Resin Model Kits?

E2046 is a site that sells recasts... I wouln't link it here.

If you want to look for Garage kits, you must "stalk" yahoo auction japan. Keep in mind that a kit can be really pricey. Here's a DB for GKs kits Items (Page 1 of 313) | MyFigureCollection.net

 

I used to love these about 15 years ago, and they were much easier to find then. Doing a search now, it seems that prepainted vinyl figures have pretty much taken over the market, at least for legitimate figures. =( The above listed site is definitely the one with the best selection - and easiest navigation - that I've seen. The problem with other legit sites is that you have to swim through pages of the pre-painted pvc kits, which you usually can't tell until you click and read the description.
One thing that hasn't changed-many of them have a requirement to pre-order, and then wait several months before the production happens. They are so much fun, though!

 

I haven't seen many figure resin kits in recent years that are easily available for purchase to foreigners, I think most of them are now only sold through special events in Japan. You can still find a few military style miniatures but not cute girls, I'm afraid. I saw a few on eBay based on the Touken Ranbu characters, for quite a bit of money just a few months ago, I think they were listed as Wonder Festival exclusives -- they are male though. They weren't erotically posed or suggestive in anyway, but just as expensive as some BJD. I read somewhere that some sculpting groups take foreign pre-orders for their kits in very small quantities, but that was at least two or three years ago; I don't think I have the link to their page anymore, but I think that they were upwards of $300 for a blank kit (I was eyeing a Mikazuki Munechika 1:3 scale bust). The injection model kits are still a bit popular, but most of them are plastic due to the nature of injection kit making process. Most are action figures in the shape of armor robots or female robots of some sort. I rarely see any of cute female figures, or static posed ones (there are a few very small scale military resin kits, but none that are cute anime girls). As one commenter above mentioned, the site to the kits you listed sells recasts of actual pre-painted scale figures that are available on official retailers; recast of any sort are illegal in most countries and are not allowed on DoA, so I would remove that if I were you.

 

Without getting into any kind of moral debate...one big issue is quality.

If you've ever had to make a copy of a piece of paper that was a copy, you can see that the quality goes down hill pretty quickly. Even a very good copy is never as good as the real thing. As tricky as this is with paper, it's even harder for 3 dimensional objects. So copying an original piece will bring down the quality.
On top of that, recasters are using a lower quality resin, to cut costs. This degrades the quality even further. If you've ever seen an evening dress in silk vs one in cheap synthetic-that's the difference in resin qualities. Cheap resin doesn't pick up fine sculpting details and the paint also adheres differently to it, in a bad way. No matter how much time and energy and care you put into it, the results won't be what they could have been.

As part of the moral debate, there is the issue of the artist who created it.

Imagine your were an independent garage kit maker. You avoided working for a company because you wanted complete creative control over what you sculpted, when, and how many were available in the world. Your work was top notch because you were able to put your heart into it. Now let's say you stop making a sculpt for whatever reason. Maybe you never really liked the sculpt, no longer wanted to be associated with that anime, or just wanted your work to take a different direction. And then someone decided to recast your work.

As soon as people start recasting, production of your art is no longer in your control. The lower quality makes your sculpting skills seem inferior. You aren't making any of the money from the recasts, and you now have a more difficult time selling your legit kits at a higher price. And even if a customer wanted to buy legit, having more recasts in the world makes it harder to find the real deal online.

The more popular the kit becomes, the more likely it is for your other works will be copied. From that point on, you are stuck in an eternal cycle where every piece of art you create becomes another thorn in your side. Really demoralizing for an artist-who wants to fight an eternal battle, begging people to stop ripping them off and taking away their livelihood?

As for recasting being the only way to get something.....that seems to be kind of a cultural mindset here in the US. We tend to think our actions are justified, because it is "the only way" to get something. As though living without the object of our desire was impossible. Like we can't save money and be patient, and order from the country or person of origin-it would just be time consuming or expensive. Or just give it up entirely and decide live without. As far as I know, nobody has ever actually died because they couldn't have a particular doll head, watch a TV show, have a designer purse, or whatever their passion was. Sometimes we just have to be okay with not having something we want.

The irony is that "garage kits" were originally created by people who couldn't find what they wanted, so they had to make it themselves!

