#truebjdrecasts

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Mod: We’re bringing the cake theme back for Recast Day (I can’t find the posts now but I used to do this a few years ago!) ❤️

[bjd-confessions]

1. Pro artist people are not against recasts because of their price. We are against them because they’re a form of art theft. Recasts hurt the companies and artists.

2. Doll companies are not large corporations. Doll companies are very small. These are real individual people that are losing profits, not nameless faces.

3. Several companies and artists have made public statements saying that recasts are harmful to them. Soom, Luts, Fairyland, Iplehouse, Dollzone, Kaye Wiggs, Atelier Momoni, and Lilycat, just to name a few of them.

4. Buying recasts is still harmful to the artists and companies whether or not you do good things like volunteer work or donating to charities.

5. Buying recasts is still harmful to the artists and companies whether or not worse things are happening in the world.

6. Buying recasts is still harmful to the artists and companies whether or not anti recast people do bad things too.

7. A company or artist having long wait times for their products does not justify stealing from them.

8. A company or artist not selling something in the color that you want does not justify stealing from them. Also, Rit Dye exists.

9. A company or artist having poor quality control does not justify stealing from them.

10. A company or artist doing something problematic or wrong does not justify stealing from them.

11. Being excluded for supporting art theft is not comparable to any group of minorities facing violence and discrimination.  

12. It’s not elitist to disagree with stealing from doll companies and artists.

13. It’s not elitist to exclude recasts from legit only groups.

14. It’s not bullying to say “supporting recasts is supporting art theft”.

15. It’s not bullying if a faceup artist refuses to work on a recast doll.

16. Pro artist people asking you to tag your recasts is not bullying.

17. If you can afford to buy multiple recast dolls then you can afford to buy at least one legit doll.  

18. Less expensive legit dolls exist, there are many wonderful legit bjd sculpts that are less than $300.

19. Most recast dolls go for around $130 or $200. There are plenty of legit dolls that cost the same amount or less.

20. For two recasts that cost $200 each, you could have one legit doll that costs $400 or even two legit dolls that cost $200 each.

21. Dolls are not a necessity. People getting paid for their work is a necessity.

22. You can use legit dolls for coping just as well as you could use a recast for coping.

23. Being mentally or physically ill is not an excuse to support art theft.

24. Being disabled is not an excuse to support art theft.

25. Being poor is not an excuse to support art theft.

[the-bjd-community-confess]

“Dear newbies and other accidental recast owners… ”

Dear newbies and other accidental recast owners; you are not a terrible person for your or your gifter’s mistake in buying a recast. You can still enjoy the hobby! I’m sorry you ended up in this position, and I will not deny you sympathy even if you are attached to your recast doll. I do request that you avoid posting it in legit only spaces, and that you avoid buying recasts from now on, now that you know better, and hopefully you can enjoy the hobby despite this misfortune.

Don’t fall for the anti-artist mindset of demonizing pro-artists, many of us if not most will understand the mistake, and the rest aren’t worth your time. Contrary to what you see on drama/confession blogs, you are NOT scum for this mistake, and I. Don’t. Blame. You.

I don’t want to drive someone with so much potential out of the hobby. You can still enjoy the hobby, and you can bring great things to the community and make good friends regardless. As long as you are honest about what happened, and do not intend to further fund recasters, I truly believe you can be a part of the hobby. Who knows, maybe your recast can be used to show some of the differences between recasts and legits for future newbies to help them avoid making that same mistake.

I hope whatever holiday you celebrate has gone well and that you are in good spirits this winter, and I hope that this mistake isn’t enough to ruin your holiday. I hope the upcoming year is good to you regardless!

☃️☄️❄️🎄🌟🌨️

~Anonymous

[the-bjd-community-confess]

I see people comment sometimes like IVE BEEN IN THE HOBBY 200 YEARS AND NEVER ONCE HAVE I ERRED IN MY WAYS, THOSE WHO COME IN MY GLORIOUS WAKE HAVE NO EXCUSE FOR THEIR VILE TRANSGRESSIONS and bruh that is the point.

