Custom figurines / Collector knowledge
A guide for careful collectors
Recast vs. commission: what is the difference?
Recasts copy manufactured figures without permission; commissions create original sculpts for one collector. How to tell them apart, and what Luminary Studios will and will not make.
1. What a recast is
A recast is an unauthorized copy of an existing manufactured figure. Someone takes a retail statue, makes molds from it, and produces duplicates without the permission of the company or artist that created it. Recasts are typically sold cheaply, and the quality is usually visibly worse: softer details, warped parts, poor paint.
The problem with recasts is not only quality. They copy someone else's work and sell it as their own, which undercuts the artists and companies that made the original. Most collector communities treat buying recasts as harmful to the hobby.
2. What a commission is
A commission is the opposite: an original sculpt created for one client from their references. Nothing is copied from a manufactured product. The artist designs the pose, builds the sculpt over weeks of work, and paints the finished piece by hand. The result is one of one.
This is what Luminary Studios does. Every piece is an original sculpt — the studio does not recast, copy, or duplicate manufactured figures, and does not work from recast kits. If you bring an existing figure, the work is finishing or repainting your own piece (see repaint vs. recommission), not reproducing someone else's.
3. How to tell them apart
A few practical signals. Recast sellers usually offer copies of popular retail figures, using stock photos instead of work-in-progress pictures, with no named artist behind the work. They rarely show a sculpting process, because there is none.
A legitimate commission studio shows the opposite: named artists, progress photos, original sculpts in the portfolio, and a design process that starts from your references. The Luminary case studies document original pieces from brief to finished paint.
4. A note on character rights
Characters from anime, games, and comics belong to their creators and rights holders. This guide is general information, not legal advice, and laws differ by country. What can be said plainly is this: there is a meaningful difference between duplicating a manufactured product without permission and creating an original sculpt for a single collector — and Luminary Studios only does the second.
If you are ever unsure whether a piece you own or want is legitimate, ask the seller who sculpted it and how it was made. A real artist can answer both questions.
Written for Luminary Studios clients. Project terms are confirmed in your private proposal.