Transformers Collectors Club
| BotCon | |
|---|---|
| Status | Active |
| Genre | Transformers |
| Inaugurated | 1994 |
| Most recent | 2016 |
| Organized by | Fun Publications |
| Filing status | Private Company |
| Website | |
| http://www.botcon.com/ | |
BotCon, briefly known as "The Official Transformers Collectors' Convention" (or OTFCC), was an annual convention for Transformers fans and collectors. BotCon has been held annually since 1994. BotCon is a syllabic abbreviation for "Robot Convention" but also refers to "Autobot" and "Decepticon", the protagonist and antagonist robot factions in the Transformers franchise.
Featured BotCon guests are usually involved in the creation of Transformers media in some respect, whether as voice actors from the animated series, artists or writers from the comic books, or actual Hasbro employees. Fun Publications has held the convention for a number of years, with 2016 being the final year it would do so. it will be replaced by HASCON, Hasbro's own convention in 2017.
The first BotCon was held in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1994. Organized by brothers Jon and Karl Hartman, the convention had 180 attendees. BotCon was organized in 1995 by Raksha, a prominent figure in the fan community, and in 1996 by Men In Black Productions, headed up by Dennis Barger. In 1997, the Hartmans brought Glen Hallit, a fellow fan, into the fold, forming 3H Enterprises (based upon the first letter of all three organizers' last names).
At BotCon 2002, Hallit announced that 3H had secured the official Transformers convention license, as well as licenses to produce comic books and start a fan club. Shortly thereafter, the Hartmans were removed from their organizational duties, leaving Glen Hallit as the sole organizer of the new company, 3H Productions, Inc.
In the winter of 2002, 3H sought to expand to Europe, holding its first ever official European convention in Cheshunt, UK. Unfortunately, the event, which was held in conjunction with the main BotCon 2002 in the USA, had much less advertising and the registration did not open until a couple of weeks before the convention. Since the attendance at the European BotCon had been much smaller than the main show that summer, 3H decided it was too much work to hold two separate conventions, and officially announced that they would never hold BotCon outside the USA again.
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