You don't bring a knife to a gunfight, but you can always bring a sword to a Nerf fight. Foam darts are always fun, but there's just something unmistakably satisfying about hitting your friends with a padded stick.

You can use pretty much anything for melee cube warfare. Your weapons can be as cheap and simple as foam pool noodles, or as expensive and ornate as replica lightsabers and latex LARP swords. As long as it's rigid enough to keep its shape and soft enough to not hurt anyone, it can be a good melee weapon.

Hasbro produces several good weapons that neither look like duct taped crap nor will drain your wallet. Nerf N-Force products offer the satisfying and safe thwack of foam with the design of vaguely medieval weapons, while Star Wars Force Action lightsabers offer glowing hollow plastic and Star Wars noises.

The Nerf N-Force line is relatively new. While once Nerf only meant foam dart guns and footballs, now Hasbro offers a full line of close-combat weapons under the Nerf name. Nerf N-Force weapons come in three flavors: Fury sword, Marauder longsword, and Warlock axe. The Fury swords

Cube Warfare: Melee Weapons « Aggrogate

Cosplay is enormous, and growing. Every weekend throughout the world, the fans meet up in conference centres, hotels and university campuses.

It is huge in Japan and beloved in France; in the United States, it blots out the sun. It even has a presence in Canada.

This month, as they did last May, cosplayers will fill the ExCeL Centre in London to bursting (last year women dressed as white wolves were photographed drinking coffee). But why do they do it? And what is it for?

I watch the hall fill up with different species. They are all preparing for a rehearsal for Aya’s big number: the Saturday night masquerade, where everyone gets a chance to go on stage in costume.

They are queuing, hoping to get good spots – near the beginning or the end. There are no prizes, so it’s not a contest as such. But as I soon discover, prizes aren’t the point.

I spot two human-sized foxes. Hello, I say to them, why are you dressed as foxes? One of them gives me a dirty look. ‘I’m a fox,’ he says. ‘He’s a rabbit.’ The rabbit nods.

Having calmed down, the fox explains who he is. ‘My character is called Fox McCloud. My game is Star Fox Assault.’ The rabbit, meanwhile, is called Captain Bucky O’Hare.

They just met today, although they already look like blood brothers. So, why are they here? ‘It’s great to socialise with people with the same interests,’ the rabbit says. ‘I am an incorrigible poseur,’ the fox says.

A few minutes later, I am chatting to three lithe and pale girls. One is a giant ant; I am not sure what the other two are.

‘Here,’ the ant-girl says, ‘you can run around in a costume without people thinking you are really weird. The police don’t stop you for having wooden swords. The Scientologists don’t give you evil looks. The Christians don’t come up to you and say: “You are going to hell”.’

For some reason, she explains, the Scientologists and Christians have taken against the cosplayers, who often go and run around Hyde Park in London at weekends. Why the Scientologists? Perhaps a group that believe that people are immortal aliens trapped in human form don’t like the competition?

‘You don’t need to make friends here. You don’t need to introduce yourself,’ she adds. ‘You just need to be the same cosplay characters.’

But within the cosplay world, she continues, there are rivalries. ‘Some people see it as a profession, not a hobby,’ she says. ‘They say that people have stolen their costume ideas and say that other people’s costumes are rubbish.

'It is like at the Star Wars conventions, where people complain that some of the other storm-troopers’ armour is rubbish.’

Has it ever got – er – violent? ‘I have seen cartoon characters coming to blows,’ she says, ‘but I don’t remember the details.’

Suddenly a girl has arrived wearing an upturned pyramid on her head, pursued by a man wearing a gold sock on his head. The three girls’ attention has flown away.

‘What’s with the pyramid?’ they ask. ‘For eight years,’ the pyramid says, ‘Yuugi tried to put the puzzle together. Once he did he released the shadow game, which was imprisoned for 3,000 years by the spirit of a nameless Pharaoh…’

I slink out, past a gaggle of (male) schoolgirls to catch the ‘fursuiting’ (making a fur suit) master class. In a small theatre, a woman dressed as an owl is explaining to an audience how she made her owl costume.

She is tall and young, with very long hair and a slightly pitted face. I can see that she is reasonably attractive as a woman, but as an owl she looks magnificent.

Fox McCloud is making notes and sweating slightly; he moves his head off the seat so I can sit down.

