1. Copying kits is a crime that hurts original artists & producers. Help support your favorite artists by buying their original works. PlanetFigure will not tolerate any activities related to recasting, and will report recasters to authorities. Thank you for your support!

FOR THOSE NEW TO THE HOBBY: HOW TO SPOT A PIRATED FIGURE

Discussion in 'Welcome aboard' started by Babelfish, Nov 27, 2014.

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  1. Babelfish A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    It's not just designer handbags, perfumes, car parts and and movies that get pirated. If you're new to this hobby you might be surprised to learn that model figures are commonly pirated also.

    The policy of this online community is to always support legitimate figure producers and not to promote pirates (aka "recasters" or "repoppers"). Buy off a recaster and you may think you're getting the deal of the century, but really all you're doing is taking trade away from the legit guys who work hard (often on very tight profit margins) to bring us quality kits.

    Take away their bread and butter and eventually they'll go out of business. Over the past four years, a number of renowned names have gone under or have ceased trading (Elite, Seil, S&T, Latorre/Tosion are just a few off the top of my head). We don't want to lose any more.

    Spotting a recast (at a show, being sold online, or wherever) isn't always an exact science, but there are usually some dead giveaways that will flag a kit up as a recast. So without further ado, this is the kind of stuff you need to be looking out for:

    1) Price. The old adage of "if it looks too good to be true, it probably is" definitely applies in spades here. So if you see a 100-Dollar (or Pounds or Euros) kit being pedalled on eBay for 20 bucks, you can safely bet your grandma that it's a knock-off.

    2) Packaging. Or rather - lack thereof. Most recasts sold online will come with descriptions like "no more box" or "original box missing". This is because (a) the repoppers never had the original in the first place and (b) what do they care about presentation? They're just out to make a fast buck on the back of someone else's hard work.

    3) Metal or resin? Know your kits! You need to know what material the original is cast in. Original Pegaso 54mm, 75mm and 90mm foot and mounted figures for example are cast in white metal. So if you see one cast up in resin, it'll be a knock-off.

    4. Quality. More often than not, both the casting quality and the quality of the resin or metal used by the recaster will be inferior to the original (sometimes vastly inferior). They often use the original box art photos (lifted off the Web) in their sale descriptions but don't be fooled. Because what may look like a great bargain will probably turn out to be a pig in a poke full of air bubbles, casting flaws and poor detail, and you may as well have flushed your hard-earned cash directly down the toilet and cut out the middle-man.

    5) Location. We need to be a bit careful here because there are also 100% legitimate traders and producers in all of these countries and regions - some of whom are fellow pF members and friends. But current recasting "hot spots" include China, Eastern Europe and South America, with a few also in Western Europe. So while a seller's country doesn't necessarily point to him being a pirate, if one or more of the other boxes (see above) are ticked as well, then the alarm bells should definitely be ringing. These sellers' item descriptions are usually in bad English as well - as properly befits the inferior quality of their product.

    So in summary, if you come across something along the lines of "Pegaso of Italy 90mm armoured knight seat on horse, cast with resin, no more box, bargain price only $30, maker need to provide glue and paintings, post from China" ...... it's a repop.

    You'll get the hang of it as you go along and develop a feel for what's legit and what isn't. But hopefully these pointers will be useful to start you off.

    Planet Figure will not promote or name any recasters details by any means , members are also not to put links to listing on well known selling sites .

    If any member is unsure message a moderator who will advise
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