that we also have children and we buy for them also. Most of the dad's who buy for their kids collected Transformers as a kid also.

[robo_rob]

I wouldn't see Hasbro trying to get rid of us, but I would understand if anybody felt if they were taken for granted. I don't, but I could empathize.

 

And Rob always has been a cooler dude than Dave, who's kinda a dick, or at least seems like it. I mean, it was probably something the label told him he could never do, but he was generally rude about it all. While I can see if Rob wasn't allowed, he would probably be pretty apologetic about it. Then sign a napkin or something in exchange.

[Lord_Onslaught]

I wouldn't see Hasbro trying to get rid of us, but I would understand if anybody felt if they were taken for granted. I don't, but I could empathize.

 

And Rob always has been a cooler dude than Dave, who's kinda a dick, or at least seems like it. I mean, it was probably something the label told him he could never do, but he was generally rude about it all. While I can see if Rob wasn't allowed, he would probably be pretty apologetic about it. Then sign a napkin or something in exchange.

 

If Rob had that rule, then he didn't care about it. As he has always been like Ozzy, more about his fans then his record company.

 

But yeah over there the years the feeling some of us have gotten from Hasbro, has been getting rid of the older collectors. With it all starting with Animated

 

EDIT - I just got done reading the Botcon Dealer contract and it says nothing about the banning of 3rd Party products. If anything it keeps everything generic and the closest would be this

 

Exhibitors agree to display at least 50% Transformers, Robots, Sci-Fi or Transformers related items. No Exhibitor is to offer for sale any pornographic material, contraband,

stolen goods, items that infringe on any third party rights, or items which are illegal to own, possess or sell under federal, state or local law

 

Now Funpuck and Hasbro could hide under this

Promoter reserves the right to order the removal of any item that in its opinion is in bad taste or does not conform to these rules and regulations. Promoter and

its designees, including Hasbro, Inc., each reserves the right to ban or deny entry or continued participation to any Exhibitor for any reason.

 

Even though 3rd Party is protected by Federal, State, and Local laws. It would be Funpuck and Hasbro breaking the law by banning 3rd party participation in all its forms

[Hanzkaz]

I was wondering how many people go to Botcon to see the third party stuff. I mean you've got the exclusive TF sets which may be an incentive to attend, but some people may see the availability of third party products as also being one.

 

I've never been to Botcon myself, but I was getting the impression that people had gotten used to Botcon being more than a Hasbro-exclusive event. To be honest, I've found a few of these third party items more interesting than a lot of what Hasbro comes out with these days.

[robo_rob]

Heh LO, folks have been saying that since BW.

[Shadowpanther]

If dealers want to sell stuff the official show doesn't allow, they have other options available. These kind of things are pretty commonplace. You know those kiosks at malls? They are given guidelines as to what they cannot sell as well or they are ejected.

 

I've already heard from some dealers they will still be selling 3rd party products. apparently they can not sell it in the dealer room but they can elsewhere at Botcon

 

Dennis Barger/men in Black did this a few years ago. he rented out a floor or room in the same hotel botcon was in. I think for his efforts,dennis barger received a forever ban from the botcon conventions as both a attendee & as a dealer.

[robo_rob]

Thing is, he promoted it as a con at the con. A room party they wouldnt care about. Its all about how you go about it.

 

In other words, he was a major dickhead to everyone about it. Then a dick about it online. They got tired of his bs.

[TheTfboy]

Ya know, it makes me wonder why Hasbro/Takara would ban Third Party Stuff, but still alow dealers to sell Non-Transformer related products as long as at least 50% of the sellers "stock" is Transformers related. :/ Heck, some of the third party products even encourage fans like us to buy the Hasbro products that go with them, like Fansproject Protector or City Commander. ( And let's be hounest here, if it wasn't for City Commander, there would still be classics Ultra Magnus' on the shelves today. :tflaugh )

 

I think that what Hasbro is trying to do is become "Dominant" and "Superior" to any other competition that they might have when considering who has the Transformers related products, to the point where there is noone else to compete with, so they say " Ok, we are the only company who sells this product, so if you want it, the only way you're going to get it, is that you're going to need to pay our ( insanely high ) prices, because you don't have any other choice." ( There's a word to describe all this, but I can't remember it at the moment... )

 

I mean, wasn't there a story on the news a while ago about AT&T tries to buy t Mobile ( Or something like that ) and the reason they didn't was becasue the Goverment feared that At&T would have too much power... :/ Well, it's the same with Hasbro/Takara, except instead of buying them, they want to get rid of them...