Life-Size Animatronic Pony from Hasbro.

This is so bucking cool, a life-sized animatronic pony, the "FurReal Friends Butterscotch Pony". They've been around since 2006, but Hasbro still carries them. They are also available from numerous other places like Amazon and others. List price is $299.99 but they can be found second-hand for anywhere from $100.00 to $450.00.

Click on image to go to Hasbro page.

From the product page:

Every girl dreams of having her very own pony! With realistic animation, movement and sounds, this incredibly lifelike pony is a very special, once-in-a-lifetime friend. This adorable pony stands over three feet tall, and really "comes alive" as she moves and responds to your loving care! Touch or talk to your pony and her head moves! As you continue to interact with her, watch her ears wiggle and her eyes blink! Be sure to take extra-special care of your pony. "Feed" her the carrot and groom her with her brush. Watch her swish her tail back and forth! She even whinnies and snorts, and will sniff your hand! Sit on your pony for a pretend ride and she makes walking sounds! Bring home BUTTERSCOTCH pony and make your little girl's dreams come true!

Pony comes with carrot, brush, halter and special adoption certificate.

Pony's maximum weight limit is 80 lbs./36kg.

Adult assembly required.

Requires 6 "D" batteries (not included).

Ages 4 and up.

From Toys R Us page:

Product Weight:30 pounds 

Product Dimensions(in inches)32.2 x 29.0 x 20.7


Yes, I know it's not a G4 MLP:FiM pony, but it's a bucking awesome place to start modding your own!
With all the great plushies out there, I'm sure somepony would be able to make a great custom skin for it and, from what I've seen from the figurine modders, there are many ponies out there with some skills at altering the general body shape of an item.

But wait, there's more!

The body can be altered to have full articulation (hell, even fully robot-icized, but that's a LOT more work and beyond my skills).

Hack the audio circuit and add a custom ROM with samples from characters on MLP:FiM and re-program the sensor triggers (The stock chip is likely potted, but most any PIC/Arduino/Propeller/other µC would likely be better anyway and giove a wider range of possibilities).

Forget BattleBots, build BattlePonies!

Some video:
Commercial(with an added "no shit" symbol for some reason)



Link to footage from the 2006 NYC Toy Fair
(embedding was disabled).

And for visual context, a video showing Butterscotch encountering a living pony:



If Hasbro has kept this toy in production for the past five years, mayhap they would consider some MLP:FiM editions?

(last post for today, I promise.)

Pony Metal

The Pony Metal scene is growing, albeit slooowly, but there are some great songs out there. And we need more, so don't stop bronies!

Nightcolt in particular has grabbed my attention. First an instrumental ballad:

For Those Who Love The Night
For Those Who Love The Night by NightColt

Now some Doom Metal:

Princess Luna's Lullaby (vs. Not A Clever Pony)
For Those Who Love The Night by NightColt

And this one , listed as "Symphonic Death Metal", but it's not. It's just fun as hell.

DETHTROT (vs. Prison)
DETHTROT (vs. Prison) by NightColt

Credits and explanations are on their respective song pages, don't ask me.

Site Updates

I'm continually refining this site, and here's the latest additions:

Added MLP:FiM Fan Merchandise link list.
A number of folks asked where I got my long-sleeve Luna shirt and my Soviet Celestia coffee mug: Brony Tees.

Added Other links link list.
Askpinkamenadianepie is goooood. I like psychotic!

Updated MLP Fanfic reading list.
Past Sins is completed, by the way. Yay Nyx!

Added links to my accounts on other sites.
     I use my SoundCloud account to keep track of any good Pony Music that I find, which I add to my favorites. I don't have anything of my own on there but check it out and see if there's anything you like. Support the Pony scene!
     Some caveats, however: there will never be anything using Autotune [or a variant thereof] on my favorites list. I have utterly loathed it since I first heard it in 2000, and my contempt for it is now beyond mere words.
     Also, while there have been a few 4-bit, 8-bit, chiptune, bitcrushed, and other such Nintendo/Casio songs that had great merit, please STOP. Or at least try to include other timbres in your music for Luna's sake!

     Last.FM is great for black metal, but is utter balls for finding anything specific like, say, Pony Metal (or anything MLP-themed, for that matter). This is likely due to how little is out there thus far - not to mention how worthless their "Scrobbler" app is - but I've found a lot of great black metal. Check out my playlist if you're also a fan.

Pony Beats

Hailing from the Netherlands, KeepOnRockingBrony (A.K.A. KeepOnRockin') has been putting out the best Pony Beats I have heard to date. Check these out:

KeepOnRockin' - Pinkie Pie's Party Anthem
KeepOnRockin' - Pinkie Pie's Party Anthem by KeepOnRockingBrony

KeepOnRockin' - Friendship is Magic
KeepOnRockin' - Friendship is Magic by KeepOnRockingBrony

Links:
KeepOnRockingBrony's SoundCloud
KeepOnRockingBrony's YouTube 

Pony Rave Quest

This is the first of the status reports regarding setting up a future sequence of Pony Raves.

Themes and when:
Seasonal themes would be great, but there should be at least two per year: a Summer Sun Celebration and a Winter Moon Celebration on their respective solstices. The other two could be on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes.

Where:
Not a freaking clue yet, but there are plenty of venues for the picking.

I'm still doing research on everything and will post more as it becomes available. Your suggestions and input are also welcome, as there's no way I can do this by myself!

The rules of Bronydom.

It appears this needs to be pointed out to some folks. There are really only two hard and fast rules when it comes to being a brony, and most folks only know the first:

1.) I am going to love and tolerate the shit out of you.
(This is normally written as "I'm gonna tolerate & love the shit outta you.", but I'm a grammar nazi.)