‘The best way to attach a nose,’ the owl is saying, ‘is to put a spike on it and stick it into the back of the head. Don’t think you will make one fursuit and it will – boom! – be first-class,’ she adds. ‘Start with something simple. See you for advance fursuiting tomorrow.’

The class trails out, but I linger. I want to talk to the owl. Her name is Karen, she says, and she is doing a PhD in biology. She is 27. The owl, she explains, is an owl man from a PlayStation game called Soulcalibur III.

‘I think he is cursed or something,’ she says. ‘I don’t play the game but I like the costume.’ Isn’t your hobby a bit strange, I ask? She looks at me. ‘Anything that isn’t utilitarian is weird for a biological organism,’ she says, calmly.

Is it disinhibiting? ‘Yes,’ she says. ‘It really is freeing. Especially when you change away from everyone. Nobody can tell who you are.’ This chimes with what the ant-girl told me: ‘I get scared and hide behind things. If you wear a mask it makes you feel powerful.’

I approach a man who is dressed as an enormous teddy. He is tall and fat and he is sitting alone in the convention hall, looking like something Sesame Street spat out.

So, I ask, why are you dressed as a teddy? He begins to mumble something incomprehensible about a long-dead video game. The reason why he is dressed as a teddy seems to be incredibly complicated; perhaps he does not really know himself.

I am looking down at my notes now and re-reading what he has just said to me: ‘He is a small teddy they don’t have death as an eternity you go to a place called Soul Society.’

When the teddy realises I don’t understand what he is talking about, he starts sweating and shaking with the effort of trying to explain himself.

He is in the worst shape of any man dressed as a teddy I have ever met.

So I approach a man dressed as a chef. His face is painted bright green, like broccoli. I am thinking that any man as exhibitionist as this will leap on a journalist, but no.

He mumbles that he will not be interviewed without the other people in his ‘group’. So he calls over a man called Tab.

The cosplayers, I am learning, are shy behind their foam and fur heads – gentle even. Tab has a pale, delicate face. He is wearing pinstriped trousers and a green corset. His character is called Dr Mechanic – half human, half machine.

Tab explains that the chef, who is still completely silent – he doesn’t say a word to me – is called Pierre the French Goblin Chef.

‘They bought him at the goblin slave market,’ he says, adding, ‘it’s a terrible thing to sell a goblin with a skin disease.’

Pierre the French Goblin Chef has a skin disease? ‘Yes,’ Tab says, ‘goblins are actually blue. The disease has made him green.’ I spend the whole day having conversations like this.

Tab is chatty, so I try to go deeper. Why are you here? ‘This is the only place where I have ever felt normal,’ he says, very seriously. ‘I have made friends in bars but none of them really understand that I need to create things. If I won £1 million I would buy a big house just so I would have the space to make things.’

He turns to a boy beside him. He is dressed as some kind of alien. His costume is black, with bits sticking out; he holds his head in his lap. If you were rich, Tab asks him, would you buy a costume?

‘No,’ he says, shaking with sincerity, ‘I would buy more expensive tools and materials to make a costume.’

Is Aya not, I think aloud, the Revenge of the Dork? But here, instead of hiding in a corner, hating their difference, the dorks come out with big foam guns (all the weapons at the convention are carefully monitored and sometimes confiscated by organisers) to celebrate it.

They make their dull suburban differences really very different (because it’s hard to argue with an outcast dressed as an alien from Alien at a bus stop).

‘Geek is a better word,’ says Tab, ‘but yes. Everyone here is a geek. And we are considered society’s outcasts. But if we are all geeks together, that is fine.’

I turn to the alien, who is waiting to give me a quote. Who are you? ‘Who am I?’ he says. ‘Or who am I supposed to be?’ Everyone says this to me today; my notebook is full of legal names, character names and pseudonyms. Both, I say.

His real name, he says, is Xae and by day he works in a supermarket, stacking shelves; by night, however – and at Aya – he is a Robocop. His character is called Briareos: ‘Do you want me to spell that?’ He shows me his foam gun.

How did he get into cosplay? ‘At school,’ he says, ‘I was the one who sat in the corner while everyone else talked about football. My brother died when I was 13 and I had to reassess my entire life.

I don’t say it often but it is partially for him. It is carrying the torch for him. He is behind me when I make these things. He was a creative person. I am carrying the creativity on.’

I am now holding a Robocop’s hand. In the distance, I can see a man with a white-painted face and a bloody head being treated by a medic. There seems to have been some kind of fracas, over what, who can guess?

