Zebulon Vitruvius Pike (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dime_novel_hero) wrote2014-12-12 11:51 pm
dime_novel_hero) wrote2014-12-12 11:51 pm
Entry tags:
Steel City Con
I know that previously I had said I would not be getting a weekend pass for Steel City Con but I lied. Well, I didn't exactly lie in that it was my initial intention not to give the con any more money than I had too and I had planned on only attending Sunday for the costume contest but the local steampunks had decided to go on Saturday and I decided to support that cause.
$40 is a lot to spend on just getting into a dealer's convention when you don't have a job.
There was a moment there when it looked like it may have brought some return on my investment. One dealer, who I had spoken with on previous occasions and mistook me for a mason because I was wearing a fez, told me that one of his neighbors had an antique store and was looking for someone to help offload some of his stock on eBay. I have never sold on eBay but I'm pretty sure I could get up to speed in ten minutes or so. A project like that would have been great to tide me over with some cash while I'm waiting for my contingent job offer to sort itself out but, ultimately, that plan fell through.
A momentary, bright ray of hope into an otherwise dismal time.
One dealer had a vintage cast iron zeppelin pull toy for $50, which was actually a good price for that particular toy in the condition it was in. Not that I'm going to drop that much for it at this time. Another dealer had a windup tin airship that he was asking $300 for. From what I've seen online and the condition it was in, I think that was overpriced.
On piece of nostalgia I actually purchased was a vinyl LP of the first public release of Orson Welles' 1938 broadcast of The War of the Worlds. I recall borrowing it from the library and playing at again and again. Then copying it to 8-track so I could play it more. And then copying that to a cassette when I finally got my own player. I'm not exactly sure how much it's worth but it's in pretty good condition and probably worth a little more than the $5 I paid for it.
The costume contest on Sunday had literally hundreds of participants. And all it took was a handful of people with really good costumes and concepts to ensure that Steampunk Django didn't stand a chance. The Dragon Rider. They guy with the 8 foot tall Terminator walking behind him. Santa Doom. King Arthur and Patsy, Groot. I could tell standing in the hallway before going on stage that these guys would be the ones vying for the top spot on the winners podium and I was not proven wrong.
In the mid 19th Century there was an outbreak of crime that became known as the Garroting Scare. Garroting entailed a criminal coming up behind a gentleman and strangling him, perhaps with his arm or by casting a cord about his neck. While the man struggled, an accomplice of the criminal would rifle through the man's pockets. And while these sorts of crime did, in fact, actually happen, there is no statistical evidence, now or then, to indicate that crime became particularly prevalent during that time or that garroting itself became a preferred method of neer do wells. Never the less, the media-fueled panic gripped London leading directly to a cottage industry of inventive devices designed specifically to thwart the garroter. That a gentleman would consider the carrying of a sword cane came directly from this phantom menace.
I mention this because it seems that the steampunk community, and cosplay community in general, seems to have been gripped by a similar panic. The string of police shootings of unarmed youths and specifically the shooting of Tamir Rice in Cleveland while he carried a BB gun, has made the costumed community fearful that they too might become victim to an over zealous police officer who doesn't realize that the hotel is full of people in costumes carrying toy swords and guns. Aloysius Fox, director of the Steampunk Symposium, has banned the carrying of realistic guns at his convention.
Did you see where I'm going with this social-political commentary? Yea, subtlety is why I don't win costume contests.
A more detailed editorial on the subject may be forthcoming but for now I will say that I am disappointed because nearly all of the weapons I choose to costume with are realistic and are, in those cases, integral to the costume. One cannot be a gunfighter without a gun. Therefore, I feel I must amp up my other costumes.
And thus, we return to the Garroting Scare. One of the products which was sold to protect gentlemen about the streets from Thugees was the armored collar. The more inventive of the collars had spikes but the one I am considering for myself would be made of chain mail. And, more than just a collar, I thought to have the entire cravat armored. The cravat could be of chain mail but I also thought that scale would be very attractive. To this end, I spoke with several dealers who produced chain mail and scale pieces. While I was not able to get a precise bid price, I came away with the impression that a scale cravat might cost me several hundreds of dollars.
