/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

>>7031759
>How do you feel about the current prop checking system and the people running it?
GOOD. Who cares if you have an ugly zip tag during the con, at least that's better than losing an eye because some dumb weeb not knowing how to control their shit.

>>7031759
I'm on the fence about it. On one hand it does ruin props. Like it always looks awkward to see people walking around with an airsoft rifle with a missing magazine on it. But at the same time, it does save a lot of trouble with weeaboos being stupid and cops mistaking their props for an actual loaded weapon.

Personally, I make sure I don't even take any prop weapons with me when I leave the convention center, unless it's some sort of cartoonish prop that you can tell I'm not going to rob a place with.

>>7031775
>>7031779
The system itself is flawed beyond belief though. You can just remove the zip tie and slap it on whatever you want.

>>7031788
This. I know somebody who walked around with a sword (in sheath) and nobody said anything because they had a zip tie on it.

I see it as a double-edge sword.

On one side, it does prevents stupid ass weeaboos from causing damage or harm to themselves, others, or to property since most weeaboos either lack trigger discipline, common since, weapon respect, or all of those three.

On the other side, it does make the prop goofy as fuck in pictures and ruin it a bit. Then you gotta deal with overzealous Low/Roll Tier Cartmen like con rent-a-cops who think they know more about weapons than you do giving you a hallow lecture about weapon saftey while they ziptie your shit.

my friend got their literal house broom zip tied because she was Kiki, bitches.

they at least need to be considerate enough to place the zip tie in a place that can be covered up for photos. Also, I made a gun and intentionally left the tip orange just so I wouldn't get a stupid zip tie. got a zip tie.

if you can put your own zip ties on your props, shouldn't having an already orange tip on a gun be the same thing?

I'd rather have to put a ziptie on my toy gun than have the convention close because some dumbass weeb caused a 2 hour standoff with the local police.

It is always a pain in the ass to have people continuously hassling you over it.

I think it's silly when it comes to obviously fake weapons. The local con I go to especially. I know my friend and I will have to get our comically-huge TF2 weapons zip tied, even though his doesn't even have a trigger. It's pointless to use them as basically an agreement to not be a dick with your prop. A neon zip tie isn't gonna physically stop a dumb weeb from swinging a fake spear around. Leave it for guns that look realistic (that aren't tipped), and put it in an inconspicuous place.

Has anyone ever gotten away with not getting peace bonded through a whole con?

>>7033482
I have a plastic boot knife that nobody ever sees.

>get knife checked
>go back to room
>remove zip tie with knife
>put zip tie on non con-approved gun
>walk around anyway

>>7033439
The thing is that. That will only happen with a real gun. Weapons check could literally be "let me see that.... ok not a real gun... good to go here have a little sticker in an indiscreet location" Honestly none of my friends have ever taken their weapons to weapon's check and no one has ever stopped them while walking around the convention.

>>7033491
Not exactly: http://www.monitorduty.com/2011/06/megatron-versus-the-windsor-police/#.Ugmgc5LVCSo

>>7033482
Couple years back at Fanime I was in a costume that involved having a real-looking airsoft revolver on my hip (in direct violation of multiple prop guidelines, for those unfamiliar with Fanime's rules). I never bothered getting it peacebonded and the rovers never confronted me about it, even when at least two of them watched me reach down to adjust it in the holster.
But yeah, that's Fanime. Only con I've ever attended, so I dunno if less-crappy cons are any better about enforicng their rules.

>>7033522
NYCC didn't give 2 shits in 2011 when I carried an airsoft M4 around. Walked right past 2 cops in the lobby too.

How strict is Sakura-con's bonding policy? All props or just anything resembling a real weapon?

Never had a problem with it. Not sure if it's Canadian cons or just Anime North (I've never had a weapon checked at any other con), but last time I got a weapon checked, they used zip ties that matched the color of your prop and put them in non-distracting places, usually like the bottom of the prop or on the handle of a sword or a trigger guard.

Fan Expo on the other hand in our area, I kinda wish had one. Apparently over 90 000 people went last year and they literally let cosplayers walk around with weapons without being checked.

>>7033482

I just went through the entire Saturday of Otakon without my prop gun being peacebonded. I didn't have an orange tip on it, spray painted it. Had it out, in plain site. Plenty of staffers and Baltimore cops saw it, they didn't give a shit. Peace bonding is stupid, and any time at a con a staffer has told me to get my weapon peacebonded, I say that I'm on my way to con security and then don't go.

AX actually confiscated a prop during an industry event from a cosplayer working that event because it didn't meet their weapons policy.