Masquerade time. The hall is now full of cosplayers – it looks just like the intergalactic senate in Star Wars. A volunteer called Rob is shepherding the audience; in a normal yellow T-shirt, he looks absolutely bizarre.

‘They are all exhibitionists,’ he says, waving his arms at them. ‘And escapists. There is a craft here, too – a fundamental joy in the ability to see something on screen and make it real and three-dimensional.

'But cosplay is essentially a “festishisation” of difference and individuality. They rejoice in being different.’

The lights dull, and out they come – wolves, fairies and angels, green women with golden snakes for hair. They won’t get prizes or money for this; they just come on and say: ‘I’m an alien,’ and go off again. I sit down. We’re not in Warwick anymore, Toto.

The next London MCM Expo is at the ExCeL Centre, May 29-30

Cosplay: meet the toon army

By Bob Wire, 5-18-10

They amassed in the grass behind the Bonner Park backstop on a sunny spring afternoon, this motley assortment of costumed medieval warriors. Brandishing foam rubber swords, spongy maces, and various other fake weaponry, they split into two packs and faced each other, awaiting the signal. And then it was on like Donkey Joust.

Welcome to Missoula’s Belegarth combat society.

When their shaggy-haired leader, an Aidan Quinn lookalike in a chinstrap beard, gave the sign, they began beating the holy bejesus out of each other with their less-than-fearsome, specialized weapons. They swung maces, swords, axes, bats, spears and something that looked like a Nerf Garden Weasel. They tried to ward off the blows with giant, padded shields that bore Middle Age rune symbols and hand-painted death skulls. There was plenty of screaming and hollering, grunting and yelping as the make believe riot exploded on the lush, city park turf.

We’d come down to Bonner on this brilliant Sunday afternoon to soak up some much-needed sun, and listen to the music provided by Missoula’s Zoo FM. They were hosting a barbecue, and Aaron Traylor, the World’s Tallest DJ, was onstage in the band shell, MCing a baby dance-off. It don’t get no more Missoula freaky than this, I thought, as we sat on our blanket near the edge of the warrior brawl, sipping cold drinks and taking it all in.

The two dozen combatants, all men, were dressed in medieval garb, although the level of commitment to the look seemed to vary. One guy wore a graceful suede cape over a custom leather and brass chest plate, and camouflage cargo pants. Another guy wore M.C. Hammer pants and nothing else. Not even underwear, judging by the flop factor. One dude, a stocky bald guy in his late 20s, wore a coarse-knit sweater that, from a distance, looked like chain mail. It was bright purple.

Occasionally a fight would spill away from the group and threaten to overrun our blanket. I raised my hands in supplication and shouted, “Neigh, we are but simple peasants, trying to drink our Diet Pepsis and enjoy the warmth of the sun! Do not oppress us!” They backed off.

In the early going, there was a woman in the mix, serving as a referee between the two battling mobs. She wore a bright yellow tunic, and I couldn’t help but wonder why she didn’t have one with black and white stripes. Could’ve used a whistle, too. She was definitely not involved in combat, but I didn’t see her calling any penalties; just explaining the rules to a few overzealous participants. I couldn’t tell if there were any rules or boundaries at all. There were a few traffic cones scattered about, but seemed to serve no purpose other than their occasional use as a bullhorn.

At one point Aidan Quinn, wearing some kind of black martial arts skirt topped with an Under Armour shirt, raised his cushioned sword in the air, held a traffic cone to his mouth, and hollered for everyone to stop the action. “I have an announcement,” he announced. “This will affect everyone here deeply. It will affect everyone on this Earth deeply. The greatest man who ever lived has died this morning.”

“Chuck Norris?” somebody said.

“No, not Chuck Norris. Ronnie James Dio passed away this morning. Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow. Deep Purple. Black Sabbath. Dio!”

The group was visibly stunned. “Oh my God!” “Not Dio!” “No way!”

“I was just listening to ‘Holy Diver’ this morning,” one of them cried.

“That’s all we can do,” intoned Aidan Quinn. “Listen to his music and help it live on forever.”

