Study of the Part 6 and 7 Masks

Just a quick comparison between Part 6 movie mold and Fear City Creations blanks. The Part 6 mask (right) is a second generation casting of the back of a Part 6 movie mask by Fiberglassmasks.com. The FCC mask (left) is a second gen casting of a blank by the late mask maker Ken Tarallo believed to have been pulled straight from the Part 7 movie buck.

The similarities are striking, so much so that they almost appear to be from the same buck. The FCC mask measures on the back 21.2 x 24.6 cm. The Part 6 measures 21 x 24.3 cm, not really a meaningful difference considering the slightly different cut of the two blanks.

The masks have all the same curves, the same unevenness in the nose and identical hole placement.

There are some noticeable differences. The FCC mask has a slight flattening on the right side compared to the six; the right cheek and edges appear rounder on the six, which is also more consistent with the Part 6 movie masks. The lower left edge of the Fiberglassmasks Part 6 is also more rounded and consistent with the movie masks, and the far right curve near the right strap hole is a perfect match to the movie masks, the curve on the FCC mask beginning a bit higher.

 

In some ways, the FCC is actually closer to the Part 6 movie masks, including the shape of the left edge near the strap hole.

Given the remarkable similarities, and the fact that the minor differences could be the result of both copies here being second gen recasts, it is tempting to conclude that the Part 6 and Part 7 movie masks both came off the Part 6 buck. This however seems unlikely, given that the Part 6 buck is known to have split horizontally across the mouth, a fact attested to in the photo of Gabe Bartalos with a production blank below, as well as the Part 8 movie masks, themselves recast from a spare Part 6 mask.

There is no visible horizontal mark in the Part 7 masks, but there is a massive vertical split down the middle visible in the rare first-gen blanks, which was filled in before they were pulled. The greatest likelihood is that the Part 7 mask was a recast of the back of a Part 6 movie mask, rather than a pull from the same buck. The slight differences in the Part 7, including the flattening in some parts, could have been the result of a poor fit between the silicone mold and its plaster casing. While we don't know which Part 6 mask it was cast from, it was likely made from a mask pulled early, before the buck fractured.

More Photos of the Part VII Mask

Here's a couple more gorgeous photos of the Part 7 hero mask, from the Wall Street Journal and Josh Ludemann of Beyond Disgusting Studios. What a great piece of cinematic artwork.

Finally: Razor Sharp Photos of the Part VII Mask

Taken from the Profiles in History auction catalog. This mask is expected to fetch over $100,000.

You can also see a short HD video of the mask here:

Friday the 13th Mask Shows Up on Pawn Stars

 

The mask appears to be a recast of one of the promotional masks made for Friday the 13th Part 7: The New Blood. The original promotional masks are seen below. So it's probably not worth much by itself. Richard Brooker has been gone a long time and apparently his signature can fetch some money these days so the price quoted might be reasonable. It seems weirdly high to me but I'm not an autograph collector. The $6,500 ask was wild!

Here's a shot of the promotional masks made by the MMI in 1988. You can see that the Pawn Stars mask has the same distinctive cheek cut, which is not accurate to the hero mask.

Full Color Scan of Production Part 7 Head

 

I sold this piece recently, but got a full color scan of the whole head first. Eventually I'd like to combine this cranial scan with scans from the MMI mold of the face, teeth and neck and maybe produce a limited run super faithful part 7 bust. The only movie mold part 7 bust, the SSN New Blood, had a reproduced cranium that isn't quite exact to the original. But for now it's just something to sit on.

Original Part 7 Jason Hands For Sale on eBay

Selling the original MMI hands from part 7. Only complete pair of movie mold hands known to exist from the film. Click here to go to auction.

 

Highly-Detailed Part 7 Bust For Sale

Sculpted by Marshall Bean. Easily the best fan sculpt of this design I've ever seen. Also comes with its own hockey mask. Resin blanks available now for $350. Contact the seller on Facebook or comment below with your email!

Original Movie Mold Jason Hands For Sale

Take a look at the photos below. The pair of brown hands at left are the last surviving pair of original latex hands made for the production of Friday the 13th Part 7. I recently purchased them from Brad Hardin, who obtained them from the late John Carl Buechler many years ago. No one else has both hands from the film, though Mario Kirner does have a single hand that was painted and used during production.

The pair of black hands on the right are a perfect replica molded straight off these hands. Cast in a lightweight resin, they are exactly the same size and perfectly capture every detail of the hands at left. My business partner recently did a small run of these for our friends and fellow collectors.

Here's the good news: out of a run of twenty, there are five pair still available. If you want one of these last five pair, contact Marcos Medina on Facebook, or look him up on Yourprops (user: Barcode500). I expect they're going to go fast, so don't wait too long!

If you want to buy the original latex hands, leave a comment with your email address here or contact me on Facebook.

Here's some extra shots of the movie hands for reference.

SSN New Blood Master Mold #3

Updated the paint job on this thing. I like it even more now. Think I should (lightly) perma-wet the whole thing or no? The movie appliances look like they may have had a light gloss on them, although it may not have been uniform.

Another old MMI Part 7 Jason Dummy

Just a quick video of the late John Carl Buechler with Kane Hodder in the MMI shop a few years ago. We briefly get a close up of a part 7 Jason mannequin in the background, showing a really nice paint job in the face. Hard to tell if the cranium is movie mold (the original cranium mold having been lost many years ago), but seems likely to be.

This Jason piece was sold to a collector a while back. Here's a few more shots of it.

