UK PonyCon vendors list is out

It's always a big moment for a convention (in this case UK PonyCon) when you finally discover which stalls are going to be in operation. And here's the answer! Fitting in with the "biggest UKPC ever" theme, I think this is probably the biggest vendor hall ever. Not counting the con's own stalls and the RDA's charity table, I reckon there are getting on for 50 of the things this year.

I've been looking through the list, and I'm quite excited about the volume and variety of people selling this time. This being UK PonyCon, it's good to see plenty of G1-G3 vendors in there, even though I'm inevitably going to concentrate on G4 stuff. Art prints are a near-certainty for me, and if anyone's selling shirts I might be tempted. Plushies may be beyond my budget, sadly.

There's an odd gap where stall C2 should be. I guess either it's a vendor who booked a table but then had to pull out, or it's a place where a table doesn't fit because of a pillar or something. Not that it's important – it just looks a bit odd on the plan. Also, I wondered at first why K1/K2 weren't in the main hall. Simple answer: they sell CCG stuff, and that's where the card games area is!

Looking at the floor plan, I can't help but notice that the stalls area opens out into the bar. I suspect that will prove a popular decision with a number of attendees! I may write another post about the overall layout later on, though of course you never quite know how well it will work until you're there in person. Still, my hype levels are definitely higher after this stalls announcement!

Text Review Roundup: "A Health of Information"

It's that time of the week again. ("Thursday"—Ed.) There's actually yet more UK PonyCon news to post about, but I'll do that tomorrow or Saturday. Unfortunately there was no sign of ArthurCrane or The Southern Nerd's assessments at press time. It's also starting to look as though Batbrony has moved to a later schedule, so I'm going to have to link to a forum post again.

From those who did review the episode, "A Health of Information" got a generally good rap. Nobody was outright negative about it, and most people enjoyed what they saw.

ArthurCrane – no review at time of posting

Batbrony (forum post) – wildly positive ("Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, that episode was AMAZING!!!")

Cuddlepug – fairly positive (graded B; "exchanges between Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy are well-written ... varied facial expressions")

Derpy News – positive (graded A-; "a very good one that has a lot going for it [though] fans might get a bit disturbed by Fluttershy’s determinator status")

Louder Yay – very positive (four stars; "The episode title is horrible, but very little else is ... Despite ... minor complaints, this was Fluttershy's second excellent showing of the season")

MLEEP Reviews – extremely positive (rated 10/10; "simply sweet performances ... a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down")

TheDragonWarlock – mixed (graded B; "a good episode, but a step down from last week's ... it wasted another chance for another proper Zecora episode")

The Southern Nerd – no review at time of posting

The Super Mario Brony Blog – extremely positive (four-and-a-half stars; "a wonderful, endearing story, another good friendship moral ... one of Fluttershy's best episodes")

Thrond Media Pony Corner – very positive (rated 83%; "easily the funniest episode since at least 'Discordant Harmony' ... surprisingly high stakes ... Give me more like this.")

Ponyfic Roundup 174: You Know When You've Been Ponied

Read it Later story count: 397 (nc)

Back down to three stories this week, partly as a result of a visit to the dentist and partly as a result of there being way too much movie-and-convention-related news for me to keep up with. The lucky(?) few that made it are:

Room by Zaid ValRoa
Starscape by Carabas
A Thousand Roses by Titanium Dragon

★: 0 | ★★: 0 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0

UK PonyCon schedule is out!

There have been occasions on which the convention events schedules have appeared at almost the last minute, but not this time around. Here is the UK PonyCon timetable, and it's immediately apparent that the "biggest UKPC ever" words are going to be backed with actions. It may not look huge to those of you used to the likes of BronyCon, but believe me, there's a lot going on here by the standards of previous UKPCs.

At first glance, I am very happy with what's on offer. There's a decent variety of panels, including (yay) some writing-based ones. The extra space available in this year's venue means that it's possible to run several events simultaneously – not an entirely unmixed blessing, as I'll get to in a moment, but definitely more good than bad. And I like the fact that the whole thing has been pushed slightly earlier in the day, meaning an 11pm close rather than midnight.

