Comic-Con: Security Has Already Confiscated These Prop Weapons
This man’s staff was banished to coat check (Photo: Aaron Couch)
By Aaron Couch, The Hollywood Reporter
For some good people-watching at San Diego Comic-Con, it doesn’t get much better than the costume weapon checkpoint between Hall E and Hall F — where the cosplayers with the most elaborate costumes must shuffle through to ensure their prop weapons pass muster with security.
In the mid-morning on Thursday, the line was 50 people long. By the afternoon, the line had dwindled to a steady but quick stream of people, whose prop guns, lightsabers, and crossbows must be examined by security to see if they might be able to do some actual damage. Those that pass are fitted with zip ties — holstering them to people’s belts so they can’t be drawn on the convention floor.
Related: Comic-Con: How 3,000 Fake Weapons Get Through Security
Heat Vision spent 30 minutes observing which prop weapons security didn’t let in — those items that were banished to the coat check area, where items can be stored for $3. About 50 people passed through the checkpoint during that time. These are the items that didn’t make it through:
— A real (but small) baseball bat carried by a woman wearing a Gotham City Knights baseball uniform
— A crossbow belonging to a young woman dressed as an elf. Security asked her to remove the string from the bow, but it was not detachable, so the whole weapon had to go to coat check.
— A huge trident carried by a tall man dressed as Aquaman (it looked heavy enough to do real damage).
Finally, a man carrying a staff from Avatar: The Last Airbender had to surrender it.
“They said it was too dangerous,” he told THR with a shrug, before checking the weapon at coat check.
Related: VidCon Attendees Embrace Increased Security
The coat check area is also a pretty fascinating place — full of mundane things like bags and jackets, but also prop weapons that couldn’t make it through. One of the most tantalizing items visible in the area on Thursday was a wearable spaceship costume, with what appeared to be mechanical parts that … could do something. Whether the ship was docked because it was deemed too dangerous by security, or it was deemed too heavy to wear all day by its owner, is anyone’s guess.
Did you have any trouble getting an item through security? Let us know in the comments or tweet to @HeatVisionBlog.
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Watch a promo for cosplay documentary ‘My Other Me’:
