casting exclusive heads. moral?

So, there's a few threads in the Radicons section involving casting, and sometimes the issue comes up of casted heads from botcon toys or something else, and everyone else has different opinions on it.
Personally, I've talked to a member about acquiring a casted head of Dreadwind, and personally, I see no problem with this. Why? Well, the head isn't original for one. The first one was still bought the old fashioned way, and Funpub didn't lose any money on that. Also, the body I plan to use (either Treadbolt or Jetfire) also isn't on of theirs, its Hasbro's and was bought fair and square. It's not casted in the same colours, so I have to paint it, and I don't even plan to paint it the same way as Botcon's version. I see no difference in this then casting a head from a toy 20 years ago that you can't get anymore. Now of course, if casting and making replica botcon toys and them being sold as being botcon toys, then I think that's wrong, but for a fan like myself who wants to go another route of making his own Dreadwing for his own personal use? I don't see anything wrong with that, and I doubt Hasbro or FunPub would care either, as this doesn't lower the value of the Botcon toys at all.
There's also another thread that was started to cast more Cliffjumper sets from FansProject for people that missed it out the first time, and hell, Fansproject doesn't even care

"So the 4th party KOs of your CJ kits don't bother you?

FP - Again, we don't look at the whole thing like a business, it hasn't hurt our feelings. Even Hasbro has knock offs you know."
~Interview with Fansproject from seibertron.com

So, what do you guys think?

As long as you arn't selling, it I see no problem with it. People custom their toys all the time. Look at all the Starscreams turned into Thundercrackers.

For exclusive heads? I think that if there is absolutely no chance, so low that the odds of a snowball in hell look good, that the head will ever be officaly sold again, then yes, it's fine by me. Imagine the excelent Classic Jazzes that would come of remolding of that Botcon head, as I personaly actually like evil Jazz.

I'm with you on this. As long as you don't try to fleece anyone with it, you're fine. Do what you want with your own toys.

agreed, i am looking into getting two dreadwind heads one for buster and one for dreadwind, and if i can get those, i will be buying two of the tru exclisive darkwings as well, so, two molded heads traded for hasbro merch that i will have to buy in the store equals 5 more hasbro products purchased from retail, in the end the winners are hasbro and my shelves

I see no moral issue with casting as many heads as you want. I would go so far as to say that even if you sell them that it is not morally wrong because the creators have no intention of selling them again. The only caveat being that you should always clearly state that the cast is a copy and you should always give attribution to the original creator.

Morals aside, it is probably illegal and risky in large quantities.

I was given a cease and desist order from FunPub when I talked about casting Thrust's wings from the '07 set. I was planning to sell them though...

Originally Posted by Ephland Quote: Originally Posted by mondo Is there a difference between Blackout and Grindor? One was at the bottom of the ocean while the other was getting his stuff ruined by Optimus Prime.

the dreadwind head i am pretty sure is trade only, so hopefully that doesn't make it illegal

Plus the set is sold out already. When I was making plans to do that, they were still selling the set. Maybe they thought people would skip the set to buy from me instead? Doubtful as they'd still have to kitbash the figures. Not many people do that. But if that was it, they'd probably not care now. They sold them all and made their money.

Originally Posted by Ephland Quote: Originally Posted by mondo Is there a difference between Blackout and Grindor? One was at the bottom of the ocean while the other was getting his stuff ruined by Optimus Prime.

I do not think it is illegal, Hasbro does nto stop the mass production of other bootleg figures, so why would they care about the Botcon exclusives more then the others?

They have made there money already.