Do you think a Masters of the Universe Convention would work?

Hey everyone, new guy here but I am a longtime MOTU fan as well as a Transformers fan. I just attended Botcon this past weekend and started wondering if the MOTU fandom has any conventions similar to the huge Transformers convention that just happened. I know that MOTU has been around a long time and has a strong and devoted fan base.
While I am not looking to organize a convention, I just was wondering if a MOTU Convention would work and if it would be something the fans here would be interested in should one take place. I am also wondering if there are MOTU Conventions out there that I have not heard about.

A MOTU convention would be awesome!

I'd totally go!

Yeah, I've wondered about this too. I know that He-Man has had less of a continuous brand presence than Transformers or even GI Joe (both of which have conventions indirectly run by Hasbro), but I still have a strong sense that it is still easily as famous a property. That said, I have no idea how large the demographic of actual current MOTU fans is -- the limited success of the 2002 line and non-retail nature of the Classics line might suggest that MOTU fandom is much, much smaller than I'm assuming. I don't know.

I think that would be great!!

Originally Posted by Skell-Skells

Yeah, I've wondered about this too. I know that He-Man has had less of a continuous brand presence than Transformers or even GI Joe (both of which have conventions indirectly run by Hasbro), but I still have a strong sense that it is still easily as famous a property. That said, I have no idea how large the demographic of actual current MOTU fans is -- the limited success of the 2002 line and non-retail nature of the Classics line might suggest that MOTU fandom is much, much smaller than I'm assuming. I don't know.

I agree. There are not nearly as many MotU fans as there are Transformers and GI Joe fans. I do not think a MotU convention would work. I would go, if it was close, but I am not buying a plane ticket and hotel room if it was far.

I would love to see one but like others I don't think MOTU has the fan base size to support it just yet.

Originally Posted by motu77

I would love to see one but like others I don't think MOTU has the fan base size to support it just yet.

That's certainly my impression.
Which is so weird to me, because when I (we?) were kids, He-Man was HUGE, right? I mean at its peak easily as big, if not bigger than Transformers. And were it not for the new "live"-action TF movies, I'd say it's still as recognisable in the culture, I mean, I would hear far more references to "By the Power of Grayskull" and Skeletor in recent movies like Hot Fuzz and Ali G than I ever hear of Transformers, until very recently.

I think it's mostly just down to the fact that the brand hasn't been (successfully) renewed since its original run, so MOTU fandom is predominantly comprised of original fans grown up, I would assume. I doubt there's too many 20 year old He-Man fans today. Compare that to TF which, even though it's heyday may have been the '80s, has basically been in continuous production (barring one or two years) ever since for 25 years. Hard to compete with a rolling intergenerational fanbase like that, not to mention the huge Asian market for the franchise, and the semi-relevant rise of western influence in Anime.

Also... and this is just a theory... but I reckon that MOTU is for some reason particularly inscrutable to people who didn't grow up with it and don't have the nostalgic love for it, as a given.
I've just noticed that lately a lot of popculture commentators (who I get the impression are 25 or younger) rarely tend to bring up He-Man in the same breath as other great '80s cartoons & franchises like Thundercats or TMNT (note - LATER '80s), or if they do, they put them way down the list.
For example, I noticed that the Nostalgia Critic and Nostalgia Chick's reviews of The Movie and Secret of the Sword are inordinately harsh and clearly lacking in any personal affection from childhood (not to mention obsessive referencing of perceived homoerotic subtext. I think it's a generational thing).
Based on some comments in other reviews such as having been in junior high when Pokemon came out, I'm guesstimating that Doug is in his mid-20s at most and I doubt Lindsay is even that, which would lead me to suspect that they never were exposed to MOTU/PoP during the original craze, and thus are looking back at it with a degree of nostalgia-free unfamiliarity.

Maybe you just had to be there.

I've noticed a lot of other examples of this apparent disconnect with younger geekdom; these are just recent ones that spring to mind.

After reading everyone's responses I can see why it may not work right now. It was still a fun idea. I think it may be a possibility at some point, especially if they ever make the MOTU movie that I have been hearing about. If the movie is made and becomes a blockbuster I can see MOTU fandom exploding.
As for the 200X line, I agree with people who said it was not managed properly. To be honest I did not know about the new MOTU series until it was coming to a close. I had to get the DVDs in order to see the series. So I guess we'll just have to wait and see where MOTU goes in the future.

I was going to make a similar post on this subject, but luckily I searched first to see if someone else beat me to it. I've never been to a toy convention much less a comic or sci-fi convention, but I'd be real tempted to if there ever was a Masters Of The Universe themed one. While all this talk that He-Man has less fans than G.I. Joe and Transformers surprised me at first, I guess it makes sense if you think about it. G.I. Joe started way back in the 60's and lends itself to the young(or young at heart) with Serpentor & Sgt. Slaughter as well as adults with all of the realistic 12inch figures. Transformers has so many fans in Asian countries(dating back from before Hasbro even compiled the license out of other toylines) who seem to never grow out of their love for giant robots, American fans are just an added bonus. While I have more love for He-Man than any other fictional franchise at the ripe old age of 33, the line still lends itself to younger fans more than adults(at least it seems that way; similar to the stigma comic books are stuck with). As much as I love Masters, I have a feeling we'd need a movie franchise on par with Harry Potter or Lord Of The Rings before a successful convention would be possible. Here's hoping Warner Brothers not only gives us one, it is also very successful as well as closer to its source material than Hasbro's Transformers or G.I. Joe.

