Continuing from yesterday's blog about disguises, here are some rubber/vinyl masks I found this summer at various garage and estate sales. When I was a kid, rubber masks were for the wealthy.
First up is this vampire mask with "lifelike" hair. The odd thing is, he had sculpted hair already. I guess it didn't do well, so they thought adding additional hair might help. I'm not sure of the maker of this.
Next up is this old man with REALLY long beard by Paper Magic Group. It dates from the 1990's.
Paper Magic Group was formed in the 1970's. It produced Halloween masks and other holiday-themed papergoods including greeting cards. They acquired another Halloween mask company Topstone in 1995. It in turn was acquired by CSS Inducstries in 1998. In 2012, it sold it's Halloween-related branch of business to Gemmy Industries.
This next mask was made by Cesar in the 1980's and is referred to as "Withered Old Woman". I often wonder if these mask names were official or if they just acquired them over the years from collectors.
And finally, this clown half-mask may be the most disturbing mask shown today. I don't know if it's the sloppily painted eyeliner, the nose that dangles from a rubber bridge connected to the top, or the long red-yarn hair that hangs down, unkempt and unstyled. Seriously, the is serial killer stuff.
I agree...the Clown mask is definitely the most terrifying!
ReplyDeleteStill come off pretty creepy, to me. When I was a kid, my father had a mask sort of like this material, in the likeness of Richard Nixon. For whatever reason, when he would wear it, it would scare the hell out of me. So, he would do that often enough.
ReplyDeleteMan, that sounds traumatizing, Joe! Of course, dads are going to keep doing it if it traumatizes you.
DeleteVery Cool! I really love joke items like this!
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