Raurencio Discussion Thread - The Story of Vampire

Actually, it's the face I was talking about, and it does look just like Lestat in the film Interview with a vampire IMO. His clothing set did too - I guess it's a matter of opinion as to whether or not you like it, as all of this is. Hyperon didn't appeal to me at all. Not that I'm knocking SOOM at all - they are one of my favorite doll companies!

 

I audibly screamed when I saw this. Horrified. These dolls are the ugliest sculpts I've ever seen... skillfully done, I'll admit.. but -ugly- and it's twilight.. I am not a fan of Meyer's awful writing nor the movies.. that I felt could have saved the book.. if not for the vain reason of the actors being nice to look at.. which they aren't.

 

I do not like Twilight. I slept after the first ten minutes of the first movie. I may be a minority, but I did not like the actors at all. Very static and plastic-like.

This would have been a guy worthy of Raurencio:

http://a69.g.akamai.net/n/69/10688/...cmedia/medias/nmedia/18/84/01/11/19721869.jpg

Well, not a vampire...it's actually the devil himself. Gründgen's Mephisto - a really dark, cool guy. With elegance...and so many expressions to choose from. I always considered him to be very sexy...

http://images3.cinema.de/imedia/493...+Fsvlg6ONLfyZMTzjSXWrTFvr7eQHr2OVvq3ulg==.jpg

Read the tale (by nobody else but Goethe), watch the movie! And perhaps one doll company will put this fascinating guy into reality.

 

I agree with what someone posted above; they're a likeness, but they're ugly.

As for the copyright issues, I don't know what the legality of it actually is, but my feeling is that if they're making dolls that obviously look like the actors and obviously are meant to be these particular characters from this series, and they're making a profit from them? Then the people who created those characters should be getting part of that profit.

For the whole Twilight debate; I've watched a few of the movies and read a few of the books, and while I agree that they're pretty lightweight, as a teacher I think if a book gets people who don't usually read to read, then that's a good thing, regardless of whether it's a "good" piece of literature. I just want kids to read and enjoy reading something.

The thing that -does- concern me about Twilight in particular (and that often gets passed over by the pro/con parties) is that it's basically selling abusive relationships and male power to impressionable young girls, so its popularity is pretty worrying in that respect.

 

I didn't facepalm but I did kinda vomit in my mouth a little. Just a little.

 

Hello

I’m Racius, the doll sculptor of Raurencio Studio.


I’m very sorry to have worried you.


Raurencio is a very small doll studio in Korea. Raurencio is a small atelier where people likes dolls are gathered together, not many people work in like other doll companies.


The motive for making the new dolls was not to sell them but to show the skills of our company whose popularity is very low.

So we made the new dolls based on movie stars known by everyone. Actually we know another company already made these characters. But we just wanted to show you more realistic and high quality sculpts.

We think we can make a good sculpture better than any other doll designer. But few people love our dolls


and we can’t sell a lot of our dolls unlike other famous companies.(honestly, we can’t make a living by selling dolls. But we’ve made dolls at our own expense because we just like making dolls. We’ve been making dolls as it is our pleasure to show you dolls we made.)


We’ve done a lot of thinking about the license.

But it is very difficult for a small company like us to get a license from famous Hollywood stars in Korea.


We just wanted to make art as fans of the stars. It is allowed to some extent in Korea to make derivative works of famous stars, books, etc.

We didn’t know how important it is to get permission from the copyright owners in the US and our ignorance caused lots of disputes and your disappointments.

We’ll make every effort to get permission. The copyright owners may give us the license if the new dolls become a big issue.



We apologize again for worrying about the license.

If we can’t get the license, we will not sell the new dolls.



We hope you see our dolls as art works to show our skill.

We’ve made dolls thinking them as art works, and it is why we don’t use computer 3D and stick to making dolls by hand. And we think this way of working made us have originality. But in this time we lose our originality and it made you disappointed, though our intention is just to show our skill.


We promise to make more creative and original dolls in future.

We’d be grateful if you watch us with warm eyes.

We’ll always do our best not to disappoint you again.

Please give your warm affection to us working hard because of love of dolls despite a poor environment.


We beg you. Please see our dolls as art works.

Thank you.



-Racius, representing Raurencio Studio, a small studio in Korea.

 

you know... i saw more vampire dolls and went "ugh im sick of vampires" then i saw twilight. and then i went "ugh im sick of twilight"

but i do have to say, they did a really good job with those dolls. almost spitting images.

 

@Racius: I still don't why you felt the need to copy from another story. Why couldn't your company sit down and try and think of something new? It doesn't have to be completely original, because hardly anything is, but boing something like this just leaves a bad taste in the mouth for some people about your dolls. Especially those who don't like twilight. I have the feeling you didn't research vampires at all, just took the 'fad' of vampires right now and tried to make a quick buck off of them, which makes me wonder which is more important to your company: Money or dolls?

 

I wasn't meant to sound harsh, and if I did, I apologize. I just don't see when a company is just coming out why they would want to take a chance and do something that is already created by someone else that could damage them than try to create something new. You know, something that makes the company stand out in a positive way.

 

Edit: please delete this post. I originally posted something that i think would have caused debate, but this is not a debate thread. My apologies ^^;

 

To racius:
The dolls themselves are not bad, they are very well sculpted. "E" is a good likeness to the actor from the movie.

