BABSCon - Latest News

DaWillstanator and The Looney Turtle, former contestants of The Voice: Equestria, will make their return to this year's edition of BABSCon as our final two community guests!

 

Two talented reviewers who are an entertaining gift to the Pony Fandom and will make everypony who will encounter them, want to smile. We are thrilled to announce DaWillstanator and the Looney Turtle as our final Community Guests for BABSCon 2018!

DaWillstanator is a reviewer and avid voice actor in the community and is well-known to appear in projects with beloved fellow cast of characters which include Dr. Wolf, Silver Quill, Josh Scorcher, Keyframe and Lightning Bliss who are popular in the pony fandom. His colleagues have collaborated with him in past projects, many of whom will appear alongside with DaWillstanator at BABSCon 2018 as community guests!

While DaWillstanator is not reviewing pony videos, he is also an avid singer, videos of which you can view over on his YouTube channel. Along with his enjoyable singing ability, DaWillstanator is the voice talent of Discord on the popular online audio drama “Daughter of Discord” and Blue Spy in Dr. Wolf’s Youtube series “TF2 Analysis”. Also, you may not have known he was the 2015 runner-up at our popular event, The Voice: Equestria, and has appeared with other BABSCon community guests.

Fans of DaWillstanator can follow him on twitter and on Facebook. It's a real treat for anypony to see his work, it'll make you want to follow him to see what he'll make next.

 

A Turtle and his closest friend Erik the Human, are the dynamic duo behind their popular YouTube channel, Looney Turtle. Since 2013, their thought provoking analytical reviews have been popular among the various fandom communities including the Pony fandom.

While it is a work of Erik, the voice talent behind the adorable Looney Turtle. Erik is well-known among the analysis community and popular among the various fandoms. Through his analysis videos, characters and writing behind these shows are reviewed while the Looney Turtle usually pops in to provide the serious tough questions which Erik always answered. As of today the Looney Turtle has brought in over 37,000 subscribers and counting.

Erik is known for his talent in providing in-depth reviews and entertaining analysis for fans of Steven Universe, Gravity Falls and Five Nights at Freddy’s to view and enjoy. Erik’s Loony Turtle is well-known for videos on “Pink Diamond Was Never Shattered”, “Why Can’t Bill Leave Gravity Falls” and “FNAF 4 Mysteries Explained”. Even fans of My Little Pony have seen a fair amount pony videos such as “Debunking Destiny: Twilight’s Kingdom” and “Pinkie Pie Can’t Read Emotions”. His videos are extremely popular among the fans and have seen over 4 million times combined.

When Erik the Human is not creating videos for his YouTube channel, the talented voice actor can be seen posting his daily exploits on twitter and Facebook for his fans who follow him. We are excited to have Erik back this year who entertained us at last year's Voice: Equestria as one of the two finalists.

We are simply excited to have two gifted voice talents, reviewers and previous contestants on The Voice: Equestria as DaWillstanator and the Looney Turtle will join us as we wrap up our honored Community Guest list for the 5th edition of BABSCon in 2018. They might even help us to make our popular Voice Equestria 20% cooler for ponies this year.

You don’t want to miss out on your chance to meet these two amazing talented personalities, so REGISTER NOW!

 

And check out their bios, as they were provided to us:

DaWillstanator:

DaWillstanator (also known as Thespio) is a voice actor, singer and video producer from Los Angeles. Since 2012, he has expressed his love of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic in many different forms including comic dubs, song covers, and collaborating in several well-known fan-projects; such as Daughter of Discord, TF2: Analysis Anarchy, and The L-Train's metal opera "Fall of an Empire". He was also runner-up in The Voice: Equestria during BabsCon 2015, and has done professional background acting work in TV shows such as This Is Us, Code Black, and Law & Order: The Menendez Murders.

 

Looney Turtle: 

Looney the turtle and Erik the human have been creating analysis/review videos since late 2013. Erik is the main voice of these videos, and his adorable little buddy Looney pops in to ask the tough questions. While their more well-known videos include “Why Can’t Bill Leave Gravity Falls?” “ Pink Diamond Was Never Shattered” and “FNAF 4 Mysteries Explained” this duo has also created a fair amount of pony related videos such as “Debunking destiny: Twilight’s kingdom” and “pinkie pie can’t read emotions” where they discuss the characters and the writing that goes into them. Erik was also a finalist for "The Voice: Equestria Season 4" at last years Babscon and is excited for another year of fun.

 

Wow, we couldn’t have timed this much better if we’d tried. It feels great to be able to announce that the seven-time Emmy nominee recently proclaimed by Equestria Daily’s readers as the fandom’s favorite new writer from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Season 7, Nicole Dubuc, is our next Guest of Honor for BABSCon 2018.