There is a lot of music this year. I am especially happy to see some live music, something I remember with pleasure from UKPC 2014. Unfortunately, the second half of this Musical Celebration clashes with the Pub Quiz, and the Pub Quiz is sacrosanct, but never mind. There were always going to be a few clashes. I'll definitely try to make the first part of the performance, at least. Also, those singalong sessions before the opening and closing ceremonies look great.

And of course there's My Little Karaoke, which I am being not-that-reluctantly forced to do again. I'm not sure how they're going to fit it in with Trotmania (which I am not going to do!) but I'd guess the singing will predominate as it allows others in the room to participate in a way that Trotmania doesn't so much. As for what I'm going to do at karaoke... that information remains classified, mainly because I don't know yet. :P

UK PonyCon is more fun if you participate (more on that in a future Tip!) and I'll be playing my small part there. Yes, a lot of it will involve singing, because I love doing it and it's not something I get a chance to do (in company, anyway) at other times. But I also see Rainbow Dash Attack is back, and I may not be able to resist that. "Who Said What Now?" looks like great fun as well, and a couple more things besides.

Still, the very best thing about a convention is seeing so many other people who are just as crazy about these colourful ponies for little kids as you are. I'm hugely looking forward to catching up with several old friends, as well as meeting new people, buying some nice merch, eating far too many muffins and just generally having a good time. This schedule looks like making the last one particularly easy.

Episode review: S7E20: "A Health of Information"

"It's everything I've always wanted to be!"

The schedule for UK PonyCon has been released, but that deserves a full post of its own, which will be along either tomorrow or Thursday. The latest episode of the show, meanwhile, was written by Sammie Crowley and Whitney Wetta, the team responsible for the okay-I-guess "A Flurry of Emotions" earlier this season. This episode was released in Russian almost a week early, but my review is based on the English-language ep. Beyond the cut, then...

Sia's "Rainbow" for the MLP movie – the video is now officially out

I live in the UK, and this blog is deliberately somewhat UK-centric. Therefore, I am easily irritated by people raving about stuff that only applies to the US as though no other countries existed. "I'm going to see the movie on Oct 6!" is fine. Telling me I should see it on Oct 6 is less so. I can't, okay? Right, whinge over. On we go.

( Text link )

I'm putting the video out in the open as the thumbnail doesn't give anything away, but the video itself is extremely spoilery, to the point of giving away one of the major twists of the plot. I would most definitely not recommend watching this if you're trying to stay unspoiled – although you're probably safe with just the audio, as it's not especially specific.

It's still more than a month until I'll get to see this film, thanks to a combination of the late UK release date, UK PonyCon and my desire to see the movie along with the Worcester meetup group. Nevertheless, I'm really looking forward to seeing it on the big screen, and the "Rainbow" video (which isn't about Dash, by the way) has just reinforced that desire.

Text Review Roundup: It Isn't the Mane Thing About You"

Here we go with the usual batch of assessments written by those fine people who aren't obsessed with shoving everything they do on YouTube. It's good to see ArthurCrane back – actually, he did eventually post a moderately positive "Daring Done?" review, but it came much too late to make last week's TRR. To balance that, unfortunately, Batbrony hadn't posted a review at the time of going to press. A pretty good reception overall for this ep.

ArthurCrane – mostly positive ("while its logic issues are inescapable, the episode delivers big time on its central message")

Batbrony Reviews – no full review at time of posting, but this forum post suggests he generally liked it but was a bit iffy about the hair loss aspect.

Cuddlepug – negative (graded D+, though the PDF consists almost entirely of a long quote from 2012. Um.)

Derpy News – very positive (graded A; "here's Rarity to get every pony energized again.")

Louder Yay – very positive (four stars; "refreshing change of pace")

MLEEP Reviews – wildly positive (rated 10/10; "a truly fabulous episode ... I'm sure to come back to [this] many times in the future")

TheDragonWarlock – mostly positive (graded B+; "Zecora was just dumb in not labelling her potions [but this] does feel like it's recapturing some elements of the first few seasons")

The Southern Nerd – mostly positive ("The writers ... seem to understand that caring about your looks ... is not necessarily a bad thing [though] the ending confused a little")

The Super Mario Brony Blog – positive (four stars; "a breath of fresh air from Haber's previous iffy installments")

Thrond Media Pony Corner – moderately positive (rated 65%; "At worst, it's watchable and inoffensive, and at best it's as charming as anything else this season" [Thrond generally dislikes S7.])