Now most non-fans take Rule 1 to mean that bronies are a bunch of pacifist fags (sic), but that is because Rule 2 is not widely publicized:

2.) You. Do. NOT. HURT. MY. FRIENDS.

Talk is free, so say what you want; we really don't care. But don't assume that we are defenseless (or against bloody-minded vengeance).

Peace, Love, and Pinkie Pie!

;)

PonyQuest notes

This is the first of my PonyQuest notes. A PonyQuest is simply a quest for pony-related merchandise in local (Seattle region, in this case) stores, and these notes are to help other local bronies to find these elusive treasures.

Today's discoveries:


Pony Collection Pack: The 12-piece miniature molded figurine set is in stock at the Bellevue Toys 'R' Us.

GIDDYUP Coloring Books: An awesome random find at the Kent Fred Meyer. What do you need when you feel the color draining from everything and the black clouds threatening to drown your mind? Pony Coloring Books! $3.99 each.

The Rainbow Dash ColorBlast book uses a "mess-free" revealing marker, and the Twilight Sparkle Rub-n-Color (ahem) uses an even more mess-free wood stick. Click on image for bigness.

Future raves?

The PINKIEQUEST rave was just too damn much fun to be a one-off thing. We must have a full MLP:FiM-themed rave. I am going to start working on this in my spare time, but I'll need everypony's help to make it happen. I made sure to get DJ Antarctica's info - he spun a great set and accepted us and Pinkie, so why not give back to show our appreciation?

Please send me some feedback and ideas on doing this, things like: when, where, theme details, and so on. I'll sort through it and see what can be done about it.

Seattle PINKIEQUEST!

Today the Sea-Tac Brony group spread the joy of ponies through a live re-creation of the PINKIEQUEST video (thanks to Willie Mobbs for the idea, planning, and 8'-tall Pinkie Pie), and it turned out better than we had imagined. Pinkie made a lot of people happy, with children and adults coming up to us to have their picture taken with everybody's favorite party pony, but there was something even better that left all of us amazed. True to her special talent, Pinkie Pie started a spontaneous Pony rave. 

A DJ had been spinning at the Seattle Center by the fountain, attended by a number of ravers and other party folk. They were finishing the set when we arrived, so the audience began to flock to Pinkie to dance by her and have a group picture taken. After the pictures, we went over to the DJ with Pinkie and he spun an encore with Pinkie dancing behind him and the audience dancing in front (the DJ himself was having a blast and began to ham it up). It really was just incredible. This video was taken with my Android phone and I have never done this before, so I apologize for the poor sound quality and my shaky hand but this had to be documented.

Huge thanks to DJ Antarctica for being so freaking cool!



There will be plenty of news to follow once everything has been processed, including pictures and footage of us following Pinkie through the streets of Seattle, but I just had to share this right now.

Pinkie Pie is truly the original Party Pony, and today she brought smiles and happiness to a lot of people who hadn't even heard of her before.

Friendship is Magic!

Suggestive

Rainbow Dash in The Ticket Master:
"I would mesmerize them with my Fantastic Filly Flash."

I'm surprised nopony has applied Rule 34 to this yet.

Spa days...

You know, that's not a bad idea; It'd be a great way to have the occasional local meetup: Brony Spa Day!

It'd also be great to see the faces of the spa employees when a small horde of bronies descends upon their establishment. Heh.

aargh...

Dude, I so need a freaking spa day.

Twilight Sparkle throw pillow!

My Twilight Sparkle throw pillow arrived! Click on images for larger size.

I heard about these here on Equestria Daily.
The tag claims 14" x 14", but it measures 320mm H x 350mm W (12.5" x 13.5").

And, unlike the plushies, these are machine-washable - it always annoyed me that stuffies/plushies aren't washable since they get rather gross after dragging them around with you everywhere.

Tacoma Noise Rodeo

From the Facebook page:

"Tacoma Noise Rodeo exists because there is no outlet for in Tacoma for who make music that tends towards the drone and noise. The idea behind the noise rodeo is to locate this venue. Esoteric electronic music has always had a hard time finding a place and a time.

That place is Caffe Dei. The time is Saturday Sept 17th 8pm.
The price? Free."

This sounds like it could be rather interesting; barring massive trauma, I plan to attend. I love glitch and drone.

It's an open invite, so please come on down and help support a growing scene!

<EDIT>
You know what? I just realized the awesomeness of the title - it's the Tacoma Noise RODEO for Luna's sake! Bronies must attend if they can.

Great title for a MLP fanfic

The Petting Zoo

Three simple words that suggest innumerable possibilities - not to mention flame wars.

: )

Updates

Got a few things done:

Created a new Deviant Art page -scorchedwing on Deviant Art. To which I've uploaded MLP-themed European vehicle oval country code SVGs for use as stickers.

Added more to this blog - a list of fanfics I've read or am currently reading, a link to the aforementioned DA page, and some other modifications.

Song remakes...

In the interests of metallizing MLP / Ponifying metal, some ideas for remakes:

"Into the Gala" could be redone as "Into Valhalla".
Also, the front-on marching sequences would be great for a NSBM.PMV.

And I've been thinking about the different visual forms "Brony" could have if it were a band name. That is, how would it be stylized for use as the bands logo on an album cover? Black metal has the spidery, pointy, creepy style; Death metal usually has a more grotesque/less elegant look; Power metal goes for shiny and metallic with rivets; and so on. Anyway, on the Nordic theme from above, here's my best guess for how "Brony" would be phonetically represented in Elder Futhark runes:

This just needs a little makeover and it would be good for the viking metal genre slot.

The Spiderses Story

Yup, one of the most epic tales there has ever been. A new level of fanfic writing has been reached here: http://argembarger.deviantart.com/#/d45xim7