Masquerade policy regarding fan artist design & Voltron

[Kiarrens]

Just putting this out there so people aren't confused about the ruling on these two things. I will likely be adding them to the official rules for next year.

FAN DESIGNS
Due to the popularity of alternative designs and "fan" artists such as Saziko, we have put a lot of thought into what we do and do not allow for the Masquerade Craftsmanship competition. I hate to stifle peoples' creativity, but we have to draw a line in the sand *somewhere.*

Any "alternative" design must be OK'd by the coordinator (namely, me) before it will be allowed to compete. This said, there are some guidelines I am working off of, on each case-by-case basis.

1. If the design is a gijinka or a steampunk/fem version/etc of an established Japanese character, is it recognizable as the original character? If so, we are likely to allow it. This goes for both original designs by the costume creator and fan art.
2.Fan-art designs commissioned by the costume creator are also permissible, provided the above stipulations are met (ie, that the original character is of Japanese origin and the costume is still recognizable as the character).
3.Saziko is an interesting case, as the artist is Japanese and often makes up her own characters or utilizes characters already in the public domain. Since the artist is Japanese, I am ruling that she should be viewed as a manga artist in her own right. If she were to do a version of, say, Iron Man, this would not be allowed to compete (though it would be hilarious and I would love to see a big floofy-dressed Iron Man at the con). But Japanese characters or those in the public domain (such as Snow White) are admissible for competition. Original characters or characters from the public domain by non-Japanese artists would NOT be permissible.


VOLTRON:
The original 1980s Voltron is permissible, as the American version of the Japanese show stole a lot of the animation and plot/character/theme elements almost wholesale from Beast King GoLion and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV. However, the Netflix reboot (while awesome) is NOT permissible. They've changed too much of the story and characters, and are essentially an entirely new (American) show.

[MomoKitty]

Thanks for the clarification on where new Voltron stands
This was bound to be a huge issue for next year since the theme is space, so this saves you the trouble of answering the same question a million times.