Destro's departure.
 

Hello I'm dumb. Well, I was at Tfcon 2017 anyway.

I, Michael Ryan, have been enjoying TFCon since it was in Oakville. It's a wonderful reunion of a tight family and great experience for any Transformer fan and I consider myself lucky for being able to attend with just a bus ride. I've also gotten into a habit of cosplaying, having been Miko and Macho Man and Scott McNeil.

For TFCon 2017, in honor of guest Arthur Burghardt I put together a Destro costume. Pretty good outfit since I spent like 1 day and no money on it. And since Destro is an arms dealer I brought along a prop gun which my ex-roommate had leftover from a short film.

So Saturday evening I'm sitting around waiting for the trivia to start when hotel security approaches me, takes my personal information and says that I need to leave. Because my fake gun disturbed some hotel guests (who were not there for TFcon) I was banned.

I complied with their instructions as I'm not a jerk. I admit that from a distance my gun is a bit too realistic and it was a poor choice to bring it. I do think the lifetime ban was a bit harsh but it's their hotel and their rules.

The next Monday I e-mailed the hotel with a sincere apology and the Front Office Manager was gracious enough to clarify that I'm not actually banned for life and welcome to return to the hotel as long as I'm not dumb enough to bring any authentic looking gun prop again.

I'm extremely sorry to anybody my fake gun bothered and to the staff of TFcon and the hotel for any disturbance my ejection might have created and I hope to return for TFcon 2018. Although I won't be in cosplay or even any attention grabbing clothing. Hopefully we'll eventually look back on the ordeal and laugh.

also in a weird poetic twist of fate a few months later I was working night shift and the store was robbed, the other employees and I were held at gunpoint while two robbers seized a load of Oxycodene. A month later they were caught and it was discovered their guns were fake.

Re: Destro's departure.
 

Sounds like a bit of poor judgement but an honest mistake. That's how things are now, though: even a hotel is a potential target for crazies. But even if you were really banned, they'd be on the lookout for Destro ;)

Re: Destro's departure.
 

Glad to hear they lifted the ban! :)

There were lots of opinions on what happened to you, from supporting ban for any realistic weapon, to crying out loud at outraging at a costume prop at a genre convention.

Really sorry to hear about the armed robbery! :(
The guns may have been fake, but the terror most surely wasn't.

I encourage you to continue costuming and conventions you enjoy. Plenty of costumes out there don't require realistic or any weapons for that matter.

p.s. The hotel should ban you for your avatar. That cookie represents too many carbs!

Re: Destro's departure.
 

Destro's awesome. One of my faves cause he's one of my few action figures I had as a kid. Show up with Baroness next time and all is forgiven.

I read that at bigger shows like Fan Expo they have guidelines for props and a screening of the prop.

Re: Destro's departure.
 

love the idea of iron grenadiers destro-> an arms dealer that basically becomes a king

Re: Destro's departure.
 

That's true about Fan Expo and ComicCon. Before you enter you have to have your props inspected. They will tie a ribbon around your pro to show they are ok for the show.

You also can't have things like metal swords/knives, air soft guns and anything that can do real damage.