Monday 18 March 2024

Some very early G4 merch!

One or two of you will have already seen this, but I thought it might interest a few others. I found this by accident while looking for very old fandom stuff. It's a video of some of Hasbro's exhibits at the 2010 Toy Fair, an important annual trade-only showcase. Lots of Strawberry Shortcake in there and a little G3.5 MLP, but at 3:45 (and in the video thumbnail!) we get a little time with a few very familiar characters!

This video was uploaded on 17th February 2010, so as of this moment it stands as the oldest G4 video I've ever seen. If you know of anything older, please do let me know in the comments!

Wednesday 13 March 2024

Ponyfic Roundup 482

Read it Later story count: 96 (+3)

Words read this week: 23,796

Four stories only to review today, since that will take me to 1,999 of the things since I started out doing this almost a decade ago. Imagine all the actually useful things I could have done with my life in the time it's taken to write all these posts. But hay, would any of them have been as much fun? Well, okay, probably one or two would, but an awful lot would not. It's mostly been a blast, and it mostly still is. Off we go...

Fly Hard by Aragon
Alabaster by DawnFade
Wake-up Call by Cyrano
Top Edge by Raugos

★: 0 | ★★: 0 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 2 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

Tuesday 12 March 2024

My Little Repeats 158: "Triple Threat"

"And that's how Equestria was... destroyed."

S7E15: "Triple Threat"

19 Aug 2017

My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 7.2

The one with Twilight's chairs

Thoughts: IMDb ratings are to be treated with caution, but this episode gets a score 0.6 points lower than "Fame and Misfortune". Although fewer people truly dislike it, I'm not sure many people adore it either. Like a large chunk of the second half of S7, it's not an episode that forces remembrance. Thorax doesn't help: the reformed changelings just aren't that interesting, with the occasional exception such as his spiel to Spike about "renegades" (foreshadowing "To Change a Changeling"). Ember is a good deal more fun and certainly has the best of the humour and dialogue, though Starlight has a nice supporting role. The third act feels a little flabby, but it does the job. So does the obvious plot convenience of the Cutie Map summoning Spike in the first place, for that matter. Plus a little Derpy spot. I'll stick with the three-star rating I gave this first time round.

Choice quote: Ember: "I had no idea it was polite to decorate your walls in your friends' favourite foods!"

New rating: ★

Next time, it's "Campfire Tales", in which we'll meet the Pillars for the first time in the show itself.¹ I've never been an enormous fan of either them or this episode, giving it only two stars in 2017. As ever, let's see how it goes.
¹ They debuted in the "Legends of Magic" IDW comic subseries.

Monday 11 March 2024

My most prized Pony possession? Maybe this

On Friday, I asked you fine people what your most prized Pony possession – excluding plushies – might be. I also said that I would reveal my own answer before long. Well, here goes! This wasn't actually the easiest choice for me, partly since I'm not that big on merch and partly since a couple of options had very specific personal significance that wouldn't make much sense to most people. This item, though, is one I do like a lot:

Back in 2012, I was in my first year in the My Little Pony fandom and I very much got caught up in the hype about the then-imminent release of the IDW comics series. So much so that I spent more time in comic shops as a result than I'd done in my entire life up to that point! I went with a great friend to purchase issue #1 in Nostalgia and Comics in Birmingham on release day. That alone would give the IDW series a special place in my heart.

This first edition, though, had a lot of variant covers, more than 20 in the end. I bought a few myself over the next few months, and this is perhaps the most special to me. The Hastings Comics variant of that first issue, signed by artist Andy Price, writer Katie Cook and cover artist Amy Mebberson. I don't care about commercial value (fortunately, as I like reading the comic!) but I am very happy every time I see it on my shelf. So I'll pick this.

Friday 8 March 2024

What's your most prized non-plushie Pony possession?

As the subject line says! I'm simply curious. I'm excluding plushies because they tend to be chosen again and again when this kind of question is asked, and I'd like a little more variety. As usual with this type of post, I do intend to give my own answer in the near future – but not until I've seen a few of your replies! :P

Wednesday 6 March 2024

Ponyfic Roundup 481

Read it Later story count: 93 (-2)

Words read this week: 31,925

A little hint about something I'll be doing after the 2,000th review: I'm currently picking out five stories for a themed edition concentrating on one author. I intend to post that in the nearish future – by which I mean before summer, all being well. No, you won't yet get to find out who will be featured. Other things to come first, such as today's quintet:

Ladybugs Awake by Uz Naimat
The 41-Second Goddess by Bicyclette
"Teach Me Goodness" by Posh
End of Our Story by qiley
Persephone by PresentPerfect

★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

Sunday 3 March 2024

UK PonyCon 2024 ticket details!

Much earlier than was the case last year, UK PonyCon has announced ticket details! They will go on sale at 7pm BST on Saturday 6th April. Although that's over a month away yet, the official tickets page is now online, so you can see what will be available.

The convention is sticking to its four-tier ticketing setup: Standard, Bronze, Silver, Gold. There have been tweaks, however, notably in that Silver places have increased from 60 to 75 and Gold from four to five. Last year all four Golds went inside two minutes, so I somehow doubt UKPC will have any difficulty in selling the extra one!

Now then, prices. As I usually do, I'll concentrate on Adult Weekend tickets, but one-day, child and family rates are also available. Also, a reminder: since this con handles its own ticket processing, there are no booking fees – the price you see is the price you pay. I'll just pause for a moment to say that I think this is something really worth applauding.

Standard: £60 (+15% on 2023) – entrance to the convention on both days (including the Saturday night concert), con book, basic blue lanyard. Book before 1st August and you'll also get a personalised con badge.

Bronze: £85 (+5%) – nicer lanyard, Bronze sponsor badge, name in con book (if you want it), Bronze button badge, vinyl sticker sheet, £5 donation to the con's great friends at the RDA.

Silver: £185 (+23%) – priority queue, silver sponsor badge, messenger bag, Silver/Gold sponsor-exclusive T-shirt, art print, mug, enamel pin, two autograph/photo tokens, £10 RDA donation.

Gold: £450 (+12.5%) – all the Silver perks and sponsor hoodie, Sewpoke Britannia plushie, top-table seating at Afternoon Tea, personalised welcome letter, four autograph/photo tokens, £20 RDA donation.

I haven't listed absolutely every feature of each tier above, but that should be enough to give you an idea.

So, a few thoughts? The one that immediately stands out is that the respectively small and large increases in Bronze and Silver prices mean that the gap between those two is now much wider than it was in 2023: the difference was £69 then but is a full £100 in 2024. To my eyes, that makes the Bronze ticket probably the best value for what it offers if you're willing and able to spend that amount.

UK PonyCon will be keenly aware that annual 15% rises would eventually make tickets unaffordable – if they did it every year, a Standard ticket for the 30th anniversary in 2034 would cost over £240 and by the 40th in 2044 it would be very close to £1,000! It'll be interesting to see how they handle this over the next few years. I don't intend to dwell on that, though, since here I'm more concerned with providing information.

With that in mind, there is one more very interesting innovation tucked away on the tickets page. This year there will be optional Friday pre-registration! If a substantial number of people opt for this, then there will be fewer needing to register on Saturday morning, which with other (as yet unspecified) changes ought to improve on last year's sometimes excessive queue waits.

If you've been around me for any length of time, you'll know this next part by heart, but: no, I don't know whether I will be able to make UK PonyCon this year, and if so for how long. I won't know for ages yet, so don't hold your breath! But as you'll also know, I have a lot of time for UKPC and I think it's an event that really enhances this country's part in the MLP fandom. Here's to a great 20th!