Ghost Mike's UK PonyCon 2024 Report – Part 1: Off To See the World · 7:01pm October 18th
Applejack… do you remember that talk we had last year about ‘borrowing’ my lanyard? It doesn’t matter that it looks dignified slung around your back like a satchel strap, sugarcube, theft ain’t honest.
Every UK PonyCon is a big deal and a celebration, of course. As it should be, being the ultimate form of escapism for us attending MLP fans, and that holds just as true for li’l ol’ phantasmal me: it’s on the record that, while I’m not much for extensive travelling and typically returning from such in full “Home Sweet Home” mood, this con is one of the few times I feel the blues coming back from. Though taking over seven hours door-to-door is a part of that. 
But this year was, to evoke a tired cliché, extra special. This year was its 20th anniversary, the longest-running Pony convention (starting pre-G4, when it was just a toy collector fair, and evolving gradually into taking in the Bronies through the 2010s without shedding that multi-gen focus, will do that). Hype for that, and all the tributes and celebrations that were planned for it, contributed to the con selling out of not just higher-tier tickets as is the norm, but ALL tickets in the last few days: weekend and daily passes alike. I believe weekend passes sold out before in 2018, but ticket availability was capped lower then. So it was known well in advance that this would smash the attendance record of 1,100-odd.
Plus, continuing the recent trend of getting voice actors all the way from Vancouver, there was a huge whammy in the lineup this time. Ashleigh Ball has been known for not attending as many cons as the other Mane 7 VAs (well, Tara Strong excepted, but LA union talent is a whole different ball game to get), especially in recent years, so getting her was a huge deal, especially with how many people adore Rainbow Dash and Applejack. And while Pipp’s post-movie voice actor AJ Bridel couldn’t hope to stir the same level of excitement, it’s all too fitting to have true multi-gen representation in this anniversary year, signalling the passing of the torch. Anneli Heed and Elley-Rey Hennessy from past years both do some G5 voices, but are mostly G4 VAs, so having new blood alongside the old… it’s poetic. Doubly so off the semi-official confirmation that G5 was done-done, with the second-last TYT short releasing just two days before the con (by now, yesterday 
). Having AJ here to show that, whatever its problems, G5 did have an impact and will live on in the minds and hearts of people, I’m all for that.
By now, my fourth event, and third running, this con had settled into something resembling routine, but that didn’t lower my anticipation. On the contrary, off the rough year I’ve been having on a personal level, I needed it more than ever. So, come the first weekend of October, all bets were off. With fond well-wishes from my colleagues (I work in mobile app development for kids, there’s few areas more accepting of this sort of thing 
), I did my best to tune out all home worries, and just focus on this weekend. After making the tough decision on which plush to bring, one which Applejack won off being the most sturdy for travel and the rare opportunity of being there when Ashleigh Ball was visiting (
), I was all set. And though it never landed on the Friday or Monday in years past, just the weekend, that there was no train strike this year was another boost to the system going in.
Friday: Off To See the World
One of these things is not like the others
One of these things just doesn’t belong
Can you tell me which one is not like the others
Before I finish my song*
* It's a trick question, but in a way befitting the warmth and inclusivity of MLP – they all have something unique about them that marks them out! Me for my non-equine appearance and lack of a physical form, naturally, but Twilight is the only official plush here (also the only unicorn), Applejack is the only one with a hat/prop that magnetically sticks on, and Pinkie is signed (and covered in glitter). Sure, as Twilight once said, everypony (and everyghost, darling 
) has unique attributes and they bring out the best in others when they share them with the world.
That wasn't fully possible, sadly; in what I’m sure will be a familiar bit of news to regular readers, I came under in the run-up to the con. Mixture of flu season with everyone back to school, not having the greatest immune system myself, and excitement/nervousness. At first, it was merely a regular cold/dry throat, and it happened early enough that it was wearing off the weekend prior. But just as it went, the ol’ loss-of-appetite bug returned. Can you say what a choker? 
But this time, I was fully prepared. I knew exactly when and where I’d eat. I packed enough snacks for the whole trip alongside the designated meal breaks, along with painkillers and strepsils as backup. I knew to never skimp on hydrating. And all that preparation did boost my confidence: I was determined to not let this dampen the mood as it had somewhat in prior years.
