Are recast sizes the same as legit doll size? Or they tend to be a little bigger compare to their legit counterparts? Thanks.
No, in any case they might be smaller. Usually if you choose a good seller with good reputation and well know (like S/L) you will get a doll from the exact same size as the legit (if there is a “shrinking” at all, it’s so minimal you can’t see it with your naked eyes). If you choose a lesser known seller, who might be doing “a copy from another copy” (and so on), the size might be a bit smaller (and perceivable in comparison to the legit). If you’re lucky, it will be not more than a few milliliters, almost unnoticeable unless you are comparing a legit “side by side”, but if you run out of luck you might get a doll up to, let’s say, 2cm smaller than the legit.
This happens as a part of the casting process and it’s usually refereed to as “shrinking” (that it’s the same in legit and recast alike). Every time you do a silicon mold from anything (like a doll part), the casting from that mold will reduce it’s size very slightly. Usually it’s so minimum that you can barely notice the different, only comparing it to the piece that was used to create the mold. But there are some issues you might want to consider, because well know recasters will buy the legit (or get it from people), so they do their molds from the legit itself, maintaining details, quality and size. If you buy from “a lesser know recaster” (with better prices and cheaper dolls), who might not have the money to get the legit, the seller will get a recast from another well known recaster and do their mold from that doll, thus, you might encounter 3rd or 4th and 5fth generation recast. The higher the number of times the same mold has gone trough one recaster to another, the smaller the doll, because each time the seller it’s doing a mold from a “copy of a copy of a copy...”, and each time you make a mold turns out a bit smaller.
So yes, this is one of the many issues picking up dolls from unknown and untrusted sellers. If you want the doll to be “just like the legit” that $15 difference might be actually doing a whole lot of difference in the end.