There's a story developing on Loongsoul's blog that a very well known doll agent (sells lots of companies' dolls) is the same person as a prolific recaster. Link here (Chinese Language): http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_7b79a6dc0101fpt8.html I've never heard of this person until now but from what I can make out his/her public persona (as agent) is pretty famous and controversial. But what I'm wondering now is this: does anyone have gossip on weiju and fdoll etc? A quick googling online reveals that weiju is a general toy company but they do not have a website for bjd casting. Fdoll only does business on their website and I haven't found any links between them and plagiarism. Dollzone began as a recaster (right?) and later reformed themselves? Dollshe's stringent documentation requirements suddenly look a lot less paranoid.
I checked out Weiju before I contacted them about casting Puck. ' Couldn't find anything that would suggest they were in the recasting business. Since they have many doll companies as their clients, it wouldn't be very sensible for them to do so. They'd be shooting themselves in the foot. Dollzone indeed used to sell a doll that looked exactly like one of Luts' kid delfs, but the community found out and they lost a substantial amount of credibility because of it. It took them years before they lost some of their stigma, although there are still some of the first collectors who refuse to buy from this company, even though they have changed their ways. The fact that they once copied a doll and claimed it was their original work is something that still sticks to them. I for one am glad with Dollshe's document requirements. First of all, as a customer you can be more sure that dolls casted by Dollshe are originals, but this policy also helps prevent Dollshe from getting into legal trouble later on. They don't ask extreme things anyway. When I decided I wanted Drazen to be casted by them, all I had to do was show them four progress pictures where you could clearly see the doll was sculpted in clay (I send my masters out as resin copies, so I'd have to do this anyway).
Silk, which doll companies cast using weiju? I couldn't find that information >_< From what I can see weiju produces toys other than bjd, and their model of business is to make profit with by producing massive numbers. BJD casting seems like a side business to increase revenue to their workshops and recasting probably won't turn a big profit for the company, but might for individual casters working there. I came across the loongsoul story because I was trying to compare weiju to other casting services in China. From the vibes I got, a few bjd-specializing casting services are known to sell their clients' works as recasts on the side. Interestingly the artist bjd people I asked in China are not familiar with weiju and dollshe's casting services.
