I've been reading this, thinking about this, and the more I think about it, the more PO'd I get. Here we are, putting our butts out on a limb financially so everyone who has been trying to find one of these, myself included, can enjoy the kit and we get slammed with the infamous "R" word, with ZERO justification, just as things really start cranking. This is REALLY, TRULY one of things I HATE about this hobby.
Let me say this to clarify even more on the heritage of the SF we used as the basis for our kit. We were asked by the collector who made this available for us to purchase, at no small amount of money, NOT to show pics of the master casting as it was unique in certain aspects as it could be ID'd with him. We honored that wish, and we will continue to do so. Hell, we even had to DESTROY that investment, much to my chagrin, with the molding process. Ask ANYONE who has a real UHL pull, be it SF, Viper, Raider, etc, and they'll tell you that’s pretty much par for the course. They are fragile, and the weight of the rubber, age of material, locking etc pretty much guarantee that you'll be pulling shattered crap from a beautiful original piece. But, it was the only way to make a new kit happen. We bit the bullet and did that, since the JK kit had fallen from the edges of the earth, apparently never to be seen from again. Like I've said before, we busted hump to make this the BEST possible kit, and I think I said "We did our best to get this at the lowest price we could to put it in more folks hands without making it a pile 'o poo." We wanted to make a kit of this subject available to ALL, and if that tweaks your nose because of what you dropped on your master, that’s just your own sour grapes, that does not give you the right to call "recaster" with NO evidence. If you are confused about what recaster means on this forum, take a look at the TOS, do a search for the infamous recaster thread that shows up every few months, and educate yourself. I hate to break it to you, but we no more own the "rights" to the SF in general than you do. You bought a version of the SF from JK, and that’s it. We do have some small rights to this incarnation, in that it is our derivative work of the original, just as you have your moral rights to the JK kit as owner of the master and any derivative from that kit. Making ours does not make us anymore “recasters” than Jim Key or yourself, as we both started with a kit from the Heartland molds.
RE: your comment abihsot: "It seems what people find acceptable depends on who does it or how desirable the subject is"
Let me reccomend that you stop with the inflammatory statements. Calling recaster and making statements like that with no evidence is a quick way to banning in this forum, or at the least not ever being taken seriously or worse as a pot stirrer, let me again suggest that you research the forum definition of recaster. Unless Jim Key's run used black resin with some other unique very distinguishing colors, you need to take a step back, rethink what you are saying, and admit that you may be wrong. I'd still LOVE to see your pics, I'm guessing that I will not, because you know that I'll tear the differences, the important differences from a common heritage source, absolutely apart. ItÂ’s easy to snipe from hiding, so stand up, show your pics. From your understanding, the JK kit was not done in a black resin, and a stinky assed resin at that, correct? Well, the master we used was from mostly super stinky black resin, probably worse quailty than any other resin IÂ’ve ever seen, which makes me think it was as old as it should be. I think you now need to rethink your accusation, look at the posted pics, and then look at your master. So, would you like to recant your shouts of "RECASTER"?
As far as I'm concerned, this matter is closed. I know in my heart this is not a recast, and more importantly know that any evidence to the contray does not exist because it is as unique as it can be being a pull from a set of studio molds. Next person who wants to call me a "recaster", name the time and place in CO and I'll be there. We'll work it out face to face, and you'll see that with my evidence you are wrong. You as loser will get to buy me a steak dinner. You better have your ducks in a row on that one or bring at least $50, as I like Ruths Chris and you can watch me eat, as I have NEVER recasted anything, even for personal use, without getting permission first. If you want to drop that bomb on me and my personal honor and reputation, then I've had enough of this and say lets take it face to face and discuss it like adults do, with evidence, and not just throw labels, derogatory labels at that, around without basis. At least I'll get a steak dinner out of your ingonrance. LetÂ’s see how big a talker you are in slinging accusations when you're not hiding behind internet anonymity and are faced with FACTS and the possibilty of having to acknowledge you were wrong via a steak dinner.
I do have a question for the mods though. A 4 month member with no other posts, ZERO contribution to the forum, and no evidence, attacking me and the investment in blood sweat tears and treasure we put in to this project so that people could get a kit, well, that makes me want to ask you mods WHY do people like this have the ability to post? Should there not be a zero post count in x months of membership, account is automatically terminated policy? I'm all for at least introducing yourself before attacking people, and I think that the board should be as well. As one of the talk hosts here in Denver says, “I like to tell you where I sit before I tell you where I stand”, and maybe new members should be required to at least post closely to new membership, “hey, this is me, I like this”, etc. Just something as a long time member that has REALLY started to bother me now, and after this even more so.
Time to get back to work; I'm done with the Boss's list and on my way to Steves to pour more.
Ryan