“For Dio!” went up a cry, as the warriors fell on each other again, even more impassioned than before. Guys were flying through the air, somersaulting over arcing swords. Legs were being “chopped off,” fighters were being “decapitated,” and men were being hacked “to death,” all to the pumping beat of the dance hits drifting over from the bandshell. One warrior, an archer who was dressed head to toe in flowing robes and a long wizard hat, could not keep himself from dancing to “YMCA.” He hopped and capered to the Cha Cha Slide, and it was all he could do to keep himself from doing the Macarena. He fired boxing glove-tipped arrows into the fray, occasionally taking out some flailing warrior.

The one thing they all seemed to share, beyond a horrible fashion sense, was the discipline to suffer their wounds. When hit in the arm, for instance, they would hold it behind their backs and keep on fighting. If a leg was sliced off, they would drop to one knee and try to avenge their severed limb. I was reminded of the Black Knight in Monty Python’s Holy Grail: “It’s only a flesh wound.”

They were pretty good sports about dying, too. Most of them.
“Did you take him?”
“I think he’s dead. He’s supposed to be dead.”
“He doesn’t look dead to me.”
“I don’t think he thinks he’s dead.”

Most of the dialog I overheard didn’t seem era-appropriate, and taken out of context could be easily misconstrued. For instance, “Wow, that’s the most dudes I’ve ever done in a Highlander.”

To a guy swinging a mace in each hand: “Well, it looks like Malthus finally got a pair!”

Or when the Archer was being hotly pursued and ran right past our blanket in his Mexican sandals, nearly taking out a young sapling. “I can’t corner, man! These tires are balding.”

“Hey, I’m demonstrating shit, dickhead.”

“You eyeballin’ me? You fuckin’ eyeballin’ me?”

“Ow! My eye! I just got blinded by my own garb!”

A couple hours into it, one guy was the last warrior standing in a highlander battle, having valiantly fought off several foes. He stood in the middle of the group of fallen bodies, surveying the carnage he’d created. Then he sheathed his sword and said, “I gotta go. It’s Caitlin’s birthday and I’m cooking dinner.”

We decided to call it a day as well, and I rolled up the blanket while Rusty and Speaker stashed all our stuff into a tote bag. As we walked past the dwindling ranks of the medieval combatants, two guys were still going at it, furiously stabbing and slashing each other with their foam rubber swords. I overheard a comment from one of them, a guy with a tablecloth around his waist and a t-shirt bearing a zombie torso.

“Dio, man. Fuck.”

[Bookmark NewWest.net/BobWire and check back frequently for more slightly moldy slices of life.]

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Getting Medieval In Bonner Park | Bob Wire | Community Blogs ...

Nerf N-Strike Deploy CS-6 Blaster

Rating: List Price: $21.99 Sale Price: $19.98 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Eligible For Free Shipping

Product Description

Deploy for battle! CS-6 Dart Blaster converts from flashlight to blaster. Firing darts. Multiple modes. Grab one now!

Details

• Awesome pump-handle blaster converts to flashlight and back
• To keep you prepared for wherever you have to track your targets
• Blaster with flashlight comes with carry strap
• One quick-reload clip, six Clip-System darts and instructions
• Prepare yourself for any circumstance ¿ and prepare to win the battle

Nerf N-Strike

Rating: List Price: $39.99 Sale Price: $59.59 Availability: unspecified

Product Description

Enlist, engage, enforcewith the Nerf N-Strike system. The DVD-based system lets you take on secret missions to carry out justice against Kree Dalenn and his evil drones. Put the DVD in a player to launch the missions and take part in them yourself by blasting Nerf arrows at your TV (they stick!). See how many targets you can hit and how long it takes you to vanquish evil Kree Dalenn and his accomplices. System comes with DVD, blaster gun, micro darts, 3 blasters and 1 mega-missile. For 1 or 2 players ages 8 years and up. Imported. 18Lx12W".

Details

• DVD discontinued in current packaging
• DVD no longer included
• System comes with DVD, blaster gun, micro darts, 3 blasters and 1 mega-missile
• For 1 or 2 players ages 8 years and up

Soft Silk Sword, Red Handle

Rating: List Price: unavailable Sale Price: $12.90 Availability: unspecified

Product Description

Parents and kids alike will love these play-friendly swords that are made of foam and covered with brightly colored silk. Safe for young children. Gold blade with red or blue handle.

Details

• Recommended For Ages 3 - 9 Years
• Kid-Friendly, Soft Silk Sword That Is Safe For Young Children
• Measures 16.0 Inches Long
• Made Of 100% Silk and Non-Toxic Foam; Hand Wash In Cold Water, Line Dry, and Iron On Low as Needed
• Made In China

Nerf Raider Rapid Fire CS-35 Dart Blaster Value Pack

Rating: List Price: $34.99 Sale Price: $38.00 Availability: unspecified

Product Description

No description available.