No matter how much you strip down a fake gun or a plastic shaft they still bitch until its nothing but a foam bat.


That's why I just don't check in with them anymore.

>>7033504
That just made me really depressed. It wasn't nearly that chaotic when my grandpa threatened police with a real loaded shot gun.

>get one prop ziptied
>cut off ziptie, put it on another prop using glue to put it back together

best security feature ever, amirite?

>>7031759
Had a friend that was cosplaying as Mao from Devil is a Part-Timer at Akon who brought a fry basket as his prop. Was told to take it back to his room because it was made of metal and thus against the rules.

>>7033661
>cutting the zip tie
>not just lifting the catch and undoing it

speaking of otakon, saturday morning my group was escorted to con ops because apparently scale armor is potentially against the rules??? so we actually had to go and get our costumes inspected because staffers heard us jingling, recognized that it was real metal and made us go through testing.

when we went in, they refused to touch anything while saying that the scales 'looked sharp' and were getting really testy about craft foam armor that apparently also looked dangerous???

TL;DR we had to get our badges specially stickered and signed because aluminum scalemail is 'live steel'

>>7033663
What.
Things like this make me glad that while there are rules in place and we've been warned to be sensible with weapons/props, we never have to deal with weapons checks, let alone refusing to let someone enter until they'd ditched a fucking harmless deep fryer basket.

>>7031759
I never heard of this really, I did know you're not allowed to bring like real swords and shit around. It never really bothered me maybe cause I often don't need a sharp weapon or I can make one or whatever.

>>7033695
are you kidding me? really?
if "live metal" is such a dangerous thing, might as well prop check every cosplayer for the amount of safety pins they have stuck in them.

peace bonding is probably the dumbest rule. If they see a gun that's actually loaded and dangerous, then jack that shit and make it a policy that if you shoot things even if it's foam, you get your shit jacked.

Just because they have a bucket of peace ties, doesn't mean you should start thinking everyday objects are a huge threat unless the person's a retard.

retards are going to be retarded

Any body know the Weapons check for Oni-con? I've got a full metal AEG with an orange tip and I was wondering about any issues

It's a thing cons have to do but there are so many idiot volunteers/staff that run peacebonding that it makes me not want to make a cosplay with a weapon. That zip tie is a contract, like if you agree to the terms and conditions for a document. By accepting that ziptie, you agree not to use it to hurt people.

However, to the dumb fucks who try to fucking safety-proof it, stop that shit. One of my friends had a huge sword at a con one year, and the fucker working peacebonding decided to use 3-4 zipties to attach it to his belt. He couldn't sit back in chairs for the rest of the day. I just don't fucking get it.

Peace bonding beats the alternative, which is just flat out confiscation. At Gamescom, my friend (cosplaying Naked Snake) had all her (obviously fake) weapons just taken from her, except for a black rubber training knife. I'd rather see a weapon with a shitty tag than no weapon at all.

>>7033805

I think that is exactly why they are so cautious. Because cons are filled to the brim with retards.

Its like special school except everyone is running around with potentially dangerous shit.

>>7033908
I think you're missing the point.

If they're going to be retarded and start shooting things with nerf bullets, no one can pretty much stop them until they do so and get called out for it. Same thing applies to real bullets, bbs, swinging wooden swords, etc.

peace bonding does crap at preventing this and the con should have make a stronger policy stand on it instead of putting zip ties on deep fryer racks

I just have colored zip ties and zip my own props. Saves time and hassle!

I'm lucky. The worst I've ever gotten was a hotel staff member politely asking to see my sword, saw that it was in fact wood, gave it back and thanked me for complying. 'bout it.

This does not happen in normal countries where there are no real weapons. At least people that go to cons don't carry them.

I don't do cosplays that have weapons, but I've still had to deal with this.

> be legally blind
> use white and red cane in everyday life
> bring to con
> get told to get it bonded
> "This isn't a prop" + explanation
> was told I had to do it anyway
> pissed but 14 or 15 so just comply
> shit got caught on everything

Then, the same con stopped giving me trouble, since I went every year, but there was some newfag on staff years later who tried to give me crap.

> tells me I have to peace bond my cane
> tell him why that's bullshit and isn't gonna happen
> he argues
> 21 year old me no longer gives into this bullshit
> walk the fuck off
> see friends who staff later
> they were shocked/offended and asked me to describe the guy
> I told them I couldn't see him that well
> a good laugh was had by all
The entire con staff got a lovely reminder at their closing meeting that this shit is not cool.

