It's time again for the BronyCon commentary thread

(?) · Post by **Fizzbuzz** (?) » Tue Jul 24, 2018 9:47 pm

Blarghalt and Mr. Big arrived at my place a few hours ago. We're resting for one last night, then about 4 AM tomorrow we hit the road for Baltimore.

The Doctor · Post by **The Doctor** (?) » Wed Jul 25, 2018 12:50 am

Baltimare*

Have fun.

And say “hi” to Princess Celestia for me.

ToastGhost · Post by **ToastGhost** (?) » Wed Jul 25, 2018 2:01 am

See you in like 35 hours.

(?) · Post by **Fizzbuzz** (?) » Wed Jul 25, 2018 3:23 am

Good morning! I actually managed to sleep surprisingly well this time. For me, the journey begins shortly.

Aramek · Post by **Aramek** (?) » Wed Jul 25, 2018 4:48 am

At airport.

Blarghalt · Post by **Blarghalt** (?) » Wed Jul 25, 2018 4:57 am

In the car with Fizzbuzz and Mr. Big. We just crossed over into western Virginia. Everything is blasting Country Roads. The sky is John Denver's face. hELP

Aramek · Post by **Aramek** (?) » Wed Jul 25, 2018 5:45 am

At gate, super early because just in case. Burger joint opens at 0500, so I'll be getting breakfast.

(?) · Post by **Perrydotto** (?) » Wed Jul 25, 2018 6:51 am

may you survive Todd Howard's fantasy nukes

Madeline · Post by **Madeline** (?) » Wed Jul 25, 2018 8:30 am

Perrydotto wrote: ↑
Wed Jul 25, 2018 6:51 am
may you survive Todd Howard's fantasy nukes

Don’t worry, if they’re Bethesda nukes they’ll either fly off into space or get stuck in a corner or just be found inactive and dead in the middle of a street

Madeline · Post by **Madeline** (?) » Wed Jul 25, 2018 8:31 am

Also, have a good Bronycon

Blarghalt · Post by **Blarghalt** (?) » Wed Jul 25, 2018 11:03 am

We're stuck in a traffic jam in West Virginia due to Geomancing's wicked sorcery!

(?) · Post by **Fizzbuzz** (?) » Wed Jul 25, 2018 2:08 pm

At Sliders now. BronyCon is unofficially on, as I see it.

Aramek · Post by **Aramek** (?) » Wed Jul 25, 2018 2:47 pm

Aramek · Post by **Aramek** (?) » Wed Jul 25, 2018 2:48 pm

I can't feel my face ad I'm stupid full

(?) · Post by **Fizzbuzz** (?) » Wed Jul 25, 2018 3:51 pm

Baltimore tots: still delicious.

(?) · Post by **Fizzbuzz** (?) » Wed Jul 25, 2018 10:26 pm

Day -1 is done. As I expected, the long drive up to Baltimore was made much less lonely by having Blarghalt and Mr. Big along for the ride. Meals were much like last year's, visiting Sliders and Joe Benny's, and we even got rained into Joe Benny's like we got rained into the Mussel Bar on Saturday last year.

My words really don't do it justice as to how fun it is. I'm so glad I got to go again.

(?) · Post by **Fizzbuzz** (?) » Thu Jul 26, 2018 7:32 pm

Had chicken and waffles for breakfast and then got to work, and boy are my arms tired.

Blarghalt · Post by **Blarghalt** (?) » Fri Jul 27, 2018 9:51 am

In the convention center right now. I'm beginning to suspect this convention involves horses, somehow.

Aramek · Post by **Aramek** (?) » Fri Jul 27, 2018 1:15 pm

Bought a signed print and I love it so much.

Adiwan · Post by **Adiwan** (?) » Fri Jul 27, 2018 2:21 pm

If I went to a MLP convention I'd ask for a Doctor Fauna sketch from an official MLP comic artist. (Not Fosgitt)
I want to have a Doctor Fauna sketch from Sara Richard.
Not a serious request

Mr. Big · Post by **Mr. Big** (?) » Fri Jul 27, 2018 4:49 pm

One of the first places I went to was to visit Jay Fosgitt's booth. I already saw him twice this year (first at C2E2 in Chicago, then at Ann Arbor Comics Fest. in Michigan), so at this point, I decided to give him drawing:

Jay loved it, and it lead to a discussion about newspaper comics and how we loved reading them growing up (with special attention to Johnny Hart in particular.)

As it so happens, Jay brought original comics art. Not just Ponies, but also the pages he did for DC Comics, as well as his original series "Bodie Troll". So I bought an original page from the series:

So gonna get this framed when I return home

I also made sure to stop at Kefka's booth, where he was dressed up as Grunkle Stan (interestingly, there were at least two vendors with a Grunkle Stan theme at this year's Bronycon). Bought this pin from him:

(it's incredibly scary just how good Kefka is at his Grunkle Stan impression

)

Another artist I met is Tim_Kangaroo (he's the other vendor with a Grunkle Stan theme), who does a lot of stuff for Bronycon, having done a lot of arts for them. He's been in the furry fandom since the 1980s, so definitely an old-school artist. Bought a bunch of $1 mini-prints from him.

Panel-wise, I was at the Voice Actors panel, or rather towards the end. Fans were asking questions and all the VAs were answering in-character (Tabitha was Granny Smith, even when someone asked her Rarity questions). Given some of the cringey-questions that were being asked, this was for the best

The writers panel was also fun, if only to hear FiM writers curse up storm. M.A. Larson outright said the 100th episode was intentionally written to be "batshit insane" (his term, not mine). He also shared some notes, and what got changed, etc. Hasbro was unusually involved with the story, given that it was a milestone episode, so he got a TON of notes, and I mean TON.

