BronyCon Days 3 & 4: Convention Wrap Up · 6:05am Aug 6th, 2019
This blog was meant to go out earlier... and then as I went to post it here, 75% of it disappeared into the aether. Isn’t Apple Notes fun!? So sorry about it being late. I’ve reconstructed it to the best of my abilities. This blog isn’t quite the end of my series on the convention, though. That is the After Action Report, where I get all philosophical and tell you what the convention meant to me, and my takeaways from it.
But first, let’s wrap up the convention, shall we?
Day 3 started late for me as I rather tired and I was also putting together my Daring Do cosplay. I think that particular outfit might become my go to cosplay as it was fairly well received. Some improvements are needed, but I’be got the basics down well I think.
Anyhow when I arrived at the convention I linked up with OGM, and we headed off to the Pony Origins panel with Lauren Faust and Bonnie Zacherly. It was an excellent panel, with the highlight for me being the Q&A portion. I asked Lauren and Bonnie what role color played in their design process of the ponies, and also how they felt about the Big Brother ponies. Bonnie took the lead, stating that although her initial intent was to have the ponies be realistic colors, making them pastel helped to make them an endearing toy by eliminating the constraints of reality on play and thus allowing children to better use their imagination when playing with them. Lauren said that the Big Brother ponies were an interesting result of reverse stereotypes given that even boys in a girls toy line were reduced down to such depictions as “firefighter” and “sports star” ect. She also said that she “liked their hairy feet!”.
The gentleman behind me in the cue proved to be Joe Strike, an ad producer for Sunbow. We shared a brief and interesting discussion on GI Joe collecting, and he invited me to his panel later that day.
Afterwards, I head off to the dealer hall, having finally managed to get in after some three days of seeing nothing but unending lines. I finally picked up one of the Japan Pony Con prints, then went looking for more vintage ponies. I eventually settled on the bait bins of the stall where I got my G2s. There, I rescued a pair of G3’s: Tea Leaf who added to my Japan pony themed collection that exists mainly because I haven’t found Kimono yet, and Star Dasher, who is a crystal symbol pony with a color scheme I thought looked attractive. I also picked up a G1 Pegasus pony, named Sprinkles after the rain, whose cutie mark is a flock of ducks.
My thirst for Merch being more or less satisfied, I rejoined OGM for the show writers panel with Mitch Larson and Jayson Theisson which was enjoyable as always. Larson opined that part of what has made the show so popular among fans is its true sincerity, which I thought was poignant commentary.
We the departed for dinner, at the Irish Pub Tir Na Nog, which has for many years been a brony watering hole. Having subsisted on cup noodles, snacks, and overpriced hot dogs for several days now having a proper meal was a decided boost to morale. And GERD. Those sandwiches were pretty substantial!
After dinner we returned to the con, heading first to the Present from the Creation panel by Joe Strike. Joe was a good presenter, but his previous role at Sunbow really only afforded a few glimpses at the production of the first pony special, Midnight Castle. That said, the footage he showed of interviews with Sandy Duncan and the recording session of Tony Randals performance as the Mushkin were really awesome. After the panel, we finished off the night talking in Quills and Sofa’s with Thought Prism.
Day 4, the last day of the con I resolved to try and see more of Baltimore than just BronyCon. So, with a bit of a late start I went to see the Civil War Museum which was located in an 1850s railroad station near our hotel. It was from this station in 1861 Union Troops marched up Pratt Street to change trains, only to be assaulted by Confederate sympathists in the deadly Pratt Street riot. However, in spite of the sign clearly stating otherwise, the museum was not open at 10 am on a Sunday. So I simply took a picture and kept walking.
I forged on to the museum ships of Baltimore. You see, when I first visited Baltimore it was not for Brony Con but for a trip with my late Grandfather aboard the S.S. John W. Brown. Anyhow we toured almost all the ships bar one, the USCGC Taney, the last Treasury class cutter from WW2. Very close to our hotel, I decided upon ending this decade old omission by visiting her. I greatly enjoyed the visit to the ship, a survivor of Pearl Harbor and Vietnam no less!
Since my ticket covered visits to two ships, and I was eager to see what Civil War history I could in one of the epicenters of conflict, I also payed a visit to U.S.S. Constellation. There I enjoyed talking with the interpreters about Civil War artillery, and touring the ship.
By this point the heat was withering, but with my tour complete I pressed on to the con.When I arrived, it was already afternoon. So I went to see one of the final panels, the Crazy Asian Horses panel chaired by the delegates from SEA PonyCon. It was a wonderful panel, the perfect coda to BronyCon. The presentation did not focus merely on the convention scene in Asia, but highlighted awesome creators of art, animation, PMV’s, and even voice actors. The funny, talented, and approachable presenters made the audience really feel like they were just hanging out with their awesome Brony friends who happened to be from half a world away! My feelings on leaving the panel are best summarized by the SEA PonyCon chair’s remark: “The fandom is dead my hoof!”.
For the final time, I caught up with OGM, and we headed for Closing Ceremonies. There we stood, in a packed overflow room, staring at a hastily erected flatscreen. Brony’s milled about, awaiting the beginning of this final BronyCon event. Finally, the stage of the main room was illuminated and the ceremony began.
Andy Price spoke first, about the positivity of the fandom, and implored like many others would throughout this goodbye to keep on keeping on. M.A. Larson spoke to loud cheers (“Shut up, I’m talking!”) and he revealed that finally, after many years of coming to conventions he met someone whose story about joining the fandom that made him break down and cry. Quoth Michelle Creber “Mitch Larson has a heart!”. Finally the Con head announced that on this last BronyCon, we had blown away all records of attendance (with less space, no wonder we were swamped). This was met with loud cheers of “BRONY CON! BRONY CON!” and screams of both joy and affirmation to one another that in spite of it all our fandom is and will be one herd strong. And so there I stood at a historic moment in our fandom and for once I had the feeling that I was truly part of that which I have dedicated my life to studying.
The con over, OGM and I briefly commiserated with Olden Brony and watched what the fandom did next. Spoiler, we were just fine and crazy as ever. Equestria’s banner flew proudly over us, and we watched as everypony shared hugs and held conversations with friends new and old. “Bohemian Rapsody” blared spontaneously igniting another group sing along. Eventually, the police rather rudely kicked us out (Why the heck are they such buggers nowadays, anyhow? I wish we were more like the English and could be polite but firm. It isn’t even that hard, presuming you have a smidgen of empathy.), and OGM returned to the pub for one last beer. We ate crab dip and salads, and toasted the last BronyCon with delicious Guinness. And so our trip was at it’s end. As OGM put it: “Cheers, Mate!”.
It was grand to see both you and OGM once again. Happy to hear you had a good time. I toured the ships a couple years ago as well, and in both 2016 and 2017 I went to the aquarium, which was a lot of fun.
...His name was Joe Strike. <.< How is he not himself a GI Joe? XD
Man, after that description of the panel, I'm sorry I passed it up now. :O
Did I actually say hi to you guys? c.c Because I know I saw you, but I don't remember actually talking to you at all...
@PresentPerfect We talked for a little bit in Quills & Sofas, I recall because you informed me that Midnight Flowers was getting a review!
I think it was on Thursday at the start of the Con? I don’t recall if OGM was there.