We’re always up to share some interesting insights into the history of the Transformers franchise – and we have an awesome one to share with you tonight.
24 years ago yesterday, on 16 July 1994, the first-ever Botcon convention kicked off. The show, organised by Jon and Karl Hartman, was intended to be a tenth anniversary celebration of Transformers, and it kicked off an entire legacy of Transformers conventions which for many of us was how we all got to meet “in real life” and become friends outside of the fandom.
It all started with two brothers in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and that’s what we have for you here: the beginning of the very first Botcon.
Jon Hartman has recently digitized the Hartman brothers’ footage from the early Transformers conventions, Botcon 1994 – 2002 and 2004. They’ll be sharing the footage on Youtube at the Botcon Video Archive – be sure to check them out and subscribe if you want to keep up to date with their future uploads.
You can check out the introduction and collection room from Botcon 1994 below – very much the place where it all started from.
MROptimusPrime
It was really great of you both to let me park the van inside for one of your BOTCON's.
Karl Hartman
The first ever BotCon Panel: A panel on Transformers from outside the US, given by esteemed collector and good friend Tony Preto. This was the first time that many of these attendees had ever seen any foreign Transformers.
Enjoy!
Deadend
That's awesome!
Goldimus Prime
I'm very excited to come back and watch this after work!
Cha Chi
While everyone was thinking of money and mating partners, there existed – Bot Con '94!!!
Agamus
As someone who hasn't really gone to any cons (and was almost -3 at the time of this filming) this is kind of fascinating. I think that's the most G1/G2 figures I've ever seen in one place.
By any chance will we be getting footage of the '98 script reading later on?
Same. I was half-tempted to tab over and play some TF:TM music, haha.*
cj37a
I didnt see the TCP booth in the vendor room. Amazing how the fans dont look any different than today…
Matty
Thanks for sharing this. It’s pretty wild to see the very beginnings and to know what botcon grew to. Look forward to more videos!
ZapRowsdower
This.
The music makes no sense to me. I think it's TOO DRAMATIC. For something like this, I imagine something more calm and easy. Don't get me wrong: save this dramatic music… for the portion of the video where a couple of fans broke out into a heated debate with furious pointing?
But all silly criticisms aside, I appreciate the uploading of this stuff so I can experience it a bit after-the-fact. It's a cool piece of TF convention history, and it'd be a shame to lose it to a black out or fried HDD!
GizmoTron
Neat footage, but honestly I found that music kind of irritating and a bit out of place.
Jon Hartman
<A wild Jon Hartman appears from the depths of time…>
The biggest reason it looks this way is because it's a multi-generation edited version that we sent out to folks after the show. Dubbing back and forth between two VCRs doesn't make for a stellar product, but it's all we had.
The goal of this project is to simply upload the videos in the format as they are. Some are already edited into a highlight format with pretty titles and music, but the vast majority will be just raw video as recorded, warts and all.
I'm using Roxio Easy VHS to DVD with a USB dongle and two old 4-head VCRs. Some videos may be re-captured from the original Hi-8 tapes with S-Video to see if it gets better results, but everything should be watchable regardless.
There'll certainly be a lot of material to pull from if someone was up to that task. Over 80 hours of footage are sitting on my hard drive.
I think because it fit the edited running time that I was shooting for, and also for certain dramatic effects.
Black Conoy
You’re right
GAUGE
wow! When this video was made, I was just barely graduating High School. (this was right before I got accepted into Job Corps. where my life from there would be forever changed with many a roller coaster rides) Many of the people on this site weren't even Born yet.
Perhaps they were conceived At the Botcon.
robwhit1
I do wish we still had Botcon's. I even miss the overpriced box sets. Since I focused my collection on MPs, the box sets were the only way I picked up most of the retail molds.
AnnoyedRobot
I hope someone has footage of that god-awful Men In Black-ran Botcon from 1996 and uploads it someday. XD
DarkRed401
i like the rite of spring but why for transformers?
UltraPrimal
Pretty cool seeing some footage of the original BotCon. I think this would be much better narrated. Just talking about what's going on in each clip. Like there's one of a guy at a table. Is that the registration desk? A special guest? Are there any attendees in this footage who became regulars at BotCon? Just talk about the exhibitors you had, how many, what they were selling, what were the hot items, etc. Talk about the Collection Room. What is it? Just a room in the convention where you guys showed off your collection? How complete was the collection at the time? You know, for 1994, that may very well have been a complete Transformers collection.
Also, I'd be curious to know how you're digitizing your old tapes. Is it with a capture device? Are you running it through any deinterlacing software? I'd just love to see the best quality possible available to you.
Seriously, guys! This is some great stuff! You could do a whole documentary series with more footage like this. As someone who grew up always wanting to go to BotCon, but was never old enough/couldn't afford to until after FunPub took it over, I'd love to see and hear more about the legendary OG Hartman Bros BotCons.
jbot
You see it too? That’s a relief. I thought I was so drunk that I forgot I’d been drinking.
Sovietbot
Wrote what could come back.
msol
Awesome. So sad I never made it to a Hartman BotCon, but I'm glad I finally made it to one in 2014. I remember begging my folks to take me to BotCon '98 but they thought a 14-year-old had better things to do. How wrong they were!