UK PonyCon 2023 Report – Part 3: Close Delays of the Third Kind · 5:00pm Oct 20th, 2023
Ha! Told you AJ would get worn down over the weekend and relent to giving me a ride. 
Part 2 can be read here. Where last we left off, Stormblaze’s Equines in Animation panel had provided nearly an hour of delectable animation and design history in a light, fun and presentable format, DNA-tailored to my interests. Now, after a casual hour round the con, the most-attended event was upon us: the Charity Auction, one of my highlights from last year, off winning a Sewpoke Pinkie Pie plush signed by Andrea Libman. Could this live up to that?
In any case, this was a real highlight last year, and not just for nabbing my Andrea-signed Pinkie; the atmosphere and tone was jovial and really contagious. Plus it’s the one event that gets by far the most people, outside of opening and closing, so the sense of community is huge. Toss in the great charity it’s for in the RDA ((Riding for the Disabled Association – yep, disabled people riding and bonding with horses, perfectly fitting), and a neat assortment of lots even if little of it personally appealed to me, and we were in for a great time.
I will say, relative to last year, far fewer items that went for absurdly high prices. Minimal lots went over £200 at all, and the highest, at £750, was a hefty outlier (that being a fursuit head & tail of Dr. Hooves). Though the final charity figure for the weekend still reached £12K, a new record! The items ran the gauntlet; there was the usual array of original art done for the con, the banners were spliced in every 20 lots, some signed items (not as many as last year), the works. A lot of the same names donated time and time again (Reskell and Stormblaze being the most frequent). We were also treated to Kelly Sheridan popping in during the lot of the episode storybook of “To Where and Back Again”, something she volunteered to sign if the winner wanted. Always a pleasure!
Easily the most unique items, to my eye, were the three theatrical (or theatrical intended, for the most recent one) MLP movies on Game Boy Advance cartridges. Remember that mid-2000s trend of tv episodes on GBA carts? Good times. Which was also a showcase of how the first of similar items always goes for more, as the G4 flick fetched a little over £150 early on, but the other two only did about half that. Still, other than making a calculated bathroom dash almost halfway through on a lot that didn’t interest me, I was soaking it all up.
Had I not drifted out of competitive card games years ago – I used to be quite the Pokémon TCG player – I might have gone for this just for the novelty, even if the game is kinda overcomplicated to the point of not being all that fun (I completely understand why all the Magic: the Gathering Bronies went back to their custom cards after trying this).
Not pictured: two tournament placing playmats from the years where the game had a competitive circuit. 
As I’d bought precious little, I was keen to try and get something, if for a fair price. I came very close on a full set of First Wave G4 Blind Bag figures, and it was down to just me and Ace, but I relented at £50, and he snapped them up. But all was not lost: I had noticed earlier that someone had donated two identical sets of Mane 6 figures, and I deduced that lowered interest would surely mean the second set (they were placed far apart, as were any similar items) would go for less. I was correct: the first one went for a bit north of £50, but when the second rolled around, off con chairperson Bexi’s tempered “is this the same item? Kay.”, I could tell interest was low, and thus I snagged it for a mere £35. Not even £6 per figure! 
I’ll concede, they are on the cheaper side (the cutie marks lack detail, with Dash and Pinkie’s being mono-colour, and Dash’s mane is pure red), and are from the 2020 line leading up to Pony Life. Not actually Pony Life, these are near-direct matches to the claymation shorts posted in early 2020. Remember those? They were cute diversions. I won’t lie, I’d have preferred the Blind Bag figures set, but for such a low price, and having some MLP figures of my own finally (and still with the labels!), I can’t complain.
My tale doesn’t end there: with no high-quality Starlight plush signed by Kelly to look out for, I was nonetheless curious enough to keep an eye on the plushies. Most were Build-a-Bear donations, not for me (plus of characters I was more ambivalent on), but I had spotted a Twilight earlier from the short-lived 4th Dimension line in 2013 (short-lived enough that the announced “It’s About Time” Future Twilight, Big Mac and Derpy ones were never released, leaving only 13 to make it to market). Renowned among fans for being really good quality for their price point, the Twilight one is especially notable for being superseded by two Alicorn variants a few months later (open and closed wings), and thus on the rarer side. Not something I would have gone out of my way to hunt, but it was here, I was determined to give it a go.
