Recast issues in my own home! :(

EDIT: I have removed information that may allow anyone to make a search for the client mentioned in this post. I realize I'm not used to writing posts about other ppl so I made a few mistakes by thinking that as long as I did not mention my client's name and contact info I was protecting their identity. As such I apologize if my writing is a bit awkward in censoring any relevant information.

So if any of you follow my tumblr or twitter you will know that I was recently sent a recast to paint. Please note that I clearly state I do not accept or paint recasts and I am very much anti-recast. However the girl who sent the recast PukiFee Ante plate to me did not know what recasts were and as a recast commission showed up on my doorstep. At first I did not want to post any photos of this plate anywhere but then I realized it would be a good way to show ppl some signs to look out for in recasts.

Here's my experience with the recast plate and how I discovered it was a recast.
More under Cut


The first thought that crossed my mind upon opening the package was that the plate seemed oddly dark for Fairyland Normal. However since resin can change color with age I just soaked the plate in soapy water and gave it a scrub.

While airbrushing on the base layer I noticed that one of the ears was a funny shape. Upon closer inspection I saw that there was a bit missing from the tip due to bubbles but it isn't super visible with a wig on. I contacted the owner to let her know. At this point I didn't think it was a recast but I was a little suspicious because I own a lot (yes a lot) of FL dolls and I had yet to see a bubble in any of their casts.

I continued the faceup since I didn't have any proof that the doll was a recast. As I was painting her lips I realized that they were very poorly casted. They were the worse casting job I had ever seen. It was obvious that the mold was overused resulting in a loss of detail and overly wavy edges. Fine detail in lip lines require a thin fragile piece of silicone in the mold to give it that shape. Thin silicone can warp and stretch more quickly and as a result you end up with oddly wavy lip lines that no longer look like liplines.

I tried to go on with the faceup because I didn't want to accuse anyone of sending me a recast but the issue with the lips bothered me so much that I looked at the back of the plate and compared it to all my PukiFee faceplates. Needless to say I only saw more evidence that the plate was a recast at which point I contacted the owner to let her know the casting issues and to inform her that if she purchased the doll from FL recently she should inform them of the poor job they did and if she got it second hand, it might very well be a recast.

The list of issues are:

1. Bubbles in the cast.

2. Odd resin color that is darker but not yellowed.

3. Terrible casting in the lips.

4. Loss of detail/odd bumps in the ears.

5. Thinner faceplate walls.

6. Very messy texture on the inside of plate.

The owner got back to me and told me finally that it was a recast and she hadn't known about them when she bought her doll. She just thought she got a good deal and she felt very bad about it. I reassured her that since I was quite far along in the painting proccess that I would finish it and it was a mistake but she should enjoy the doll anyway.

Here are some photos I took to show the difference between a recast and a legit. Pls note that the texture on the recast is because I was in the middle of painting it and so there is paint on it.

You can see here that there are odd bits in the crevices from the bad casting. and the lip no longer looks like a lip much.

Here is the final result.

From photos it is indeed difficult to tell it is a recast. The details are very small so a lot of pro-recast ppl like to gloat that their dolls look just like the real thing. It's true that in photos it is hard to tell but in real life if you are familiar with the company there are issues that pop up. Keep in mind this is only a faceplate. I'm not sure how the body is or if its posing abilities are affected.

Since the commission ended, the owner has let me know she purchased a Pukisha straight from Fairyland and will be sending it to me to paint. I accepted this new commission a month or more ago but have since finally taken a look at my Facebook. I pretty much ignore Facebook but as a fluke I checked and saw the owner had friended me. Randomly I get a friend suggestion for a  with person with the same name as a well known recaster. The icon photo was of some blonde man so I check his page to be sure it's him. It is indeed and it really sickened me to see that he had already appropriated new sculpts from companies and was recasting them with a colorist he hired to achieve resin colors closer to legitimate resin.

Now why does this pertain at all to this recast commission? Because right there I saw that my customer had left a note on the page asking the recaster to get back to her on her new order. It left a sick feeling in my stomach so I went to check her page and noticed she had photos of various recasts including a Kinoko Juice and an oddly colored Pukisha. Not only did I notice she only had photos of recasts that belonged to her but I notice she recently took a trip to Disney Japan....now if you have money to go on a trip to Disney Japan, why don't you pay the rightful artists for their work? I would love to go to Disney Japan but I cannot afford it. Needless to say I'm quite suspicious of the incoming Pukisha and I am very very unhappy about the situation.