Who is this "Sidkit" and why don't I own his Mal Reynolds pistol?

Sorry, I didn't know it was established that the Sidkit is a Phillipes recast. I haven't read the thread since you guys were talking about grips. Can see now hoe my post was badly timed :(

I doubt that sidkit has access to the original screen used pieces like phil did. If he did buy a phillipes cast as his starting point, the end result is nothing like it. The removeable magazine, seperate grips and working trigger mechanism are huge upgrades from the solid hunk of plastic that defines the phillipes cast. The phillipes cast is the only accurate Mal pistol out there that I'm aware of. Is the inaccurate Wilco model some how more "noble" because it is original work? Maybe, but I'm buying the phillipes cast and the sidkit because they are the most correct and have the nicest features.

I feel the line between "derived from" and "recasted" is pretty fuzzy to begin with. In my view a "recaster" is a person who buys anothers work, adds nothing of his own, plops it in silicone to copy and re-sell. This is NOT how I see the sidkit Mal pistol. Even if the starting point was the phillipes cast, it has evolved into the expression of another's work.

I thought of cutting up one of my two philippes Mal pistols to make a metal version similar to the sidkit for myself. Frankly, the scope of the project was too overwhelming. Cry "recaster" all you want, I respect the work that was done to produce the sidkit (too overwhelming for me) and am glad beyond words that it is available for purchase.

Mike
 
Anyone that thinks Sidkit bought on of Phil's blasters, dipped it into RTV and out popped his version is extremely ignorant to the metal casting process.
 
Anyone that thinks Sidkit bought on of Phil's blasters, dipped it into RTV and out popped his version is extremely ignorant to the metal casting process.

Not just that, but the time it takes to mod it into what's available. As stated previously, there's a crapload of work that went into this thing, obviously. I don't have a "moral" stand on it that could be summed up in a thread.

The grips are very "meh" - but seriously, it's not *that* much work to make new ones out of wood. It's a matter of having the right tools.
 
***** *****ing Ch**st!!!!!!!!!!!

pardon my french, but do you know how freakin LUCKY we are as FIREFLY/SERENITY fans to even have ANYTHING out here AT ALL? Licenced or not?
and what do we de?!!!!!!

we sit around and ***** about how so-n-so stole someones design and blah blah blah... who gives a d*mn?

I mean ANYTHING, Phils or this sidkit is a COPY of the original, so lets get off this bandwagon!

do you REALLLy want to ***** about this SOO much that someone takes notice and sidkit STOPS making them?!!?!? do you want that to hapoen?!!??!

lets just be quiet about it, buy the kit if you want it, if not , dont.... and lets just all be grateful Phil and sidkit have offered us these replicas!!!


again pardon my temper, but can see this QUICKLY degrading into Sidkit just stop making the kits..... and thats not cool at all
 
Hey gang,

I'm always happy to see a new Firefly prop on the market. I'm sure Phil has seen this thread and is aware of the Sidkit. If he feels something is fishy or that an injustice of some kind has been done in regards to his work, he'll probably let us or the mods know.

What say we defy the laws of the internet and redirect our reaction towards something a little more positive, at least until we hear otherwise from an affected party.

May I humbly suggest we skip over the whole recasting discussion until that time? We've recently had one Firefly/Serenity prop discussion go crazy and I feel we don't need another right now. The appearance of a new Firefly prop is a rare occurrence nowadays and should be a joyful event (sorry for sounding a bit cheesy).

I my own self am just starting up several Firefly projects and I need some positive vibes from y'all. :thumbsup
 
Hear, Hear!

Recasting is bad but back engineering stuff is quite legitimate. Nikon buy Canon cameras and Canon buy Nikon cameras to examine the technology all the time. Unless a patent is owned by RAC for the way his mechanical changes operate, which I'm guessing he doesn't, then someone else examining the break down and operation of those parts is something you have to live with and they've done nothing wrong. Physically duplicating the parts by cloning in rubber is not cool but creating your own original parts that employ a methodology that anyone can use is neither morally or legally wrong. Again I use the camera analogy. Canon created USM lenses. That means lenses that contain Ultra Sonic Motors to focus them. That single piece of technology made Canon the market leader. They wisely patented the idea so no one could copy it. Nikon realising they were getting left behind copied the principle but because of the patent which was specific to USM motors, came up with their own system but using Hyper Sonic Motors (HSM) to tip toe around the patent quite morally and legally. Business is like that.
 
To be perfectly frank, it would have been nice if Siderio had asked me if he could use my client's Mal pistol casting as the basis of his model—that's common courtesy—but he didn't. If it were me, I would offer the originator some kind of commission, and have done that sort of thing in the past on other projects. He probably didn't ask because he likely thought I'd tell him not to proceed. That would, however, have depended on the client who originally made the castings available—not me.

On the other hand, I honestly believe the whole recasting issue is usually hypocritical, which is why I haven’t spoken up about this previously. The Mal casting I offered was a bootleg. Why would a bootlegger scream, "Bootleg!" when bootlegged? Conversely, bootlegging bootleggers still remains a bottom-feeding behavior, which is why it's generally frowned upon.

In the past, Siderio sold a Leon pistol based on a concept drawing by Stephen Dane found in the "Blade Runner Scrapbook." Without asking me, in his eBay auction, Siderio linked to my "Mother's Defender" article. In turn, this led to a very angry and upsetting letter to me from Stephen Dane himself (who argued that his "intellectual property" had been stolen) to whom I had to respond with equal firmness explaining that I had nothing to do with the reproduction, and that Siderio had simply linked to my article without my permission. That was a very, very unpleasant experience which I feel tainted my name in the eyes of Stephen Dane, who was someone with whom I’d previously had a very long and interesting phone conversation. (Ironically, in my "Mother’s Defender" article, I explicitly credited Dane, who originally never received a mention anywhere in the "Blade Runner Scrapbook.")

