Star Fortress's Republic

[houndfox]

I want to discuss about his "recast", Not his "child pornographic" (don't think i am not against it, I am TOTALLY against it!).

 

As many of you and other members on different forum have complain about his recast, Sometime his product's quality. I know that many of you are against the idea of recast but from my point of view some of the seller here are "recast" too. Correct me if i am mistaken, I am referring to FX, AP, TE, TE2, etc.

 

Before you flame out, Please know that i am a newbie and i do not know the whole history of all the FX, AP, TE, TE2, etc, or where they cast it off from. I remember seeing image of family tree of stormtrooper helmet somewhere but couldn't find it.

 

Please do not hate me for bring this up, I just want to understand.

 

PS, Sorry for my bad english, I am not good at it.

[Daetrin[Admin]]

There is a world of difference between what he does and what "legit" sellers like FX, AP, etc. are doing.

 

What exactly do you want to discuss? As you can imagine this has been hashed out quite a bit many times over?

 

e.g. what's new?

[Scott M.[TK]]

I want to discuss about his "recast"

 

Basically, he buys a kit from an actual maker, or gets someone else to buy one, recasts the armor, and then sells it in a mass market environment. And, when he gets someone to buy for him (which is often, because most clone armorers won't sell to him) he the original buyer a kit, as well as pays for the first set in some instances.

 

Yes, you are correct that many of the original TK buckets were casted from a screen used helmet, but AA or LFL were not selling these screen used buckets, and TE, GF, Gino and the pioneers here did not cast the armor in an underhanded fashion (I might not be 100% accurate on the persons listed above, but you get the idea).

 

Bottom line is SFP is buying stuff current artists are making and selling, and RECASTING IT and mass producing it to compete directly with the original artist.

 

Please chime in anyone where I am wrong here.

[Murray1134[501st]]

Its an old fashioned saying, but it's true "You get what you pay for". If the price is so low and it looks to good to be true, it probably is.

[Heatshock[501st]]

Agree with Scott's analysis.

 

soz I am pretty new - but I think one of the issues of recasters is - that they make use of other peoples work to turn a profit. they are also led by the bottom line rather than turnig out qualiy goods.

 

from wot I understand - the legit armours take great pride in their work, their "tweaks" and quality of product. THey produce stuff for the love of it and not for the profit (if any at all - my impression is most charge just enough to cover cost of materials and set-up)

 

as for quality of SFP - not sure; have avoided them like the plague so far. But I guess thats kinda academic anyways cos there are just so many other reasons not to purchase stuf form that particular vendor.

[MandalorianWarrior87]

Agree with Scott's analysis.

 

I agree with Scott also.

[TomG[501st]]

Here my 2 cents. It is a bit longer explanation. Sorry for that.

 

What is and what is not recast.

 

When we speak in general and as example we use Stormtrooper. Really known costume, that is licenced to LFL. Then everything that is looks like it and it is recognizable is recast, if you don´t have licence from LFL. But LFL itself will not hunt fans who build own costume or buy it somewhere. They will not make war with fans, because fans fill they wallets.

Idea of armor is still copyrighted by LFL, then even own created armor from your molds is technically recast, same as armor created from screen used molds or pulls.

 

When you build and desing something own, that can be recognized as your own stuff, then it is not recast and you can do with it whatever your want.

 

Back to stormies. As I said before and it was said in AA/SDS cause LFL will not hunt fans or propmakers if they stay low. For them isn´t that much important if you copied their costumes or build own molds. If creator will claim, that he sells original SW stuff and sell much of them, via ebay and have website with prices. He will have soon LFL lawyers behind his an impolite person. Same if you make recast or own molds based on this new licenced eFX helmet. Then you will have problem with lawyers from eFX. Everytime, when you sell something that you made and you don´t have permission for that, you are on thin ice of legality. It is on you when you cross virtual line.

 

Now we look at this cause from community view. TE, TE2, AP, Gino are technically recasts of original armor. From community view, they work is ok, they did some effort and money to have what they have and lineage of their stuff can be documented. Then from community view, they are not recasters. Whole armor looks really like original from movies. Some of them try make it better, when you used costume from ROTJ and you want ANH look, because they were different. Some of them did only copy of this old movie used stuff. Then if someone get hands on original costume and make molds and can document it, he should be recognized as new manufacturer of screen accurate suit. These guys need to be more careful, when they sell something and they claim it as "screen accurate". Because they are a bit close to this virtual line.

 

Then we have here different cathegory of costumes. Like TM, RT-Mod, Movie FX, FX/GT (Not sure if old version Movie FX armor was copy of FX/GT stuff or wasn´t. I don´t saw both armors from same generation to compare it or saw somewhere photos of molds). Guys created own molds and as reference used photos, dimensions from costumes above. From LFL they are recasts too and from community view they aren´t. They put more effort to create these costumes than previous cathegory. But still this is not recast

 

And what is recast in community view? When somebody use costume/prop from previous two cathegories and copy it from pulls without permission of creator, then this is recast. Recast can be sometimes better that original, but still, who did it, he is stealing somebody hard work to make profit. Make recast is not that hard as build own molds from scratch. You can easy see them on ebay, when is costume is too cheap, lacks some details or seller sell a bunch of these costumes in short time. Then it will be probably recaster. These sellers sometimes change usernames, but sometimes use same photos of stuff.

 

Known creators don´t sell stuff in large counts on ebay. They are not that crazy as was AA/SDS We and legion don´t support recasting as it was explained in previous rubric. But it is on people, if they will spent some time on Dettachement forums to understand basic of it or they don´t care and want cheap costume. Ebay is first call.

 

As seen on AA/SDS cause, we see that Star Fortress's Republic crossed this virtual line of LFL, I´m a bit suprised, that no one contacted LFL and they have to take action in this cause. May be, we fear that they will more check our forums and watch more carrefuly propmakers. It isn´t hard for them, if they wanted to do it. You need only few weeks to find something interesting here.

 

In general it sounds like to discourage people to make props Nope, if you like it as hobby and you will be careful, when you start sell something and you will be not much visible on ebay, then they will don´t hunt you down.

 

I´m propmaker too. I have it as hobby and relax and there are my 2 cents

[Smitty]

Ive heard so much crap about Star Fortress that I would never even consider buying from them. I'd like to see LFL go after him next....did I just say that out loud?