Disclaimer! Recasts and Lies

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In my last journal I commented that there was some unpleasant person that accesses my DA page every day, after sending a rather offensive personal message in the Brazilian BJD forum. So, I recently came to know that this person has been spreading false rumors about me regarding recasts and debts with second hand sellers.

:iconannagiovannini: , who many times helped me get my dolls through stores of by selling them to me, wrote about it in her journal and also about our opinions on recasts. I don't have anything to add to that, she said everything that was supposed be said, so, instead of writing another text, I will simply reproduce her words here in Portuguese, as they're the same words I'd say.

If anyone wants to check out her original text in English on her Journal, click here: annagiovannini.deviantart.com/…



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"So. After some thought, I decided to post publicly and in english in my journal something that has just come to our (me and :iconfran-briggs: ) knowledge a few days ago. This serves as a disclaimer and as a warning to anyone out there in the BJD community, to help avoid any kind of trouble with what's going to be said in the next few paragraphs.

As you may read in :iconfran-briggs: latest journal, unfortunately only in portuguese, a certain DA and BJD community member has been accessing her gallery every single day. It wouldn't have been a problem, if it wasn't for the fact that this same person sent messages to her and to a few members of the community in a Christmas day to say pretty bad things - including that she would never talk to any of them again and would be away from the group forever - and leaving a lot of people really pissed off with all the accusations. I wasn't one of them (luckily I've only met this maniac once and never more), but I do feel the need to warn and defend a friend through this journal as one of her newest accusations have to do with me.

We found out that she kept stalking Fran's gallery for the simple task of trying to find any flaws or anything that would be material to stain her image, meaning that what it might. She then started accusing her of the following:

Having recast dolls and not bringing them to doll meets because of the 'very strong and toxic smell of the resin'.

Another of her 'friends' also said once that Fran wouldn't have the money to buy one of her dolls, possibly Dmitriy, her SD17 Reisner. I believe she does have something to do with all these false accusations, but I won't mention names as I have no definite proof of that - only the fact that I know what she and her falseness are capable of.

So let's make things clear.

I don't care about recasts. I don't care about what other people buy. Each person has one's own money and one's own conscience to take care of, and that is nobody's business. I wouldn't stop talking to a friend because of recast dolls or anything of the kind, as I believe human relationships come before materialism. I, however, would NEVER buy a recast doll for two simple reasons: one, I have enough money to buy originals without sacrificing basic needs. Two, I really like to have everything original in hand and, as a big fan of Volks with a good economic situation, I like to support a very beloved company and its staff and creative team.

The person accusing my friend of having recast dolls is someone who walks with people who believe BJDs should be a class privilege. Who believe that anyone who doesn't have a certain income is not deserving of buying a BJD, that they need to be in a certain 'cast' to be able to join the community.

This is discrimination. These people practically committed a crime against human rights.

These are the same people who were asking strangers for money just a while back for R$16 (something like 8 USD) for a cat flea medicine, with a few hundred dollars sitting in a shelf. Talk about social status and income.

I am not a defensor of Recasts. I simply do not care. Many may say that it gives trouble to the original artists, to the stores, that it takes the money away from the people who worked hard to make an original doll. That's true - I really think that recasts of standard dolls and of small stores are something very wrong. I don't like the idea of someone making money from another person's work, as an aspirant artist myself.

I, however, also am not a fan of how much scalpers at the Secondary Market charge for limited dolls. I've seen the same people who said that they paid $2k for a doll reselling it for $3k just as it arrived. A lot of sellers in Y!J who frequent Volks events don't even wait to get home before putting the dolls on sale from their phones. And I'm sorry to say that, but a lot of people simply cannot conceive to pay more than 200% of the original price on a doll. Who gets the extra money these people are charging? Not Volks. The scalpers. So they can keep on doing that...

And I do think scalpers are part of the cause of recasts becoming more and more popular. Because I believe that if everyone had access to the original prices - or maybe a bit higher, but not from $1,2k to $3k - more people would go after originals. So yes, I do think it's partly the scalpers' fault that recasts are out there.

Another argument may be made from the concept of creating to replicate and sell - something Walter Benjamin himself wrote in his time. It's complicated to draw the line between the unique work of art and a product, especially when this work of art is being reproduced for sale - sometimes even mass sale, for the larger companies do, sometimes, employ other companies to replicate their dolls, outsourcing the production. BJDs will never be mass produced like Monster High dolls or even Blythes or Pullips - but that's because the aim of the BJD companies is a public with a rather high economic power. If this is not production, I don't know what it is.

