There is one big Pro to having latex weaponry and a lot of cons. The pro is a big one, but its up to you to decide if its worth all the risks of the cons.

The Pro:

1. They look Awesome! There’s no two ways about it, they look cool indeed, and you would look cool holding one and fighting with one. Furthermore, the more latex weaponry at the event, the more the atmosphere will improve.
   

The Cons:

1. They’re not quite as safe as boffer weapons. You cannot thrust with most latex swords because most are not designed to have safe squishy thrusting tips, and you need to pull your blows and be conservative in combat because they sting a bit more than boffer weapons if used improperly.
2. In the summer time, you have to take GREAT care of your latex weaponry. It is colder in the countries that they are mainly used in. If you leave your latex weapon in a car on a hot summer day it could get ruined. Also any damage that occurs to a latex weapon is much harder to fix. You cant just slap on some new foam and duct tape to fix it up. The materials used to make them are hard to get and difficult to work with, and you probably don’t have them, let alone know how to use them.
3. They are more expensive than a boffer sword. A good latex long sword will usually range between 80-120 dollars. And unless you place the order with a lot of other people from the same place and split the shipping costs, they will run you close to 25-50 dollars for shipping alone if they are from a company that is overseas.
4. You are taking a big risk by spending a hundred dollars or more on latex weaponry. Why? Well here’s a scenario: You spend 150 dollars on a totally awesome looking latex weapon. You bring it into game. You start fighting with it. People start complaining about the way your using your weapon, hitting too hard, etc… We take away your privilige to use latex weaponry… you have just wasted $150 dollars. We will be extremely strict when it comes to removing latex weapon priviliges. Before purchasing one, make sure that you are willing to accept this as a big risk for you.

If you’re the kinda person who likes fast and hard combat, your risks of loosing your privilige will be MUCH greater than if you’re the kind of person who focuses more on role-playing the combat.

In conclusion, I do encourage people to get Latex Weaponry. It looks great and I know if I were a PC I’d get one, cause I’m not an overly aggressive fighter, and it would look great with my costume. But you must keep in mind ALL of the Cons that I have listed. Make sure that you are willing to take those risks and know what your getting into before you get into it.

- James C. Kimball
Director