Thought I’d share this post made by Melody Hess. Melody is a known sculptor, in the Reborn community. I’ve seen posts regarding these particular kits that are mentioned. Most of us artists, that have been around for awhile, are able to determine the what/who/where and which sculptor, sculpted a particular sculpt , but I know there are some newer artists here, and thought you might like to read this
Melody Hess
7 hrs · Shirley, IN · ATTENTION ALL REBORNERS, NEW AND OLD
I am a sculptor, and I have my sculpts produced into blank vinyl kits for all of you lovely reborners to reborn and bring to life. This art is supposed to be fun, enjoyable and bring happiness and awe to all of us and especially for our collectors. I am putting a warning out there to EVERYONE who is a reborner that purchases vinyl doll kits and blank silicone dolls to please do your research about who you are buying from, whether the vinyl kit you are buying from is an original etc! There are many doll kits and silicone dolls being sold on Ebay from China that are being reproduced without the artists permission. This is called “THEFT”. In the last few weeks I have been working with the artists who are having these copies made of their sculpts ilegally along with Ebay’s VeRo program. These illegal copies are of Linda Murray’s Krista and Bonnie sculpts, Debbie de Graaf’s Chloe and Rio sculpts, Elisa Marx’s Coco-Malu sculpt and working with a few others. So far, I have had close to 100 of these auctions removed. I continue to work everyday to do my reports to get these removed when I see them. I am working directly with the Ebay’s VeRo program to get these removed. This is not the same as just going to an auction page and clicking on the report link, totally different! These auctions are usually removed within 48 hours and I receive an email, the seller receives and email and the buyer/s receive an email!
As ALL sculpting artists search to find and choose an honest reborn artist to reborn prototypes of their kits, I will tell you that if you are caught purchasing one of these copyrighted kits, dolls, silicone etc. you will NOT EVER be a prototype artist for myself at least! And if I have 100% proof, then you will be named! I am not a mean or evil person at all. I just don’t support thieves!
Now, a question that some of the newer reborners will have is: “How do you know you are buying an original?” Those of you who purchase from Ebay, if it shipping from China then it is 99.99% an illegal copy. IF it states in the title that it is a “Vinyl Silicone”, that is fake as there is no possible way for vinyl and silicone to mix, it is just like mixing water and oil together! To make sure you are 100% sure that you are buying an original, buy directly from the artist, their listed dealers, or ask around. There are plenty of reborn groups with reborners who have been reborning for years that know where to buy original kits/dolls from.
If you are just starting out and need to get cheap kits to work on, go to Bountiful Baby. They have really cheap kits and they are original!
Just PLEASE do your homework!! If you want to be successful in the doll world, then be honest and do not purchase these illegal copies!!
Thank you,
Melody Hess PLEASE SHARE
I love this post!!!
I wish eBay would do something about the reborn fakes… Both the kits and the dolls.
I won’t buy kits off of eBay because I don’t know enough to be sure I’m not buying a stolen copy, and I used to enjoy looking at reborns on eBay and now it’s page after page of ugly dolls being called reborns under bad grammar posts… I don’t have time to fish through the pages to see we’re the REAL reborns are… It’s sad
Unfortunatly as long as there are buyers buying a cheap crappy doll called a reborn on eBay and artists buy the stolen kits this special art/hobby will continue to get diluted by this garbage!!!
The ‘china knock-offs’? It’s been going on, for a least quite a few months. Sadly, it’s a continuing and growing problem. I seem to be seeing them more and more.
They might have been doing it longer than I realized. All I know is that, I, myself, started noticing quite a few months ago, when these ‘knock-offs’ started showing up on ebay as blank kits to purchase, and many others seemed to notice, as well. But you never know. They could have been doing this for longer than most of us know. Maybe, not on Ebay, but…
I actually noticed it more back in the summer, and posted my notice on ebay about the fake reborns from not only China, but someone in the UK was also getting in on it. They made me take the post down. I stopped going on the selling pages of ebay because I got tired of weeding thru the fakes to find a few real reborns on each page. I now sell only thru reborns.com. Buyers don’t want to pay the price for a real reborn when they see the cheap play dolls being passed off as a reborn. Thank God for Melody Hess, and the other well know sculptors, maybe now ebay will do something about this. The Reborn pages on ebay should only be for “Reborns”. I once noticed an adult sex doll on reborns, and reported it, but China has just been flooding the market, so once one it taken down they have hundreds more already for sale.
This is great…Glad someone is doing it…have to say though, there must be an awful lot of unethical reborners buying them too or there would not be a market for them…I think that is the sadder part of the situation…China is known for doing knock off products of almost every name brand item ever created. like Nike, Adidas, Reebok T shirts & ball caps…people know they were knock offs too but they still buy them…unfortunately…it is the same with the doll kits…there are many artist who don’t get the high prices for their work so they are willing to buy a Hess look alike at a fraction of the price of the real ones and make the sales…they can keep their prices down and make sales where ladies who are doing the right thing can’t afford to sell at the low prices cause they are having to pay $100 - $130 for a name brand kit while the other ladies are getting basically the same kit for $40 - $60…It is a real shame…but I will say that I doubt anyone will ever control of it…if there is a market - and there is because they are producing and selling more and more kits - .they’ll keep selling to that market…I don’t think Ebay or anyone else could ever control it and there is nothing to say that any reborn you buy off of any reborn sale site is not a knock off kit unless you know the reborner you are buying from is a reputable seller…those are the sad but true facts…STILL - it is lovely to see some one fighting back and I hope more and more ladies will support this effort…If there is anything I can do to help I definitely will be doing my part!
Sadly ive seen them too and finished dolls from China.
The dolls even worse are pretty and done well a real draw for uninformed people .They do seem in the $350 range painted so not super cheap which i guess is a good thing
Hopefully arent bought too often. Really the From China would put me off …really dont know what you are getting anyway.
Glad to know that this is being done…!!..Glad to see E Bay removing some of these knockoffs…It’s just not right how these knockoffs are up for sale…and about time someone does something…If I was a sculptor of beautiful molds for REBORN dolls, think I would be trying to do the same thing.!!..
@jlesser, @Mercy143… yes, those of us that know about this. However, there are some newer artists out there that aren’t familiar with the prime sculptors, there kits and what China is doing.
Very smart idea! Actually It would be brilliant if all the artist did COAs even if the baby is NOT a limited edition so that people would know that it is a legit kit and it would protect them as well…
I’m glad she’s standing up for artists. There’s been such a flux of new people wanting the cheap way to make money and it hurts us all. This isn’t a get rich quick hobby. You always spend more than you make. It’s an expensive hobby. But we’ve all done it since forever because we love it. That’s what it’s about. Sharing your love for the art of it. I feel sorry for the sculptors who spend months and years sculpting then going through all the process of having it copyrighted then having it manufactured only to have someone come in and steal it. Good for her!
