prop rental

[Forensick]

seems like a truly random question in know...
but bear with me a moment

I am from australia, you know that small country at the bottom of the globe.
You may also know us australians as those people who are usually whinging on prop forums about how ridiculous our customs are.
to that end, to get my firefly weapons into the country, cost me 6months, hundreds of wasted dollars, and alot of melted resin curtesy of our friends at customs.
We are planning on heading to dragon*con next year (apparently all the accom books out early... so when i looked 2 month ago it was gone, and this is a once in a life time deal, so if i do it, i'll do it properly).
If i go to dragon*con you can be damn sure i'll be in costume, especially seeing as at this point my entire flyfire group is planning on going.

but it means either being weaponless, or losing my hard earned props.
I can get my weapon there, curtesy of airmail, however customs will never let them back in, meaning basicly, at the end of dragon*con they'd go in the bin, which really is not an option.

so... does anyone rent out props?

 

[nachtinis]

Great question!

 

[rollerboi]

Can't you just make a quick and dirty PVC mock-up? Have you called customs to confirm the policy as applied to your particular situation?

I wouldn't normally suggest this, but maybe you could recast your gun in a cheap resin, making sure it is binned (and not resold) at the end of your trip.

 

[sebastian]

Which weapon props are you interested it. I have a back up Mal Pistol and Jayne Boo in Resin with a basic paint job that I would be willing to lend out. I had to cancel my trip to Dragon Con this year, but I will most likely be there for 2011.

PM if any of this sounds good.


Cheers

Sebastian

 

[Forensick]

well, what we normally use
is a maresleg
mal's
jaynes
rivers maidenhead
jaynes chest mp4 (haven scene)

obviously, maidenhead is no big deal not to have

others would be very sad to have out

customs here are very 'moody' about policy
calling is a definate no
i lost my first batch of unpainted wilcos for being to realistic (unpainted) took 3 months of fighting, they refused to even send them back to sender, citing my "deliberate attempt to get around weapon import laws"
attempt 2 had them dyed pink, they were still siezed, but i managed to get the police to say that "pink plastic toy's are not weapons, or weapon replicas" and it still took customs over a month to accept that

painted basicly, i need a pistol licence.
in australia, that takes a few years, i'd need to actually pass a police check, get a gun licence, buy a gun of some kind and safe, join a gun club, shoot regually.
then after a year, i could apply for a pistol permit, which would first mean joining a pistol club, and another police check, and new gun safe.
all that to get a resin replica back in....

hardly seems worth it

considering the recast route
still has problems....
namely to import or export weapons i need the above licence plus police export permission.
unlikely that the parcel is scanned, but if it is, i'd face criminal charges...
and not the sort they give a slap on the wrist for