It was not the only bit of unexpected difficulties to contend with. While I set off early enough that a regular bus wouldn’t leave me scrambling for time like last year (I didn’t get there quite two hours beforehand, but an hour and change), by the time I got through airport security, my flight had already been delayed by 55 minutes. This gave time for a proper meal, but it did make my availing of the pre-registration feature the con had set up this year, to mitigate the insane Saturday morning queues last time, not a foregone conclusion, as it was running from 14:00 to 20:00.
Because unjustified karma is a Winona (wait… 
), two more delays of 25 minutes each entailed, the end result being the plane didn’t land in Birmingham until 17:30, an hour-forty-five later than intended. I knew at this point that I’d be pushing my luck: it’s possible to get from the airport to Nottingham Railway Station in 2 hours, but that requires perfect train luck. I got lucky with the initial one to the city centre, but it didn’t last: all routes then had a typical 20+ minute wait. Coupled with slight train slowdown and how jammed it was with people (Friday evening, makes sense), it was 20:15 by the time I floated out into the Nottingham air, the trip enlivened only by some Ponyfic reading. Without those plane delays, it would have been half-six. Forking over £31.20 just for that commute alone (the short version of the British rail system is general tickets that allow for any route between the start and end points cost more, and to save, you need to book a specific train, impractical when travelling by plane) didn’t improve my mood either. 
Applejack did feel very tall right here, towering over not just everyghost, but everypony too. And having heard that Pipp's VA Pipp was coming, you'd better believe she got in a few Smol jabs at our expense.
Little did she know, I was biding my time to turn the tables on her before the weekend was out…
With nothing else for it, I headed for the regular con meetup at the Roebuck Inn. Everyone else in the Worcester group there had already eaten, so I listened more than talked. I’d kept well-fed throughout the day, with only the slow breakfast and keeping down the mild bile on the initial bus trip having been a proper issue. Still, I did eat on the slow side, so by the time I finished, everyone but hawthornbunny had dispersed. But the catch-up with the crew was good: as I only see them in spirit at this event, conversing purely via Discord for the rest of the year (and Fimfic for the fanfic enthusiasts there), it’s very nice to have folks without any obligation for the more snarky sense of humour my other RL friends often bring (we Irish have a dry sense of humour). ‘Tis the magic of pony, it truly does dispel the fronts and walls like no other! 
Finally, I got the last of the food down, and departed with Hawthorn. We’d had such success bunking last year, we saw no reason to not do so again, and we’d even booked early enough to combat rising hotel fees the world over and save money. 
Okay, £4.50 each, but it counts. To avoid him waiting for me to check in, he’d done the booking this time. And while our preparation for tomorrow before turning in was mostly uneventful, Hawthorn did have two things up his sleeve. Following on from his cosplay of his OC last year, this time he went as one of Fluttershy’s multiple-personality-disorder-induced impressions in “Fake It ‘Til You Make It”, specifically the Valley Girl hipster. Thankfully, both in the sneak preview I got and tomorrow, he only took her attire, not her mannerisms and attitude. 
The other was seeing snippets of him going over the panel he’d prepared for tomorrow. Yes, he’d applied for and gotten a panel, and while it was in one of the side rooms and had enough clashes that interest was likely to be minimal beyond our crew, this was still a huge deal, both for him and our group in general. But more on that at its timeslot.
Saturday: I’ll Chase the Sky
A combination of excitement and still wrestling mild unwellness gave me a mid-night awakening or two, plus waking before my actual alarm at 8:00 (a staple all trip, I’ll disclose now). With Hawthorn well enough to make do with sandwiches at the venue, I trudged downstairs alone. I was well enough to at least have both cereal and bread out of the gate, and ate a bit more in quantity than even the best day last year too. Being at the same hotel, there was a similarly low-but-not-zero number of con goers nearby, some of whom I remembered, but little chat to listen in to. Once done, I reunited with Hawthorn upstairs, and we set out, arriving at the venue 15 minutes before opening.
[gulp] "Well, Ghost Mike… Ah don't think we're in Ponyville no more…"
“No, but at least we weren’t swept here by a tornado that turned our palette from sepia to technicolour! Could have been much worse, sugarcube.”
