Hello Wasteland! It’s a new year and the clock is ticking ever closer to that important 17.7.14 date. July. This year. TrotCon. A time for everypony, neigh, everyone out there to meet up and, well, do better. Better than whatever led to this wasteland. Better than petty disputes and bitter rivalries. A time to rediscover harmony.

For those who might have been worried about our lack of updates as of late, don’t. We’re still around — just a lot of behind-the-scenes work since our last announcement. We’ll be bothering you much, much more from here on out; you’ll be sick of us again before you know it!

One VIP and one community guest to reveal today. Y’all ready?

Let’s start with the former. Our guy has actually never been with us before, but he was… supposed to be. It’s complicated. TrotCon veterans (aka, anyone who’s been around since 2013) will remember that we announced him as a special guest, only to have an unfortunate semi-last-minute cancellation keep him from visiting Columbus — even though he ended up phoning in for a panel. So, you know, little victories.

Second time’s the charm, we hope: we’re happy to announce Lee Tockar for TrotCon 2017!

*ravenous applause*

Tockar’s a veteran of the scene, of course. He appeared in the first episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic as fan favorite Steven Magnet. You’ve since heard him in a number of smaller roles on the show, including Snips, Spot (one of the Diamond Dogs), and in a truly magnificent turn as Gummy in the 100th episode. We’re still reeling from the existential crises brought about by his monologue in that last one. Keeps us up at night.

As with pretty much any actor out there, Tockar has much more on his resume than My Little Pony. You might recognize him as the titular character in season one of George of the Jungle, as Roach in the current DHX production Supernoobs, Urp in YTV’s Nerds and Monsters, Yakkity Yak in Nickelodeon’s Yakkity Yak, plus much, much more. You could spend a day in his IMDB page.

Additionally, Tockar is the founder/CEO of FanBuilt Productions (which, if you attended in 2013, you’ll recall as the topic of his panel).

He’ll be in attendance at TrotCon 2017 to answer your burning questions about voice acting, working in television and film — the whole nine yards, y’all. Panels, meet-and-greets, autographs, you’re gonna be s-e-t.

Now… how about a community guest?

You might already know a little bit about them from some of our teasers of their work. Well, let’s make it official: we’re excited to have Harmony Studios at TrotCon 2017!

Harmony Studios, founded by Victor Vortex in 2014, is an animation collective creating videos for the MLP community, from shorts to PMVs and everything in between. In fact, they’re actually creating a bit of a special video for TrotCon, which you’ll see at the convention this year. You like our comic, drawn by convention artist AylaStarDragon, we’ve been putting up? Then you’re gonna love this, too. Trust us.

They’ll be on hand (on… hoof? After six years, you’d think we would’ve figured this out by now) for panels as well! If you want to learn a little bit about how to do your own animation, they’re gonna be a great resource.

Lee Tockar and Harmony Studios join Peter New as the guests announced so far for TrotCon 2017. And since we’re just a few days from being six months out from our 2017 date, you can bet we’re going to be ramping up our announcements going forward.

In the meantime: we’ve got applications for staff, musicians, vendors and panelists live on the site. There’s also badges to buy — and prices are gonna go up on Jan. 31, so if you want a weekend pass for $40, you should probably get to it soon.