If anyone's curious, Benjamin's essay can be found here: [link]

I defend small studios and I do think no one should buy recasts from small, developing companies. I don't like the idea of pirate products... but sometimes we have to understand someone's situation before pointing the finger and judging someone's character.      

Going back to the issue of false accusations.

Brazil has very strict customs. All dolls are being taxed lately. Some even get lost. I've been living in the United States for almost three years now, and due to a trauma Fran and I went through with the Brazilian Postal service, I've been receiving some of her packages and bringing to her during my school breaks. I have received ALL her doll related packages for more than two years now.

Meaning: all her Volks dolls went through me before getting to her hands. Some I sold to her myself.

And that's were the accusation has to do with me personally.

I have never bought a recast doll. All my BJDs are originals. I have receipts, paypal history, feedback, papers and the dolls themselves to prove their authenticity. And thus I would NEVER sell any recasts as I wouldn't buy them in the first place. Fran has DoA feedback for her SD17 Williams, Johann - she never took him to a meeting because he was on one of my SD17 bodies for a while before Fran got his own, and she was afraid of damaging the body as well as the face-up - done by the artist Bake_Neko, who, I believe, wouldn't accept to work on a recast doll. Why she was afraid of damaging the doll? Because the accuser also has the habit of knocking dolls down on meetings and has done so before. I received the doll from the seller myself and checked the head properly.

Her SD17 Reisner I sold to her myself - differently from what this person also says around, that Fran bought a $3k and never paid the seller (funny thing that no negative feedback was left from this!) - since I got a FS 2011 Cruise Reisner and an extra head because of a postal service issue and ended up not needing the extra. I sold it to her for the price I paid for it, as she's a very close friend, and I allowed her to do a long layaway as I wasn't in need for the money since my economic situation is decent. She took less time to pay him off than I took to receive a $8 item from the group of the accuser that I almost considered stolen after two years. She even has pictures of the head with the company face-up, as she photographed it as if it was my own Reisner, Damaran, with Anya (Fran's little girl and Damaran's daughter) during the time I left the head at her place due to lack of space in my university apartment and so that she could take family shots with it. She never took her Reisner, Dmitriy, to a meeting... because he just got his body last month. He also was painted by Bake_Neko.

Those two are the ones I can imagine being the targets of envy, so I hope this is proof enough that she is, indeed, a bad-mouthing liar that needs to bring someone down instead of trying to grow personally.

Their photoshop, softwares, musics, dvds, bags, etc. ... Are all original? Not when these people are such hypocrites who say bad things about who buys recasts and have pirate Photoshop installed on their PCs.  

Because stealing from a big company is the same as stealing from a small company. It's all stealing, and you're not Robin Hood if you're stealing for your own benefit. You're just a hypocrite criminal, especially when you defend you can steal all your software and entertainment, and someone else is a bad person just because they got a recast doll.

I hereby defend the purchase of originals... as long as it doesn't make anyone sacrifice their basic needs.

Because life comes before leisure, but everyone has the right to buy whatever they want if they are willing to save for it. Dolls are NOT class privilege. Dolls should be fun, they should be fulfilling, and everyone has the right to feel fulfilled and not be discriminated by hypocrites.

And everyone should be careful with what they hear around and with accusations about people one doesn't know. Fran's not the first person this group bad-mouths and creates false rumors about, and will certainly not be the last."

© 2013 - 2024 fran-briggs
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annagiovannini's avatar
Acho tão engraçado quando alguém admite bravamente ser stalker... o.o Mas bom, assim pelo menos sabemos que não ficam sem aviso. XD Agora é tocar pra frente e esquecer da existência de quem não é nem nunca vai ser importante pra nada. :3

Eu bem que imaginava que um rumor tão imbecil tinha participação da mais estúpida do grupinho que nem percebe as besteiras que sai falando por aí na maior prepotência. x3 Mas o que esperar de alguém que faz uma cópia ruim de um mangá e depois tenta esconder roubando referência dos outros e tem preguiça de usar até a wikipedia? XD Ou de quem sai falando besteira de quem nunca conheceu? Meu deus, alguém dê uma ocupação pra essas pessoas. oo'

Pois é... felizmente o único que poderia lidar com isso é um psiquiatra. :P