The Quick-Draw panel with the artists who work on the comic books was fun. I wish I took pictures of what they cooked up, because they were great. The "Bearded Zombie Pony" prompt in particular inspired some hilariously gruesome art

CorvusCaw · Post by **CorvusCaw** (?) » Sat Jul 28, 2018 2:05 am

I guess this is happening again? Maybe I'll go next year if it's still a thing.

Madeline · Post by **Madeline** (?) » Sat Jul 28, 2018 5:11 am

I should have gone when people actually wanted me to be there many years ago and offered to help me go, but I didn’t because I didn’t want to explain to my family that the internet was asking me to go East on a trip by myself. Oops

Frosthawk · Post by **Frosthawk** (?) » Sat Jul 28, 2018 7:55 am

I'd like to go to hang out again, but I have zero reason to buy a badge to a pony con anymore. Which is fine, I can sight see by day!

(?) · Post by **Fizzbuzz** (?) » Sat Jul 28, 2018 8:24 am

Where have I been? Oh, right, busy...

Yesterday was exhausting, as the Baltimare Arcade still needed to be set up, but we got it done before the doors opened. This year, an attendee contributed his fancy VR rig with a copy of Beat Saber, and it's been incredibly popular. Even with people playing only one song at a time, I was running it nonstop through pretty much my whole shift! Being in the Arcade, I also neither saw nor even heard the apparently raging storm outside, but some sections of the BCC experienced flooding due to it.

I got to see a couple panels, too. One of them was the return of the Jackbox Games-with-the-VIPs panel, but this time it was in the Hall of Chaos. It was funny enough, but I feel like I would've preferred the all-ages version (which is being run today during my shift), as lines like "Big Mac's dick" are funny only so many times.

Tonight's the night of the big dinner.

Aramek · Post by **Aramek** (?) » Sat Jul 28, 2018 11:46 am

Frosthawk wrote: ↑
Sat Jul 28, 2018 7:55 am
I'd like to go to hang out again, but I have zero reason to buy a badge to a pony con anymore. Which is fine, I can sight see by day!

Watch pony.

I command you.

ToastGhost · Post by **ToastGhost** (?) » Sat Jul 28, 2018 7:00 pm

I slept on the floor for a while and dreamt I was at a pony convention.

I guess my dream came true.

Cthulhu Inc · Post by **Cthulhu Inc** (?) » Sun Jul 29, 2018 8:25 am

watching you all have fun while I'm in China

Octavia · Post by **Octavia** (?) » Sun Jul 29, 2018 4:00 pm

Just like last year, I found out this thread existed just as the con is wrapping up.

Highest item so far in the auction has been sold for $5,500.

ToastGhost · Post by **ToastGhost** (?) » Sun Jul 29, 2018 4:05 pm

Crossposting from the other thread:

ToastGhost wrote: ↑
Sun Jul 29, 2018 3:16 pm
It's definitely felt lighter this year, as security has been probably half as chaotic as last year. That's a good thing for us though, and we were talking about how as time goes on we'll have less attendees but more regulars, making the con ultimately safer as we have more people that politely follow the rules.

It's sad to think I've already been to my biggest Bronycon, though. There's a feeling things are winding down.

But still, I'll ride this out as long as possible. So long as people want it, staff will keep this thing going. This is the place for us.

Octavia · Post by **Octavia** (?) » Sun Jul 29, 2018 4:10 pm

Raised $27,494 total in the charity

Mr. Big · Post by **Mr. Big** (?) » Sun Jul 29, 2018 4:30 pm

The final item being sold was a giant Garfield balloon (made to promote the 2004 movie), and a rubber duckie signed by M.A. Larson.

They need to fire whoever did the camerawork, though. Sloppy job.

Mr. Big · Post by **Mr. Big** (?) » Sun Jul 29, 2018 5:37 pm

And it looks like Bronycon 2019 is going to be the final one

The Doctor · Post by **The Doctor** (?) » Sun Jul 29, 2018 5:46 pm

I saw the attendance tweet of right around 5500. That seemed low considering it's the Baltimore convention center (admittedly, I have only been there once, for Otakon over a decade ago)

Mr. Big · Post by **Mr. Big** (?) » Sun Jul 29, 2018 5:48 pm

Yeah, like I didn't expect San Diego levels, but the convention center did seem too big for the amount of people it had. They easily could have done the convention inside a hotel or something and be fine.

I was also at BCC for Baltimore Comic Con, where it only used a portion of the building, and that had WAY more people by comparison.

Octavia · Post by **Octavia** (?) » Sun Jul 29, 2018 6:56 pm

While walking past a group of bronies on the way to dinner:

"Well the difference between their timeline and our timeline is..."

Aramek (extremely loudly): "Bahahahahahaha"

Mr. Big · Post by **Mr. Big** (?) » Sun Jul 29, 2018 10:31 pm

My Bronycon swag. This is more than I expected, I gotta admit.

(that sleeping Twilight figurine, and the Princess Kat commission was gifted to me by Blarghalt , which I appreciate so much

)

Aramek · Post by **Aramek** (?) » Sun Jul 29, 2018 11:02 pm

Octavia wrote: ↑
Sun Jul 29, 2018 6:56 pm
Aramek (extremely loudly): "Bahahahahahaha"

Let's hang onto this, because hell yeah.

DarkMatter · Post by **DarkMatter** (?) » Mon Jul 30, 2018 12:22 am

2019 will be the last Bronycon? Golly. I don't even watch pony anymore but maybe I should think about going just to see you all again.

DarkMatter · Post by **DarkMatter** (?) » Mon Jul 30, 2018 12:23 am

I still remember when the convention center caught on fire and we had to evacuate the building.