Not to equate that price to highway robbery but I think that with the proper materials I could construct such a thing myself for significantly less. And it's not like I don't have the time to do it.
$40 is a lot to spend on just getting into a dealer's convention when you don't have a job.
There was a moment there when it looked like it may have brought some return on my investment. One dealer, who I had spoken with on previous occasions and mistook me for a mason because I was wearing a fez, told me that one of his neighbors had an antique store and was looking for someone to help offload some of his stock on eBay. I have never sold on eBay but I'm pretty sure I could get up to speed in ten minutes or so. A project like that would have been great to tide me over with some cash while I'm waiting for my contingent job offer to sort itself out but, ultimately, that plan fell through.
A momentary, bright ray of hope into an otherwise dismal time.
One dealer had a vintage cast iron zeppelin pull toy for $50, which was actually a good price for that particular toy in the condition it was in. Not that I'm going to drop that much for it at this time. Another dealer had a windup tin airship that he was asking $300 for. From what I've seen online and the condition it was in, I think that was overpriced.
On piece of nostalgia I actually purchased was a vinyl LP of the first public release of Orson Welles' 1938 broadcast of The War of the Worlds. I recall borrowing it from the library and playing at again and again. Then copying it to 8-track so I could play it more. And then copying that to a cassette when I finally got my own player. I'm not exactly sure how much it's worth but it's in pretty good condition and probably worth a little more than the $5 I paid for it.The costume contest on Sunday had literally hundreds of participants. And all it took was a handful of people with really good costumes and concepts to ensure that Steampunk Django didn't stand a chance. The Dragon Rider. They guy with the 8 foot tall Terminator walking behind him. Santa Doom. King Arthur and Patsy, Groot. I could tell standing in the hallway before going on stage that these guys would be the ones vying for the top spot on the winners podium and I was not proven wrong.In the mid 19th Century there was an outbreak of crime that became known as the Garroting Scare. Garroting entailed a criminal coming up behind a gentleman and strangling him, perhaps with his arm or by casting a cord about his neck. While the man struggled, an accomplice of the criminal would rifle through the man's pockets. And while these sorts of crime did, in fact, actually happen, there is no statistical evidence, now or then, to indicate that crime became particularly prevalent during that time or that garroting itself became a preferred method of neer do wells. Never the less, the media-fueled panic gripped London leading directly to a cottage industry of inventive devices designed specifically to thwart the garroter. That a gentleman would consider the carrying of a sword cane came directly from this phantom menace.
I mention this because it seems that the steampunk community, and cosplay community in general, seems to have been gripped by a similar panic. The string of police shootings of unarmed youths and specifically the shooting of Tamir Rice in Cleveland while he carried a BB gun, has made the costumed community fearful that they too might become victim to an over zealous police officer who doesn't realize that the hotel is full of people in costumes carrying toy swords and guns. Aloysius Fox, director of the Steampunk Symposium, has banned the carrying of realistic guns at his convention.
Did you see where I'm going with this social-political commentary? Yea, subtlety is why I don't win costume contests.
A more detailed editorial on the subject may be forthcoming but for now I will say that I am disappointed because nearly all of the weapons I choose to costume with are realistic and are, in those cases, integral to the costume. One cannot be a gunfighter without a gun. Therefore, I feel I must amp up my other costumes.
And thus, we return to the Garroting Scare. One of the products which was sold to protect gentlemen about the streets from Thugees was the armored collar. The more inventive of the collars had spikes but the one I am considering for myself would be made of chain mail. And, more than just a collar, I thought to have the entire cravat armored. The cravat could be of chain mail but I also thought that scale would be very attractive. To this end, I spoke with several dealers who produced chain mail and scale pieces. While I was not able to get a precise bid price, I came away with the impression that a scale cravat might cost me several hundreds of dollars.
Not to equate that price to highway robbery but I think that with the proper materials I could construct such a thing myself for significantly less. And it's not like I don't have the time to do it.