Snuggle Trumpet's Designer Vinylwear

Welcome to my convention blog. I staff/vend many Animé, Brony, and Furry conventions and will be posting about whatever comes to mind about attending and/or vending. Feel free to ask me anything about conventions!

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Gencon - Day 1

Yep, that waking up thing didn’t happen.  Honestly though, I needed the rest... I was still exhausted from the drive.  Gencon day 1 was very strange indeed.  It started out kinda crappy and got better as the day went on.  I got to playtest a couple games today, one of which is not even out yet.  The exhibitor’s hall was jam packed right from the start... so much for Thursday being a slow day.  It was until later in the start that the actual gaming started for me. Playtest #1 - Wunby *Not Yet Released To Public* (Twitter: @Wunbygame) Wunby is a board game for 2 or 4 players where your overall goal is to get all your pieces to the opposite side of the board by exact count of the dice.  There are two dice, one standard and one special.  You start the game by placing walls (either 1, 2, or 3 wide) in alternating fashion on the board.  These walls are not permanently in place though as they may be moved depending on your special die roll.  First player to get all pieces to the other side first wins. 

Overall, I enjoyed this game.  We played a 2 player game first (which I lost) which, after a couple of rule clarifications, ran pretty quick... about a 20 minute round.  It’ll be interesting to see if they change anything to the 2 player mode as the game did have its times of one player completely dominating the other.  However, it was until we started the 4 player free-for-all where this game became really fun.

Game plays almost the same, except you only have to get 3 pieces (5 pieces in a 2 player game) to the other side.  So much mayhem in one game.  The last game mode is 4 player teams where both players across from each other have to bring their tokens to their respective homes to win.  This mode does need work as it is too fast and will probably see a few changes before it hits market.

Immediately after Wunby, a friend and I heard of a Cthulhu deck building game and just HAD to try it.  Playtest #2 - Cthulhu: A Deck Building Game *Available To Public* Here, we have our standard deck builder co-op where you fight the Elder Gods.  It has a feel similar to Legendary but with some obvious differences.  There were also two modes of play... hard mode, which we played first (and got destroyed in 5 turns), and normal mode, which we played after (and killed the game in 5 turns).  I don’t know if it was just the two rounds but 5 rounds seem a little short for me.  I will definitely be picking it up tomorrow for some more game play.

Despite a bad start, today was pretty fun.  Let’s see what tomorrow brings. Other highlights: - Someone forgot to shut off the timer for the game hall and we were all in darkness at midnight - The hotel was awesome and had a fan so we wouldn’t sweat to death - Our A/C now works!! Today’s fails: - Super muggy and super hot in Indianapolis today - My friend... the worst at planning ANYTHING

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Gencon - Day 0

Officially in Indianapolis at 9:15am after a rather exhausting 16 hour drive.  Luckily, we were able to get our hotel early and pass out for a couple hours.  Like every year, we decided to get into Will Call early which was still an hour wait.  Good thing though, because the line was out the door and halfway down the building by 5pm (probably a two hour line by that point), but for a con of over 60000 attendees last year, and probably more this year, they kept the lines moving well. 

For you Pokemon GOers, the city was FILLED with Pokestops and lures.  My Bag and Pokemon storage is already almost full... I have some work to do.  We ended up spending most of our time as a little pond where there had to be about 100 Pokemon players hanging out at one point. 

Well, heading off to sleep so I can get an early start (betting I’m going to miss my first event). Other highlights: Epic sock fight Games literally EVERYWHERE Decent breakfast selection Today’s fails: Our damn hotel air conditioner isnt working Nothing small to eat after 10pm 7 Pokeballs used on a 42CP Pidgey, and it ran away. Literally kept losing everything today.

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Heading out for the weekend

FINALLY, Gencon is coming and I’ll be leaving tomorrow.  I’ve nothing really planned outside of a Red Dragon Inn tournament, I’ll be looking to try a ton of new games this weekend.

