Hasbro appears to be making moves toward running its own cons, trademarking HasbroCon last week, for the purpose of "organizing and conducting conventions, exhibitions, fan clubs and gatherings for entertainment purposes and in the fields of toys, animation, comic books, fantasy, gaming, popular culture, science fiction, television and film.” The new mark (found via TFW2005) joins a previously filed mark for HasCon.
Hasbro has also reserved the URL Hasbro-Con.com as the Web home of a potential show.
LucasFilm was the first geek property owner with its own shows, with its Star Wars Celebration first held in 1999; the shows, now annual, are currently organized by ReedPop (see “Reed Gets Star Wars Celebration”).
Disney followed suit beginning in 1999 with D23 Expo (see “Disney Plans Convention”).
Hasbro has plenty of properties to draw from, including Transformers, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, the powerhouse game properties of Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: The Gathering, and many others.