#chang31ing

First off, another VIP guest announcement. Where do they find them?

Announcing an oldie but a goodie: Heather Breckel is back at TrotCon!

Breckel is of course best known on our end as the colorist for the IDW Publishing comic series for My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic that’s been a perfect complement to the TV show through its existence. You read one of the comics? Chances are you laid your eyes on some of her work. And loved it. Duh.

Beyond that, Breckel (a Columbus, Ohio native too! Imagine that!) has worked in similar capacities across other titles, including IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series and Godzilla: Half Century War, Image Comics’ Peter Panzerfaust, Dark Horse Comics’ Number 13, plus some of her personal projects, like Angie Ruins Fire Emblem.

She’ll be back for panels this year as well as spending time in our vendor hall.

Wait, vendor hall. We gotta announce who’s in that still, right?

OK, let’s.

We’ve got 56 tables of TrotCon-y goodness this year, same pony place, same pony time. Both the vendor listing AND map is now available on our website, with further additions and subtractions possible depending on… eh, y’know, the usual.

Point is, chances are about 95 percent of this is going to stay exactly the same by the time TrotCon rolls around this July.

In addition to Heather Breckel and a few of our community guests (along with some fellow conventions! Hi, fellow conventions!), you’ll find many of the awesome vendors that usually adorn TrotCon’s vendor hall (some of whom have been around since we started up in 2012), along with new faces.

Go on. Check it out. Figure out what you’re gonna buy this year. You know you wanna.

Dig. It.

Next up, this signal has been looping endlessly for weeks:

Announcing: the Battle for Bottlecap Canyon!

The truck driver pressed his hoof down on the gas pedal sending more nuclear power to the wheels. “I’ve gotta get all these caps to the bottling plant” he said to himself “If they can’t meet the quota for the new Peanut Bucker Cola release, my head will roll.”

As the truck approached the bridge spanning a canyon, a bright light flashed in the distance, growing brighter than the sun within a millisecond! The driver covered his eyes as he was blinded by the mushrooming explosion, causing the truck to swerve over the bridge railing and fall into the canyon. “AAAAAAAAAAH, Buck me!” the driver exclaimed.

Had anyone been around, onlookers would have observed a smaller explosion in the base of the canyon… as the truck full of bottle caps burns in its own nuclear fire, sending the cargo all over the canyon floor.

Countless years later, tales about a canyon of riches came out of the wasteland, from the dying words of an old scavenger. No one has ever found it…Until now!

Three factions descend upon the canyon, all aiming to claim the hoard of caps. So grab your Nerf blaster, pony up with your team, and fight for the glory of Bottlecap Canyon!

That’s right everypony! It’s a Nerf war!

Scavenge the wasteland for bottle caps to support your faction, but watch out, the other factions will try to stop you and claim the caps for themselves. Each team will have a base to keep their caps at, and the wasteland between bases will have containers hiding precious caps and more Nerf ammo.

The event has a $5 entry fee, but if you bring your own blaster, there is a discount! Ammunition is provided (standard darts only; no rival, disc, mega, or missile are available).

The event runs several times during the convention, including a sponsors only “free session” on Friday! That’s right, if you are a sponsor, you get in for free!

Did we mention that ALL sponsor tiers also get a Nerf Blaster with their loot box? Well, they do: The higher the tier, the better the blaster! What better way to try out your new Nerf blaster than hunting the wasteland for bottle caps? Sponsor badges help the convention and come with all kinds of goodies, registration for sponsors ends on June the 14th, so you better hurry up!

Sounds like a great stash of free caps. And you know what they say, trade will save the wastes. Or something like that. If any of you listening plan on staking a claim, be careful out there. You’re certainly not the only one.

And finally, this broadcast just came through:

Each year, TrotCon is chock full of some killer community guests who are doing some really cool things in the fandom, and 2017 is no different.

After all, we’ve already announced our share of special guests who you’ll be able to meet at TrotCon 2017, including Harmony Studios, ChocoPony, TheBronyCritic, TJ Carson, and the folks of Pony 411. Business as usual, ya know?

Y’all ready to double that list, though?

Cool, because that’s exactly what’s about to happen.

With our final major community guest announcement push for 2017, we’d like to announce the following:

–Fire Team Harmony! Y’all’ve seen them around TrotCon for a bit now as well as other pony conventions across the country, and this year we’re vaulting them up a notch to VIP status. Righteous, yeah? Check out these fandom-beloved cosplayers around the convention, say hi, even check ’em out at their own panels!

–DaThings1! We’ve had Luke/DaThing1, purveyor of some of the best YouTube Poops this side of the Mississippi (or west of it… just anywhere, really). Well, he’s back again, and this time he’s got the third installment of the “Wow! It’s Made” series to show off, along with how-tos and other demonstrations. Get ready to laugh.

–Joe Dyer! Ya boy is known as volrathxp on FIMfiction, where he wrote the popular fic ‘Fallout Equestria: Starlight’ (and since our theme is post-apocalyptic… well, ya know), among others. He’ll be on hand to discuss fan fiction, side fiction, and much more. Writers, you’re gonna want to get in on his stuff.

–Hobbes Maxwell! A longtime member of our vendor hall (where he’ll be again this year, naturally), Hobbes is on hand (hoof? Ugh, this horse pun stuff gets tiring after six years, y’all) for multiple panels and events, including some of our after-dark content in the wee hours of the morning. C’mon, ingest a Red Bull or two and stay up late. Worth. It.

–WeimTime! A last-minute addition to our panel programming last year (so late, he wasn’t even in the conbook or online schedule), we’ve got WeimTime back this year and part of our community guest roster this time around. Learn from the owner of the highly successful YouTube channel and business of the same name, which is known for its animation as well as the Synthesia and WeimTime Plays online series, and take a trip down memory line with his Nostalgia Time panel.

–Robin from My Little Robin! You know the dude from the My Little Robin: Reviewing Is Magic series? Yeah, we got the heck outta him for TrotCon 2017. He’ll be doing a live episode of the show as well as throwing a bit of a party commemorating four years of reviewing ponies on the internet. Aspiring reviewer? Good guy to check out.

We’re also excited to welcome back the Traveling Pony Museum, who’s been at every TrotCon since the beginning. Catch ’em in the vendor hall or in their own room with an assortment of awesome pony-related wares from the beginning of the fandom’s lifetime to now!

Whole lotta exclamation points up there. Hope y’all got that.

We’re also officially announcing our musician lineup for 2017! How about that?

If you follow us on Twitter, you’ve already seen this, but for those of you who don’t (ya should! @TrotCon), let’s get ya a list:

We’ve got Chang31ing and Goggles for the fifth (FIFTH!) year! MogulDash for a fourth! They’re all alongside multiple other performers who’ve been with us in the past, including PonyFireStone, IvoryBrony, end_of_file, R3CTIFIER and JESUSKIDZ. And then we’ve got our rookies: Luck Rock, Versal, DJ Rod, Fennec Faux, and Iggy the Kidd.

13 musicians, folks. How can we contain ’em all? Oh, that’s right: by expanding to TWO NIGHTS of performances this year! We’ll be hosting a short, later-hours set on Friday to get you warmed up for the big event Saturday.

And then, y’know, the musician panel on Sunday, like usual. We are nothing if not creatures of habit.

Let’s see. One last thing.

Oh, right: our pre-registration for 2017 closes soon! In fact, sponsor badges for 2017 are over and done with on June 14, followed by weekend badges on June 20. After that point, you won’t be able to purchase a badge for 2017 until the con itself, at the door and for a larger price.

You really aren’t gonna want to miss out. This is important.