Details

• Awesome air-powered blaster features 35-dart rapid-fire blasting
• 2 cool blasting modes ¿ single fire and slam fire multishot
• Drum magazine gives you massive ammo capacity
• Blaster comes with drum magazine, 35-Clip-System darts, stock and instructions
• Special Value Pack includes 65 Clip-System darts for a total of 100

Welcome to the first installment of the Aggrogate Guide to Cube Warfare. Video games are fun, but sometimes you want to actively assault your friends and coworkers. Usually, that sort of thing is illegal. And that's why we have Nerf.

This week is a basic primer into cube/dorm/home warfare. Some basics of foam fighting, and some tips on how to get started. In the coming weeks, we'll be looking at different weapon types, game types, modifications, and all sorts of fun ways to express your desire for toy-based chaos at home and at work.

Before you start fighting, make sure you follow a few basic rules. You don't want to get hurt, fired, or sued, so it's a good idea to set a few guidelines ahead of time.

1: All participants must know and accept their participation. While the occasional surprise attack can be fun, it's not cool to just jump everyone you see with a barrage of foam darts. Before the fighting starts, make sure that everyone knows they're fighting. If someone's busy, don't push them. There are bad times for cube wars.

2: All participants must be armed. It's neither fun nor honorable to attack the unarmed. Before you attack a target, make sure they at least keep a single-shot holdout blaster under their desk. If they don't have one, get them one. There are plenty of inexpensive guns available.

3: Do not modify your weapons to hurt. This should be obvious. Yes, there are some things you can do with a foam gun that can make it a dangerous, or at least irritatingly painful weapon. Do not do those those things. Remember, the harder it fires, the more likely it can damage someone or something. Some hardcore Nerf users can mod their guns to shoot harder and farther, but it really isn't necessary for casual office/dorm/home settings.

4: No full contact action. Once again, obvious. You're fighting with foam. Soft. Harmless. There is no reason to tackle people or do anything more aggressive than an occasional stupid-looking roll across the floor.

6. Use your brain and don't be a dick. Consider it a summary of the first four rules. If you don't act like a dumbass, you'll be fine.

Now that those rules are out of the way, let's look at two good choices for your first cube warfare weapon.

You can't have a Nerf war without Nerf guns (or any brand of foam dart-firing toy gun). There are dozens of choices out there, but when you want a single, simple weapon to get started one gun stands out above the rest.

This is the Nerf Maverick, and it is the finest cube warfare sidearm currently on the market. Some guns are cheaper, some are bigger, and some reload faster, but the Maverick offers the best possible combination of all of these attributes. It's a single-action revolver that can fire six darts in quick succession with power and accuracy. You can pick it up for $9-12 in any toy or discount store (it's available for $10 on Amazon). If you can only use one gun for your Nerf wars, this should be it. Also, it's a freaking revolver. That's just cool, especially if you've seen some of the paint jobs people have done with it.

The Maverick seldom jams, although it can sometimes skip a round when firing it rapidly. Besides that, the Maverick's only significant weakness is its slow reload time. You have to pop the cylinder slightly out of the gun and reload each chamber individually. Compared to the numerous blasters that use Nerf's quick-reload N-Strike Clips, this is pretty time consuming.

For years I've held that the Maverick is the best Nerf gun available, but it's not the only good choice. Nerf recently released a new gun that's flexible, fun, relatively cheap, and better takes advantage of Nerf's brand-specific N-Strike magazine and accessory rail systems.

This is the Nerf Deploy, a $20 Nerf rifle with a surprisingly nifty gimmick. Folded up, it looks like a huge, ridiculous "flashlight" (thanks to a red LED that doubles as a tactical light), but pressing a button on the handle makes the stock pop out, the magazine swing down, and the handle flip out. It's a stupid but fun gimmick that that gives the gun some enjoyable novelty.