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My Five Reasons Explaining The Bronycon ‘16 Attendance Drop

Hey everypony,

              As a long time convention attendee (over 12 years), I fell that I should touch upon Bronycon 2016's attendance drop.  As many of you are aware, Bronycon experienced a 24% drop in attendance from 2015 (10,011 attendees) to 2016 (7,609 attendees).  This seemed to have caused a lot of concern for many Bronies, many stating that the fandom is officially dying... especially after four consecutive years of growth (some very rapid).  However, I feel this year's Bronycon was a special case and had many factors riding against it.  Each factor has been ordered to what I believe was the least influential to most influential.

1.  Independence Day Weekend

               This year's Bronycon was held the weekend right after Independence Day weekend which can crate havoc with time off requests within workplaces.  A lot of workers probably asked for the week of Independence Day off which can make it difficult to take off the Thursday/Friday (and Saturday in some cases) of Bronycon.

2.  Other pony conventions close in timing to Bronycon

               For the last couple years, June and July has been the most popular months for pony conventions.  This year's Bronycon was two weeks after MLP-MSP (735 attendees in 2016) in Minneapolis, MN and one week before Trotcon (~1200 attendees in 2015) in Columbus, OH.  With this, I can see some Bronies opting for the smaller conventions to avoid large autograph lines or just big crowds in general (I personally prefer 1,000 - 3,000 attendee conventions myself).  

3.  Other major non-Brony conventions in the same week

               It's no secret that a lot of fandoms cross over with each other and Bronies are no exception.  This year, Bronycon was on the same weekend as Anime Midwest (12,500 attendees in 2016) in Chicago, IL and Connecticon, a pop culture convention, (over 10,000 attendees in 2012) in Hartford, CT.  As con-goers, we have to make some pretty difficult decisions, and choosing between two conventions on the same weekend is definitely one of them.  

4.  Anthrocon

               Pony cons and Furry cons go pretty hand in hand and you can see it in much of the pony art out there.  This year, Anthrocon (7,310 attendees in 2016) in Pittsburgh, PA was held the week prior to Bronycon and, giving that we have to be picky with our time off, I can see this factoring into the attendance drop... especially with a good amount of Bronies being Furries/fursuiters.

5.  Same week as My Little Pony Fair

               Let's face it, they were here first.  With this, many of the older fans are going to lean towards an older con.  As the fourth biggest pony convention in 2015 (~2,200 attendees in 2015), you better believe that this is going to hinder another major convention geared toward the same fandom.  

So there you have it, five reasons why you guys just need to calm down here and just enjoy more pony.  We still have an enormous amount of content coming our way including the My Little Pony movie in 2017.  If you have any questions, comments, or concerns... feel free to send them my way.

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Written by Rob Castiello, July 11-12th, 2016 Snuggle Trumpet Website Follow me on Twitter Follow me on Facebook

SOURCES USED (All sources were accessed on July 10th-12th): Anime Midwest Twitter Anthrocon Wiki Bronycon Twitter Connecticon website My Little Pony Fair website Ponycons.com attendance spreadsheet

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My most recent trip:

4,144 miles 20 days 3 conventions 2 heat press break downs 1 hell of a trip

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Dice bag commission from Nightmare Nights Dallas.

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I am officially done with all my @equestriala commissions.  Here is the before and after of the last one I did.  Now, it’s time to get ready for @nightmarenightsdallas

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My very first before and after.  I was severely surprised that I was able to pull this off.

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Cute Jerseys Are A Rarity--Until Now!

For those of you who have been around my blog for any amount of time, you will know that one of my favorite collectibles are My Little Pony figures. My collection started with two little ponies. T...

Yay, my jersey (future design) just got reviewed!!  Be sure to check it out and while you’re there, follow The Glitter Mirrior’s blog.

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A commission for Pony Firestone from Everfree NW. 

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Welcome all to my new blog.  I am a new vendor and this photo was taken my third time vending at MLP-MSP.  I hope to extend my products to different, ponies, different mediums, and different fandoms.