MY LITTLE PONY Fair Appreciation Shout Outs!

The 9th annual MY LITTLE PONY Fair happened on July 7th and 8th in Orlando, Florida and was a successful and well attended event. We had double the attendance of past events and tons of fun! The Fair staff and many volunteers worked tirelessly to bring our attendees the best Fair yet! I want to personally thank the following people for all their help:

The 501st Legion (Florida Garrison)- I simply cannot say enough good things about this group. They were amazing. They interacted with attendees, ran games, posed for pictures, and were all around great! Plus, one of their members dressed as a "Pony Trooper!" May the horse be with you 501st!

MLPWhitney- A fellow collector, MLPWhitney, ran both of our Pony Bingo sessions. She added her own pony commentary and made the game fresh and fun. Thanks Whitney!

MustBeJewel- Jewel outdid herself once again by creating an informative and entertaining presentation all about the history of MY LITTLE PONY. Despite having her power knocked out by a crazy east coast storm and subsequently loosing over half of her footage a week before the Fair, she still managed to create an amazing documentary short. Plus, she graciously offered up some copies of her documentary film, My Little Obsession for our giveaways!

PonyDad- This guy, who happens to be Jewel's dad, is seriously the unsung hero as far as supporting the pony community is concerned. He not only provided all of our sound equipment for the event and digital projector, but he also set everything up and jumped in to save the day when we had a few technical difficulties. Thanks PonyDad!

ElfPony- Offered up some pony packs from Canada for our movie night giveaways. Elfpony, you rock!

TraderTif- Sent me a stock of G1 soundtrack records from My Little Pony the movie to use as prizes. If you didn't take home a record this year, don't worry... we'll have more at future events! Thanks TraderTif!

The MLPArena- Thank you for hosting our 2012 Fair forum!

Photographer Paul- You were everywhere with your camera. I can't wait to see the photos and update the Fair website with your images. Thanks for sharing your talents with us!

Snyfez- Thanks for running our contest sign ups. We couldn't have managed without your help!

Sebby and Doug- An amazing clean-up duo! Thanks for helping with the job no one wanted to do!

Jenn and Steve- Thank you for running the door and sitting at the sales desk for hours on end. So glad that Jenn volunteered you for the task and that you were such a good sport about it!

Girlbuffalo, Stevator, and Matt- Great teamwork once again and glad you could join us in the fun this year, Stevator!

Last but not least,

HASBRO- Thank you so much for supporting our event and reaching out to your MY LITTLE PONY Collector fan base. We love all that you do and thank you for creating products, characters, and a brand that we grew up loving and can now share with a new generation!

My Little Pony FIM Trading Cards

I'm into collecting ponies, and playsets, and accessories, and merchandise... and now trading cards! I really didn't need to add another subheading to my collection roster, but they are just too cute to resist! Plus, my friend Kar personally worked on them for Enterplay and I'm all about supporting my pony peeps.

Sold in packs of 5, these adorable cards cover all of Equestria including, characters, pets, favorite moments, and locations. Plus, you can collect pony character standee cards, foil cards to build puzzles, and special gold cards. On the back of each character card is a fun fact sheet and fun trivia questions can be found on the back of each favorite moment card.

I've already seen a bunch of card trading threads pop up on the collecting community boards and I have to say that it brings me back to the early days of collecting when trades were common and brings a smile to my face. In fact, I worked out my first card trade earlier today.

Let me know if you are currently collecting, or have plans to collect the FIM MLP card set. Who knows?  Maybe we can work out a trade.

My Little Pony Performance Art

Dennis Verbeke, who studies fine arts at Gerrit Reitveld University  in Amsterdam, has created a performance art  piece that he calls “Pony Performance.” It includes an original soundtrack, special lighting design, and 212 My Little Pony toys.  He sits on a lighted platform surrounded by the ponies and gingerly picks them up, examines them, and brushes their rainbow colored locks with a tiny star shaped brush.
At this point, I feel it necessary to add that I know little to nothing of performance art other than every time I have experienced it, it makes me feel utterly confused. I’m never sure how I should react.  Should I read into it to discover its deeper hidden truths or should I giggle at its absurdity?...( I usually remove myself from its proximity as soon as possible lest the giggling wins out and I look like a judgmental ass.)  

So I’m watching this clip of “Pony Performance” trying to keep an open mind and I’m wondering, “Should I ponder the greater meaning of the pony selection?” and “Does the direction and frequency of the brushing of the pony hair actually have some significance?”  I continue to watch the full four minute clip and am kind of impressed by the thought and effort that went into this piece. Upon reading a few of Mr. Verbeke’s blog entries it becomes evident that he did not amass a sizable collection for use solely in his performance, but that his performance was instead inspired by his collection.

If I told you I understood what was at the heart of “Pony Performance” I’d be lying, but I do think it is pretty great that this artist was able to create something out of something he loves.

Dennis Verbeke is raising money through a crowd fundraising website to help cover his costs to perform his “Pony Performance” in August 2012 in Stockholm.

A Case of Mistaken Pony Identity

This past spring, while I was in Baltimore at the MarylandPony Meet, I casually started talking to another collector who grew up in northern Indiana. During the conversation she brought up the fact that she wished I had left some ponies to buy at Kokomo Toys.  I was confused by this comment and I’m sure I had a very puzzled look on my face. She elaborated and told me she had visited Kokomo Toys (a small toyshop that specializes in 80s toys) to look for ponies  while on a trip back home to visit her family.The owners of the shop had told her that Summer Hayes had come into their shop and bought over $500 of My Little Pony toys and pretty much cleared out their inventory.  

Aside from the fact that I’ve never laid down that much cash at a toyshop in my life, I’ve also never been to Kokomo Toys. Not to say that I haven’t wanted to make a trip up there to check it out (I follow Kokomo Toys on Facebook and they seem to have some really awesome stuff.) Plus, it would be roughly a 3 hour drive to get there (not to mention the 3 hour drive home.) In college, I might have been all “ROAD TRIP!!”  but now I’m not quite as eager to burn gas and time.

So, I’ve got to say that this kind of bugged me. Clearly this girl had been thinking for months that I swooped down on her pony hunting territory, flaunted my cash and bought every My Little Pony item they had in stock. Even though she was seemingly friendly, I assumed that she has secretly hated on me for months (because that would have been my reaction… not proud of that).  I attempted to explain that the owners must have had me mistaken for someone else, although that seems like such a weak argument when the shop owners used my name. It felt a little like pony identity theft. 

As I’m still reeling from this case of mistaken identity, I turn to my friends Mary and Amber only to find out that Mary (who lives in northern Indiana) had gone to the shop with her husband earlier in the year and had been told the same thing. Then, Mary had called Amber because she was upset that I had been all super-sneaky-secret about going and buying ponies and didn’t invite her along.  What?!?

 Everything turned out in the end as we all laughed it off as a really weird pony story, but I still find myself wondering if there is someone with pockets filled with cash in the Midwest pretending to me and if so, why? Or maybe it was just a mad coincidence of a blonde girl coming into the shop and the owners assumed that it was me because of my author photo in one of my guides (They do use my book to identify ponies, after all.)

Maybe if I ever do make it up to Kokomo Toys I’ll have to ask them. From the looks of their newly posted Facebook photos, they have just added a bunch of new pony items to their store. Road trip anyone?