 

The legality of unauthorized copies depends on the country you are in, and whether it is frown upon or not varies from hobby to hobby, and from forum to forum. DoA has a very strict policy against illegal copies (recast) so there is no discussing them at all on here. Whether you are okay or not with them, is a personal choice. I have personally never seen unauthorized copies of any sort as "okay," regardless of the circumstances. Fan art, cosplay, customized figures, dolls, toys, etc., that's just part of the fun of being a hobbyist -- some of us are more willing to put the effort, some of us don't -- some of us would rather pay someone else to do those things for us (like face ups, or portraiture). However, those are very different from unauthorized copies; taking an existing sculpt someone else made, copying it and selling it for profit without authorization from the rightful owner. From what I understand, most model kits are from individual artists or small studios comprised of a very small group of people. Sometimes larger companies like GoodSmile will purchase the kit and reproduce it in larger quantiles for a larger group of people to enjoy; so there is no point in purchasing an illegal copy, if an actual legal copy of the kit, in pre-painted figure form already exists. It doesn't take away from being able to customize it either, you just have to be willing to wipe off the paint yourself, or paint over it. It isn't more expensive than a legitimate kit either, it would probably be a lot less expensive from what I see original authentic resin kits going for (especially second market). Not all resin kits get turned into mass-reproduced figures, but you can find a plethora of pre-painted figures. A lot of them go for a lot less if you pre-order them. Most Japanese retailers ship world wide too, so it's easy to get them to most any country these days. There are also prize figures, if you think pre-painted "scale" figures are too expensive to customize, they usually go anywhere from $6-to-indefinte-amounts, depending on the rarity, age, and popularity of the character. If you are going to customize it anyway, you can also look for figures that are not in pristine condition second hand. Sometimes if they have some damage, some figures will be listed for ridiculously low amounts, although that is not always true, it can't hurt to look. I think there is never a good reason to get an illegal copy of anything, I know I wouldn't like it if it happened to me or to the work I do, so I don't want to do it to anyone else either.

 

Hello! Necro-ing this thread, cuz I just discovered garage kits, and the mecca for LEGIT garage kits is Volks. Mandarake sells only legit kits, too. The other big sites that come up when you Google "garage kits" do not sell legit kits, and the big ones are stealing from Volks, so avoid at all costs.

I also wanted to bring this topic back up, because it has changed the way I look at my BJDs. Resin kits are meant to be modified, sanded, puttied, painted, pinned, and glued together. Garage kits are basically expected to have flaws. Maybe I'm being too hands-off with my BJDs? I decided I want to get a garage kit on the lower end of the price range, and I'll experiment on it first (heat bending, plastic putty, airbrush painting, etc.). After that, I'll try what I've learned to mod some of my BJDs.

In case you're interested too, here's what I've found so far:
If you're in the US, Volks USA apparently doesn't trust us with unpainted kits. The only resin kits available on their website are "color" resin kits, aka pre-painted kits. If you want an unpainted kit (like me), your best bet is either Volks Japan (via proxy) or secondhand on Mandarake (just search "garage kit"). Sure, you'll pay more in shipping, but the kits are much cheaper. And many of the pictures show the unassembled (and unpainted) kits. Thank heavens for Mandarake, man.

If you don't want a kit to be pre-painted, avoid Volks Charugumin kits. Those all appear to be "color" resin kits.

I don't know enough to trust anyone else, so I'll be investing in Volks kits only for right now. If anyone else paints resin kits and knows where the legit makers are, kindly drop a link, please?

 

If you're not necessarily looking for resin models, there's always other plastic model kits from legitimate Japanese toy companies as well, that might be a bit too small compared to resin ones (I feel the largest as a common size world probably be 1:12 although rarely you might get 1:6). Those also are mostly unpainted, depending on the skill level -- most have parts already molded in some colored plastic, however. Those available at Japanese retailers are all from legit companies (like GSC, Kotobukiya, Bandai, etc), probably available from legitimate toy/model resellers around the world. They are much tinier; I want that to be clear. It's rare to see a non-resin model kits at larger scales, even 1:6 are rare. Although, there are some small studios that also do resin unpainted models, most of those are super small runs and sell out really fast -- more so the female busts type of models (not the nude types, although those also exist), most of those are resin, and some quite realistic and others very BJD-like. Hope that helps anyone. (:

 

I'd stick to Mandarake. I was able to find some old 90s Evangelion Kits from Kurushima there for 1500y. Older kits can be a bit finicky though (more seamlines, limited parts separation, pitting, etc) and you might have to put a bit more work into the building process compared to newer kits.