> inb4 how can you use computer?
My computer reads out loud to me, so that's how I read the board. (Capcha is a bitch though)

>>7033805

i wish i was kidding. pic related, signed badge with example "guitarpic like" objects

>Makes my prop look silly!
>Ruins the illusion!
Please, you have an orange tip on your gun, you're likely wearing a badge, oh and you're entirely surrounded by people in costumes from various animus
I doubt the quality of your pictures will go down because you had a small, easily shooped out zip tie on your prop

This is why I like living in a country where guns are illegal.

That and not getting shot.

>>7033482
Sakura-con only has green stretchy ties. It is literally so easy to take it off one thing and put it on another. Also they have 'knowledgable' people to check your stuff. They will peacebond anything that has been used 'as a weapon' in the original source material including my Homura time shield. I just untied the knot since they put it on my strap and put it on other weapons. I don't even bother after getting one thing checked the first day.

Can someone explain to me what 'peace bonding' means?

considering how 3 hundreds of one percent (0.0003) of americans are shot, either nonfatally or fatally, per year, it's safe to say that most of us in America also enjoy not getting shot.

>>7035089
it's a combination weapons check and "i'm not going to hurt people with this" agreement. note that there's nothing actually stopping you from using your freshly peacebonded prop and whacking someone upside the head with it. also note the people who have mentioned that a ziptie on anything, even if the ziptie was self-applied, makes people assume it was properly checked. items that would not normally be approved are therefore "approved"

AX has the worst peace bonding policies and methods
Actually, it seems that California in general are very anal about carrying around airsoft because Fanime and SacAnime do this too

>>7035130
SDCC, thankfully, does not give two shits
Then again cosplayers at SDCC are dropping every year since they are unable to get tickets

>>7035119
> USA: 3.6 gun-related homocides, 6.3 suicides and 0.3 accidental deaths per 100,000 per year or 32277 deaths.

> UK: 0.4 gun-related homocides, 0.18 suicides and 0.1 accidental deaths per 100,000 per year or 430 deaths.

That's still a lot, and that doesn't include people who survive. Also the USA has 94.3 guns per 100 people whereas the UK has 6.2.

Point is, we don't have weapons check, not that it would do much good considering I don't think I've ever met anyone who's seen a real life gun before. Well, apart from a double-barreled shotgun if you've ever been hunting or clay pigeon shooting.

>>7035157
America: better at killing ourselves than other people killing us.

>>7035157
America has a weapons check because there are certain people afraid of their own shadow. They check as many things as possible, including, as others have pointed out, things that are clearly safe.

>>7035211
And people say it's not a mental health issue.

>>7035211
>>7035217
True. I just find it ironic that a country so obsessed with health and safety has no gun control in the first place. I suppose that's lobbyists for you.

>>7035226
There is gun control in place, there are some states that put limitations in place for guns. Just criminals choose to ignore them. Chicago has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, yet had the most murders of any city in the US last year. I say it is beyond just guns being the cause but also the culture that contributes.

>>7035226
if anything the media has more money going through it towards anti-gun stuff than the NRA has money going to lobbying. I'm surprised media moguls don't just outright give money to politicians

>>7035241
>>7035247
I was being hyperbolic, I know there are laws, they just seem so relaxed compared to here. I agree that it's the culture, but the culture must exist for a reason. American culture independent of Britain hasn't existed for very long so there's lots of similarities, and yet everyone I know ranges from indifferent to disgusted by the thought of ever possessing or firing a gun. It's just interesting to think about.

Are there a lot of anti gun campaigns? We only get videos of Texans saying that it's their God-given right to shoot gay people with any one of their six shotguns (or something equally sensationalist), so as far as I'm aware, Obama is the only person who's even vaguely interested in tightening up gun control.

>>7035266
Major media sites push anti-gun like no one's business. They seem to be focused more on a "make the populace think this way" tactic than a "give money outright" tactic. Although if you look at things they tend to, as media is known to do, skew numbers as necessary.

>>7035280
Interesting. I wonder if it'll work? I suppose it has to eventually. Anyway, I'll stop derailing now.

>>7035288
It'll work eventually. As long as people don't bother to fact check things it'll work (and let's be honest, people take things at face value and don't look into what was actually said). A lot of the anti-gun numbers that get tossed around fall apart when you do.

>>7035300
And with that, let's get back to bitching about prop check.

It's largely not needed but then again who would have thought that people would be stupid enough to whack other people full force with yaoi paddles? Glomp people at conventions like they were sacking a quarterback? No one.

This issue has killed my nascent desire to cosplay.

