It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, a picture might be worth about a million words. Or more. This is from the HasCon site itself. It’s pretty damn telling:
You are reading that correctly. HasCon 2019 has been “postponed”. As for how long, the announcement doesn’t say. But my gut feeling tells me that this is indefinite. Hasbro is in financial trouble. Transformers: The Last Knight did not do well at the box office. Hasbro is under investigation for securities fraud. The loss of Toys R Us is hurting toy companies–Hasbro included–which puts their profit margins at risk. Ten to one Hasbro doesn’t have the capital to fund this trade-vention so, here we are.
I can’t say that I feel badly for Hasbro in this case.
Seriously, they had a sweet damn deal with JoeCon and BotCon; they had someone paying them for the privilege of running a pair of branded conventions that featured what has, at points, been two of their top-tier, heavy-hitter franchises. They had someone else booking the guests, coming up with ideas for exclusive toys, putting together story ideas for exclusive comics, you name it. So what does Hasbro do? Piss all of that shit away and try to ‘do it better’ on their own, while adding a ton of other brands into the mix.
I was never interested in HasCon. There was literally nothing there that caught my attention. I tried like hell to talk myself into going but I just couldn’t justify the cost. It also didn’t help finding out that if you registered early, you got screwed over, as Hasbro started offering discounts on admission. If you waited until the last minute, you got a sweet deal. If you registered early, you were out a shitload of cash. You also weren’t getting a refund, either. And don’t get me started on the ‘exclusives’.
Like I said, ‘Error 404: sympathy not found’. They loaded the shotgun and proceeded to blow a hole in their foot, then scratched their head and wondered why they happen to be bleeding. However, this is probably the second best Christmas present I could receive right now. The only thing that could top it? The announcement of the triumphant return of BotCon. If you’re smart, Hasbro, you’ll make it happen. In the meantime, I’ll just laugh in derision.
Iacon East 