Creepy Crispy Critter

One of the things I enjoy about picking up items from garage or estate sales is they may require some fixing up. I feel like I'm preserving the past when I restore something to its former glory.  In fact, I've written here of my many restoration projects.

Today I'm going to share a failure.

I found this 1980's Topstone mask at an estate sale marked for $1.  It was hardened stiff, as these old rubber masks tend to do, but I thought for a buck, I'd give a shot at restoring it.  The pictures below show the form it was hardened in.  It doesn't appear that way because it's laying flat. You could pick it up and it retained this shape.

I consulted the experts at the Vintage Monster Toys Facebook page and perused some videos about vintage masks, particularly Raymond Castile's Basement of Horror series.

Recommendations from the groups included leaving the mask in a hot car, heating with a hair dryer, and hot water.

I left the mask in my car on a warm spring day, but that didn't do anything for it.

I tried the hair dryer, again, to no effect.

I finally tried the hot water and upon dropping the mask into the water, it immediately began relaxing.  Success! I thought.  Pulling it out of the water, the mask immediately ripped.  I tried to shape it so it would maintain the proper form once it cooled, but that also was in vain.

Here's the final product.

Oh well.  Maybe someone with a gentler hand, more time or more patience could have accomplished better, but I suspect once these latex rubber masks are gone, they're gone.

On the other hand, the mask does look pretty disturbing in its current form, so I may use it as a prop somewhere this Halloween.

For reference, here's this mask in its original form.  Topstone called these "Nu-Skin" masks. I'm not sure if the material used was any different than other latex masks of the day.