timeware wrote: ↑January 7th, 2023, 1:53 am Has Wizard World, or any con's made announcements concerning the Hasbro pack and Cosplay contest rules? I'm interested in knowing if there's going to be any restrictions on that this year. I would imagine ton's of people bought them thinking costume contests with the pack would be an easy win.
I'd imagine there's several basic categories of contest:
Contests that don't allow obvious prefab parts. So unless you successfully mod this as a 1984 (or other) pack then you'd be disqualified. And that's a lot of work. Frankly, I think the best way to do that might actually be to make/commission a customized shell casting of a vintage pack with Haslab shell attachments. Otherwise, modding this shell will be death by a thousand cuts.
Contests that don't care about prefab parts but judge on originality or accuracy. In which case, you're still going to essentially need to pass as Phoebe, Podcast, Egon, or maybe another Afterlife era Ghostbuster or derivative thereof. The pack is not an automatic win even if we drool over it.
Contests that care neither about original effort or accuracy/originality but just general quality. The pack may be a significant money saver there but I doubt judges will appreciate it, especially as non-Ghostheads probably underestimate the effort that goes into flightsuit/details/pack. To most people, they're going to look at our stuff and not see the level of difference vs. a Spirit pack and $40 flightsuit even if a reasonably screen accurate costume with gear easily costs over $1000, a lot more than a Spider-Man cosplay. It's something we do for ourselves and fellow Ghostbusters fans. Ghostbusters cosplay looks deceptively cheap and a reasonable approximation can be done for cheap. Maybe up to 40% of people will notice a good Ghostbusters cosplay versus an average one. This is a really good launching point for a good to great cosplay, especially with wire cover replacement and ALICE frame. I'm just not confident the effort will get you enough recognition to win a contest unless you're the only Ghostbuster there. Add to that: if you DO use the Haslab pack in a contest and somebody else does too, they may surpass you on other aspects unless you go all in. No contest is going to pick five Ghostbusters so you'd better be among the best.
That said, it's probably a surefire hit at a party with friends or a workplace costume contest.