That's an admirable way of looking at the problem Gary, but I can't see your average recaster seeing things the same way. If you feel you can purchase an oop kit reproduction without any concern that's great for you but you're still encouraging and financing a recaster who may not share the same ideals about restricting their activities to oop kits.......in other words it may be a satifactory transaction to you but it's further encouragement and motivation for a recaster to broaden their horizons.....I'd simply suggest that you either jump in and buy the lot or nothing at all. I'd lean towards nothing at all. ***************
Mark, You make some pretty sweeping assumptions here about me. Firstly let me clarify one thing for you and the readership. I DO NOT personally buy recasts as I don't need to being in the fortunate financial position to fully indulge myself in the hobby and buy whatever figure(s) I like. Were however I to want one day to paint a figure that is no longer available commercially, I would have no problem with asking someone who did have one (an original) in their grey army to do me a home cast copy for my own personal use. If I cannot buy it readily and hand over my money to whoever owns the "property rights", how is that depriving him / her of my money if there is no one to whom I can make payment because no one has one to sell me? I would also politely suggest that what people may say in respect of a like scenario and then actually DO themselves, may well be two entirely different things!
Moving on, I would also imagine that no one buys a reacast by choice and rather I suspect, it's simply a case of someone buying a poor copy figure because they cannot afford to buy the far superior product of an original casting; just like someone buys for example a fake 'Rolex' watch. So, if someone (let's call the hypothetical buyer "Bob") was NEVER in a position to buy a figure from, say, "XYZ MODELS" then that company would never have had his money anyway. So, if "Bob" buys a recast "XYZ MODELS" figure, then how has that impacted upon their profit? Either way they were NEVER going to get "Bob's" money! So, I rather suspect that like the local chav who would never in a million years be in a position to buy himself a genuine £5K "Rolex" watch, his purchase of a £20.00 fake watch whilst on holiday in Thailand has zero (actual) impact on the "Rolex" company balance sheet -i.e they would NEVER have got his money anyway because the original was never a viable purchase option.
Perhaps Mark the recasters are not selling quite as many copies or having such a negative financial impact upon the companies as we sometimes like to imagine; especially given the somewhat limited (and declining) number of us in the hobby as a customer base? The inactivity of many of the major companies to make concerted efforts to report these people tends to support this theory or they may have been more vocal and proactive on the issue. On a final note and to confirm with you, I am NOT defending the people who knock these things out - they don't get any of my money so my conscience is clear - but I can understand in these harsh economic times why some people feel it's their only option if they wish to pursue and make the hobby (for them) affordable.
Cheers Mark
Gary