I'm a guy, and like any guy I loved to dress up as a cowboy when I was young. That instinct is still alive and well, and when I saw WesternFella's pictures, I was inspired.

However, with a convention, you never know what you're going to get. Some states and areas, the local culture couldn't fucking care less about firearms and the like - they're very laid-back. And then you've got things like AWA, where, despite being in Georgia, they're nazis about prop checks simply because its so huge that the retard quotient is likewise unmanageable if they are given even an inch of wiggle room.

In the end, I just can't see the point of spending all that time on a costume and realistic props just to have some little tin god give me shit just because he can, chasing me around with a bunch of fucking zipties.

The zipties I can fucking deal with.

It's when the chucklefuck doing the peacebonding pulls the tie so tight that there's no chance of you ever getting it off your prop without damaging it. I've had some cut the tails off, too.

>>7035544

Otakon has done one worse. We had a Fallout group a few years back and had a bunch of generic dollar-store shotguns and rifles. One had a faux lever-action piece that made it make a really terrible soundbox CH-CHKK. We had removed the batteries so this didn't happen but when we went to get it peace-bonded, they broke off the trigger and part of the guard, which would have made soundbox KERBLAM noises with batteries, and then duct-taped the lever to the gun, thereby not only ruining the gun but any subsequent photos we would have taken with it. Needless to say, we never bothered attempting peacebonding a gun there again.

>>7035544
scissors? knife? gotta be careful, but should be easily doable. just gotta saw through the plastic and/or slip the scissor blade under the ziptie

>>7033405
*Cartman. I'm sorry, I couldn't let that slide.

>>7035457
>filename
>"fuck the police granny"
>granny

bitch that is the queen

Otakuthon, last year, two dumbasses do a mock fight in a hallway and end up injuring a volunteer. Convention center panics, has every damn wooden sword rechecked the next day. This year the con actually put a line about allowing wooden swords. But pretty much all the forums get about weapons nowadays are question about bringing airsofts, which are not allowed, wether functional or permanently disabled. But then, they're allowing Nerf guns his year, somehow i think it's a test to see how dumb participants can be.

Then there's that other con, Nadeshicon, in Quebec City. This one is held on a university campus, who were declared gun-free zones after the Dawson College school shooting.
Which means nothing that looks like a gun. Ever. Only exception was a very rough cardboard cutout.

>>7035752
Liz is a granny

>>7034419
This. The reason peacebonding is so harsh in American cons is because America is fucking full of REAL weapons. Other countries always know that even a realistic prop is a fake because they don't have such abundances of real ones.

Can't have your cake and eat it too.

>>7033539
really dumb strict. If you have a bow in your cosplay, expect them to not allow it with the string.

>>7035860
a great granny even

>>7035125
thanks

>>7033522
ugh when I was at fanime 2012 the weapons guy was being an asshole, and insisted my obviously fake wooden guns, like seriously they did not look real, no trigger or nothen and not much detail, had to be painted orange on the tip before he would zip tie them. I should have just skipped that, I doubt any one would have bothered me about it had I not gone to the prop check in the first place.

>>7034419
>>7035890
False, I'm afraid. Those countries with strict gun control laws will have equally strict laws about props and toys.

>as long as your prop is black and scary enough looking it might as well be a real gun, after all: the general populace of a nogunz country can't tell the difference...

>>7033482
I don't know if it's a STRAYA only thing or maybe even just a Perth thing but I went to Supanova with a die-cast revolver on my hip and no one even said anything, even if I pulled it out to scratch my back or something.

>>7037748
Might be a Nova thing. Their weapons policy only talks about the size of the prop (must be smaller than 1m in length, or you have to check it in until it's time for you to go on stage), so far as I remember. I'll check the site.

>>7037748
>>7037749
Just looked it up and nope. You must have just gone under the radar.

>Replica firearms made from metal, solid resin/plastic/rubber are not to be brought onto convention grounds.

>>7037758
Yeah, don't think anyone cared either way since I didn't even see any peace bonding and they sell replica guns there.

You know what's dumber than peace bonding? A con that doesn't allow you to so much as swear

>>7037760
There be little kids at some cons you know? It is an anime convention after all and parents might be there with their little ones.

save it for the late night and 18+ panels. It just gives the con/community a bad rep.

This is for like shouting it at strangers and etc. though.

>>7037781
I get that, but apparently the con would get upset if you said anything vaguely profane. Even late at night.

There was another con I went to that basically had a policy where everyone was supposed to be nice to each other or else they could get banned. Granted they wouldn't do anything unless someone is outright being bullied, but I heard of people getting lectures from staff for being somewhat impolite to homestucks.