Many months ago, I noticed that Siderio was going to offer a Blade Runner blaster holster, which seemed to be modeled off my most recent iteration of the piece. Apparently, however, this initiative appears to have been dropped. Nonetheless, it bothered me to see him doing such a thing without contacting me.

In all sincerity, I wish Siderio would choose to do his own original projects instead of piggybacking on those of others. At the very least, he could contact those affected to see if some kind of agreement could be reached. Of course, he has absolutely no obligation to do this, but it would certainly be extremely appreciated and polite if he did.

Siderio's aftermarket Corgi Batmobile business is highly original. And his other Batmobile initiatives are admirable as well. Somewhere along the road, though, he lost some of his innovativeness and decided to take the lazier man's route. Why? Profit?

The thing that disturbs me the most is when people adjust their ethics to fit their materialistic motivations. In other words, it's fascinating to see how certain people will rearrange their moral paradigms to justify the existence of something they want.

Phil
 
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The thing that disturbs me the most is when people adjust their ethics to fit their materialistic motivations. In other words, it's fascinating to see how certain people will rearrange their moral paradigms to justify the existence of something they want.

Phil

That sounds rather familiar. I believe it is like offering something guaranteed screenused and then the person who bought the screenused item finding out that it was never like that at all. In addition, people will sometimes try to limit information on something so that they can reap profits off of creating a duplicate and not allow others to see the actual work that inspired the duplicate. Money is a big motivating factor in the lives of many people. Wouldn't you agree Phil?

To be honest, I have no issues with people duplicating screen used items. If this did not happen, this would not be the REPLICA prop forum.

Otherwise, if I had the money, I would pick on up in a heartbeat. It looks like a wonderful kit that is actually shipping.
 
Thought this might be worth mentioning...I sent an e-mail to Sidkit regarding the Blue Wonder stuff he recommends using. Some of his example pictures made it look brownish, even though it's a "gun blue" chemical, so I wanted to know whether it was a camera trick, or if it actually did turn out brown instead of blue. Here's the response he gave me:

"Hello, they will look brown with some reflex of brass.Also if you wrong to use the blue wonder or the finishing will be look not so good as you hopes, you can remove it very easyly before apply the developer.

Thank you
Siderio."
 
(The Code:

I live by.)

We all are dirty bootleggers and many are recasters of some type.

Honor among thefts:

First Rule: Do not step on someone else's toes, if someone is marketing a model it is not right to rip off his model and sell copies of it.

If you can come up with a model that is your own or bought form another model that is NOT based on the first guys model, well computation is fair and OK.

Example: I used to make a classic ST Phaser, HMS made their own, both fair.
Rick Ross had his PKD and I had my C&S again both fair.

IF I had used Rick's model to base my model off of, NOT fair, and a recast.

Taking it to whole different level, such as buying a dummy resin casting and hollowing it out and adding major features and making it a working prop with light and sound, kind of ok IF the resin dummy casting was from a studio original prop, not an original sculpt.

I would say IF Sidkit did indeed do all the hollowing out and tooling in making Mels gun he is kind of alright, it is a major upgrading of the original casting, if he bought one from someone all ready done like that, he should have gotten the owners OK.

A piece offing of a few copies would be a good idea, better permission with the offer of copies before hand is better.

Most of us are fans and if someone offer to greatly improve a dummy model of mine (one I did not all ready have a full dressed model selling as well) And offered credit and a few models, I would take the deal.

Abandoned projects, we used to say if no one is making the model and the owner has not done any for a year it is fair game, but it was polite to ask or inform the owner before, most do say no problem I am so done with that.

My 2 cents worth.

Rich
 
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Personaly the bright Blue hurts my eyes, But is that better for you?
Rich
Well... it shows as black on the default style skin, but if it's bothersome to you, then you shouldn't use it.

Didn't want to sound snappy with my previous post, if that's how it was read...
 
Well... it shows as black on the default style skin, but if it's bothersome to you, then you shouldn't use it.

Didn't want to sound snappy with my previous post, if that's how it was read...


I can take it...seems this system used to convert text automatly to suit the skin, seems that no longer works.

My background is black..

Rich
 
The thing that disturbs me the most is when people adjust their ethics to fit their materialistic motivations.

Wow... are these yours?

brass.JPG
 
There is no honor among thefts.

However, there is an RPF rule that for sale posts go in the junkyard.

NBC_smith-larry_dogpile.jpg
 
Please do not make FS posts outside of the JY. You've been corrected on this many times already, Rich.
 
First thing is someone needs to fix the text importer, it used to be automatic.

And I pluged my model when a couple of people said "We should be glad to find any new models from FireFly" and is this not a thread on Firefly models?

They have talked about the Mels gun, Phils version of the gun, on the holsters, on my Blade Runner Blaster, Rick Ross's PKD and so on, so with it being a open season on any thing and in responce to we whould be glad to see any thing from Fire Fly, I really though my little plug is ok.

Or do I have to wait for some one other than me to plug a model I make, is that the rule??

OK I have a ad in the Junkyard is it ok to say that?

Rich

PS Red ok with everyone?


And now the blue text is impossible to read in the "Jedi Knights" skin! Can't win. :)
 
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