What is "recasting"?

[TB-1019]

For those of you rookies out there who are unaware, "recasting" is the act of taking an original artisan's work and creating new molds from them for the purpose of creating knockoffs. There is a debate in the hobby as to the ethics of recasting. Some argue that it takes money out of the hands of original artists like MLC, MC or KS (who make enough money to pay for the materials they use and who cannot make a substantial profit, or else be taken down by Lucasfilm). Others would argue that these artists do not have a claim to a design that originated from Lucasfilm's studios and that they are not original. The controversy is much more complicated than that, but when it comes down to it, recasted goods almost always are qualitatively inferior to the originals. You may pay less for them, but you risk quality and accuracy and oftentimes, dealing with people whose business ethics are to copy another persons' hard work, you put yourself at risk for having your hard earned money taken from you with nothing to show for it except, maybe, a terrible copy.

 

This is why we emphasize doing your homework. We're not trying to be difficult here. We're only trying to help people not get shafted and to help them come away with quality gear.