In addition to writing that exciting Season 7 finale, Nicole is the incoming co-Story Editor and co-Executive Producer for Season 8, and half of the writing team behind the Penumbra Quill MLP chapter books with another of our favorite people, Mike Vogel.

But there’s more than just pastel ponies to this talented writer and animated showrunner! Nicole was the showrunner/writer on Transformers: Rescue Bots, story editor/writer on Miles From Tomorrowland, and has written for so many of our favorite shows, including but not limited to, Young Justice (“Hello, Megan!”), Kim Possible, Star Wars: Rebels, Transformers Prime, The Spectacular Spider-Man, and Dragon Tales. She’s also been a voice actor on several of her shows, and starred on-camera in her youth on Major Dad and Our House, with a guest shot on Alf. The lady’s got range, are we right?

Nicole joins our previously-announced Guests of Honor John de Lancie, Kelly Sheridan, Trevor Devall, Bill Newton, Amy Keating Rogers, Christina Rice, and Heather Breckel. Don’t touch that dial, though, because we have even more amazing guests waiting to be announced.

So, register now for BABSCon, and don’t forget to book your room before the block is full. And, all you aspiring voice actors out there, show us what you’ve got by auditioning for The Voice: Equestria before entries close on February 28!

(Art by Earthsong9405)

Chocolate Pony and Duster Dawnhorse will join us for the 2018 edition of BABSCon!

 

Two artists will bring sweet and sour treats for attendees to enjoy as BABSCon proudly announces our honored community guests, Alexander Mui and Duster Dawnhorse.

Our first community guest, Alexander Mui, also known as the Chocolate Pony, will hand out sweet artistic treats and creative delights. He will return for this year’s BABSCon after delighting us in 2017. Alexander’s creative passion for the pony fandom as an artist and a designer of tarot cards and card games (such as Changeling and Horse Famous) is well-known through Alexander’s art blogs, DeviantArt South Park Taoist and Tumblr Chocolate Pony.

Along with a talent for creative sweets, Alexander’s passion for conventions and presenting academic panels on art, literary, culture and history are a pure enjoyment for anypony who attends. A sweet creative personality will make even BABSCon attendees a fan enough to follow Alexander on Twitter @ChocoTarot. Alexander was even sweet enough to be the artist behind BABSCon’s logo and mascot, Silver Span.

When not creating art, writing literature or presenting in panels, the Californian Chocolate Pony is a genetic biologist, a medical student currently attending medical school in Texas and an ordained Taoist Shaman.

Second community guest known as Duster Dawnhorse, will hand out the delightful and creative sour treats that will leave us all puckered up and wanting more will also be returning this year. Duster is a talented artist who creates illustrated art and designs original characters for her art blog, Tumblr Art of Duster DawnHorse and DeviantArt Rainbow-Smashed.

One of Duster’s talent, which famously stands out, is the ability to read bad fanfiction. She has made the reading of bad fan literature at convention panels into an art form. Famously known as the Bad Fanfiction Person, a role Duster proudly accepts and brings pure enjoyment which left a sour taste for the audience, who wanted more and created a fan following on Twitter @Duster Dawnhorse.

To have Alexander Mui, Chocolate Pony, and Duster Dawnhorse, is a real treat for anypony to have and we are delighted to have our honored Community Guests for the 5th edition of BABSCon in 2018.

You don’t want to miss out on your chance these talented creative artists, so REGISTER NOW!

 

And check out their bios below, as they were provided to us:

Chocolate Pony

Chocolate Pony (SouthParkTaoist) is a fandom artist known for his academic panels on culture and history, tarot cards, card games such as Changeling and Horse Famous, and helping draw art for cons. Outside the fandom is a genetic major, historian of military education, comic artist, and published author with Arcadia Publishing and History Press. He is the artist behind BABSCon’s logo and mascot, Silver Span.

 

 

Duster Dawnhorse

"Duster Dawnhorse is an artist and bad fanfiction reader. After discovering the classic bad fanfiction "My Immortal" in middle school, she has been a fan of the terrible art since. She first presented the Read It and Weep Bad Fanfiction Reading Panel at BABSCon 2014 and been a hit since. She has since brought it to every BABSCon, Equestria LA, Pacific Ponycon, Nightmare Nights Dallas, and will continue to bring terrible literature for other people to read to pony conventions until stopped."

Ladies and Gentlemen, ACRacebest and Saberspark are here! Or, rather, they will be here at BABSCon 2018 in just ten (10) weeks! So, if you haven't yet registered for BABSCon or booked your hotel room: Don’t wait, do it now!

