It didn’t take long after Botcon drew to a close for a new trademark to be filed by Hasbro themselves for “HasCon”. According to the United States Trademark Office, the trademark was registered for the following purpose:
“Organizing and conducting conventions, exhibitions, fan clubs and gatherings for entertainment purposes and in the fields of toys, animation, comic books, fantasy, gaming, popular culture, science fiction, television and film”
This would certainly lead us to believe that Hasbro may be gearing up for a more coalesced convention for all of their different brands going forward, though obviously no confirmations of this fact exist as of yet.
I took a screen capture from the United States Trademark Office, which you can see below, identifying the trademark, the purpose for the trademark, and the registrants themselves. Let the speculation continue…
JoePonyFormerCon must have been taken.
Am I right in assuming that Hasbro did not receive the profits from Joecon? If that was the case Joecon/Club must have started making too much profit and Big Hasbro took notice.
I’m pretty sure Fun Pub just paid a flat licensing fee to Hasbro for the conventions. I believe the club exclusives were basically produced by Hasbro and planned and paid for by Fun Pub. Hopefully any future convention exclusives will be a little less expensive with the middle man cut out.
They will surely have con exclusives but I doubt they will cost any less. I could see fewer being produced as well and I will be blown away if they continue the FSS. Here’s hoping I’m wrong.
With having to produce exclusives for multiple brands at the same time, Hasbro and whoever they have running this may opt to forgo big boxed sets like we’ve gotten from Fun Publications, and have more basic single package exclusive like they do for SDCC. Of course we’ve all heard the nightmare stories of people standing for hours in line to get SDCC exclusives. But hopefully fans will still be able to pre-order the stuff they want.
Yeah, this is definitely the end of the thirty plus exclusive figure releases per year that we get with a dedicated club.
Am I the only one who says “ugh” to this idea of a unified convention for Hasbro properties? I get that Hasbro is going for a shared universe, but the idea of trying to shoehorn a ton of properties under one roof – Well, I live in San Diego. I go to Comic Con. It’s often too much. I like the idea of a focused Club and convention for GI Joe alone – Having to compete with TF fans and new product placement seems counter-productive. But – I’m old.
GI Joe and Transformer themed My Little Pony? You know you want it!
No, you’ve simply been right for a long time. 🙂
That’s a perfectly reasonable concern. But there is a solution if GI Joe and Transformers fans want focused conventions, just about the brands they like. They can put their money where their mouths are and organize fan-run versions of Joecon and Botcon. Find and rent locations, arrange and/or pay guests to attend, put together panels and discussions with those guests. You probably couldn’t have the kind of boxed set exclusives with a bunch of add-ons, but you could still have a dealer room with plenty of stuff for sale, and with 3rd party stuff, it wouldn’t be just vintage toys. For years I’ve heard fans say that they could run the conventions better then Fun Publicatons, this could be their chance to prove it.
I’m interested to see where this goes. The Club has done too many things that have turned me off.
However, I can see both sides of the argument. A dedicated con makes sense but it it is in Hasbro’s interest to lead a good con with the properties they own. However, a poor Club con damages the brand, but there is also realistic concern that Joe will be overshadowed at the HasCon.
Whenever I think about a mixed con, I think of the scene in A Christmas Story where Ralphie is waiting in line for Santa next to the weird kid that keeps saying “I like Santa.” I’m sure I look like that guy to other fan bases, but jeez, I don’t want to talk about M.A.S.K. or Jem.