For those of you who don’t know, recasting, as it’s called in the world of ball jointed dolls, is when companies or individuals take an artist’s doll, and make molds for the purpose of copying them for resale, without the original artist’s knowledge or permission. Buying recast dolls not only hurts doll makers, it also hurts other collectors.
Groups and websites that call themselves “recast friendly” allow all collectors, recast and legit, to share and discuss their dolls. Recasters have put ethical issues at the forefront of BJD collecting.
I Will Always be Pro-artist
As an artist, as someone who has been on a long journey to create my first resin BJD, this ethical issues touches me deeply.
Even though there is so much emotion around recasting, we as a community, cannot put these ethical issues aside. But having said this, I also believe that we have to remember to be kind, even when we strongly disagree with someone else’s perspective about buying recast dolls.
If I see someone posting photos of a recast doll in a group that I am a part of, I won’t call them out or send them a mean private message. I urge you not to do this either.
But if they are posting to a group that has banned recasts, I might contact the moderator, and let them deal with it instead of publicly confronting the person. I encourage all of you to take this approach also. Because you know what, we might be wrong about the doll in question being a recast. Too many times I’ve seen people harassing someone over buying recast dolls, and it turns out it is a legit doll.
As Anne Pecaro says on her YouTube channel On YouTube Drama & Hot Button Topics, “Love changes everything” . Or at least, kindness changes everything.
If you have friends who think it that buying recast dolls is okay, and you can’t convince them otherwise, then find something else to talk about when you are with them, or give them up as friends.
One Artists Perspective on Buying Recast Dolls
Here is my full perspective as a doll artist, and a long time BJD collector.
Recasting is stealing from the person who created the doll in the worst way possible that goes way beyond copying, or making something that is considered too similar.
Recasters take a doll, make a mold of it, and then cast. Recasting hurts both the doll companies, and individual artists who created the doll, and spent countless hours creating it. When you are buying recast dolls, you are buying something that is counterfeit.
And there is nothing friendly about recasting.
I’ll talk more in another post about how to try and identify a recast. It’s especially important to know if you are buying a doll on the secondary market. It’s difficult just from photos, but some people can tell.
One of the oldest and largest BJD forums, Den of Angels, took a stance early on that recast dolls are not allowed on their forum. You can read DOA’s official position here as well as well as statements from some of the Asian BJD companies who’s dolls have been recast. Buying recast dolls is also not allowed to be discussed on a lot of Facebook groups like BJD Addicts.
Since I don’t hang around recast forums, I don’t know all of their arguments as to why buying and selling recasts dolls should be an acceptable part of the hobby, but in researching this article I visited some recast friendly sites and learned…
Reasons Why Recast Collectors Say Buying Recast Dolls is Okay:
- BJD makers are big companies in Asia and buying recast dolls isn’t really hurting anybody.
- They charge too much for their doll.
- The wait is too long.
- The Asian companies are hard to communicate with and their websites aren’t user friendly.
- It’s unfair to people who have to borrow from their college funds to afford a doll. (Yes, I really saw that comment!)
These are all excuses I read on the various recast groups and forums to justify buying recast dolls. They also feel like they are being harassed, and that they are legitimate members of the BJD community.
The Truth about Ball Jointed Doll Companies
The only really big doll company is Volks in Japan. They produce other products too, so not all of their income is from dolls.
Most of the other companies have fewer than 100 employees with a lot of them employing less than 10. And, as many of them state in the DOA thread, if their sales drop due to recasts on the market, they will have less money to put into development of new products and dolls.
One small doll maker has already gone out of business. Because many of these companies are in Asia, and we don’t know as much about many of the individual artists who create their dolls, it is easier to dehumanize when justifying buying recast dolls.
But the people who make up these small companies have families who rely on their incomes, and they are lucky enough to work for mostly small companies doing something that they love. Who wouldn’t? If Iplehouse called and offered me a job, I’d be on the next plane to Korea!
Recasts Can Make It Harder To Sell Your Legit Doll
Recasts on the market affects not only the companies and artists, it affects us collectors too. When you go to resell your Unoa, Iplehouse, or Fairyland doll on eBay, and you find all the listing of recasts for a fraction of the price you paid for your doll, you’ll see what I mean.
I recently sold my Unoa Lusis on eBay for less than I’d paid for her because of recasts driving the price of legit second hand dolls down. Ebay listings are full of fake Fairyland dolls. And Ebay seems not to care that people sell counterfeit items on their platform.
Most Collectors Resell Dolls at Some Point
Unless you live in a very large house, you can only own so many dolls. So, selling some of your dolls is a reality in the hobby. And when you decide to sell, it’s nice to know that your doll will hold it’s value.
Many of the BJD’s of the past have been extremely limited. The second hand market allows buyers to pick up a doll years later that they wanted badly for a long time. There’s even a name for them. Grail dolls.
With recasts now on the second hand market, it has become a case of buyer beware. Imagine how you would feel if you discovered the grail doll you just purchased was a fake? There is nothing sacred to recastors, and small artists aren’t immune from having their dolls recast too.
Ethical issues of Buying Recast Dolls
If you ever think of buying a recast doll, I hope you will think about the ethical issues first.
In one of my first posts, I shared about some things I learned on my journey to make and cast a BJD. 5 Valuable Things Sculpting a BJD Taught Me The main thing I learn is that it is a long, slow process, and a lot of hard work!
Firstly, consider the amount of work the artist took to create it. I can only speak as an individual artist and not a company, but when I create a new doll, first I make a lot of drawings and think about the concept. Then I create an armature, sculpt the doll out of clay. I cut it apart and create the joints. Then I test string and make modifications. I do this over and oven again until I am happy with the movement.
When I cast in the future, I will create molds and cast into resin. Of this process, 90% of the work comes before the mold making and casting phase.
What I left out here is the love, and the part of yourself that you put into making a doll. I think that for most doll makers, finding out that someone has recast their dolls is heart breaking.
What goes into making a recast? Buy a doll from a company or artist, take it apart, make molds and cast.
While I was writing this post I was explaining to my teenage son about the recast community, and how many people there are out there that openly buy and sell recast dolls. He said to me, “You better not be okay with that!” I find it really sad that there are so many adults who don’t have that same sense of right and wrong.
Three things you can do:
- Never knowingly buy a recast doll either new or from the secondary market.
- Do not take part in any forums or websites that are “Recast Friedly”. Is is not correct to support people who buy counterfeit dolls.
- When you see a doll being listed on eBay as recast, file a complaint. So far eBay hasn’t done anything, but if enough people start complaining maybe that will change. Importing counterfeit items into the US is illegal.
The Ethical Debate over Buying Recast Dolls
Everyone in the hobby already has strong opinions about the ethical issues around recasting. As long as people continue buying recast dolls, and sharing them online, this controversy won’t go away.
Also it’s to remember to treat each other with kindness. I really encourage you to watch Anne Pecoro’s video. The link is above. She says it with more compassion than I can. “People are more important than things or ideas.”
As a doll artist, I don’t accept that recasting is right. Recasting dolls is stealing. So if you are pro-recast and we were having tea together, we would have talk about other things. Something less controversial than the subject of buying recast dolls . But would I remain friends with someone who btuys and promotes recast dolls? Probably not. It’s too big an issue for me. After all, I make dolls.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this issue. Please do it with kindness.