I suppose the best thing about the Botcon insanity is the fact that Evebird alerted me to more message board bad craziness.
While I was just irked that Hasbro or MC couldn't foot the bill for the frigg'n film showing as a "gift to the fans", it seems a helluva lot more people are up in arms over the fact that the show figure exclusives are Thundercracker, Dirge, and Thrust, with a Dreadwing repaint and a miscellaneous useless Bumblebee repaint thrown in.
I think I mentioned to Mr. E months ago that it wouldn't surprise me if Thundercracker was a con exclusive and that it probably should be.
Why?
Regardless of the fact that much of collecting fandom wanted this produced as a mass market release, the mere fact that a bunch of us losers drop shitloads of cash to fly to the con and then attend the damn thing makes this figure far more special. Especially for this year in which there aren't a whole helluva lot of "themes" that anybody really seems to give a shit about now that Beast Wars cybertron forms are done.
The fact that Thundercracker and the remaining 2 conehead seekers are Botcon exclusives makes me really happy actually.
Hell, I'm betting that the attendee exclusive will be a damn Sunstorm repaint of the Starscream mold too.
I'm not trying to piss anyone off but in the scheme of things I just don't care.
We are wasting over $1600+ to go to Botcon this time.
That's a whole helluva lot of scratch at a time when I'm trying to sell my house and buy a new one.
If I get something for that all of those people who don't drop money on the travel and con attendance want then so be it.
That truly defines the concept of an exclusive to me.
And one I well damn deserve if I'm going to support these cons like I have the last couple of years.