The Iplehouse thing
You do realize that that it only takes about $50 of resin for these dolls, so every person is paying the full price of the artist time on these. It’s like if everyone was paying the millions for a game.
These are not original pieces that the crafter makes one of and sells. These dolls are basically “prints”. And paying $1000 for $50 of product and probably the full amount of time the sculptors time they did PER PRINT is outrageous.
So no. They either make the ‘print’ more affordable for people or realize that they will have copies and recasts. Other BJD comapnies will sometimes make a “look-a-like” and then get torn to shreds for “copying” another doll maker. How dare they make their own version of whatever it is!
This is like fashion where Louis Vuitton will make something and then a knock-off it will be in Wal-mart the next day. The sculptors get fucking paid.
I mean it’s already shit enough that people that can only afford the cheaper dolls are snubbed because they aren’t loaded rich people and here they are expected to put forth a months worth of rent for an overpriced doll just so people won’t snub them.
I know the BJD community and it is VILE. Den of Angels is probably the WORST place out there. They originally weren’t going to have any Chinese dolls at all but had to bow to pressure. They are elitist shits. So FUCK THIS SHIT.
TL:DR: People are NOT paying for a one of a kind. It’s a mass produced thing and people are paying the sculptor’s time in full for each ‘print’. Prices are high because elitism. The artist gets paid. Don’t worry about it.
Seriously, NO.
Just no, no and no.
Usually I stay away from drama of this kind. But I am strongly anti-recast and this reeks like a perfect argument pro-recast people could use, so I feel the need to clear some of the misconceptions up (no I am not saying you are necessarily a pro-recast person, it’s just the argument that could be used for that).
So let’s make it clear.
You are not just paying the artist’s work time.
You are paying the work time of the people who CAST THESE DOLLS by hand, the rent for the building the doll is cast in (which might need temperature and humidity conditioning etc.) and more than 50 dollars in resin because some parts (as in all hand-made products that are NOT mass produced) have to be cast anew due to flaws. You are also paying a part of the price for the silicone molds which have to be renewed often. You are paying part of the price that the company needs to pay their website designers and so on so they even get the publicity that’s needed to sell dolls.
Thinking like you do is only possible if one knows nothing about business in real life. And have never made a doll from scratch before. People need to eat. Not only the artist but also those who work with the artist. And if the artist works alone and actually casts every single doll... then it is actually the artist’s work time you pay.
Of course, depending on location, the price for food and other goods you need to buy to live is varying. So the financial standards are different, and the average salary varies from country to country. That is why Chinese dolls tend to be less expensive than South Korean ones or Japanese ones. Not because they are less good or less valuable as art objects, but because the people who cast the dolls by hand and work for the company have a lower pay. “Elitism” has a much smaller influence on the doll price than people think.
And to anybody who would use these arguments for pro-recast discussions:
Recasting is not only bad for the artist. Cheaper dolls mean less salary paid to those who do the casting. That’s not fair trade...
So please think again.