The Part 7 "Makeup-Test" Bust: A Forensic Analysis

I won this beast at a Profiles in History auction back in November. It was auctioned as an old makeup-test maquette made during pre-production of Friday the 13th part 7. The previous owner was evidently Planet Hollywood, who had it on display for many years.

This thing is life-size and heavy. Almost like picking up half of a real person. It is also very fragile and though largely undamaged, it has been sitting and drying out for a few decades and the age is certainly evident in the head.

The maquette is made primarily of foam latex with bone pieces constructed of hard foam over a half-mannequin that seems to be covered in black cloth. The head is also covered in a thick epoxy resin and is painted several different shades of green and yellow browns; the torso and arms are painted a redder brown, almost a maroon color. The foam latex on the head is thin and brittle and the epoxy might be there to protect it; the torso pieces are still spongy and in very good condition.

The maquette is wearing a Dickies brand shirt that was originally a light tan color; they used green and black washes to give the shirt a swampy appearance and evidently beat the hell out of it with a belt sander to create the damage. In very shredded places the threads appear to be melted together. The overall appearance of the paint job appears to be rushed and entirely hand done; no airbrush work is evident. Several different shades of brown can be seen throughout, which gives the impression they were mixing paint crudely as they moved along. The piece is also wearing a plastic chain very similar to the one seen in the film.

Upon unboxing, one of the first things I noticed was the face--though very compressed from years of wearing a hockey mask (I'll show you later), it is clearly the MMI movie sculpt, as you can see in this comparison with my other MMI face, a movie mold piece made by Brad Hardin as a precursor to the SSN New Blood he produced years ago. The neck does not resemble the movie mold appliances, and may have been a quick-and-dirty sculpting job just to get the piece done.

As collectors know, while Hardin used the original face, neck and teeth molds from the film to create his piece, he had to reconstruct the cranium from scratch; this is why there are not only substantial sculpt differences, but a considerable size difference as well. The New Blood master mold piece at left has a cranium that measures about 23 inches; the maquette's cranium measures 25.5 inches, and thats with 30 years of facial compression. When it was fresh, it was probably about 27 inches.

Also evident is the more accurate shape-- the overall shape, machete wound and basic features of the cranium look a lot more like the movie head. There is a lack of crispness in details, and some minor features such as the propeller slashes that seem to be missing or buried. However, as I explain below, this in very likely the movie cranium, and the lack of detail is due to the thick layer of epoxy covering the whole head. This detail masking is also evident in the face (which is definitely movie mold).

When I received the piece, I noticed the left side of the cranium and face were crumbling and in danger of falling off, so I did some LIGHT restoration in the temple and mouth with cabopatch and paint just to hold everything together.

 

The teeth in the head are definitely the original MMI teeth, as you can see with my copy of the original denture appliance sculpt.It looks like they took a straight casting of the denture sculpt, painted it and stuck it right in the face.

Curiously, there is also an peep hole cut out in the rotten remnants of the left eye. It makes me think the same thing might have been done for Kane in the final appliances so he had some depth perception.

The back features a crudely sculpted spine, distinct from the one in the film. As with many aspects of the piece, this was put together quickly. The bones of the back are all made of foam latex, while the sternum in the front is hard foam.

In this photo you can see the effects of hockey mask compression. The face originally came out about an extra inch.

As mentioned, the maquette also came with its own hockey mask. Hard to tell what its made of exactly, most likely resin. It seems to be part of the lineage mold of movie masks used in the films as opposed to a unique sculpt and closely resembles some of the promotional masks made later, though it lacks finer detail such as the vent divots. They used radiator grill to block out the eyes and misted on black and brown spray paint. The straps and strap fasteners seem to be identical to what was used in the film; the straps measure 1 inch in width and 4 mm thick and the fastener is just a hair under a half inch. As you can see, they are actually just manila envelope tabs that are epoxied in.

One interesting little curiosity about this bust--underneath the ribs there is another set of ribs buried deeper in the hole. They probably sculpted in the top set to improve visibility.

This was sold as a "makeup-test" dummy but upon further inquiry, that's not actually what it is. It's a display piece that sat in the MMI shop for many years that was probably made after production of Friday the 13th Part 7.

But here's the kicker. The head and neck were actually appliances worn by Kane Hodder during a promotional shoot for TerrorZone in 1988. You can see it in the distinctive orange skin tone and the yellowish color of the exposed bone, as well as some other subtle weathering around the head. The hero appliances from the film were more of a reddish-brown and the bone was closer to gray.

Here's a quick comparison, slightly enhanced. Note the vertical black streak in the middle of the forehead, the yellow bone, the blacked out area on the left temple and the purplish tone around the axe mark:

This explains why the head is a different color, and covered in resin: it was older, thinner, probably sweat-damaged and more brittle than the rest of the body. The resin was added to preserve it. It also explains why there is an eye hole cut out in the damaged right eye. It would only make sense if it was actually a worn appliance.

You'll notice that in the promotional photo the chin and jawline seem to be very red. You can see in the above shot of the back of the mask that came with this piece that there are spots of fake blood in the mouth area. That suggests that the mouth/chin may have originally been covered in blood (for unknown reasons).

If that's the case, then its the same head piece that Kane wore for his appearance in People magazine, Nov. 7, 1988; this was the same shoot that produced the TerrorZone photos.

This means that the whole apparatus, including the cranium, is likely movie mold. There's even a chance it was a spare makeup appliance that came from the film shoot, possibly even a stunt mask made for the burn scene. I was thinking of selling it, but since these are the only part 7 face/head appliances actually worn by Kane that are known to survive, I will probably hold onto this incredible piece of history.