Many of you have already heard NECA recently released an exclusive $20 Friday the 13th (2009) replica Jason hockey mask from the actual screen used movie mold at Toys R Us a few weeks ago. Why they released it at Toys R Us is a separate blog on its own and we'll save that one for a rainy day. :-) When I first heard the news like many of you I was very skeptical at the $20 price point. It has to be the cheap flimsy plastic versions they have been selling for years at any costume shop. I didn't even want to give the thing a chance....

Follow up:

The days of $300 collector figures and hell even the $45 Don Post "The Mask" that is a plain white mask that has a few strains of hair loosely glued to the top of the head has jadded me if you will. I wasn't buying what NECA was selling simply based on my preconceived notion that if you want a great collectible your going to pay for it and usually top dollar.

So when the reports started trickling in and people were saying such great things about it I was initially still a bit skeptical. Maybe they got lucky I thought, I mean there has to be a few really nice ones floating around in the boxes of plastic garbage. Then pictures started to surface. DrentheLiar on our forum posted pics of two of them that he picked up at his local Toys R Us. Once I looked at the pics I can remember thinking to myself, they do look good but that little voice in my head was still there saying they have to be wafer thin and cheaply made.

A week or so goes by. These hocks start selling on feeBay for double sometimes triple what people paid for them and repainted versions were selling for close to $200. I thought to myself, "wait a minute! I am missing out here. Could these really be a decent product at a decent price?" No way, right? Well, Dashape hopped in in his car and drove around searching for these only to come up empty handed. We hit every Toys R Us in a 40 mile radius however, we did have one last store on the map to hit and what do you know . . . they had 3 left. Dashape and I snatched them up and then did one armed cartwheels all the way home. We finally found our masks! We were grinning from ear to ear and you know what? To our shock they are a FANTASTIC product.

I would have easily paid $40 or $50 for one of these (NECA doesn't need to know that) but they are that good of a product. Right out of the box these masks feel very solid. The things actually have a heft to them unlike any other Jason Hockey mask I have owned. Matthew Mayhem joked with me the other day, "if you kept one of these things on long enough it would start eating into your scalp just like in the F-13 movies", LOL! I don't know if were gonna morph into unstoppable deformed serial killers but he brought up a great point, "These things aren't made out of cheap plastic, this is a very sold thick resin material". The straps are elastic but have a nice weathered effect and the paint (while not perfect by any means) is certainly good enough for you average costume party and if your a collector like most of us you can try your hands at painting one up or have your favorite artist do it for you.

All this leads me to this question. "Will companies continue this strategy"? After all, NECA was suppose to release the movie mold version of Rob Zombies Halloween 9 mask. For whatever reason that idea got scrapped but could we see a really nice Michael Myers mask come out one day for say $40 and all it needs is just a little paint and hair? Could NECA go back in time and resurrect the classic Friday the 13th hocks and offer them at $20? I know that may scare some mask makers out there but I really don't think it should. After all, there is nothing like owning something custom made. However, if companies realize they can turn a nice profit and get fans excited about the movies through deals like this I can see the trend continuing. It will be interesting to see what the year brings. The NECA Effect has begun!

Thanks all, BooMan

below are picture of the Friday the 13th (2009) Jason Hockey Mask by NECA.