Double double, toil and trouble
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Forehead of a fenny snake
Does a funny mask it make!
Hey guys, it's been a while, hasn't it?
An addendum before we begin, this blog was supposed to start getting updates again last Friday, but I got violently ill halfway through the week and wasn't capable of doing any work come Friday afternoon, hence here we are. Sorry about that. Anyway, let's talk about this glorious piece of work, shall we? This is a Topstone mask, and the reason I know this is a Topstone mask is because I specifically searched for Topstone masks and this was one of the ones that came up as a result, and boy howdy am I glad it did because this is easily an all time great. Oh sure, we've had a man with a spider on his head, we've had a Vampire with a bat on his head, and we've had a creature with other heads on his head, but this is the first time we've run into someone with a snake on their head, and ya know what? It's about goddamn time. It's been long overdue.
And okay, sure, that snake looks more like he's taken one too many Ambien, but he's still showing up to work everyday (if we're to believe he's not actually attached to her head, which he very well could be), ready to help terrify all the little children she's clearly kidnapping and planning on making into stew. Witches are great, because they're already a classical monster in terms of Halloween imagery, so you're already playing with familiar territory, and then to add a snake to the mix - yet another classic spooky creature - is just a perfectly sound creative decision. My personal favorite thing about this mask, though, is how the tail of the snake is slipping out of her mouth. I think that's a wonderful little touch.
It's a pretty standard looking witch, though. You got your general hook nose, wrinkled face, yellowish skin. Nothing too out of the ordinary here, except, ya know, the snake attached to her head. But there's also nothing bad about that. In fact, I'd argue that the best decision when doing something unique on something recognizable is to play it safe. Make the witch as normal looking as possible, because you're already changing it up by adding a snake to her head, so why screw with it any further.
And the snake looks pretty good. I do think the yellow underbelly color choice mixes too much with the yellow skin tone they picked for the witch, but the green looks great and the scaling details on the snake are solid enough. Unlike far too many other snake related Halloween items I've seen in my day, be they mask or simply decorative, this one is pretty easy to tell is a snake. I cannot tell you how many times I've come across a snake that is very obviously supposed to be a snake, yet looks nothing like a snake, making it all the more confusing. This mask succeeds because it isn't confusing, despite being totally new in its own way. The hair on the witch is pretty standard, but pretty decent, and they've put a mesh piece inside to keep the eyes blacked out, which is a cool idea but I think would get annoying after a while trying to see through them.
And despite there not being a whole of detailing on the mask overall, outside of the snake scales, it kind of doesn't matter. I mean, it got the idea across. We know what it is. But something caught me by surprise when looking at this photo in particular. At first glance it doesn't seem odd, but upon closer inspection...don't the snakes eyes look a little weird? Almost glossy, like a marble? Well, it turns out there's a reason for that.
I did a little more digging, and I eventually came up with a bit of a shock. This mask...lights up. That's right, this is one of the famous light up masks that we've only seen on here a handful of times, and that's why the snakes eyes look so odd because they can light up, and that makes this mask like a million times cooler, honestly.
That's right, scope out this packaging. First of all, the mask I originally found must be fairly odd, because the colors on this one are much more vibrant, likely because it'd been in the packaging, but also the package even boasts "IT LIGHTS UP!" and can I just say that, as someone who grew up in the 90s, shit lighting up was a big damn deal for some reason. I cannot tell you how many pairs of shoes I saw that had lights in them, I had a lava lamp at one point, a lot of our electronics in the early 2000s were see through and all light up, we all had yo-yos that lit up. For some reason, people just couldn't get enough of light up technology, and that doesn't seem to be any different with our Halloween masks.
Again, this isn't a compliment, as it honestly makes the mask all that much cooler. Now I wanna get captured by this creepy witch and her head snake with a pill addiction and light up eyes, if for no other reason than the novelty of it all. I think this is one of the best masks I've come across in the entirety of doing this blog, and it's masks like this that keep me wanting to continue doing this blog for the foreseeable future. But it's also masks like these that wind up bumming me out the most, because it reminds me that originality is dead, Halloween is commercialized to the nth degree and shoddily made superhero costumes off the latest popular comic book film adaptation line the shelves of Walmart every October instead of wicked ass witches with light up snakes on their head.
But, I suppose that's why I do what I do. To preserve, to appreciate and to call attention to the artistry that once went into things like Halloween masks. So here's to you witch snake head, for being the coolest damn thing I've seen all month. Now let's go scare some children and maybe get the snake into rehab.
His addiction's getting a little out of control.
He sold my DVD player.
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