The big draw for the Deploy isn't the collapsible design or built-in light, but the universal compatibility with Nerf's various accessories. Unlike the Maverick, the Deploy uses Nerf's N-Strike Clip to hold ammo. On one hand, this means you can reload the gun very quickly if you get additional clips. On the other hand, you're limited to using Nerf's snub-nosed "Streamline" darts as ammo; guns that use the N-Strike Clip can't use the classic suction cup darts. The Deploy also features an N-Strike accessory rail on the handle (the Maverick also has an accessory rail, but its location on the pistol's slide makes it extremely unwieldy to keep any accessory on it), so you can use things like Nerf's scope, tactical light, and pinpoint sight. Finally, the muzzle accepts the barrel extensions that comes with the Recon, Longshot, and Longstrike (which we'll cover in future installments). Barrel extensions don't really do anything to performance (in fact, they generally hurt a Nerf gun's power and accuracy), but they can look pretty cool, and offer additional accessory rails.

It's not a perfect Nerf gun, though. Despite its larger size and higher price, the Deploy is actually slightly weaker than the Maverick. The deploying gimmick is fun, but it gives the gun a less sturdy feel than most other Nerf products. Despite these flaws, it's an all-around solid gun and great for beginners who want to play with a fairly complex Nerf gun without paying a lot of money.

Cube Warfare: Getting Started « Aggrogate

The perfect weapon for a LARP or Cosplay.
This sword taken from a very popular video game is the third one of a limited serie of 6.
This is an original design we made, inspired from the infamous sword.
This two-hand sword is 51" long, has a cast rubber guard and pommel. The blade is hand-carved foam covered with latex. The grip is made out of hard wood covered in leather.
Hand-painted, the blade contains phosporescent paint that glows in the dark for up to 9 hours.

Link

1980's Pac-Man Metal Trash Can

Nintendo Super Famicom Box
The Super Famicom Box is a Japenese system that was used in hotels as a pay-per-play system.

World Of Warcraft Fostmourne Sword Foam Replica | Rare Video Games

CORES
PVC
3?4” PVC is an excellent basic weapon core for one-handed weapons and spears.
Generally costs about $3 for a single length
Can be found at most hardware stores in 6 to 10 foot lengths
Graphite
Good weapon core for light weapons, slightly more expensive than PVC
More brittle than PVC
Can be found in various forms for about $6 to $10 per sword length
Aluminum
1” or 7/8” Aluminum tubing is a good core for long weapons, particularly polearms (make sure it
is an acceptable core for the game you are attending before building a weapon with an aluminum core)
Can be cut to size with a hacksaw
Costs about $10 for a 6 foot length and can be found at some hardware stores
-most Home Depots do not carry aluminum tubing

TAPE
Duct Tape
Duct tape comes in a variety of colors and sizes
-Gray, black and white are most common
-blue, red, green, brown, teal, purple, silver, camouflage, and other colors are available
-red duct tape signifies claws, try not to use it for your weapon
One average roll will cover several weapons
Gray duct tape can be found in almost all hardware and department stores
One average roll of duct tape costs $4, a large roll is $7 or $8

Kite Tape
Comes in variety of colors, black is the most common
One roll will make at least one long sword
Less durable but lighter than duct tape
Costs about $8/roll and can be found in some hardware stores and hobby shops

FOAM
Open Cell
Pillow cushioning
Can be found for about $5 per scrap chunk, or buy seat cushions and cut to the size you need
Can be found at fabric and craft stores

Pipe Insulation
5/8th inch tube diameter (see picture).

Make sure it fits snugly the core, but not so tight that it doesn’t fit.
Can be found for about $5 for 4 3’ lengths at hardware stores.
-most Home Depots do not carry 5/8” foam.

TOOLS

Hacksaw
Use a hacksaw or the proper specialized saw for cutting cores to the correct length.
Can be found at hardware and department stores for $5 to $15.

Scissors
An old sharp pair will serve well, since they may get “gummy” with tape glue.
Clean scissors after each use with rubbing alcohol to keep them from sticking.
Can be found for about $7 at hardware, craft, and department stores.

Knife
A sharp unserrated knife works well for cutting foam and tape.
Clean and sharpen your knife after each use.
Can be found at hardware, department, outdoor and kitchen stores.

Exacto Knife
A triangular pointed blade will work well for cutting and poking holes in tips
You may need to replace the blade after making a few weapons.
Clean the blades with rubbing alcohol after each use to keep it from sticking in
the weapon tip.
Can be found for about $3 at hardware, craft, and department stores.

Weather Stripping and Double Sided Tape
Double sided tape or weather stripping will make the pipe foam fit more securely
on the core.
Can be found for about $3 at hardware and department stores.