I would LOVE to see someone tackle a convention and I think everybody would be surprised by the number of people that would turn out!

Originally Posted by JimmyPSHayes

I would LOVE to see someone tackle a convention and I think everybody would be surprised by the number of people that would turn out!

Jimmy, has the Horde or some other group ever tried to get a screening of either Secret Of the Sword or Dolph's MOTU somewhere? I'm talking actual film reels and not copies of the DVDs. I don't know how expensive or hard it would be, but I told you how I just saw Ghostbusters at a small theater and my old gradeschool got the first Superman to show in our auditorium. I'm sure they're out there somewhere. I'm still mad I didn't stay through the credits when I saw MOTU with my parents. I didn't know Skeletor survived until I saw it years later on cable.

Originally Posted by Mr. Shokoti

Jimmy, has the Horde or some other group ever tried to get a screening of either Secret Of the Sword or Dolph's MOTU somewhere? I'm talking actual film reels and not copies of the DVDs. I don't know how expensive or hard it would be, but I told you how I just saw Ghostbusters at a small theater and my old gradeschool got the first Superman to show in our auditorium. I'm sure they're out there somewhere. I'm still mad I didn't stay through the credits when I saw MOTU with my parents. I didn't know Skeletor survived until I saw it years later on cable.

Well, thanks for spoiling the ending. We've looked into it, and it's TOTALLY doable, but it's gotta be a DVD. I have NO CLUE where I could find the actual film reels.

Originally Posted by JimmyPSHayes

Well, thanks for spoiling the ending. We've looked into it, and it's TOTALLY doable, but it's gotta be a DVD. I have NO CLUE where I could find the actual film reels.

And even if you do find the actual film reels, being that they'd be over 20 years old, there's a good chance that they'd be in pretty bad condition.

Originally Posted by JimmyPSHayes

I would LOVE to see someone tackle a convention and I think everybody would be surprised by the number of people that would turn out!

Someone really needs to get this done. I could give a flip about meeting celebrities, but I would travel out of state to meet Lou Scheimer(especially now that Hanna & Barbera are both gone), John Erwin, and Alan Oppenheimer(Erwin and Oppenheimer are wayyyyy better than Peter Cullen & Frank Welker). They're all getting up there in age.

I think that the key is to start small. Even if the first con is just a bunch of fans and a few vendors meeting up at a hotel with a lot of conference rooms for a long weekend. If that's a success, we would expand the following year and so on and so on...

I would probably go a pretty far distance to check out a Masters con. One thing to note, is that the vendors (or somebody) need to make money off the event beyond just a cover charge. The two others lines mentioned above have so much more product out there that enough sellers can get their hands on it to turn a small but non the less profit.

The movie is a great suggestion. In fact screening all three of the motion length features would be nice, DVD or not. And maybe calling it a toy show but with an emphasis on He-Man, that way it's not overly narrow right.

Orgers could volunteer to help maybe, in order to keep cost low?

Anyway, great idea!

If shows like Gargoyles and Jem can have conventions, I don't see why MOTU couldn't. It would probably have to be smaller scale at first. It might be for the best to have the first one the same year that the new movie comes out, so that awareness would be higher, though.

Suggestion: maybe in place of starting a separate con, MOTU could piggy back on another existing con get started? As fans, maybe we could target some of the Wizard World Cons that get no Mattel love and offer to run a MOTU program track for them (video and fan panels). If a con is up for it then haggle about getting some guests; either paid by the con or fans pooling together to bring them there. Spread the word on the internet, and see what attendence numbers a small program track could bring in.

Originally Posted by Steph

Suggestion: maybe in place of starting a separate con, MOTU could piggy back on another existing con get started? As fans, maybe we could target some of the Wizard World Cons that get no Mattel love and offer to run a MOTU program track for them (video and fan panels). If a con is up for it then haggle about getting some guests; either paid by the con or fans pooling together to bring them there. Spread the word on the internet, and see what attendence numbers a small program track could bring in.

Hell, the way all of the Wizard Cons are dying these days, maybe a convention could be made out of one of their corpses.

I agree with alot of the people in this thread. A masters convention would HAVE to start off small and grow from there, to expect the possibility of a botcon sized convention the first year is ridiculous. It'd be great to have that turn out but you'd rather have to turn people away the first year then to have an underwhelming turnout for the space you rented as that will build up the hype too

Well, the current toy series suggests there is a demand. Mind you the 2000ish line did as well and TOTEMcon 2001 bombed. They announced Erika Scheimer, Brett Hisey, Rich Chase and a DragonBallZ voice actor. Admittedly, they had some last-second logistical nightmares so 1/2 the guests no-showed but even so us pre-sale peeps who probably had a no-refund clause to try arguing totaled maybe 12 people.

The question is has the environment changed enough to sustain such a venture now? The toy-line is a website-only thing. BCI has folded. Add those factors together with the current economy and you're looking at the sort of investment only a devout fan would chance.