VOTE! Should the UMA eliminate all resin model kit discussion?

[fmofmpls]

Brilliant post Anton! Well said and very informative. Thanks for chiming in.


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[pongo]

Bravo Anton, that was great!

[FACTO2]

Ditto.  Bravo, Anton.   

[Anton Phibes]

Gosh! Thanks fellas! It and Sun Demon say hello.

[Spock]

I vote No. I think the UMA mods have done a fantastic job of controlling this whole recasting issue in a professional and unbias manner. The way it reads is recasts are not condoned or supported in any way, shape or form on the UMA. If someone is found to be offering recasts within this group, they will be banned. What could be clearer. I for one like to see the pics as there is some exceptional work at hand. Please don't let the paranoid and sometimes meglomaniacal pressure from other groups and individuals destroy the viewing pleasure of this group as a whole.

[Moonshadow]

Well I know very little about the model kit hobby, but it seems to me we should be able to discuss things and keep things civil. Anton did a great job expressing this. So count me as another 'no' vote.

[raycastile]

On the one hand, this whole affair makes me sick to my stomach.  On the other, I feel that banning garage kit discussion would be like letting the inmates run the asylum.  We should not reward immature behavior by allowing it to shape our policies.

I have a lot of strange obsessions.  But they have their place.  They do not consume my life.  Obviously, some people in the garage kit world must be so empty inside that they need to fill themselves to the brim with what can be a fun, but essentially frivolous, hobby.  It so consumes them that it ultimately defines them.  Everything they see, hear and express is refracted through that prism.  I think the word is...fanaticism.

Maybe some people don't understand what the word "hobby" means.  I am a toy collector, mask collector and movie poster collector.  Over the years, I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on my collection.  It's pretty important to me.  Nevertheless, I recognize that it is, basically, a lot of nonsense.  It's absurd.  It's stupid.  I love it, but it's stupid.  Maybe 20 years ago I would have assigned some pretentious greater meaning to the pursuit of plastic junk, but not now.  It's just a goofy pastime that I enjoy.

I think what made me turn the corner was the realization that the "stuff" I had accumulated was not nearly as important as the friendships and happy acquaintances I had made in the process.  Someday, the stuff might leave, but hopefully the friends will stay.

I know that some in the garage kit world have gone on to careers in the "legit" world of licensed products.  People have mentioned Sideshow, Hot Toys, etc.  For them, the hobby has become a business.  I understand why those people would have a different attitude about it.  Business is business.  It is their livelihood.  But business people tend to be measured, reserved and sober in their public statements.  They have a sense of perspective.  They are professionals.  I do not think those are not the people who have been stirring up trouble here lately.

I don't like recasters.  They seem pretty creepy.  I don't like people who take advantage of others, exploit the situation, try to game the system.  I don't like opportunists, phonies, hypocrites.  I don't like bullies and blusterers.

But I also don't like whiners and drama queens.  I don't like people who think the world revolves around them.  People who think the crowd will gasp at the revelation that they have been offended.  Oh heavens.  Not that.

Just how big an ego do you have to have in order to post one of these self-important "It is with great regret that I must inform the world that I am leaving the UMA" messages?  Not just in the garage kit forum, but in any forum, ever?  I have never understood that.  If you don't like it here, get out.  Leave.  Please.  If it gets to the point that I don't like being here, I will leave.  I guarantee it.  But I won't announce it with some melodramatic swan song.  I will just quit posting.

Which is what any sincere person would do, if it were really about leaving a message group that you no longer enjoy.  But it's not really about that.  It's about using the UMA to deliver a message.  Like protestors who hold signs as they block a busy road.  They don't do it to block the road.  They do it to deliver their message in a way that will irritate so many people, it is bound to get noticed.  That's what we have seen here.  Protestors are using this forum to deliver a message.  And it is a political message.  Not in the narrow definition of politics as pertaining to Republicans and Democrats, but in the broader sense.  Politics are everywhere – work, school, church, love and certainly in this hobby.  This is politics.  The UMA has been hijacked for the purpose of using it as a means of political protest.

If someone protests on your front lawn, you should not tear out your lawn.  If they protest outside a building, don't demolish the building.  If they protest in a park, don't excavate the park.

Garage kits are part of monster fandom.  UMA members come here to discuss monster fandom.  If we limit discussion on this, what part of our hobby comes next?  There have been huge dust-ups in the mask world.  Will we someday eliminate mask discussion?  I don't want to set that precedent.

I clicked the "undecided" button mostly because I wanted to jump off a building with Terry.  But after thinking it through out loud in this post, I believe we should leave the garage kit forum intact.

[The Drunken Severed Head]

Bravo, Raymond. Bravo.

[fmofmpls]

Raymond, I hear there's a some tall buildings in Burbank. By the time Monsterpalooza ends, we might have to find one of those buildings.

Very well stated Raymond. Thanks for chiming in!

[Universal Steve]

I don't really like to get into the recast thing discussion. We all know it isn't good. I do like to do garage kits and I like to post pictures of the ones I did and also see which ones  everyone else is working on. A lot of talent goes into them. I am a big fan of Jeff Yeagher's work. I wish he would finish the Aurora Box Art Kit series. I am glad to see he is doing some work for Moebuis. That Bride of Frankenstein looks great.

[Mcdee]

Well said Richard....
Mcdee

[Mitchellmania]

I surrender (white flag)!  I was black balled years ago by the the resin modelers. All because of a group commission I helped to put together. The Kit producer took our money and promised to make 25 kits. After 3 years of begging we got little hope I even sent the guy resin to pour the kits. Even that failed, so out of desperation, I tried to get someone, anyone to get these kits made for those who paid for them, and that's when I was condemned, and out casted labeled  a 'recaster'. That was several years ago. I've put that behind me others haven't I've pretty much stopped building models all together, and started playing and buying guitars again (believe me, there are people making fake Les Pauls too, so it's not exclusive to this hobby).  I love my music as much as I loved building models, and I can see when I buy a real Gibson Les Paul, the quality far surpasses any fake coming from China! I've also learned you can't have everything you want. Also , original is always better.  I just don't like the back talking, name calling and threats that occur. That's all

[Wich2]

>some people don't understand what the word "hobby" means ... I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on my collection ...  Nevertheless, I recognize that it is, basically, a lot of nonsense ... the "stuff" I had accumulated was not nearly as important as the friendships and happy acquaintances I had made in the process.<

Raymond, a version of that should be posted over every Folder at every MonsterKid site.

-Craig

[Hepcat]

And there are members who did belong here who I thought were decent people And seemed at the time to enjoy posting here who are calling uma members wierdos and toy freaks who have alters built to our toys and pray to them.

What?! Where?

[raycastile]

The irony of garage kit builders calling toy collectors "weirdos" is too broad to articulate.