Masks For Figures, The Action Feature That Never Was

As a customizer, I get some really weird requests.  It's okay, it's kind of the point of customs...doing what the factories can't do.  On one of my commissions, I had the one request that really got me thinking, removable mask.  I am not sure if I should call it a weird request, as it is one of my favorites, but I often wondered why it just never banned out in retail.

Hard Plastic

My first exposure to this (and maybe the start of my obsession with head swapping action figures) was the Bruce Wayne figure from the "Batman Returns" toy line.

As you can see from the pic, the hard plastic just doesn't line up with the head perfectly.  If my memory serves me right, I also believe that the head piece really did not stay on the figure.  Also, it look s like he has gorilla feet and hands with the snap-on gloves and boots.

The Rubber Mask

As technology progresses, we get a tad closer to seeing better accessories in our favorite figures.  The Batman San Diego Comic Con 2012 figure sadly failed in going any better.

This guy is close but there are some flaws.  For starters, we are missing the famous black eye paint which just looks weird in my opinion.  Second, the mask is just too big and makes Bats look like a bobblehead.  A valiant effort from Mattel but we are just not there yet.  They could have made the rubber a tighter fit but it would either have caused the mask to rip when the buyer was taking the mask off or making it next to impossibe to take the mask off.  It really was a lose/lose for the designer.

Pin Head 

Probably the best attempt I have seen still falls short as it causes the dreaded "pin head" effect on the figure.  Marvel Legends Xorn figure (see below), had a nice mask that fit perfectly on the Magneto head (no spoiler alert as you should have read this over ten years ago).

While the Xorn mask looks great on the figure, the Magneto head is just a tad too small giving the pin head effect.  Personally, if I was a toy designer and I HAD to make a figure with a removable mask, this would be the choice I would make as it is not quite as bad as the other two.

The Other Guys

There are several other options out there as far as giving the masked/unmasked effect on action figures.  There was the Power Rangers head flipping toys out there for a while but these guys had box like torsos and it was sort of creepy when their chest and back burst open and their head would spin down as a helmeted head spun up.

Finally there is the best way to do it, the swappable head.  Scroll down to the custom Batman figure (or wait for pics of v1.2 that will be coming up) to see what I am talking about.  I feel this is the best way to go as comic book characters are (usually) shown having the same size head whether they have their masks on or off.  Off the top of my head, Jason Todd as Red Hood is a great example of this (funny enough, he is the character behind this pointless post).  Most artist, whether the helmet is on or off, will draw his head the same size.

Final Thoughts

It just doesn't work.  I really don't blame toy companies as it would either cost way to much money to execute masks at a small size or the material would probably rip the first time customers tried to use it if they went with a rubber like material.  The "pin head" effect works too but us fan boys will bitch too much.

What are your thoughts?  Did I forget to bring up an action figure that executed the removable mask?  Let me know!