General Etiquette > Life...in general

For the con-goers/costumers- is it rude to ask to hold someone's prop?

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Phoebelion:
My son gets requests to try on certain parts of his costume - chainmail.  That he made himself.  He's a big guy - over 6 feet.  He normally says sure - if you can put it on all by yourself.  The few adults that have tried have never gotten it on no matter how hard they try.   Touch his helmet or sword and you get the "face". 

But have a child ask him and he goes out of his way to get the kid in the chainmail (he stands in back and holds it up to take most of the weight) - as long as the child holds his helmet - so the parents can take a pic.  He and his wife love little ones and can't have any of their own. 

While he doesn't mind people asking, they do tend to get carried away.   

Amanita:
In regards to sturdiness, I've noticed that a lot of Anime cosplayers tend to use "arts and crafts" materials for their props- paper mache, styrofoam, and so on. Not only are they easy to work with, but they're also cheap. And they're generally not very sturdy. On the other hand, some older cosplayers with larger budgets, and SCA folk tend to use sturdier materials- leather, metal, cast resin, and such, that hold up better to handling.

Also, the average age of attendee at an Anime con tends to be younger than at mixed genre cons, SCA events, and such. So there's greater chance of dealing with immature pranksters, or those who don't understand or care about things like that- how long something took to make, or how much it might have cost.

Slartibartfast:
It's not just immaturity - the truth is, after a few hours walking around a convention, all but the sturdiest costume props are probably starting to become a bit fragile.  If you're not shelling out hundreds of dollars per costume, like the really serious costumes do, you probably made your props yourself from whatever you could afford plus whatever design you could engineer.  Chances are the prop is not as structurally sound as you had originally intended - maybe it's fine standing up but bends when lying down, or maybe the glue holding the top and the bottom is starting to come loose, or maybe the paint is starting to flake off even though you put on four coats.  Costuming is a constant trade-off between quality and budget (should I go with the $60 Wonderflex foam or the $3 foamcore that doesn't stick to glue as well?) and since half the fun is building new costumes, many costumers accept that their costumes may not last for more than a convention or two.

That said, even a well-intentioned handling from a stranger may break a prop because they don't know the glue is coming loose or the paint won't stick well to that particular material or the wiring inside the prop doesn't stand up to shaking.  It can be really frustrating to build a costume for the sole purpose of wearing it for one day, only to have it break before lunchtime.  Doubly frustrating when the damage was someone else's fault.

TealDragon:
I'm not a cosplayer, but one of my really good friends is. The last con we went to, he had so many people coming up and asking to hold his prop (it was like a really fancy sword...not sure what it's really called) and have pictures taken with it or him. He was fine with it as long as the people were standing right there and just holding it for a picture. He did say no to one little kid but only because the kid was bouncing off the walls and trying to karate chop everything, and he just didn't think this kid would be able to be calm and careful. Unfortunately, it got slightly damaged in his car on the way home, so on the second day, he did not let anyone touch it because it was more fragile, but no one had any issue accepting his answer and he still took pictures with people. I noticed people asking other people to hold things as well. I don't think it's rude to ask nicely, but I think the asker should definitely be prepared to hear the word no.

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