Thursday, February 24, 2011

Early 1980's Topstone Monster Mask Ad

This full-page color Topstone Ad was scanned from the inside cover of Fango #21. The ad features a few late Topstone originals, like the Prickle Puss mask, as well as some not-so-original designs.

During the eighties, Topstone was notorious for knocking off Be Something Studios designs. The Ghoulish, Stone Age Creature, and Silver Wolf are all blatant BSS knock offs, as is the Fang Face, which bears the same name as the BSS original.

Well, they say imitation is the best form of flattery, and it was during the early eighties that BSS was creating some of the best mass produced masks of the time.

Here are a few side by side comparisons.  There's no doubt the Be Something Studios masks are of much higher quality, but there's certainly an bit of old school Topstone charm to the knock-offs!

2 comments:

  1. Kick-ass. I'm pretty sure I remember that ad too.

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  2. I still think the BSS Warlock is one of my all time favorite masks. I also have the Ghoulish, but it just doesn't quite compare.

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