Mad Max 2 / The Road Warrior - Lord Humungus' mask research and info

[PlasticSoul]

Evening folks.

While grabbing a few F13 hockey mask blanks from JDF Studios recently, I noticed he'd begun offering copies of the old Cooper HM6 -

This mask is known for being the "A New beginning" poster mask to F13 Fans...

But to a whole other fandom as the base of the Lord Humungus mask!

But outside of the certainty that a Cooper HM 6 was involved at some point in the process, most of the information regarding the actual creation of this mask is conflicting and seemingly incomplete. Some sources say it was an actual aluminum copy of the original mask and there is some evidence of that in the film, but also a whole lot info that makes it unlikely. My intention is to gather as much info as anyone ever has about this, with the end goal of creating, and perhaps doing a run of, the most screen accurate copy of this thing ever produced. So What say you, RPF? Anyone have theories or info on just how this thing was created?

 

[nick daring]

I researched this mask set up a while ago too and it's super weird.

The thing that makes it seem like it might be an aluminum or thinner vacuformed copy is that from the side it looks very thin compared to an authentic plastic mask.

It's seems crazy that they'd go to the trouble but the material just doesn't match up to an authentic mask in my opinion.

 

[nick daring]

Also here is a cool pic-

 

[PlasticSoul]

Great photos, Nick! That behind the head shot screams vac form copy to me, too, but the slight distortion under the left brow ridge really does look like the sort of thing you see in a cast piece. But another thing that makes me think it was a plastic vac formed mask is that we can see that extra material was left in place at the edge of each eye hole to better obscure the face behind it. Doing a real aluminum copy would be an insane amount of work from my perspective, with some limited aluminum casting experience, and doing it with varying thickness would be even more labor.

It's worth noting that the mask is noticeably wider in George's hand than it was on the actor in the movie, which I'd say puts another point in the vacformed column. Like he does for Jason masks, JDF studios does offer a super thin clear PETG version of this mask, so I'll order a few when his shop reopens to see if I can get something close to the film look. I currently have a black plastic version that's thicker than the movie, but thinner than the cooper original I'll use for some paint and weathering tests.

 

[howlingwind13]

Heck I never noticed the screen in it! or the left brow distortion. If it is vac, its very thin. Nice pics Nick...I was thinking of picking one up from fiberglassmasks.com but now that I see the details... I may hold off