I was at a CosPlay event this weekend, (Frome Comic Con) ..... I’ve checked out their rules , based on their rules, and the rules for another that I may be going to later in September (Coastal Comic Con Bournemouth)
I hadn’t checked the rules of any previous Comic Cons that I have been to.
Surprisingly JustCos insurance and the trader who provides that are useless to Cosplayers as they are not permitted to have BB guns that are capable of being fired or even to have props that have been made out of BB guns.
They do require anything to have orange tips.
(Use of the American orange tip BB rule/law in the UK does generally annoy me, back in the day an orange tip meant things were incapable of firing, and those toys that could fire anything did not have an orange tip .... however the CosPlay rules I’ve read do require non shooting guns, so are compliant with the old UK orange to rule)
There was a Lara Croft, who had blue pistols without orange tips. I didn’t check if they were Airsoft pistols or proper blue dummy pistols
There was a guy as a Men In Black costume in Saturday, with a space gun with no bright markings, but on Sunday he was in full US Army rig with an orange tipped gun .... (I assumed it to be an airsoft gun) but it was a modified water gun.
(Another trader was selling crossbows, (what a rebel!), and when we arrived on Friday for setting up there was a drone being setup to fly around the car park
There were a few Harley Quinn’s, with and without bats. They may have been sponge / foam bats but there was a kid one with a suitably sized wooden baseball bat.
I was my usual rebel of bringing my own alcohol, but this time instead of sat in a gazebo we were in one of the main corridors using tables and we were drinking cans in front of every passer by. We would have been out in the central square but the gazebos were not safe in this weekends weather*.
Sunday had thunder & lightning, but the very very frightening were a pair of Pennywise clowns - I protected one of my ladies (just the once) from their passing
A nice long post about something anyone with a braincell already knows - JustCos insurance is a load of bollocks, and any RIF sales in relation to it are in contravention of the VCRA, but these rules also show that RIFs aren’t meant to be in CosPlay, whereas the rule of thumb appears to be “don’t be a dick”
The weather and change of plans also meant that the van wasn’t empty and I therefore had nowhere to sleep .... other than the front seats , so I ended up in the attic room of an antiques shop in the centre of Frome with a miles walk first thing on Saturday morning!
https://www.fromecomiccon.com/faqs
https://www.coastalcomiccon.com/cosplay-guidelines/
BANNED AND PROHIBITED ITEMS: Note that the following items are banned from Frome Comic Con:
• Metal blade weapons or Articles whether sharp or blunt (swords, axes, kunai, ice skates, and knives).
• Guns, Rifles or artillery (including Airsoft guns, BB guns, Paintball guns or props built from parts of these items).
•
Functional projectile weapons (strung bows or crossbows)
• Laser pointers, Vuvuzelas, Silly string, and Drones (even if part of a costume).
• Other prohibited items (glass bottles and vessels, alcohol, and E-cigarettes).
1. Coastal Comic Con is intended as a family-friendly community-based event and as such, certain cosplays may be denied entry. These include:
2. Please be aware that while Coastal Comic Con encourages all our attendees to cosplay appropriate for a family event, some cosplay costumes may be intimidating for younger children and people of a nervous disposition and we advise appropriate adult, carer discretion and/or supervision.
4. A number of items are forbidden at Coastal Comic Con. These include:
- Any metal edged object such as knives, axes or swords.
- Guns/Bows that shoot projectiles or could be enabled to shoot a projectile – eg. air guns, Airsoft weapons, crossbows, or replicas of actual guns, also including real weapons. Weapons must not have any firing mechanisms or be able to fire any projectiles including water or other liquids.
- Hard bats, paddles or clubs e.g. wooden or metal baseball bats, golf clubs.
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5. All realistic looking prop weapons must have a visible orange tip to them.
6. Please ensure that all your cosplay weapons are kept concealed or covered and not visible to the general public when outside of the venue. Please also show the same courtesy of covering props or keeping props out of sight when travelling home after the event. We ask all attendees to avoid any activity that could cause public alarm.
Coastal Comic Con reserve the right to deny entry, withdraw access, or cancel tickets without refund to anyone deemed to be breaking these rules. Moreover, Coastal Comic Con and security for the event and venue reserve the right to reject any weapon or prop if deemed likely to cause a nuisance.
