Progressive Ruin presents…the End of Civilization, 1980 Edition.
ad detail from Fantastic Films #20 (December 1980)
Five hundred dollars? In 1980? That’s like a billionty dollars in 2011 money. …Oh, okay, it’s closer to about $1,300 or so, according to that currency conversion site I checked it on. But still, that’s a lot of scratch for someone to dole out for a sci-fi collectible at the time. Or maybe it wasn’t…I don’t know, I was only 11 at the time, I was too busy keeping tabs on my couple of bucks’ worth of comics-buying budget to worry about slapping down five bills for something that dear, and, let’s face it*, completely awesome.
By the way, this isn’t a sculpture…it’s a “custom limited edition mask” (it says elsewhere on the page) from Don Post Studios, which “comes complete with its own attractive display case” and “each [mask] is individually crafted as your order is received.”
It also says each set is “serialized and recorded,” so…I wonder if you could contact the studio today with a serial number to verify that the mask is authentic, or establish chain of ownership? I’m guessing so. I’m sure it’s all computerized, but I still amused myself by picturing a beat-up old notebook, with each purchaser’s name scribbled in it along with the serial number, with “PEOPLE WHO BOUGHT THE FACEHUGGER MASK” in felt tip pen on the cover, sitting on a shelf somewhere in the office.
And you know, the more I think about it…I’m betting as rare as this item likely is now, that $500 price tag was probably a bargain.
I remember seeing that ad. Don Post had a limited Klaus Kinski as Nosferatu mask that was the same price. There was a rumor floating around that Princess Grace had bought one.
You know it’s fancy because they wrote the price out instead of using (tacky) numbers.
I still have a copy of Fantastic Films #20 somewhere. I loved that magazine as kid. In the pre-internet days info about fantasy and sci-fi films was hard to come by.
Devastatingly detailed and lifelike…oooo.
Anyway, what does “convincingly mounted” mean?
You will believe we hung it in a Lucite cube!
i wonder how far back we could go (by year), finding end-of-civilization type items? Those medals sold having something to do with Star Trek go back at least to the 70’s!
That’s worth it.