Massive toy seller Hasbro is getting into the event business. Today, the company opened ticket sales for Hascon FANmily (get it?), a convention to be held in Providence, Rhode Island on September 8-10, 2017.
The three-day fan convention will include all the attractions subculture buffs have begun to expect from such events, including meet and greets with Marvel's Stan Lee and Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, producer of all the Transformers films. Also Chewbacca Mom, if you're into that.
Conventions, once the domain of fan volunteers, are increasingly corporate-run, as NPR noted in a 2014 report. Comic-Con, a group of North American fan events that originated with one convention in San Diego, have become synonymous with popular culture in recent years. Event planning is difficult, as highly-visible fan-run catastrophe Dashcon 2014 demonstrated. Now, many fans are more comfortable entrusting their cash and security to seasoned corporations.
As corporations control more of the convention landscape, the fan-run conventions that remain are the ones that are run like businesses, too. Anime Expo, the largest U.S. anime convention, is a non-profit that employs 30 full-time employees.
Hasbro is its own authority on its many intellectual properties, and there's no doubt that Nerf, My Little Pony, and G.I. Joe will be huge draws for families.
Single day tickets are available for $30 for youth up to age 15 and $60 for adults. Three-day tickets range from $75 for youth to $165 for adults, with VIP packages for the most ambitious collectors.