Since getting into the show in 2011, ACRacebest has become one of the preeminent video content creators in the fandom. He can most often be spotted vlogging at pony conventions around the world with a camera attached to his hand and pointing it at everything he sees.

Race is most known as the creator of Bronies React, a reaction series started as a parody of the Fine Brothers’ "React" channels but has since become a must-watch event whenever there’s a season premiere, finale, or other important episode to be discussed.

Race is also a demolition derby driver at the Irwindale Speedway and can be seen smashing up cars painted as Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Nick Wilde, and Judy Hopps on The Low Budgets which has just started its 5th season.

Often seen as a partner-in-crime to Race, Saberspark has become his own man over the past couple of years as a maker of videos about media and cartoons, including "What’s Ruining/Ruined...", analysis videos about specific subjects, and Top 10 Best and Worst lists.

Saber is also the creator of "The Brony Chronicles", a 2-part documentary that discusses the origins of the brony fandom as well as the creative side and public perceptions of the fandom.

Check out their bios below, as they were provided to us:

ACRacebest

ACRacebest is a mechanical engineer best known for his Youtube series “Bronies React”. He specializes in destroying cars, trying to be funny and wishing he had a burrito. With an accumulated 27 million views online, he continues to produce comedy sketches, vlogs, and more, while entertaining live audiences on multiple stages and venues. There’s also rumor that he’s fond of Zootopia.
Keep an eye out during the convention as Race is known to vlog his adventures.

Saberspark

Saberspark does animation analysis and reviews on YouTube. With an audience of almost 400,000 subscribers, Saber tries to provide fun and informative content to his viewers. He is also a cast member of “Hooves Line Is It Anyway?” and frequently appears on the popular series “Bronies React.”

Check out our Community Guests page to keep up with all of our previously announced guests: http://www.babscon.com/2018/community-guests
 

Today, BABSCon is pleased to announce something old and something new…though that’s as far as we’re taking that particular saying. First, the new!

Bill Newton

Our next guest, the vivacious Bill Newton, is new to My Little Pony, new to BABSCon, and ready to bring his brand of cheerful insanity to us all. He’s the voice of Applejack’s father, Bright Mac, Pharynx the Changeling, and of the Pony of Shadows in the Season 7 finale. He’s also the English dub voice of Zac the Sunrise on Beyblade Burst, and he’s coming to play with us down in the Bay.

Bill joins our expanding list of Guests of Honor, including John de Lancie, Kelly Sheridan, Trevor Devall, Amy Keating Rogers, Christina Rice, and Heather Breckel. But watch this space because we’re not done yet, so register now!

And now, the tried and true and fun:

The Voice: Equestria, Season 5

The fandom’s oldest and best voice acting competition is returning for its triumphant fifth season! Think you have what it takes to make the jump from fan projects to the pros? We challenge you to let us all hear the voices in your head in the ultimate contest of vocal creativity. Let everyone see that you have the talent and skills to make it as an actual voice actor, and not just do a passable Pinkie Pie impression for a few catchphrases. Bring your widest range of original character voices to wow us, our audience, and our panel of celebrity judges: Kelly Sheridan, Trevor Devall, and Bill Newton.

Some past winners and finalists from Seasons 1-4 have gone on to do professional voiceover and voice acting work, including Season 1 finalists Lizzie Freeman & Gabriel Gentile and Season 2 winner Katrina “Bloo” Varney.

Here are the rules:

1. You must be attending BABSCon 2018 in person and be 18 years of age or older to be eligible.
2. To enter, upload a performance to YouTube, Soundcloud, or similar service, of no more than 3 minutes in length displaying your range as a VA* (Note: This is NOT “mimic as many ponies from MLP:FiM as possible”…we want distinct characters with a variety of pitches, tonalities, accents, etc.).
3. Tweet a link to your audition to @BABSCon with the hashtag #TheVoiceEquestria, or post to our Facebook page, to submit it. In addition, send an email to VoiceE@babscon.com with your name, BABSCon badge name, email address, and phone number.
4. Our staff will select five finalists from the submissions to compete on stage, live at BABSCon 2018, where MLP VAs Kelly Sheridan, Trevor Devall, and Bill Newton will audition you for our Mane Events audience.
5. Finalists from The Voice: Equestria, Seasons 1-4 are not eligible.
6. We’ll be accepting entries from now until 2/28/2018

You can only be part of The Voice: Equestria if you’re at BABSCon, so don’t forget to register.

(Bill Newton Announcement: art by GingerBreadArts. The Voice: Equestria Announcement: Kelly Sheridan OC by NoodleFreak88, Trevor Devall OC by EifieChan, Bill Newton OC by GingerBreadArts, Golden Gates by Ahmedz)