You grew up in forum culture. Obscure shit hidden in people’s blogs was the norm. Having to ask your questions on a fucking Geocities guestbook and wait six months to get a reply was just how things were. But it’s basically 2020 now, and until someone takes the time to go make open-source BJD wikia (DOA’s is decent but again with the exclusivity) with links to legitimate places to buy a given doll, information on various sculpts and who made them and how long they’ve been out of print, a comprehensive UNEMOTIONAL and NON-ACCUSATORY page on why recasts are bad with sourced information from actual companies and not screaming meemies on tumblr that people can link to in lieu of screaming at people who literally just got here; until information is brought out of castaways and doa and random flickr groups and INTO the actual forefront of the internet where people can access it without having to interact with other people, this hobby is going to continue to have problems because it’s stuck in 1999.

And you might say “but, why shouldn’t people interact with the community and have their knowledge bestowed, like a gift, from a community elder?”

Frankly, because you people don’t WANT to interact with newcomers! You can say “guide, educate, help” all you like but the second someone fucks up it’s like a goldfish among sharks in this community.

Because no matter how much people put their fingers in their ears and deny it, recent VERY PUBLIC events have further proved why this hobby has a reputation worse than the furry fandom. For every even-tempered friendly face in this hobby, there are two people trying to doxx someone for potentially maybe owning a doll that isn’t legitimate. Or telling someone to go die over doll booby sizes. Or calling someone a freak for having a certain aesthetic, a certain model, someone saying that resin is better than vinyl is better than resin is better than… I mean my god have you guys actually seen how non-hobbyists see us? OTHER TOY COLLECTORS think we’re toxic. People who have no problem with the “dolls are for babies” aspect think we’re unapproachable. And can you blame them? I have been part of some incredibly niche fandoms both personally and professionally. I have seen some shit. I have witnessed diapers. I have watched entire communities of maybe 100 people tear themselves apart in vicious power struggles over virtual pets and I once at an auction saw two old ladies get in a fistfight over a vintage tea set. But never have I ever met a community of collectors as universally described as “elitist” and “toxic” as this one. This hobby is dying because all the information is locked away in aunt angela’s forum and zoomers, who will be entering this hobby sooner rather than later whether you like it or not, have no base of experience for interacting with any of that in a time where information is typically 2 seconds and a google away. And it’s further dying because no one even WANTS to get into the hobby when its reputation is universally “pretty dolls, horrible people.” Modernize and stop being so awful to each other, because this hobby is starting to feel like it’s populated by boomers.

~Anonymous

[the-bjd-community-confess]

@ People thinking recast BJDs = Fake/factory Blythe dolls            

Hi everyone, I’ve been in the Blythe hobby for 15+ yrs and the BJD hobby for 13+ yrs and I’m here to clear up common misconceptions I often see that come across from other doll communities.

Fake & factory Blythe dolls aren’t considered negatively like recasts are in the BJD community for numerous reasons which I’ll get into.

“Factory” Blythe dolls, (made of authentic Takara-released doll parts), first appeared in a few Taobao shops around 2012- after the factory Takara was using started leaking damaged or B grade parts that would have otherwise been thrown in landfill as production waste. Some factory workers started smuggling the parts destined for landfill out and assembling them to create complete Blythe dolls to sell online. The charm was that they were a mix of random & sometimes rare Takara released doll parts, making for some unique combinations. Being a lot cheaper than- and similar quality as- officially released dolls lead to collectors & customizers using factory dolls as an alternative to riskily experimenting carving & painting the expensive official releases.

After a year or two of the factory dolls leaking, Takara moved its production location so the supply of parts ended and the sale of “true factory” Blythe dolls came to a complete halt. Around the same time “factory” dolls started disappearing from the market, complete bootleg Blythe dolls made of very cheap materials on Bratz-style bodies had began appearing. They were very noticeable as fake dolls- being almost dollar-store quality; thin hair, and slightly off face mold, loose bodies, poor paint etc.

