Joshua Gates – shown above on his investigative trek in Malaysia with Seekers Sis and Illa – reveals to Cryptomundo the startling news that an excellent first generation copy of the Johor Bigfoot cast sits safely in California.

Illa shows off the cast last February, as photographed from a different angle, above, as opposed to the often seen image, below.

Joshua Gates, above, was involved with obtaining the original Johor cast, in the jungle.

But, as it turns out, a copy was made; see the photo directly above, which was previsiously published as showing the original. Gates is shown below in the act of accepting the never-before revealed copy. He writes me that this cast was made directly from the original Kota Tinggi print’s cast: “Since The Malaysian government was adamant about the original cast remaining in country, we quickly created another mold from the original and copied the casting using soft clay to create a negative and plaster of Paris to create another print. The second cast is here in Los Angeles.”

This is good news, because no telling where the original will now end up.

But it also brings up the question, if the Malaysian government would not allow the original cast to be taken out of the country for study earlier this year, why are they allowing the Seekers to sell it to the highest bidder anyplace in the world now? Why is the Malaysian government allowing the original cast to leave their country now, when, in fact, they previously banned such a move, and probably to a wealthy American?