No 3rd Party Toys at Botcon 2012

[Ultra Maverick]

Wish I had known this before buying my ticket

[racerguy76]

3rd party items are the only reason I would consider going to Botcon. I have no intrest going to see/buy items that will be carried in retail stores. I have very little intrest in older tf items as well.

I'm sure cetain 3rd party items are clearly stealing hastaks IP, but many are making items/figures that would never be made or even considered for production by hastak.

As for Funpub, they have lost any future business from me.

[Alexander Quinn]

Wow. The Plastic Crack Police are getting snippy.

[Robimus]

Originally Posted by Mighty_Galvatron

You can't really blame Hasbro or Takara for doing this. The Transformers are their property, and Botcon is their official toy show. Within that context, banning products made by other companies which clearly infringe on Hasbro and Takara IP's is a justifiable move.

The situation seems to be though that they clearly sold both tickets and vendor space to people before they came up with this new policy.

Are they going to refund attendees who have already paid for their tickets, or give refunds to vendors who have already paid for their space?

Thats the big question here. People have already bought tickets and retail space based on their prior experiences with Botcon. Now Botcon is changing that experience, that precedent, at what seems to be the 11th hour.

So long as they give refunds to those who no longer wish to attend because of this new policy then I think they are within their rights to do this.

If they wont give refunds then they have promoted their event under something of a false pretense based on their prior events.

[Hellboy]

If it was a Fashion Designer trade show I doubt Gucci would be pleased with a knock-off company promoting their wares at the same venue...

Although 3rd Party items may be awesome and sometimes better thought out than some of the Hasbro items they are still unlicensed and doing something illegal.

Customs, art and other fan-based items will usually fall into the category of "a single original work" which Hasbro would probably not care about or even pursue. If you start manufacturing or reproducing something in quantity is when the feathers get ruffled.

I don't blame Hasbro for taking a stand. Tell the third party people to buy a license.

[Mumps]

Originally Posted by bedtime

Thanks Pete, you fuckin dick!

From what I have read, I am pretty sure it's Hasbro's hand that's at work here, not Botcon/FunPub it's self, they are just abiding by their contract.

Seriously though, some people are reacting far too strongly about this.

Last year, FunPub complained about all the KO and 3rd party stuff, and WE TOLD THEM "If you don't like it, ban it."

Oh well, not my issue anyway, I probably would never have been able to go to BotCon anyway, I have already committed all of my international trips in the future to other cons... mostly GenCon.

[Sureshot22]

Originally Posted by MrCHEESEMANn

Hmmm... Hope this doesn't happen to TFcon...

lol it cant and wont im sure.

if it came down to an us or them situation let us all vote and we would say buh bye hasbro.

their being there the last few years was a joke anyhow. if they weren't there no one would have missed them.

their panel sucked balls. could barely understand the uninformed idiot they had doing it and nothing really great to show.

could care less if they were there other then that cute blond they bring the last 2 years.

[RageD]

Seriously anything to do with FunPub is a joke.

[Shepp]

Hmm..... This does bring up an interesting turn of events. Lets say that Reprolabels (I have no idea if they have or not, just picking someone) had bought dealer space before this whole mess.

Their business is more or less primarily based on Hasbro and TakaraTomy's intellectual property, and is not officially endorsed or licensed.

So this means that they would not be allowed to sell or display what they produce. So their table would pretty much be blank. Would they be reimbursed fully when they cancel? Will they be reimbursed for airfare and any other costs associated with going and vending/displaying at the convention?

Same with anyone who wanted to attend. Will they be reimbursed fully for any costs that originally went towards BotCon before this notice and now want to cancel.

Personally, if I had intended on going, half the stuff I'd be looking to see would be missing, and I'd cancel everything for the trip after reading about this.

I can understand where HasTak are coming from. But their wording makes it go too far.

Unless things change, I shall not ever be attending BotCon. Not much of a loss considering I've never been.

TFCon all the way.

[chaingunsofdoom]

Glad to finally hear this news. After attending 10 of the last dozen BotCons, you have to see it for yourself. Last year was probably the worst with booths flaunting their "non-licensed toys" right near Hasbro and the Kre-o booth.

Poke the bear enough with a stick and it will bite your arm off. Now if their lawyers did their job properly in the first place, they wouldn't have had to do it this way with the fans and they'd be catching these "non-licensed toys" in Customs at point-of-entry.