Evidently, she wasn’t as desired as I thought by most, as by £50, only one other person was still interested, so I decided I could ride it out to £100. I ended up getting it for £80, and while it certainly isn’t worth that (the tag’s retail price, sporting the nostalgic HUB logo, is $25), considering it’s an auction and still-wrapped ones go for $200 on eBay these days when they do pop up? I’m happy. She’s cuddly and soft, the smile betrays the earnest naivety of the young Twilight we all know and love, and her mane can be slotted out from the horn, a cool feature. If I was a kid in 2012/3 watching the show, this would have been the greatest present ever.
At least the claymation ones have their mouths closed, otherwise they might tip into creepy. Still, having the tags gives them some value for the future too. Twilight, though, she's getting a place of pride with Applejack, Pinkie, Galarian Ponyta (of course I have one, what do you take me for?) and the rest.
After last year, I wasn’t risking a collection queue bottleneck, so I was quick to join and get my prizes right away. While wrestling afterward with how to store the Mane 6 figures, as they came with no bag (I eventually settled on the G1 lunchbox, giving it a purpose), I also finally found Frost Flare, a newer member of our group. He’d been interested in the MLP CCG recently, and Hawthorn and I said we’d give him our cards that we didn’t need (mine coming from the tournament I entered in the 2019 UKPC). I’d been trying to spot him all weekend, but no luck, until Hawthorn found and brought him to me (with the help of Oily, another in our group). Little surprise Frost had bought the lot of cards earlier too! Despite that, he was ecstatic with my donation, as they were largely from the last few, rarer sets of the game, making them great even at just a deckbox’s worth.
By now, there was minimal time until the closing ceremony, so I refreshed myself and passed the time bouncing around the gang. It’s always harder to nab seats for this last thing, so we settled on the overhead floor looking down at the main stage. It was pretty good stuff, with appropriate farewells to the two big guests, Elley-Ray firing off a confetti cannon Pinkie Pie style like she reportedly had done in the opening ceremonies (will they get Tabitha St. Germain next year as they almost did this year? We can only hope!), thanks to the record number of volunteers, a tease that next year’s theme would centre on celebrations the con’s 20th anniversary, in a way different to this year’s theme of the franchise’s 40th (which is a lie by Hasbro, it’s stems from either ‘81, ‘82 or ‘84, but whatever), and more. But no good thing lasts forever, and soon 6pm rolled around, and out we went.
It's a long drop to the ground for such a little pony. Did Twilight ever use self-levitation in the show? It's gotta be in her skillset. Enough to do it on Applejack simultaneously too. No need to worry about me either way!
As is a familiar tradition for me by now, our group went to the Gooseberry Bush for our post-con meal. With Logan and a few others not being here on Sunday, and one or two folks having to pull out last-minute, it was on the smaller side, at only 14 of us. Still well enough for good banter! The food went down great (in retrospect, I wished I’d ordered seconds later on), and topics bounced around from what panels we all did, to Dodj showing me a Youtube clip of Fozzie Bear going through an existential crises on noticing the puppeteer controlling him (from a live tv appearance, so not breaking the core rule of The Muppets), to discussion on what makes a great MLP villain (the consensus largely being the active, non-passive sort that’s a mental threat and whom is the hero of their own story where you can see their adapting and reaction to the heroes – basically, original Starlight to a T). Lots of good variety!
As some of the crowd dispersed, the gang also introduced me to their staple meetup card game, Chase the Ace, which I’d feared would be complex, but turned out to be really simple and fun despite the reliance on luck. Every player decides to keep their card or swap it with the next player, though the dealer can’t look at their card, only swap from their deck, and when all reveal, the player with the weakest card loses a point – you start with three – which continues until only one is left standing). I didn’t place, but did well enough in the early going. Hawthorn also showed me his deck of Prance cards, and which we didn’t play, I admired the art aplenty.