“Mikey, hun, I love ya, but you’d best dun cut those kinda low-hanging references out, or it’s gonna be a long-hay weekend.”
In years past, that would have been an absolute disaster (last year, I arrived 40 mins before opening, and took slightly more time to get through), and indeed, I did start further back then before. But though I had missed pre-reg (meaning Hawthorn, who hadn’t and was also a Silver sponsor, got to use the priority queue), it being a feature had still done its job: the queue had already moved a decent bit by 10, and once that happened, it sped up enough that I was through and had my badge before it was even 10:30. Quite an upturn after a protracted commute to the British Isles, no?
This actually did give me time to refresh and browse before the opening ceremonies, though I made a bit of a boo boo by trying to grab a con t-shirt at the official table, thinking the queue would move quickly. It did not, so I cut my losses, not wanting to miss opening ceremonies on the main stage. Of course, they were running late, as is tradition (
), so I could have gotten it anyway. Oh well, there was always later. The opening went predictably well, with much hullabaloo about the con’s 20th, and the intro for the voice actors perfectly reflected the personalities of them and their characters: AJ Bridel was clearly already have the time of her life, and while Ashleigh Ball was more low-key in both personality and attire (jacket, Minnie Mouse t-shirt and beanie to AJ’s belly sweater and leather skirt), her enthusiasm was no less clear.
“What do you mean, that’s ma ‘voice actor’ up on stage 'dere? That's just about the gosh darn craziest bit of rotten apples ah ever heard! Ah speak like this ‘cause it’s how ah was raised, not put on by some lady as part of some show from your magic picture box doohickey!”
But even they were upstaged: con chairperson Bexi announced that some people had been working on a special animation for the 20th. And while initial technical sound difficulties meant we saw the first few seconds on repeat of a 3D Britannia looking around confused on a Blender recreation of the very stage in front of us, soon it got underway. And… wow. Words can't do it justice. Possibly not as big a deal to me as far as nostalgia goes, as the 20 other cons Britannia travelled through were largely a mixture of retired ones and those I’d never paid much attention to. But seeing the blend of animation styles and approaches on her interdimensional journey before returning home to find she now had all the con mascots she’d met… it doesn’t get more fitting than that. And none of us knew it was coming – much less that Patrick Rowberry, one of our group, had been involved. 
That also decided what panel I’d be going to first, with all due apologies to the concurrent G1 cartoon panel by Dr. Pony, who has reportedly run good academically-informed panels before though I’ve yet to see any: for the MLP Fan Animation Panel at 11:45 was by the producers of the very fan animation I’d just seen, who would break down how it was made. Like con writing workshops, these kinds of panels can run afoul of being too basic to keep it digestible for beginners, but that wasn’t a problem here at all. FishyWishes and PiratPeter used the myriad of animation styles employed to show not just the different workflows for 3D and 2D animation, but between hand-drawn and puppet animation too.
Animatic-to-final examples showed how ‘blocking’ in CG (even if the characters are still 2D) can work just as well, or that the storyboards can be made up of loose scribbles as long as it clearly maps the action and timing (considering how many students fuss over highly-detailed storyboards, and not without reason, it’s an important lesson to learn for working practically in the medium). All manner of effective techniques were used, like background elements being a static matte painting even with a camera pan (my words, not theirs); what free or cheap software can do the job, allowing even beginners to make this kind of animation just by importing images of the poses, and so on. Virtually nothing new to me, but far more in-depth than is usual for these sorts of things, and without sacrificing the approachability to boot.
That second paragraph isn't wrong – UKPC predates the next-oldest con in the animation, Everfree Northwest, by 7 years. So even if many players big and small couldn't be gotten for this – no Bronycon, alas, as was swiftly asked during the Q&A, because of course – those they did get achieved the result no less beautifully.
Then more specifically on this animation, they had the process of finding all these cons, some retired (most humorously, once-perennial UK BUCK who had their own Britannia) to get rights to use their mascot(s), and reaching out to community members and those the producers knew to do a segment (in all, 11 unique people or teams worked on the 24 segments). Remixing the music and ensuring the animatic/blocking passes all synced up before animation was done… considering this was all just being done in people’s spare time, it makes sense it started back in February. PiratPeter, who’s worked in animation professionally, also gave useful pointers on getting into this sort of stuff, as well as some of the notes they get on errors in initial animation passes, the roles different types of producers can play, and some of the quirks Standards & Practices can have (your character could be flying the most fantasy-like vehicle in the most unreplicatable scenario possible, they still need to be wearing a seatbelt). Overall, very solid balance between the broadstrokes and the specifics, the fan animation gave it a reliable structure to be paced well, and the hosts were lively and enthusiastic. Quite a solid start to the day!
