New Chinese Piracy

If they're trying to 'help' the average person afford a doll, they should just come up with an original design.
I'm sure in the end they could make more money that way.

I mean look at bobobie, they have beautiful good quality dolls at a great price! And alot of people really like and trust them.

By the way, have any of the companies contacted, replied to anyone's messages yet?

 

i do not think it is fair to be so judgmental of the chinese like some of you are
obviously there are people in china who care about BJDs just as much as any of us and would never buy a fake.
china is not the only one who makes knock offs of dolls, and they are not the only ones who would buy a knock off.

it is unfortunate, but hopefully they will not be in "business" very long.

 

That's very true, and while it is a real shame (and yeah it is unfair) to tar an entire country with the same brush, unfortunately it only takes one group of people like this to ruin it for everyone. I don't think we can really blame people who are going to be more cautious of buying from China (or just in general) because of things like this.

 

Omg.... This is... frightening. That Lusis looks so real....

 

I dont think its fair at all, or right. From an artists point of veiw its like stealing. Its like someone taking the mona lisa, or some other famus piece of artwork, tracing it down to the smallest detail and then painting it and then claiming its their own art, but admitting it was traced first. Is that right? No. It is not right. Because they did not put in the effort to make something on their own, but stole it from someone else who worked very hard on it and will most likely get little to no credit for it, or paid for it.

It saddens me that there is a company out there planning to STEAL another companies designs just to make money, claiming its for the good of the buyers. I dont care where there from.. its just wrong. And I just cant believe they have the nerve to admit it, that just.. I dont know.. x.x Its very brazen.

 

This is just horrible

 

This just sickens me. I really hope someone stabs them in the eye >o As much as I want a Sard I'd never buy a copy. It's just not right. It's flat out insulting to the artist. I swear... If I could stab through the internet....

 

These pics were not taken by me, but by Anne-Laure from Materiel Celeste (I hope she doesn't mind me posting them here, but since it is of general interest...), so here you go Unoa faceplate, fake vs. original





The face Unoas are more pink in color, the quality of the resin is worse, the edges of the face-plates are less defined, etc.
Now unfortunately one wouldn't be able to tell this from a photo, because there you usually do not see the inside of the face-plate. So perhaps, before buying from somebody on ebay or on the marketplace first ask for some nice macro shots of the backside?

 

To be honest I've only read the first 3 pages of this thread so someone else might have already suggested this but....

Maybe it's recommendable for legitimate doll companies to start serial-numbering every doll or doll part they made and keep a registry of these numbers. So that, if you buy a doll you can always email the original company to check whether this doll you have is in their registry or not, and whether someone else has already claimed this serial number.
If this system works, if a doll has been exchanged hands several times, each time it has been passed around, the new owner would be checking with the original company and they can therefore maintain some sort of history trail....

It's a massive move, but it's probably worth it....

 

How do we know those blank dolls aren't the real ones? After all, scammers have to have access to real dolls in order to make copies of them, if I was running a scam business with a high chance of failing at making a good copy, I'd use photographs of the original, perfect dolls to try and sell my crappy, imperfect copies. If they're not above stealing other companies' designs, they're not above fabricating photographic evidence are they?

 

Does anyone know if those are comparison shots of the real and fake doll?

 

Another concern that came to mind, with the price being so cheap, what sort of resin quality are they using?

 

The pinker one is the fake. It's too pink and too matte to be Alchemic Labo resin. But withoutt he real one next to it, there's no way to even see it.

They are total hypocrites picking on Dollzone... (Yes, I still believe the 70cm used parts from Volks SD16, no amount of whining will convince me otherwise.)

The whole thing is upsetting me a little too much. They are just dolls. But this matter really bothers me.

 

There is a tried and true way to tell a knock-off made from a cast of an original. The knock-off will always be smaller. You cannot, according to my professional artist husband, make a same-sized mold off an original, because there is no material that you can make a mold out of that does not shrink in the drying, curing, or whatever. Thus the knock-offs cast out of that mold will always be smaller than the original.

So, time for some of you with micrometers and limiteds to start measuring your dolls and posting the measurements to create a database of "true" size to compare against.

 

Oh my god, I can't believe the audacity of those people! D: I'm sad to see that there are prospective customers already. Argh.

I worry for what this sort of thing might do to the second-hand market...
With things like Volks Papers and head-plates as proof, perhaps those things are harder to reproduce for people wanting to make knock-offs? But then, not everyone has the papers if the doll has been bought second-hand, and plates sometimes fall out and go missing... I think, personally, if I had any suspicions of the sale I would request a good deal of photos, showing the insides and the headcap -- as that Unoa picture comparison from Sharkyra represents, there are clear defects.

Is there much history of companies like this being successful? I am aware that e.g. Lolidoll is still around, which is a shame. Although Lolidoll aren't anywhere near as brazen! I hope this new "company" will be shot down soon...

 

There is a Korean company in particular that was alleged to have been making "knock-offs" a while back...

And I'm not sure what posts you're referring to (skipped two pages coming back in), but since China is a communist country, their practices are built on the idea that all things should be shared and a "copyright" they way we understand it barely exists to them. So entities operating within their borders are far more likely to make copies and knock-offs because their laws actually allows them to get away with it.

 

Although the copy will be smaller, it probably won't be noticeable to the eye. The amount that silicone shrinks is very small, and may only be millimeters or less! You might not be able to notice this difference unless you have an original to compare to. Sorry.

You can see how similar in size they are in the pics.

 

I've shown both luts, and Iplehouse the knockoffs that i've found for their companies...but when i went into this rip-off company's 'store', i discovered that DIM was also a victim. This is ludicrous!!!

 

I'm sickened by the fact someone would go that far to flagrantly rip off so many people at once. Its horrible!

Someone earlier mentioned that seamlines might be helpful in identifying these fakes, and i think that might be a good point. The fake seamlines might be in similar places, but they won't be the same. However, i'm sure each doll/body/part/whatever, through normal production, has various molds. Like, the companies have to have a lot of them, since they only last a certain period of time, i think.

However i DID notice soemthing in those taobao links. I'm under the assumption that the side by side pics are comparisons with the real thing, but even without knowing that for a fact...Unoa's are kits, are they not? Where you get them and you have to put them together and paint them and sand them, yes? I noticed that any parts that showed seamlines were sanded. Snagging one of these second hand would still be an issue, but getting a new, unopened unoa kit with sanded seams should set off all sorts of alarms then, right? It looked like the Dion had sanded seams too, and i know Luts doesnt sand them.

This situation is absolutly ridiculous ;-;