The leaves are falling, the days are getting shorter and the nights longer. Halloween is almost here!
With Halloween quickly approaching, the stage is now set for our 3rd Annual Top Ten Michael Myers Mask Replicas EVER countdown – as voted by our members! Last year Nikloas Art Gallery’s (N.A.G.) “75 K” held the top position knocking off the previous reigning champ, Nightowl’s “SHAT”. Will NAG’s 75 K hold the top spot again or will Nightowl’s SHAT reclaim the throne? Perhaps our third countdown will have a third different mask to reign supreme. Time to find out!
We start this year’s countdown with NUMBER TEN (last year number five), Dennis Beckstrom’s DBII. Dennis was a long-time employee at Don Post studios and was the perfect candidate to do an original sculpt which would capture the look of the Don Post 1975 Kirk. Dennis studied several pics of the elusive 75 Kirk from every angle and spent two-and-a-half years on this project perfecting the piece. The result was one of the best and most sought after masks in the hobby. Pictured is member DistortedShape’s impressive DBII customized by “jc_70” (James Carter):
At NUMBER NINE on this year’s countdown (same position as last year) is N.A.G.’s MOVIE MOLD KIRK a.k.a. The MMK. This Michael Myers mask was made to replicate the look of the 1975 Don Post Kirk from which the hero mask used in Halloween (1978) was derived from. The mass-produced 1975 Don Post Kirk mask had several molds used during production, each having a few variances in their overall look. This mask attempts to replicate the 1975 screen- used, converted Kirk mask. This particular copy shown below belongs to member “ishdiaz79’s” and was customized by converter All Hallow’s Ghost (AHG):
NUMBER EIGHT (same position as last year’s countdown) is an old favorite, N.A,G.’s H78. This mask made a huge splash when converter AHG (All Hallow’s Ghost) worked on the first one of these seen on the Michael-Myers.net forum for member GoBears. The H78 remains one of the favorite masks in the hobby for many collectors. Below is member weana0815’s copy given a good James Carter conversion:
Coming in at NUMBER SEVEN (number four last year) is Nightowl’s Nightmare Man 78 “4-Stamp” (a.k.a. 4-stamper). Although there were other versions of this Michael Myers mask, the one that is considered by most to be THE version to have is this very limited, original “4-stamp” version. The “4-stamp” part of the name is due to the mask having four distinct stamps on the back of its neck. The first one states the name of the company (Nightowl Productions), the second states the owner/artist of Nightowl (Justin Mabry), the third states the name of the Michael-Myers.net member who had the 75 Kirk from which the mask was pressed from (Billy Kirkus), and the fourth stamp states the name of the mask itself (Nightmare Man 78).
Only nine or ten of these Michael Myers masks were made. This particular mask was the one to really usher in the Michael Myers mask collecting craze to a level not seen before. Seen below is my own personal proto copy that was customized by my good friend James Carter:
Coming in at NUMBER SIX (last year’s number ten) is an old favorite and still one of the best Michael Myers mask replicas ever made, the mask known as the NIGHTMARE. The Nightmare was born when Justin Mabry (Nightowl Productions) clay pressed a real Don Post 1975 Kirk, which is the same mask that was converted to the Michael Myers mask we see in John Carpenter’s Halloween.
The Nightmare has been made by various other mask makers since its original Nightowl debut, including MMP (Mask Maker Productions) and N.A.G. (Nikolas Art Gallery). Seen below is member maskcollector230’s beautiful N.A.G. copy customized by James Carter:
This concludes part one of the two-part 3rd Annual Michael-Myers.net Top Ten Myers Mask Replicas EVER countdown… check back soon for the second part which will cover numbers five to the coveted number one position!