Finally, when we were down to just six of us, we left around ten, and by the time we were walking past the con venue (which made me sad once again, seeing it back to a normal university with nothing MLP in there whatsoever), we split in our own directions. Little of note on packing for tomorrow, except for the banter. Among other fun topics, with Hawthorn and I being among the few to be up-to-date on G5, I posed the question of what the most likely outcome for Opaline was: a) dying, b) reformed, c) depowered and/or fleeing for revenge that we’ll never see due to MYM’s cancellation, or d) sealed evil, akin to Discord. We both felt it has to be c), as this show was far too sanitised to kill anypony, no effort had been made towards anypony thinking there was good in Opaline, and they’re too message conscious to run the risk of sealed evil being the call for the little kids.
Monday: Close Delays of the Third Kind
With such a late flight, I was in minimal hurry, except for having to check out by noon. I rose earlier than Hawthorn, and was heading down for breakfast just as he woke. While not quite back to cereal levels, I got through six slices of bread this time, which at least made me nourished enough. Hawthorn joined just as I was finishing, and following the usual round of last-minute checks, we were off for the cafe by the train station, where two others of our group were (far less than usual, due to early departures and such). This also being Hawthorn’s breakfast, and my flight not till 18:15, I was content to wait until everyone set off for their trains.
We passed the time with light banter, while I also proposed the topic of best action scene in the show, pre-empting that 90% of people would pick the fight from “Twilight’s Kingdom”, given how few proper action scenes FiM has, how they are often constrained by the rating and property’s inability for physical action or proper danger, and the (fair) tendency to keep many light with comic banter. I don’t adore that anime-esque fight unreservedly myself (though I do get why it would have been such a big deal at the time), mostly because action scenes fought to a standstill with no real chance in outcome or plot irk me from a writing level (the rare situation where it being totally unscripted and left to DHX to figure out isn’t an unambiguously good thing). I noted that children’s media often gets around this by using chases, a way to have tension and excitement with little/no violence or physical contact, and indeed two of the more notable action scenes in the show, Applejack fleeing in “The Last Roundup” and pursuing Starlight in the mountain ravine in “The Cutie Map”, are chase setpieces.
Soon, 1pm was upon us, as was Hawthorn’s booked train. My route could be done direct or switching in one of several directions, but the next direct was an hour away, and as it so happens, the next train that would serve me was his for the first half-hour. Not one to pass on more company before 5+ hours of just Applejack and I (sorry, Twi, somepony had to go in the suitcase), I elected to take that. We whittled away the time with me sharing the one action setpiece from my in-progress Ponyfic adventure novel that was spoiler-free out of context, and it went over well enough that Hawthorn even agreed, on top of fitting in character arc moments and the like so it wasn’t just action, that it would have slotted in seamlessly and be an absolute standout in the show’s mythos were it animated. Nothing like a confidence boost! 
And yes, I am determined for this previewing to not be a tradition I continue next year, and have the thing done by then. 
Mere minutes later, I disembarked at Leicester, parting from a corking roommate and a good friend, and two uneventful train rides later dominated only by some quiet Ponyfic reading, airport time.
Applejack may be familiar with trains back home, but I don't think any Equestrian station would rival this one for level of foot/hoof traffic nor number of tracks/routes!
…Alas, the rest of the trip isn’t quite summed up in a short paragraph, for come boarding time, already slightly behind schedule, we found ourselves stuck in the queue to outside for ages, before we were told to return to the gate, with someone saying they saw bags being unloaded from the plane. Shortly later, an employee told us a technical error on the plane meant it wasn’t safe to use, to return and wait in departures, and that they’d get another plane for us as soon as they could, with the projected time being 21:40 – over three hours after original takeoff. 
I need hardly tell that this was a real gutt blow, turning a nine-hour commute to a 12-hour-plus one. Never mind managing my appetite. There was nothing to do for it but wait it out and eat dinner, with some fast food doing the job, and keep reading Ponyfic, praying the flight wouldn't get cancelled. Though the not-zero number of flights on the display board in red wasn’t encouraging.
Thankfully, the projected replacement plane opened boarding on time and we left only slightly late, though rough weather and excess turbulence meant we didn’t land till just past 11. One pickup later, and I was home just after midnight, very grateful I’d taken tomorrow off too.
Later in the week, off my brother pointing out that Ryanair flights delayed by 3+ hours owed you €250 compensation (a lot more than both my flights together, I might add), I put in a claim. Alas, the response said they only owed such when the delay was down to them, and as the error was caused by a lightning strike, so they claimed, I was getting nitto. Oh well, easy come, easy go.