I think most people's negative reaction was caused mostly by being over exposed to the book/movies.
To me it was knee-jerk reaction to anything Twilight and I apologize for my harsh words.

I would like to make a suggestion if you don't mind?

Why don't you re-name the dolls, re-dress them so that they don't look like the movie characters, That way it does not seem that you are selling them as characters from a famously copyrighted film.

You can surely post up your dolls in your galleries as them "Cosplaying" as the characters from Twilight.
There are a lot of people who buy dolls just to make them into characters from books, movies and so on.
This way you can still sell the dolls and avoid a legal mess.

 

Racius: The dolls are very skillfully done! I find I agree with some people who've pointed out they're a better likeness to the stars/characters than some Minimees. You really do have some great and talented artists working for you if you can make dolls like that! So, from an artistic point of view - awesome dolls!

It's just that I, personally, don't like Twilight. Not. One. Bit. But that's just my personal taste. I really, really like your dolls, especially Kan and Kaul.

 

To Racius:
I am really impressed that you came in here and explained the situation! thank you so much for that!
And I was really impressed with the likeliness of the dolls to the characters, I don't know if you make minimees and custom dolls, but if you don't you should really consider doing it! :'D
Doing twilight might have been a bold move, but as you say A LOT of people can relate to them some way or the other Keep doing the good work and WOW us with something amazing in the future! I will look out for that

And I would like to agree with Elysion Gears suggestion Re-dress and re-photograph the dolls! That would help us see their potential way more!

Also, I really like R! Since she was not shown in the movie yet this was nice to see!

 

Raurencio's message is really heartbreaking. I think some people's comments were being way too harsh. I can't speak of the legality of the issue, but personally, I don't see these dolls as an art theft becuase they have not stolen the design of character, rather just sculpted based on the likeness of real actors. It's the same way that I would not consider the portrait drawn of any famous person an art theft. The clothes on the dolls are just pretty standard casual clothes. What soom did with their Hyperion is closer to art theft in my eye.

If Raurencio's aim was to show their skill, then they have succeeded. The dolls are beautifully sculpted, and a much better likeness then any other I have seen based on the same actors.

Racius - I have wanted both an Adonis and a Ryon since their release. Unfortunately I can't afford to purchase more then two dolls a year, so, I have to think very carefully about my choices. However I am impressed with Raurencio's sincerity, so I decided I will try to make one of the next dolls I purchase one from you company.

 

racius - thank you for that message! Your company's skill and craftsmanship is undeniable. Actually, this release impressed me very much with the dolls' likeness to the actors. Unfortunately, I don't want anything to do with Twilight, so I will not be buying them, but I certainly appreciate skill when I see it! Please continue sculpting and showing us more dolls in the future.

As for legalities of the issue at hand, I am not an expert. I do believe it is a good idea to figure out the licensing aspect before proceeding with the sale to protect your company from legal and ethical ramifications.

 

Hello,

First, I would like to tell you I have always been a big fan of your dolls. I have always loved Marco, and have always especially loved Stella.

Second, I do love the more realistic dolls. And they are getting more and more popular in this hobby.

Since I've joined this hobby it has been my dream for someone to take the more stylized, but good overall sculpts (like your Stella), and make them more realistic at the same time. Like something more like the Final Fantasy characters (http://tinyurl.com/78f3owp) or maybe something more like Heise's artwork (http://tinyurl.com/7s4vqg2).

If you even did your own custom BJD service (and you have the talent for it!), you would certainly get a lot of business. It took a while for it to catch on with Nobility, but now they are making quite a bit off of it.

Please make your own custom BJD service! Like DIM's Minimee or Nobility's My Ball-Jointed doll services.

 

Racius: I have to agree with everyone, please don't take the comments posted as people hating the dolls. When it comes to the Twilight series people either absolutely love it or they absolutely hate it. Theres rarely any ground between. So feelings run strong about the series itself and anything even remotely tied into them. I personally think the dolls captured the essence of the actors perfectly and plan to show them to my sister who loves Twilight as much as me. But it was also a bit of a shock because, for those of us in the United States, copyright issues are very big things. Companies and authors over here are very jealous of their creations. But I do love the dolls and think your company did an incredible job. I recognized who they were meant to be the second I saw them. ^_^

 

Oh, I second the idea about Raurencio doing their own custom BJD service! I bet many people wouldn't only commission heads with you but also, buy your bodies. It's so convenient when the company that makes your BJD-head also has great bodies available - you don't have to go looking for one and don't have to worry about resin match. I've been a fans of Raurencio dolls and bodies ever since I got my Ark, back in the time when you were still with Unidoll.

 

Hello.



I’m Racius, the doll designer of Raurencio.



First, I apologize again for having caused trouble.





Also, I’m sincerely grateful for your advices and supports.





As I said earlier, I wanted to show how realistically we make a doll.



Raurencio will do our best to get the license and if we can’t get it, we’ll consider whether to release them with a different concept as some of you advised or not to sell them from the first.





We’ll try to keep our originality and make more creative dolls.



We’ll never make famous stars as this.





This time we felt there’re many people loving our dolls, and we really appreciate it.



And we’ll make more nice dolls to repay your supports.



We aren’t a commercially successful company like other famous companies. But we promise we’ll make unique dolls for many people like our dolls and support us.



Thank you a lot.