Whinny City Pony Con Recap

This past weekend, I attended Whinny City Pony Con. In its second year, the convention is focused on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Now, while I have enjoyed the cartoon My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic since it made its debut on TV in 2010, I still think of My Little Pony, first and foremost, as a toy. Because of that, I may have misjudged the real theme of Whinny City Pony Con. I was hoping it would have a similar feel to the My Little Pony Fair (2015 coverage), which I’ve attended in years past. While both conventions had a panel of special guests, a family/kids room, panels and a vendor area, it was clear that this was not a convention for someone who was more interested in the toy line than the tv show.

Call me a spendthrift, but the vendor area is my favorite part of any convention I attend. (And true to form, I usually end up spending way more than my convention “allowance”!) I wasn’t in awe over the vendor area at Whinny City Pony Con. I had assumed it would be a room filled with vendors selling ponies. I had prepared myself for vendors selling G4 ponies, since they correlate to the Friendship is Magic theme, but literally, only one vendor had them for sale (and the selection was not very good). The 30 or so vendors were mostly artists selling prints or etched goods and other more crafty vendors, with cute My Little Pony themed accessories. Because I went in expecting to add a new pony or two to my collection, I wasn’t over the moon about the vendor area. The artists were all talented, but I wanted a real pony. You’d think that I would leave empty handed because of this, but, alas, I did end up buying two items. First was a Hasbro made Doctor Whooves bank and shortly after, I added a cool custom Manehattan pin to add to my pin collection.

Besides the vendor area, the convention did have a number of panels for attendees. None were very interesting to me, so I only ended up attending one: the Q and A panel with the voice actors. The panel was a little shaky due to technical difficulties, but entertaining, nonetheless. Guests included Cathy Weseluck (Spike), Rebecca Shoichet (Sunset Shimmer) and G.M Berrow (Writer), among others. It seemed like Cathy and Rebecca were the most popular of the guests, as most of the Q and A questions were directed to them.

I’ll be honest, that’s pretty much where my coverage of this show ends. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I had misjudged Whinny City Pony Con in assuming it would be similar to the My Little Pony Fair. (Which, by the way, looks like it won’t be returning to Illinois this year.) If I was a bigger fan of the cartoon, I’m sure I’d have found more things to do. The vast majority of attendees looked like they were having a blast. If you’re into the whole Friendship is Magic fandom, this might be a convention for you. Like Whinny City Pony Con on Facebook for updates on 2018’s event.