Men in Black

Men in Black Productions was the company that organized BotCon 1996.

For no clearly discernable reason, MiB chose to base the convention theme around the then-recent movie Pulp Fiction, to the point where the exclusive toy (Onyx Primal) had a bio quote taken near-verbatim from the film.

MiB quickly became infamous for its (mis)management of the con. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of The Transformers: The Movie, MiB held a "birthday party" featuring a screening of the film on a wide-screen TV and a birthday cake. A very generic birthday cake. The sealed VHS copy of The Movie—opened just for the occasion—did not actually work, although MiB were somehow able to acquire another, functional copy from an attendee after several minutes. Unfortunately, that did not alleviate the fact they neglected to produce forks for the cake. Also, water was served as a drink out of a McDonald's keg (not even that cheap orange drink they normally use).

The dealer room opened to the dealers for setup hours late, and was opened to "early bird" pass holders almost immediately afterwards.

No lanyards were available to dealers or attendees. Identification was done via generic "HI MY NAME IS _______" stickers, which the staff ran out of by day two, resulting in people just waltzing in unchecked by the end of the show.

Needless to say, Men in Black was not brought back to participate in BotCon 1997. However, MiB did go on to organize the unofficial TransCon '97, at which 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.