help me define "Re-Casting" AHEAD of time:

[TrueDave]

Ok. I love hydrospan.
I am enlarging and shrinking heads to the 12" and 8" scale.

What I want to know is about the "Grey Area" .

It's "okay" to cast and work with commercially made heads of copyrighted characters. BUT:
I bought a few shrinks of Mego 12" characters . I would have been happy shrinking them myself with the other 20 or so in the works downstairs.
The sculpting was originally done by MEGO , but the shrinks by someone else.
Whats the situation with this?

I thought at least If I offered heads made from rubber or, pre dyed, or 100% painted.
As an artist theres no way I would be okay with casting a original custom sculpt. Or even one with heavy modification.
These are Mego sculpted heads shrunk to 8".

Thanks For helping me get this straight.

Dave.

[rche]

If you are planning on selling these and you are capable of using hydrospan yourself, I would say you should do the actual shrink yourself and make your own master mold.

Of course, this could be a head that is fairly difficult to find. In that case, I would contact the original 'shrinker' to see how they felt about you casting their shrink in rubber, or whatnot.

my 2c

[Type3Toys]

I suggest giving your own sculpts a try. Sculpting takes practice but is well worth the effort. That way you can say the work is 100% yours.

[CrimsonGhost]

Since it's a commercially made head and neither you nor the original shrinker did the sculpt, I don't really see a problem. However, I agree with rche that if you're worried about it, you should just do the shrink yourself.

[Bizarro Amy]

If you are planning on selling these and you are capable of using hydrospan yourself, I would say you should do the actual shrink yourself and make your own master mold.

Of course, this could be a head that is fairly difficult to find. In that case, I would contact the original 'shrinker' to see how they felt about you casting their shrink in rubber, or whatnot.

my 2c

I agree with this. I have never shrunken a head other than the acetone soak, so I'm not familiar with how much work is involved. However, I do know that several people who hydrospan and sell heads say the process involves a fair amount of work and more often than not, some sculpting to maintain the quality of the likeness, even if they didn't do the initial sculpt. So going by that, I would say that whoever did the actual shrink *might* have a problem with you just duplicating the head. Then again, they may not if it was a commercially available piece. It's best to ask, rather than cause hurt feelings.

I suggest giving your own sculpts a try. Sculpting takes practice but is well worth the effort. That way you can say the work is 100% yours.

I agree with this even more. The more you do on your own, the better.

[The Bat]

If you are planning on selling these and you are capable of using hydrospan yourself, I would say you should do the actual shrink yourself and make your own master mold.

Totally agree! If you "re-cast" someone else's shrink...you will lose a lot of Friends here FAST!

[thunderbolt]

^^^ Yep, and expect to see torches and pitchforks.

[Type3Toys]

^^^ Yep, and expect to see torches and pitchforks.

I actually sell torches and pitch forks!

[Bizarro Amy]

I actually sell torches and pitch forks!

I can make my own torches, but can I recast your pitchforks?

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

^ haha good one Amy

[torgospizza]

What about recasting in another medium for your own use, but not selling it to another? Personally, I see nothing wrong with that (the original caster's got his money), but I haven't pondered much on it, either.

[drmego]

Forgive me if I don't know the details of this exchange - I am coming
in late to the discussion.

MEGO sculptors were paid for their work. The real issue is if the heads
are celebrity likenesses or licensed characters.

It doesn't matter what size the original head was, if it was a
Spider-Man head.

If the head was made by someone else - as a custom - it's a
courtesy to find out who and try to contact them. If you can't
locate the author through reasonable means, then making some
sculpting alterations makes it a new piece.

[REMOVED]

Forgive me if I don't know the details of this exchange - I am coming
in late to the discussion.

MEGO sculptors were paid for their work. The real issue is if the heads
are celebrity likenesses or licensed characters.

It doesn't matter what size the original head was, if it was a
Spider-Man head.

If the head was made by someone else - as a custom - it's a
courtesy to find out who and try to contact them. If you can't
locate the author through reasonable means, then making some
sculpting alterations makes it a new piece.

I beg to differ. Making alterations does NOT make it a new piece. There are two real issues here--- one has to do with licensing and the other has to do with copyright. If you are copying/reworking a sculpt made by someone else then they own the copyright for that sculpt---- regardless of the character. That is artist's given rights and it does not require any licensing or even marking/stamping for that matter; it's a given AND legal right.

How do I know these things? I have an MFA and we had to do coursework in the legality and business end of making things.

If it was/is a commercially made head, then the manufacturer owns the sculpt; not the artist.

If you are copying/selling something that someone else copied and shrank (who copied without permission) that they invested a lot of time into, then that is simply CRAPPY. However, there are people who do it all the time. There are people who do that right here at the museum, in fact.

One of the issues is whether or not the artist is around to enforce their rights. Take for instance, the case of Ada Chan...... Remember her? That was her name, right? She wasn't hanging out here but then well, she heard people were shrinking her heads. Plus someone was stealing her heads off eBay who is now a member here.

The end result of that was that she got angry and refused to do Mego sculpts anymore---- which was too bad for the whole customizing community.

Then there were those other guys, one of whom sent me a lame confession recently regarding having some of my heads recast. Um, yes, they were recasts but they were rare figures owned by me. How convenient and cheap to just recast them for themselves, rather than buying from me.

Oh, yawn. I'm starting to bore myself. I hope I haven't bored you all too.

Hello customizing people, by the way. I'm glad to see you are still making stuff. How utterly cool.

[The Bat]

Well said Lori...nice to see you back.

[The Bat]

Supplies aren't cheap, and you may find the whole process is such a pain that in the end you prefer to buy from someone like Laurie who has honed their craft.

EXACTLY! I'd rather let the Pros do the hard work...and then buy a copy for $10.00