Boffer Weapon Safety
Where to Find What You Need

Thrift Stores
Thrift and second-hand stores are a great place to find costuming. Even though a thrift store is not
a reliable source of costuming, you can find leather belts, odd boots, shirts that will pass as medieval
and all sorts of other things at a great price.
Hardware Stores
This is where you can find weapon-making materials. Make sure that you buy the right types of what
you need. Exacto knives can be found at hardware stores as well.
Craft and Fabric Stores
Your best bet for open cell foam. You can also get Exacto knives at a craft store.
Magic and Costuming Shops
A local store that has supplies for magic tricks and costumes will often have the make up that you may
need to play a race that requires makeup or prosthetics. Party City and other chain stores may have
some things during the Halloween season, but a local store is more likely to have pancake makeup, elf
ears and many other items a LARPer can use.
Department Stores
Department stores such as Walmart and Kmart are likely to have plain sweat shirts and sweat pants
that you won’t mind getting dirty. Tights and Spandex pants can also be found for a reasonable price.
A variety of notebooks, pens, and other items can be found at many of them as well.

Web Sites
There are a number of LARP related web sites that can help you find everything from weapons to
make-up. With a little research you can find finished weapons that fit your personal needs and even
get them delivered to your door step. You can order armor to your specifications and find all of the
trappings you might want for any character.

Boffer Weapon Safety 
Weapon and Shield Specifications

Weapon Guidelines
All weapons have a minimum and maximum length, grip, and blade length requirements. Certain
weapons including Polearms, Axes, and Maces, requires an additonal part called the head. The head is a open
cell foam part of the weapon that represents a striking surface. All weapons must be created with 5/8 inch
wall closed cell foam. Each weapon must have both a thrusting and waylay tip. The thrusting and waylay
tips are used to cap the ends of the weapons. Tips are constructed using open cell foam, approximately 2”
in depth. All surfaces of the weapon must be covered with duct or kite tape. The tape should be in vertical
strips running the length of the blade to avoid compacting the closed cell foam. The parts of a sword are
labeled on the diagram below.

Below is a list of Minimum and Maximum sizing for many types commonly used of weapons.

Shield Specifications
Shields can be constructed out of almost any strong and light material. Thin sheets of corrugated plastic,
metal or wood work well. The total shield size cannot be greater than 531 square inches, and the longest
dimension cannot exceed 36”. Any voids gaps, holes or recesses, will be included in the overall shield area.
The shield must have 5/8 “ thick foam surrounding the edge. No bolts or other protuberances are allowed.

Boffer Weapon Safety 
Test Your Weapons

You can test your weapons by checking for the following:
1. Check the tips for sharp edges, uncovered foam and general softness
2. Check the base of the tip by squeezing firmly to make sure that you cannot feel the core of the weapon
3. Make sure the length of the weapon is soft and not squished or dented
4. The thrusting tip of the weapon should be approximately 2” deep, and should be as wide as the rest of
the weapon.
5. The waylay tip should be at least 1” deep and should be the same width as the rest of the weapon.
6. The closed cell foam should be firmly attached to the core of the weapon and should not slide or twist
when pulled.
7. The closed cell foam should not be visible anywhere on the weapon.
8. Nowhere on the weapon should the weapon core be visible.
9. The weapon must be taped in a lengthwise manner. This reduces the weight of the weapon.
10. The waylay and thrusting tips should be firmly attached to the closed cell foam. They should not come
off when pulled or twisted firmly.
11. The open cell foam should not rattle when the weapon is shaken. If it does, the foam is not fitted
properly on the core.
12. No foreign objects should be put into or attached to the weapon core to balance the weapon.
13. A weapon cannot be designed to “trap” other weapons.
14. All parts of a hilt of any weapon should be made from open or closed cell foam, and should not be sharp
or hard to the touch.
15. The overall weapon length should not be more than the maximum allowed. Allow for weapon tips when
you measure and cut your weapon core.
16. A weapon should not bend even when swung strongly. In particular, check longer weapons for this problem.

Maintenance
A well-made weapon should last several events without much maintenance, but you will want to check
it carefully before and after each event. Store your weapons in a dry cool place, since direct sunlight can
wrinkle or peel the tape. DO NOT lean your weapons on the tips when you store them, and NEVER lean
on the tips.

Your weapon tips will probably have to be replaced more often than the cell foam.

Boffer Weapon Safety | NorthCoast NERO