Following the standard 15-minute break between hour-long panels, enough time to return to a now-small queue by the official con merch table and pick up this year’s t-shirt (though I don’t recall them being £20 before; they had enough card reader difficulties that I paid in cash) the same room gave way to “G1 is Genius Actually”. Not something I’d normally attend – once you’ve seen one panel making a case of artistic merit for a pre-FiM generation, you’ve seen them all – but this one was different. This one was run by the one and only Scootertrix.
Normally you'd never get Applejack to let any ghost use her Steston as a resting place, but as we're watching a G1 panel, where she never wore a hat at all, she couldn't mount much of a defence. Logic triumphs again!
If you don’t know, Scootertrix is a PonyTuber who made a similarly-titled Pony Abridged series from 2014-19. It never hit the views the more famous ones did, but due to a careful balance between the typical humour, plus an actual storyline of its own and unexpected character depth and resonance over time, it’s very well regarded by many, myself included. He even continued its definitive end with some epilogue shorts (that feature Patreon-funded animatic animation), plus other fun things like Pony Rap Battle videos.
However, in recent years he started doing Abridged videos from Generation 1 – unlike most series, these are just skits a few minutes long, using often just one key moment in an episode as the baseline, so they escape the rut of having to follow the actual stories of the episodes. They’re more along the lines of typical Abridged series, basically a full mockery, but due to their short nature, they’ve proved very popular: some even have over a million views (he later described this as them hitting it off with the “Adult Swim crowd”, most of whom have never seen anything MLP, much less G1). He’s done fifteen altogether (totalling not even 30 minutes), highly recommended.
As for the panel, while it was still predicated on enjoying the series as something to watch unironically, he did make a legit case for it that for me got to “well, I don’t agree, but I’m impressed”. One of the key viewpoints was that the ponies here are not humans in horse bodies, but creatures, not just in their design but their far more simplistic wants and needs. Food, their favourite toy, all that, mostly. And how, when combined with the slow delivery of their dialogue, it can lead to many unintentionally hilarious moments of meanness, especially towards the slower-minded ones. There was also some well-presented points on how the lore then is, in some ways, more consistent then in G4, at least as far as the tribal skills go: earth ponies are shown to have greater physical strength, and outside of teleportation (itself limited to spaces the ponies aren’t blocked off from, so it doesn’t get them out of nets or past walls), unicorns truly only have one power each, and how they apply it (e.g.: one who can conjure bubbles) in certain situations can be creative.
“Here we see the earthus ponyiius and her subspecies the unicornus, displaced from their natural habitat by the ever moving tide of progress. She does not know how to react or adapt, for this is not a situation she has ever had to deal with before. To move past this, it will take courage far beyond what she normally displays – and these creatures are so domesticated, even that may be too big a hurdle to overcome."
– Audition Tape by Ghost Mike for Pony Planet.
It’s all filtered through the lens of someone looking for material to mine for parody, but he did stress the oft-stated truth that the best parody comes when you have affection for the material. Otherwise, both in the main panel and the Q&A, we got lots of good tidbits on how the videos are made, he leaked out that many G1 episodes are still tedious things to be slugged through (stated directly for the Flutter Valley ten-parter one that starts the show as a sequel to the movie). I even got in a query if we might see more Epilogue shorts for the main series, the answer being he has some planned, but they cost more and pull in far less views, so not for a while. Though he did close it out with his latest G1 Abridged short, not yet available on YouTube! All I’ll say is it featured human archers, plus Megan (or “Meegan”, if you’ve watched any of them) getting fed up with the ponies always going to her to fix their problems. Very funny stuff, especially with a crowd.
Overall, not my favourite, but the enthusiasm and energy of the host made it a good time. Also, Scootertrix’s speaking voice is uncannily close to his Twilight voice from the Abridged Series, so that was amusing. Equally amusing was seeing him and Hawthorn meet in person for the first time (Hawthorn’s been a Patreon supporter to the level of being an “Executive Producer” on some of his projects in recent years), to the tune of greetings, photos and a good hug. That was a warm sight to see.
