Men in Black
From Transformers Wiki
Men in Black Productions, headed by Dennis Barger, was the company that organized BotCon 1996.
MiB quickly became infamous for its (mis)management of the con, with gaffes such as a very late-opening dealer room, no lanyards for attendees, and a rather pitiful "party" to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Transformers: The Movie.
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TransCon '97
Needless to say, Men in Black was not brought back to participate in BotCon 1997 and in fact never planned on doing so. However, MiB did go on to organize and promote the unofficial TransCon '97 in Chicago, Illinois. Their fledgeling convention (then called "RoboCon") was heavily promoted on the back of the '96 program as well as at the convention itself. Onyx Primal was again offered to attendees, due to the fact that they had a significant number of unsold Onyx Primal toys left over from BotCon '96. Hasbro was not present as they felt it was better for their image to support a single convention and BotCon (which was a scant two weeks later) was their choice.
A pair of exclusive figures, an 'albino' redeco of Beast Wars Alligator Megatron and a redeco of Terrorsaur as Swoop, were advertised before MiB got final approval from Hasbro. Due to this breach of contract, the toys were never made available.
TransCon III
TransCon III, which was held in Toledo, Ohio ("Keepin' it affordable and in the Midwest") in September 1998, was the MiB's final Transformers-related convention. It shared billing with MicroCon, a MicroMan/Micronauts convention, and MegoCon, which celebrated the Mego dolls from the 1970s and 1980s. The dealer room was largely empty, and the MicroMan & Mego portions of the show were little more than nice displays of personal collections. In their internet ads, they claimed their exclusive would be "the largest transformable toy exclusive" yet. Supposedly, this was to be a black and gold "Red Falcon" Micronauts toy. Instead, there were Onyx Primal toys that had gone unsold from their previous two conventions. Originally, they announced that signed copies of "The Agenda (Part III)" script would be given to all attendees. However, after Larry DiTillio posted that he would not make the script for "Dark Glass" available, MiB shifted gears and sought to release this instead. Three days later, they announced that signed copies of "Dark Glass" would be offered. Needless to say, that didn't happen.
TransCon III was so named, according to Question #1 in the FAQ, because MiB considered BotCon 1996 as "the First Transcon" and this was their third Transformers convention. This would retroactively rename BotCon 1996 as TransCon I. At least in their view.
TransCon 2½
While not really a convention, Dennis rented a room on the second floor of the hotel for the Friday of BotCon 2000 and put a sign on their door that read "TransCon 2½". Naturally, this meant more unsold Onyx Primals, leftover TransCon shirts, overpriced toys, and free (stale) pretzels and water. He also had an entire case of Beast Wars Metals Ravage that he was selling for $125 each. However, he was willing to exchange one of these for both Shokaract and Apelinq since 3H had forever banned him from BotCon due to his mishandling of BotCon 1996, a string of online negative comments directed at them, and his revealing the identities of both BotCon 1997 exclusives on ATT a week before that convention.[1] According to Dennis's own statements, he was unaware that he had been banned until a friend and fellow dealer tried to register him as a helper. Saturday morning, an MiB representative stood outside the line for the BotCon 2000 Dealer's Room and tossed unsold TransCon shirts on the heads of unsuspecting fans.
