The only problem I have with those lineage charts Hedge is they don’t explain what’s different/what’s changed. Like example what is different from a Billy Kirkus Kirk to a ToTs H4? If the Billy kirkus kirk is a direct cast off a 75 why did multiple people change and mess with the sculpt?
THIS IS WHAT WE NEED. Sadly I think a lot of new collectors will kind of feel “short changed” when they find out their mask isn’t as special as they thought. Everything with kirk lineage came from recasts or recasts of recasts of recasts which new guys may not understand that not only does recasting and enlarging gives you less detail but it also expands and distorts features like the nose and washes out the lips, eyes, ears, mouth, distorts and misshapes the piece then they press it and have to basically resculpt most of the sculpt and call it a “75 Kirk based mask”.
Then someone uses a 4th gen recast/enlargement and says its casted from a 75. Its a dirty little half truth, but sounds great to the new guys. This is one of the reasons we probally don’t hear alot about the true origins of some projects because us old heads know how sensitive people get when the truth comes out. An artist will say its from a kirk and beat around it’s true Base and will say it’s a 75 casting/pressing/enlargement/scan but not say its a Frankenstein build and they had to practically rebuild and resculpt everything.
There has only been Kirk casts and clay pressings from 3 or 4 kirks. Seans old “destroyed kirk”, Billys, and Medleys. The new guys hear “casted from a kirk or 3d scanned or pressed from an original”, but in reality the artist is using 2,3,4,5 plus gen recasts, retools, enlargements so by the time a lot of these new Kirks or Myers have been made they have been pressed and tinkered with that it’s really not a Kirk anymore, but more an armature or base for a clay retooling.
If you have to sculpt the eyes back in, fix the lips, the cheeks, the ears, the eye brows, the texture, the neck, chin and all the other details from an old 3rd or 4th gen, add all the “mistakes” such as the ear half circle the forehead dent back in etc. and call it “Casted from a real 75” is highly misleading.
Alot of people are doing this and come out with really great things with all their hard work don’t get me wrong and it really does show, but their delivery on the origins is less than. Most of these Kirk/Myers Masks are just “Frankenstein” pressings. Ears from one mask to use for another sculpt, new eyes for another, this nose looks better on this sculpt so on and so on. It seems a lot of these “from a real 75” or “75 lineage” or “kirk cast” in reality are pieces that have been enlarged recasted retooled repressed Mr. Potato Heads.