The con schedule was so jammed with valuable panels and events this year, so in order to get in some breathing room, I opted to sit out the next panel most of the crew went to, Zenfox’s “A Zen Guide to Rail”, on the grounds I’d seen one full transport panel of his and Ace’s prior, and the back half of another. In retrospect, this one’s topic was different, and potentially useful to me given what had happened lately, so perhaps I should have given it a look in. In any case, I spent the hour browsing, observing some of the donations to the charity auction if any caught my eye (only an Applejack cushion signed by Ashleigh Ball leapt out as “I’d really like that), gave the tombola a few goes (the thing where you spin for a pound and if the raffle ticket matches a prize – any number ending in 5 or 0 will – you get it). Didn’t win anything, and always seemed to come right after someone won something really cool. Also talked a good bit with Roku, one of the Worcester-based lads who I’d gotten to know online a good bit, but had never met in spirit before.
I ended up spending a fair chunk of time at JowyB’s stall (for those who don’t know, one of the signature active MLP fandom artists, with such an appealing approach to colour and linework, especially in backgrounds). As we’ve talked in years past, many fun topics were shared, including some of the non-MLP art he’s doing these days (characters transforming is a popular thing nowadays, apparently…). I also noticed he had a coloured sketch of Applejack there, one from his far earlier days, and thus at a much cheaper price than originals usually go for, just £15. Aware that Ashleigh Ball might never come back, least not for a long time, getting this for her to sign struck me (something I’d not remotely considered before coming). I wavered for ages, especially as there was someone else buying plenty of prints and also eyeing it up, but eventually the start of the next panel by a very close friend swayed my mind, and I took it before dashing off.
What goes around, comes around! Applejack may have her usual sunny face here, folks, but in-between takes she was red with embarrassment. Let's just say, the rest of the con was rather bereft of Smol jokes from her direction. 
Next time, in Part 2 (of 4): A very spirited Voice Actor Q&A panel, a dive into MLP fan games with far more surprises than one would think, plus some con standbys in a ponification of a classic British game show and some late-night group events. Before all that, though, was seeing Hawthorn’s panel come to life at last.
A very enjoyable read, Mike! Given I'm restricted to my phone at the moment, I won't comment as much as sometimes, but I do want to say something at least, so...
People outside the fandom really do not grasp just got hard this can be, they really don't. And no, that's not said sarcastically!
At which we must have overlapped for, ooh, five minutes before I had to go for my train! It was very nice to coincide at all, of course.
The biggest achievement of all being Patrick staying quiet for half a year! Considering he was at most Worcester ponymeets in that time, it was an even more impressive achievement on his part. Worth it, though!
Really interesting to read your thoughts on the behind the scenes animation panel. It was certainly cleverly judged to be of interest to both those like you with quite detailed knowledge of the area, and those like me with... less.
Wasn't it just? I'm so glad Hawthorn and you persuaded me to watch Scootertrix and to go to this great panel.
I do slightly regret that I only had a very brief chat with him on the Sunday this year. Jowy is such a pleasant guy to talk to, and always full of interest. Plus I really like his
maneart as well!Sounds like a blast! think I would have enjoyed Scootertrix's panel a lot. I love his videos.
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Honestly, this is still a normal amount for you! Plus, I'm still riding the high of the con, every bit of engagement and memory sharing is worth more than you know, bud.
Okay, you probably do know, but still.
And I super-relate to the effort of writing worthwhile comments on phone too, no worries there.
And I only have three actual contenders to choose from (with that plush now gone, my only other one is a retail Sunny I won as a tombola prize – I hold onto her, but she's no beauty, suffice to say). I feel all the sympathy for those folks with a dozen-plus quality plushies to pick from.
Least you guys have bi-weekly meets to give more of your collections a chance to shine. 
I honestly can't recall specifically saying you should do so after this panel was announced. General "this abridged series is great, give it a go" bits over the years, but not specifically regarding this. Maybe Hawthorn did.
Either way, mission accomplished!
It only occurred to me after the fact that I didn't reintroduce myself, and as I've never interacted with him online, he could well not have recognised me from past years at all.
