I bought fake Götz Dolls, so you don't have to

One of my favourite sculptors is Hildegard Günzel. Her work for Götz is exquisite, and very detailed. I know some of those sculpts by heart by now, and that is why I recognised a hand (really, a hand!) on AliExpress. The illustrious hand belonged to a doll with a face sculpt that I didn't immediately recognise, but one of the faces in the listing were very familiar. And that's when I knew for sure that I was dealing with at least a Götz Hannah fake. 

Fake Hannah's eyes are out of proportion

Most of you know my stance on stolen doll sculpts, so you might be surprised I even bought these dolls. I am very much against this obvious theft of creative work. So the first thing I did was email Götz. They didn't respond. Maybe because I wasn't able to provide any proof at that time. And that is why I decided to acquire that proof. 

Image: Götz Hannah in the back, with her fake siblings. 

On Facebook there were a couple of people curious about the quality of this doll. I'll give a short review, for those that want to know. The brand is called SarieI. I bought 3 of these dolls in 13, 15 and 17 inch. They feel surprisingly solid. The vinyl finish feels remarkably like that of real Götz dolls, so much so that they might be from the same factory. The vinyl is hard, but the 15 inch Hannah doll has a leg that is cast too thin and can be squeezed easily.  That doll also has a bad colour match between head and body. These are conventionally jointed bodies, where the Götz dolls are strung with elastic and because of that the fakes are less poseable. The 13inch doll has loose legs. The hair is rooted remarkably good for the price point, at least they aren't bald beyond the hairline. Of course the scalp isn't painted like that of the Götz Brand dolls. And of course the hair is stringey and oily and there are some loose strands, but what do you expect? The eyes are plastic, the lashes are painted on. The 15 inch Hannah has eyes that are too big, and that is why she is also cross-eyed. I wouldn't personally use the clothes and shoes. Not just because of the unfinished seams, but also because the style and colour combinations are not to my taste. The outfit of the 17 inch doll is the most detailed and well designed. 

Now for the comparison of the stolen sculpts to the original ones. This isn't always easy. They might use different sized eyes, causing proportions to change. One of the sculpts clearly had a resculpted nose, and the joints have also been altered. And doll bodies are sculpted after human bodies, and that is why they often look very much alike. That is why the truth is in the details. 

The bodies look alike, but real Hannah is a lot more poseable

The Hannah body is recognisable because its early puberty torso. She has slim arms and detailed hands. She has detailed hands and feet. And she has muscular legs and thick knobbly knees. Here you can see clearly that the fakes lose some detail because of the recasting. 

 

Fake Sophie and Götz Sophie side by side. 

The little 13 inch doll has a Götz Happy Kids Sophie face mould. The Hannah face is also pretty recognisable. The eyes distort this fakies face, both the original 19.5inch and the fake 15 inch doll have 16mm eyes. But the lower half of the face is identical. The 17 inch doll was hardest to recognise. I realised the nose was resculpted, giving her a Korean plastic surgery look. Her mouth is probably Hannah's though the face is wider. 

Concluding, you could buy these dolls to customise. But should you buy these? You definitely shouldn't. There are so many other affordable choices out there, both legal and better quality. And good news for Götz: they are so much above these fakes that they hold their own niche in the market. 

At least the culprit isn't shy with their information.