Over time the random bootleg toy factory producing them up-scaled production to meet the growing demand for a cheaper Blythe alternative, increasing the quality over the coming years until they reached a point where the fake dolls were extremely similar in quality to the authentic Takara dolls. The shops selling the higher-quality fakes cottoned onto the popularity of the term “Factory Blythe” that used to be sold on Taobao and started selling the fake Blythe dolls as “Factory Blythe” in the title and description.

The current “factory” Blythe dolls are not made of authentic parts, but are fake dolls manufactured to be as close to the real thing as possible using different molds and materials. The huge influx of fake dolls being sold as “factory” on Taobao and Aliexpress blurred the line between the two, leading newcomers to the Blythe hobby not fully understanding the difference between fake and factory. Most of these current “fake factory” dolls have paint colors, hair colors/ textures, skin colors, body types that Takara has never produced and wouldn’t be possible to source from a Takara factory. Some of them are assembled to look similar to authentic releases, however fine details in the face molds, eye mechanisms, material textures & qualities are different enough to discern it as being a copy

SO, WHY DOESN’T THE BLYTHE COMMUNITY MIND FAKE DOLLS?

It’s because there isn’t the direct small-scale artisanal involvement with Blythe as there is with crafting a BJD. Blythe was first marketed as a mass produced playline toy in 1972 by Kenner. Then in 2001 reintroduced by Hasbro, (who bought out all rights to Kenner products), allowing Takara to begin production of what is now the Neo-Blythe doll. At one point another company, Ashton Drake was given the licence to produce Blythe dolls too. This is mostly why the fake Blythe dolls aren’t regarded as an issue. Because Blythe in her raw state is not a niche art doll, she’s a licensed mass produced toy, passed around and produced by different large companies over the years. It is entirely akin to buying any other barbie knock-off, monster high clone. The appeal is the accessibility, wide range of color options, and quality being so similar to an authentic Blythe- for a quarter of the price. Not to mention the ease of customization without taking a rare Takara doll away from it’s original appearance or risking damaging a hard to find doll.

Okay WOW this turned into an essay, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen this entire thing documented in one go. Hopefully this will make peoples decisions easier.

TLDR;  *CURRENT Factory Blythes / Fake Blythes are the exact same thing & are produced by Chinese non-Takara toy factories. Factory Blythe dolls made of the authentic “stolen” Neo Blythe parts completely stopped being available around 2013/14. Most Blythe collectors own a mixture of real & fake dolls. Blythe in her raw form is not an art doll, shes a mass-produced playline toy turned-collector doll by the Blythe community. Blythe exists as a character licensed and produced by many companies and factories over the decades. Every Blythe doll; Hasbro, Takara, Kenner, Ashton Drake, Factory or Fake, is a Blythe.*

I hope this shed a little light on Blythe history for BJD people, and why the Blythe community enjoys and welcomes all Blythe dolls.

~Anonymous

[the-bjd-community-confess]

After the screencaps that kitso0ni shared, the fact that Nex J3n was explained by rap19993, an artist who is in the ACTUAL business of BJDs, why people were upset, explained what recasts were, AND offered to give additional help for her understand more about recasts and she STILL made her follow up video acting the way she did is frustrating as hell. I wanted to feel bad for her, but after seeing this nvm dude

~Anonymous

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Hi, I am a doll maker and surprise surprise, we don't make lots of money. We work for months or years on a sculpt. Time that isn't paid. It would be like you working at a place, and only getting paid if you sell something, even though you work there full time. Lots of us don't cast ourselves, and we usually fund the casting with preorders, which again, isn't money for my pocket and is extra time. I need to make sure I can earn enough profit with one preorder, to sustain myself for months            

~Anonymous

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Someone once knowingly (I later found them posting on Castaways) sent me a recast head for a faceup and I didn't realize until the faceup was mostly finished. What I ended up doing was wiping the work I'd done so far and writing RECAST in sharpie on the inside of the head, refunding their payment less shipping, and sending it back to them. Never heard from them again, never saw them post complaining about the sharpie thing.   

~Anonymous