But oh well, we had a good chat, and I bought something, so he's as happy as a sandboy either way.
5810584
would you believe me if I told you this was just the warm-up? Each of the following parts has a "Highlight for the Ages"-quality moment/panel, above and beyond this first chunk.
Stay tuned, bud!
If I didn't already know your opinion on his work, I would have for sure once I got to that chapter in The Cadenza Prophecies that has one of his G1 Abridged videos in your author notes. Which I'm pretty sure was a chapter I was at, while stuck in a long (like, hour-plus) airport security departures queue on the Monday coming back.
So, you know… spooky timing, two days after this panel! 👻
But honestly, yeah, you would have really dug his panel. I don't think I did it justice, mostly because I obviously don't think G1 is actually "Genius", so I kinda glossed over that angle. But as they say, the MC (Master of Ceremonies in this case, not Main Character
) makes the show. 
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This is so true. I have a friend who will often recommend objectively horrible fantasy and scifi books to me. After the first few, I stopped taking his advice, but I always listen to his pitches because he will fix problems with the books as he's telling me about them. He emphasizes all the good bits while leaving out the dreary slogs between plot points and continuity or logic errors.
For me, many of the basic premises and characters of G1 are genius. It's just the execution that's painful to watch.
Looking forward to the next parts.
Hey I'm working up to that
That was really nice of Jack, he's such a great guy.
Such a good panel.
Really fascinating to hear about a pony con that pre-dates G4. A lot of bronies aren't particularly aware that there were indeed fans from the before times.
5810619
I've wondered sometimes whether the British fandom is, broadly speaking, more open to pre-G4 things these days partly because of UK PonyCon. It's become the biggest MLP convention in Europe (even ahead of GalaCon) and that probably has a bearing as well. You'd be hard pressed to go there and avoid any non-G4 content at all, certainly.
5810619
It is a unique fact, though I really cannot stress enough that UK PonyCon before G4 wasn't anything like it is now. It was quite literally a toy collector fair, one that got 150-200 people and was only open to the public on Saturday (it had a members-only day on Friday); outside of the vendors selling G1-G3 toys (which is still a decent number of the ones there today, even if some sell later stuff too), and a couple of events, everything here today wasn’t there in the early days. It really has morphed a lot over the years.
While there are panels about the G1/G3 media now, I still get the impression that was barely acknowledged back then, except among the attendees as the root source of the toys they were collecting, the way adult Barbie collectors might be aware of the content of the relevant Barbie cartoons where it helps them out but not really engage with them otherwise. That's just my impression, though.
And even after G4 started, the morphing was gradual – it didn't really pick up in attendance until the mid-2010s when BUCK, a Brony-centric con like those in the States, started to wind down and eventually shutter in 2016, at which point UKPC became a decent bit more Brony centric than before. But it still maintains a lot of what made it unique.
5810805
Sounds like a match made in Heaven. As someone who only thought about MLP with G4 (probably alongside 98% of other bronies) it's hard for me to imagine how long-standing collectors and fans felt with the sudden influx and attention as their convention slowly became a "Brony con."
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I think there was some nervousness for a while, but on the whole everyone has got along very well. We've realised that we're complementary, not in competition, and that at heart we're all part of the same wider fandom. You see a fair number of bronies going to the G1-G3 panels at UK PonyCon now, which I find very pleasing. I do remember the old "anything non-G4 is trash" attitude that still prevailed when I joined the fandom in 2012, but that's largely vanished now, and for the better IMO.
My first UKPC was 2014, which was near the start of the transition from the old-style collectors' fair to the convention it is today. As Mike noted, there were far fewer panels and such in those days, and the event had a much more homespun atmosphere. In 2015, when the con was held in a hotel, several of us spent a happy hour or two gathered around a piano singing and (mostly badly) playing show and fandom songs from memory. We didn't even have bag checks on the door back then; it was a different world in some ways. I miss it to a certain extent, but overall I do prefer today's larger UKPC.
5811026
I myself really enjoy panels on other generations, feeling them to be a bit fresher than, say, yet another Starlight Shimmer deconstruction.
There had to have been a culture shock when some collector used to a low-key event with other enthusiasts walked in the door one day so see someone in a pony suit.