Monster Mash

[OkamiKodomo]

Nobody is against them? Really? o.o

I dunno, to me it's still recasting... and then to sell them...? I guess for personal use that's one thing.... but selling them crosses a line doesn't it?

Maybe I'll just keep my mouth shut. ^_^;; -hides now-

[Wardah]

Well Mattel could do something about it if they really wanted to. I am sure they can afford to hire legal people to keep an eye out for things they don't want done. Maybe they aren't going after them because they are not doing them in the exact shades of pink and grey the original ones are. (It still baffles me that there are only two torso colors when they make the other parts in a much wider range of colors). Perhaps Mattel is working on making more colors of torsos available eventually and then will put the kibosh on the recasts.

I don't even think the ones who are selling the torsos are making a profit. It almost seems like they are selling them for the cost of materials. I can understand them selling them because if they just made them for personal use they would be bombarded with "Oh wow you can make new torsos. I can't cast resin for the life of me. Can you make me one too?" type of comments, tho possible less polite and more pushy. And then if they said they wouldn't cast them for other people they would probably be called every rude name under the sun.

[kittyasauras]

@Okami: I see the CAM sets almost every time I to the store. I can get you one next time I'm there, if you'd like.

re: Recasting torsos; I can see it both ways. I'm not really for it nor against it, but I do think that mattel should have made different torsos. It's the same deal with that person on etsy/flickr that recast the MH shoes in different colors/plastics. It might even be the same person?
Mattel should eventually start making more torsos, that one pink one is going for almost $20. That alone should show them how much these are wanted.

[OkamiKodomo]

Kittysaurus: are they the werewolf starter sets?? O.o and how much do you think it would cost to ship? Even if you had to take the pieces out of the box.

[knittnkitten]

at least the recast torsos let people use what they bought instead of having one doll and parts of two others in a bag somewhere.

[DollyKim]

~looks at what she wrote in her pattern books about permission and looks at Little Walken and knows she's on both sides of this~

On one hand I'd like to be able the flesh out the other CAMs, on the other I don't have much room, and if I was any good at casting I'd probably fire off a batch for myself and maybe some others but I wouldn't sell them on Ebay. I can see a sort of trade for other goods and services or commissions situation as some people can cast and some can't.

As for casting try a small casting kit, they have all you need at a reasonable price, and if the mold works all you need is more resin.

[delbelcoure]

I'm really torn about those recast torsos. I'm sure it is illegal, but Mattel is such a big company, I think they can take care of themselves. If it were an individual artist/ small company's work that was being ripped off, I'd be outraged. What an interesting look inside my own morals.
I think the "WTF Mattell, why so few torsos/ upper arms & legs?" feelings I have is factoring in here as well.

[magkelly]

Honestly I think the people making these torsos might want to think twice. Mattel can be slow to move sometimes but when they think they are being ripped off they can get very nasty. (Mattel vs MGA for instance...) MH is the hottest thing Mattel has done in a long while and every piece of every MH doll is copyrighted. I don't think they'd care enough to get the legal team involved if the owners the dolls made their own extra torsos for themselves. But selling them on Etsy? That's pushing it and I'm betting they will act on that score eventually. It's one thing to make your own body and to include a neck piece that might fit a MH doll, as Obitsu has done with their bodies, it's another entirely to cast from a proprietary part and sell said pieces. That's definite copyright infringement.

The whole idea of those sets wasn't really to give people multiple dolls in one kit for $20. It was to make one doll that has multiple potential characters or to get more than one kit and swap out. MH dolls cost $13 up to what $25 most of them? That would be rather foolish of them giving people 3 torsos and therefore 3 dolls for the price of one.

Don't get me wrong I love Mattel. I love Barbie. One look at my doll laden shelves and at the 5 storage crates with even more Barbies and their outfits all neatly stacked inside and I think that much is obvious to anyone. I think whoever came up with this line is a genius. But I know better than to mess with Mattel. They sue on a dime. They sue anyone using Barbie's unauthorized likeness on clothes, bags, etc. They routinely sue artists using Barbie in their art work, something which is entirely legal. They've even given people on You Tube grief about certain stop motion videos and they had a fit about the original Barbie Girl song until they decided to stop fighting it, rewrite the lyrics a bit, and use it instead.

Mattel is the Big Bad when they're ticked. This is going to tick them off, for sure, and when it does unfortunately the MH fans doing this will be on the recipient end of their anger. Most likely they'll get wind of what's going on and they'll stop making the kits entirely which would be too bad IMHO because I really think that they are beyond awesome those kits from what I have seen of them online. This may be more fun for the MH collector's but it's also kind of a dumb move on their part. Tease the cat too long and sooner or later you're going to get scratched up, you know?

[OkamiKodomo]

See that's what I thought... that it was definitely a bad thing to be selling them....

Well, I'm not going to buy them, and endorse folks bootlegging. Just because Mattel is a big company doesn't make it right.

[djhirokun]

Does anyone know how to make castings? I figure if this would be the place to ask. I wold love to have more torsos for my personal use than have the body parts laying around waiting to get lost.