Friday, August 25, 2017

Own a Part 4 Movie Mold Bust!

A "Bloody Ending II" from the original Part 4 mold cast in flesh-toned translucent resin.
Some of you guys that have been around for a while may know Ryan Bean, one of the best sculptors in the business and an absolute fount of knowledge about Friday the 13th masks and FX work.

A few years back, Ryan and James Mangrum (sculptor of the legendary "His Unlucky Day" resin bust) retooled a 1980's latex mask pulled from the original movie mold that produced the animatronic stunt dummy impaled at the end of the film.
Yes, this stunt dummy.
Actor Bruce Mahler with the original sculpt in 1984. This is the same sculpt that produced both the animatronic dummy from part 4 and the "Bloody Ending" bust.
Ryan's resulting resin head, the "Bloody Ending" remains the only commercially available work that descends straight from the original movie sculpt by veteran FX sculptor James Kagel. Given the poor condition of the surviving movie props, it will likely remain so.

Jason actor Ted White with a painted "Bloody Ending." He told the owner "I don't recall ever seeing one this good."
Source: http://www.thehma.net/forum/index.php?topic=42113.0

For anyone unfamiliar with the FX work on Friday part 4, there were actually two sculpts used in the film. The first, seen above, was used to create the impalement dummy for Jason's death as well as the cowl that White wore throughout the film. The second, somewhat more detailed version was created for the facial appliances used during the unmasking. The H.U.D. is a reproduction of the final appliance sculpt by Kagel, while the Bloody Ending is the initial design seen through most of the film.
The cowl came from this mold as well.
The source was a mask produced by members of Tom Savini's effects team from the original mold and sold in horror magazines back in the 1990's.

Only a handful are known to survive today, and thanks to current owner Aaron Lewis, Ryan was able obtain what is probably the largest and best surviving copy to recast. After some repair work and adding a closed eye that was molded directly from a "Mangler" (another piece from the same movie mold), he sold the initial run of resin Bloody Ending busts back in 2012.
The Mangler (left), a recast of a movie dummy used in the film, contributed the missing eye and the "stunt mask" (right) served as the primary source. Both were created and sold by Tom Savini's FX team about 20 years ago.

Left: the movie mold mask. Center: Recasted tooling master. Right: Final version.

The features were incredibly well preserved in the source mask and the Bloody Ending captured it all perfectly.
 
Obviously, the Blood Ending is a killer collectible. It's sole drawback is that the source mask was badly shrunk--down to child size--so the finished product was somewhat small (below middle, next to a H.U.D.)

But thanks to the sorcery that is 3D printing, we were able to fix that. Using measurements of both the H.U.D. and the original animatronic dummy for reference, we upscaled the master 11 percent, created a 3D print and molded the print in silicone to create the Bloody Ending II.  The final pieces are cast in a proprietary mix of flesh-toned translucent resins layered in a way that makes them look soft and silicone-like.
A H.U.D. from the first run with the second Bloody Ending II blank.

 The SLS printing process captured every detail in the original sculpt down to 0.1 mm, so there was virtually no detail loss during the reproduction. You can compare with the movie sculpt below (click any image to enlarge):
 
 
 
Left: Original movie head. Right: Bloody Ending II

Part 4 collectors know the H.U.D. is a coveted piece. It is after all, an absolute masterwork of recreation. But since there are only 27 in existence, selling for as high as $2,000, few fans will ever be "lucky" (heh) enough to ever own one.

So we wanted to create a reasonably priced alternative for collectors and fans without creating another fan sculpt. Since Ryan is planning on producing these resin blanks indefinitely for only about 10% of the cost of a H.U.D., Jason fans everywhere will be able to enjoy a real piece of film history.

THE DETAILS:

***These are sold as translucent resin blanks only and will not be painted.

***If you're interested in owning this gem, Paypal $250 to Ryan Bean at Thedeathcurse (at) hotmail (dot) com. When your bust is complete (usually 2 to 3 weeks), Ryan will contact you for shipping charges, which will be assessed based on your location. Make sure he has your email.

***Any inquiries should be directed to Ryan's personal email at thedeathcurse (at) outlook (dot) com and on Facebook.

***Please DO NOT comment below with questions, the blog owner is no longer directly involved with this project. Thanks!


SOME PHOTOS FROM PROUD OWNERS: