BotCon 2009 News and Rumors

After Friday's release of the BotCon 2009 brochure, the Transformers boards have been buzzing about what to expect out of the toys this year. The leak from G1 comic artist Andrew Wildman on Monday (it was apparently posted on Saturday the 21st, but Monday seems to be the first anyone was aware of it) of what appeared to be the Energon Starscream mold as Skyquake opened up yet another stream of possibilities. Unsurprisingly, the link to the image was taken down less than 24 hours later. Then, yesterday, BotCon.com was updated with preview pictures of the first toy in the box set, Kup! To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that official preview pictures of any of the toys have gone up before the pre-registration forms themselves were made available (which could happen at any time now). UPDATE: They went up publicly in the early afternoon.

Anyway, the reactions thus far to all this have been usual mixture of excitement, anger, frustration, indignation, and glee (even occasionally all mixed up in the same individuals!). I'm sure that will only magnify once pre-registration begins. Amid all that confusion, there's usually a bit of disinformation that gets spread, too. That's where I try to step in. I'm a stickler for accuracy, and have updated my "Unofficial Club and Convention Datasheet" so that everything that used to be on one of two pages is now just on one (some credit for this simply must be given to club member xZAOx, who gave a few suggestions as to how this might be achieved), utilizing a new notation system: what used to be footnotes are now hidden until you mouse over an asterisk. Basically, I try to back up all of my assertions on that sheet with sources. But if you have information that contradicts mine, nd

There are still gaps in my information that I need filling. Generally, wherever you see a question mark. I do have a possible source of some old registration forms, which may fill some of those gaps in short order, but anything you have, feel free to send on. Just click on one of the e-mail links. Thanks!