More Hascon News

There is some new Hascon info out.

Most importantly, last night I received an e-mail from Hascon. You can view the letter here, but in a nutshell, they have decided to combine the G1 event scheduled for Friday night and the Last Knight event scheduled for Saturday night into a single event to be held on Saturday night. The letter is asking me if I am able to attend on Saturday as I selected the Friday G1 event with my VIP registration. They apparently weren’t paying attention to what I registered for as I also bought a ticket for the Saturday event, so now I need to get my second event ticket refunded. I love saving $200, but I am sure I will have to jump through all kinds of hoops to get my refund.

What does this mean? The most likely answer is that they didn’t have enough people attending one event or the other. Worse, they might not have had enough people attending either event. I will be very curious to see how many people are actually there on Saturday night. But the bigger question is, what does this mean for overall registration? Is this a sign that registration is way below their expected numbers? There is some more evidence of this.

A number of new guests have been announced, some of whom I’ve never heard of before, but some I definitely have. Boston Red Sox legend David Ortiz, center fielder Jackie Bradley, Jr., and Patriots Super Bowl XI hero James White will be attending. That’s great. I bleed Red Sox baseball and love the Patriots. But I have no idea what they have to do with Hasbro. Nothing near as I can tell. This smacks of desperation. I think there registration is way below their projections. Bringing in some New England Sports legends will undoubtedly get some people in the door who care nothing about Hasbro and make the convention look better attended than it actually is.

I could be completely wrong. This might always have been planned, but it seems odd that they are canceling/combining events and adding guests with nothing to do with Hasbro, but who will certainly draw locals, at the last minute.

A few other guests have also been announced. Walter Koenig, Star Trek’s Chekov, Sue Blu, voice of G1 Arcee, and Isabela Moner from The Last Knight have all been added.

All are great additions, but of course, they still haven’t addressed the one major problem they have, the lack of a dealer room. (I’m well aware they aren’t going to, but it needs to be said.)

On that note, they have updated the exhibitor list (don’t get excited).

Cactus Game Design, Inc. – Gaming, nothing to do with Transformers.

Disguises, Inc. – They make birthday party supplies and costumes, including Transformers.

G3D Global 3D Systems – A 3D printing company.

Gridiron Publishing – No idea, but I’m doubting it has anything to do with Transformers.

Littles Toys Company – They have exactly two Transformers toys on their site, both from three or four years ago.

MTG Pro Shop – Apparel, no Transformers on their site.

Red Central – No idea.

Nothing there for a Transformers fan to be excited about, and Legion Supplies, who had previously been on the list has been removed.

Lastly, exclusive toys were finally announced for Hascon. The best of the offerings is Headmaster Arcee, a repaint and remold of Blurr. This exclusive…will also see release at retail. So while it’s an awesome toy, you don’t need to get it at Hascon. Also for some reason a Titan Master Ultra Magnus is included. Is it just me or is it weird that Hasbro keeps supplying us with tiny bodiless heads?

We are also getting a brand new mold Optimus Prime…that transforms into a USB power bank. What the fuck. That was the best they could do? With all the toys to choose from that they could repaint in some new and different way, they gave us a phone charger.

Oh, and for $30 you can get a set of Magic the Gathering cards based on Hasbro properties. It includes a Grimlock card. Don’t know if there are more TF cards. If there are a bunch I might consider it, but for just one card, no way.

Hascon starts four weeks from tomorrow. I wish I could say I was excited.

Thanks for reading!