Final Thoughts
If one only counts the Mane 6 figures as one, it is a very small haul indeed, at only six non-freebie items (the two charity auctions wins, the Derpy keychain, the deluxe lanyard, the t-shirt, and the G1 lunchbox). Still, fits me being most under-the-weather during the prime shopping stretch, and thus distracted. And this was easy enough on the wallet, that's not nothing. I always think, long as you have at least one item you're really ecstatic about, you've won.
Irony really is something, ain’t it? To get hit by the loss-of-appetite bug again this year, and arguably worse. And concluding with a massive delay like that. On the other hand, I managed it far better (didn’t throw up once), didn’t have a depressed day before I left, and saved a lot more money this year. And, outside of the first half of Saturday, I was able to enjoy the con uninhibited.
It probably comes as little surprise Sunday was a bigger hit for me (perhaps you noticed more horsewords were spent documenting it?), and to a greater degree than the relative dead heat from last year, but even though I might rate late year’s con marginally better on the whole, this one was as on peak as ever. Outside of some registration hiccups, everything was on point, there was a near-steady stream of panels I dug, several I loved, and it got me out of my shell as well it should. I know it well enough now to have minimal regrets about things I didn’t do (and most I do are regulars like My Little Karaoke). The friends were great (if a little more scattered due to some schedules), the staff were wonderful, the con-goers affable, the atmosphere friendly and never oppressive as many fandom gatherings can be, the guests hilarious and warm (I do adore Kelly Sheridan, it’s clear she loves us as much as any show actor does; plus Elley-Ray).
The minimal impact of G5 (maybe four stalls had anything Misty) did make it feel more disconnected from the franchise as it is now, but on the other hand, that makes it feel more self-sustaining, something I’m sure we’ll see in greater action for the con’s 20th anniversary next year. It certainly ain’t slowing yet! And now I’ve done it on the regular, neither am I. Though I do hope the declining number of kids/families doesn’t continue at its current rate, they were rather slim this year.
What will UK PonyCon 2024 bring? Celestia knows at this stage. But one thing’s for sure: I’ll be there in spirit once again. These ponies, they do love and tolerate.
Bookended by this on one end, and hugging 100+ audience members on the other. Yep, this is a creative personality introduction fitting for Elley-Ray Hennessy alright!
Yes, in "The Crystal Empire":
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And from when she was a unicorn too! So a perfect fit for this plush then. Neat!
UK PonyCon 2023: "At least I didn't throw up"
D'aw, that Twilight and her lil smile. <3
That Equines in Animation panel would have been great to see!
Yep! Caught herself after the fall down the hidden stairs in the Crystal palace.
The Pony Life figures look so much better than the cartoon!
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They would when they’re not based on it, but those goofy n’ cute claymation shorts that preceded it.
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Huh, I don't really remember they claymation shorts, but I'm fairly sure I've seen them. Will have to go look them up.
Ohhhhhh.
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Technically, they “are” of Pony Life branding, being a toy precursor, but they are so unlike that show I don’t consider them to be the same. Here’s the FiM Wiki’s page on it (complete with the embedded official YouTube uploads. They largely follow the template of the character(s) having a silly visual gag punchline, with a bit of non-dialogue verbal voice acting (oohing, aahing, being sad/happy, etc.). They lean a little heavy on being random for the sake of it at times, but the characters do feel like themselves and they are utterly sincere and sweet.
They’re cute enough timewasters, nothing special, but are better than 95% of what Pony content we’ve gotten in the three-and-a-half years since. And it’s not CG-simulated stop motion either – EqD has an article on behind-the-scenes pictures (that further links or the studio’s website documenting it. Good stuff to look at! Stop motion in the digital era is so interesting to produce, with the mix of everything that character don’t interact with usually being digital and a green/blue screen, but the animation itself being as physically tactile as ever.
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Low bar, my friend.
More and more, my attitude is becoming this:
i.ibb.co/vJC86kW/No-They-Did-Not.jpg
That said, I checked out the page and, now remember the shorts. I really like the "Robot Chicken" style of animation, not because of the final look, but because it feels like a light and fun, throw-away series of bits. Not taking itself seriously is a huge plus.