There was a potentially serious event at the Phoenix Comicon over the weekend that saw all props banned from the showroom floor. Which would wreck your cosplay plans if, like these guys, you couldn’t improvise.
Up top is Amorong and her husband looking great as D.Va and Soldier 76 from Overwatch. That cardboard might not look like a gun, but it gets the point across.
They weren’t the only ones trying to find workarounds to the emergency policy, implemented after an attendee targeting Green Power Ranger Jason David Frank was arrested carrying firearms and knives. Here’s another sign:
https://instagram.com/p/BUkZUa5BIO4/
Sadly, both signs (Overwatch & Spongebob) were confiscated by event staff because, being substitute props making light of the prop ban, they were themselves props.
Comments
19 responses to “How To Cosplay When Your Guns Are Banned”
I thought the green Power Ranger was a bit of a tool as well, just not enough to you know, ruin cosplay for everyone.
Way to go you freaking nutbar.
Can’t help but feel it was a rather extreme overreaction to what happened – One nutter went after someone with real weapons at a con event, the first such case in a rather long time, so they banned every other person from carrying props of any sort, including cardboard signs. In what world can a cardboard sign be a threat? Apart from, you know, to the management of the event that quite obviously overreacted…
A more reasonable reaction would have been to double-check all props. Might have taken slightly longer but would have achieved a way better result.
Yet another “Are you shitting me?!” moment from the American Con circuit
It’s an over reaction but I think it makes sense when you consider that it was rushed. They had to get out in front of it to reassure people they were safe at the convention.
Yes but again, banning cardboard signs?
Somebody could get a nasty paper cut from those.
i can actually see the reason for the over reaction, because some of the signs are taking the piss out of the sudden prop ban ( the spongebob signs) and you’ve just had a potinally serious incident occur and that not everyone would of know about. As such some people would be rightly pissed that their props have been all of sudden so they make some protest signs
What they should have done was staple the signs at the corners then stood inside.
Bam, they’re a costume. Not props.
They could literally have sticky-taped the cardboard to their arms or something. SMH, next thing you know, someone will conceal a weapon inside a costume part and then the con organiser will ban all cosplay.
Banning weapon props, whilst still an overreaction given the extreme rarity of the incident and the glaringly obvious mental instability of the individual involved, would at least have been understandable. Banning props altogether on the other hand is just ridiculous, regardless of the circumstances. A cardboard sign is only a threat to another person if that person feels threatened by what is written on it.
You could say they were triggered by the cardboard gun?
Seems unreasonable to people who have never had to deal with the public security.
How hard can it be for security to distinguish between a gun/knife, and a cardboard sign? Or a lantern? As I said, ban weapon props if you absolutely must (it’s still an overreaction but a more understandable one), but a total prop ban is just overboard.
See, on the plus side, this means you now get to use new props… con’bags and posters! “Master Chief goes to Comicon” kind of thing. Off-duty heroes need merch too.
Actually, what do they even sell at these things? I’ve been to plenty of cons where there’s stalls that sell you the props…
Massively overpriced popular culture, the usual. :p
omg. all those people in pre-printed lycra body suits will be devastated.
I’ve got no issue with the prop ban in light of what happened. Given the modding community that exists around making nerf blasters look as real as possible, distinguishing them from real weapons at a distance is a tough job for security. Cosplayers go just as far, if not further, in trying to attain screen accuracy. Who’s to say the perp was acting solo before all the facts were known? Get rid of anything that looks like a weapon, and anything spotted afterward that looks like a weapon is probably a real weapon.
Carboard signs though? Obviously meant in fun. No one likes being made a fool of though, not surprised organisers yanked them.