Being an artist, I can see how it could be confusing to people that I'm recast-friendly. How do I justify buying and supporting recasts? What are my own reasons for buying recasts? How can I be accepting of others who buy recasts?
The reason I buy recasts myself is a bit petty: I am an unemployed college student, and I really can't afford most legit dolls (I can only afford recasts, even, with birthday and holiday money). Yes, I know there are affordable ones, but I don't see the point in buying a doll that I don't love. I do plan to buy legits in the future, as I'll hopefully have some kind of job towards the end of my undergraduate studies, and after graduation it's fairly likely that I'll have a real job in my field (in which even starting rates are quite nice). I might even try to obtain legit versions of whatever recasts I've bought by then, because I want to support the sculptors since I love their work.
However, the reason I do not discriminate against those who own and buy recasts is much more altruistic. I want this hobby to be as inclusive as possible. I want the single mother who loves dolls to be able to join the hobby. I want the teenager, whose parents won't let them buy something so "frivolous" and so expensive as a legit doll, to be able to have a doll. I want people to be able to buy ball jointed dolls for their children or younger siblings without being so worried about the cost of replacement.
My little sister LOVES my dolls, and though I value Emmaline very much, whether or not she's recast, I know that if part of her gets broken, I can more easily get it replaced (though the real issue then becomes the fact that recasters can be hard to work with, considering the language barrier- but so can legit companies). I'm more nervous with my sister playing with Miu, as he's legit and just FEELS different- the resin really feels more delicate. Perhaps that's just something particular to Nobility Doll's resin, but it would also be hard to order any replacement parts.
A very important thing that informs my recast-friendly outlook is that in all aspects of life, I try my best not to judge people. I don't know the backgrounds of recast owners. I don't want to judge someone based on the fact that they might own a recast- they probably have their reasons. Sure, there are a few things I WILL judge people for: being bigoted (sexist, racist, homophobic, etc), being abusive, directly hurting other people. But, owning recasts does not fall under any of those things.
"Directly hurting other people" does not include buying recasts rather than legits, because though the legit companies do "lose" money, it's not even really "lost money." This relates to my sentiments about the music industry, as well as the media industry as a whole (movies, TV, software, books, etc). If someone buys recasts, pirates music, movies, or software, anything like that, it's not really costing the companies money. How can I say that? Well, if someone buys a recast, they probably are doing it for a reason and would not buy the legit version if that was their only option. Just like if someone pirates music, they're not "stealing" money from anyone, because they wouldn't necessarily buy the music. They could be testing it out, and if they find out that they like it, many of them choose to buy the albums, concert tickets, or band merchandise, which is all money that goes back to the company, and more importantly, the artists. Though recasting doesn't help legit artists as much as piracy helps musicians (it does, because it gets the music out to a larger population who may then want tickets and merch), the principle is the same. I've seen many recast owners talking about how they bought recasts in order to see if they wanted to invest in a legit- and many of them actually did end up buying the legit.
I own a recast (and plan to buy more) because of my own personal financial situation. I don't judge others for owning recasts, because of my morals: it's not my place to judge anyone else. I justify owning recasts because I could not buy the legit version of my doll even if it was my only option- saving up is even out of the question because I ended up needing to spend a lot of my money on food and necessities after I got to school (so if I had waited, I would not have been able to come up with the ~$500 [not including shipping] to buy a legit Minifee body and a legit Unoa faceplate and head back)- thus, neither Fairyland nor Alchemic Labo actually lost money.
I hope this clarified things a bit. I think I'll write another post about recasting of artist dolls, because that seems to be a special issue, particularly as of late.
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