My doll collection just went into the triple digits this week. I’ve got even more if you count the floating heads and face plates. If I had never sold a doll… Well, we won’t count those.
Every single one of them is and has been 100% legit. 100 % Legit. Real. Authentic. Not a bootleg or a fake.
My 100% legit collection wasn’t an accident. It took a lot of fucking hard work, waiting for grails to come along at the right time, saving, careful layaway plans. I went through college, was homeless briefly, had a cat go through intense medical issues and eventually died from cancer. None of that was an excuse to ever buy a fake. I simply didn’t get dolls then. I sold when I needed too in order to get by. I developed marketable skills, quite a few of them even. Heck, my skills developed playing in this hobby are legit skills that even helped me get a Real Job.
I was 19 when I got into this hobby. A freaking kid. I’ve been here for more than 10 years. I’ve made amazing lifelong friends, traveled across the country, and had amazing experiences because of the dolls. I’d never sacrifice any of this to save a buck. My mind can’t even fathom a single reason anybody would ever need to throw ethics to the wayside and buy a recast, especially with everything on the line. Being excluded from the majority of this amazing hobby? Who would risk that? Lots of people apparently. Now look at what they’ve done.
I have fought against recasting for years. Before people even took the threat seriously I was trying to educate people on a forum. I was ignored and vilified. Defending art, ethics, and what is right made me a bully!? I was and still am incredulous.
What’s really sick is that I’ve become suspicious of anybody new. It’s gross. It is horrible that we can’t openly trust people anymore. Every action is analyzed before we’re sure we’re not helping a recaster. I was helped so much as a new kid in this hobby, and now a huge amount of people are reflexively closing ranks for protection and invariably cutting off fresh newbies off from valuable information and resources. Meanwhile, a bunch of jerks are going on and on about the wonders of cheaper fakes with every excuse in the book to avoid getting a legit.
What is happening now is a direct result of everybody who bought a recast, defended their friends that painted recasts, and tried to be neutral because they thought they didn’t like drama. Look what they’ve done. It’s sickening and heartbreaking. Recasting is a cancer. The whole style of doll could implode and go completely extinct very soon. I can’t even imagine what the artists and companies are going through right now.
An entire cottage industry is in very real danger of collapsing. Hundreds of artists, are affected. Their families are affected. These companies are not big and each doll requires a ton of time to be made by hand and finished by hand.
If anybody ever think this doesn’t affect them, it sets a very ugly precedent. This could have very long lasting affects even beyond the dolls.
Thanks for pissing in the sandbox folks, I hope your fake ass dolls were worth it.
