Over the past 32 years, thousands of Transformers fans from around the world have at some point experienced their first BotCon — whether it was from the early days starting in 1994, during the global expansion of the late ’90s and early 2000s, or the live action movie era. This latest generation of BotCon attendees, many inspired by the films and new media, have continued to keep Transformers front and center in pop culture. Each BotCon first is a special one, whether it was the ’90s, ’00s, ’10s, or now!

For Hany Agayby, owner of Agabyss and Agabyss Distribution, and BotCon organizer since 2022, that first experience was in 1996 at the Clarion Resort outside of Chicago. Not much older than a teenager, BotCon ’96 introduced Hany to the fandom at large and set him on the path to a lifelong career in the Transformers hobby.

Now, nearly 30 years later, Hany and the Agabyss team are thrilled to bring BotCon back to Chicago — the city of his first BotCon — at a brand new venue: the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center.