Good evening Creeps! This week at the Monster Mask Blog, we'll be digging into a full week of vintage catalogs from Be Something Studios. Before the world got crazy with the pandemic, the mother load of BSS and Zagone catalogs scans was hand delivered to me by River Lev, who is a sculptor and painter at Zagone Studios, which is located about 7 miles from the Phantom's crib. I have been dying to post these, and they are a certainly a large motivating force in the revival of the blog.
I plan to post five of these catalogs this week starting on Tuesday. Several of these have been posted in the past, but not with this level of clarity. These scans are gorgeous! I'll try to post hi-res pics of several of the masks as well.
A bit of personal history that I'll share... Be Something Studios are the nearest and dearest to my heart. Growing up in the Chicago suburbs, these are the masks that were in my local costume shops, as Zagone Studios was located in Chicago (now in the southwest suburbs of Chicago). They are the masks that I absolutely fell in love with and became obsessed with as a kid. In Fall of 1985 when I had just turned 11, my Mom began allowing me to ride my bike a few miles from the house and visit a small party shop called "Corky's Partytime" in Hoffman Estates Illinois. Corky's did Halloween right. They had a killer display of Be Something masks and all the amazing staple of costumes, makeup, and props tht one could hope to find in the mid-1980s. I rode my bike up to Corky's every damn day after school to look at the masks. It was all I wanted to do. The only thing that could pry my attention away from the masks was when the annual local haunted house opened up at the community pool. But even then, I still visited every day.
So for some folks, it's Don Post Studios, or Distortions Unlimited, or whichever studio may have captured your attention. But for this guy, it was Be Something Studios. THIS is why I am so thrilled to share these!!!
Some other thoughts... If you're a long time reader of this blog, you've heard me say this before, but it bears repeating. I really believe that through the years Be Something/Zagone has the the most impressive line-up of original characters of any other studio. Yes, DPS, and Distortions have had their share of classic originals, but BSS/Zagone has been churning out killer originals for decades now. I've also been saying for years now, that Zagone masks are the best masks to wear if you're going to wear them. Nobody does it better. Now, I will say, I do love to wear my Trick or Treat Studios Rob Zombie mask, it fits like a glove as do many of the masks that Justin sculpts. But over the past 40+ years, nobody has done it better than the Zagones. I may be biased by my childhood love for their masks, but I really believe that BSS/Zagone made (and still makes) the very best mass-produced masks on the market. I do love a good mask debate though, so by all means, tell me I'm wrong!
Alright, enough already. Let's get to the catalogs shall we...
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