C and A look alike to me. B looks like the odd ball.
At first B and C looked alike, but when I moved C closer it started to look more like A.
Also if DPS didn’t do the Hero I can almost guarantee that they did the other stunt mask. That combined with the glue lines opened the door to the possibility that DPS may have created the hero.
The glue lines on the hero seemingly over the top of the paint did strike me as a bit odd. I assumed it was dirt collecting over sticky residue that wasn’t completely covered by a solid coat of spray paint. The eyebrows should exhibit the same dirt behavior.
We do know Bill Malone’s conversion technique had full kirk hair applied:
(Was this slapped together after the fact for the court case. The paint looks shit)
I recall reading somewhere that the alleged DPS masks had their sideburns and eyebrows removed on set after delivery(?) This could suggest a full face spray up to the normal Shape hairline (the stunt mask with the missing hairline triangle shows flesh just past the hairline) then hair application.
Something else regarding hair spray colour: this stuff runs off most effectively with hot soapy water or rubbing alcohol. Most of the time it just powders onto the fingers and produces soft fingerprint like marks on the mask. So what the hell happened to it by HII or during HII shooting to cause those sharp, dark stains across the forehead and neck?
That’s not the hero.
I should have specified, my bad.
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ohh okay, i might have to do some searching.
but that leads me to the question on why would only dps make the hero and not the stunts?
I don’t understand the story fully apparently.
The schoolyard mask is the #1 candidate for being Tommy Lee work. It’s obviously more of a prototype and matches the ‘misted the hair’ description the best. That’s about 1 small can’s worth of hair colour. Most obvious on the middle right B&W image.
Np I should have specified.
This is what we know for certain: TLW (I believe) bought a Kirk, took the eyebrows and sideburns off, widened the eyecuts, sprayed the hair dark and the mask white.
Now here is where we run into the 2 story’s.
Story 1:
According to the DPS story, they were contacted by the film makers to make 2 more masks (hero and stunt) like the one they were shown (the initial one converted by TLW), and they did and requested a payment for their cooperation. Then on set TLW ripped off those sideburns and eyebrows and touched up with white paint.
So in this version of events it’s this:
School yard- TLW
Hero- DPS
Stunt- DPS
Story 2:
DPS had no involvement with the first film and TLW concerted all of the masks seen on screen- the School yard mask, the stunt mask, and the hero.
The things I’ve said combined with that stunt mask’s finishing leads me to side with the DPS story.
But like I said I flip flop just about every other day lmao.
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The only thing that doesn’t add up to me is how we all know Halloween was a film made by a group of young, I guess you could say indie film makers. The story we’ve always been told is that Tommy Lee Wallace went to a costume shop, and bought a cheap captain Kirk mask for a couple bucks, then spray painted it white, misted the hair black, teased out the hair, tore off the side burns and eye brows, and cut the eye cuts larger, all on set. Just a quick DIY conversion. So, maybe I’m wrong, but I just can’t see this group of young indie film makers having any sort of connection to Don Post studios. Just my 2 cents 
Think of it as a couple indie film makers trying to get in touch with TOTS today, it wouldn’t be too hard.
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John Carpenter is going to be at Monster Mania in a couple weeks, if I get the chance I’ll ask him about DPS. But I’m like 80% sure he’s going to say DPS had no involvement in H1 whatsoever.
I sent an email to him today about it. I’ll be intrigued to see what he says in person!
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There seems to be one very glaring detail that has been missing in this discussion. If I am not mistaken, isn’t it part of TLW’s story that he in fact used spray paint to paint the mask(s) white? Now who here knows what is required to effectively paint a latex mask with, and have it survive for years while being heavily used and handled, and not crack or rot away?
I mean just using straight acrylic paint on latex is going to crack and come off rather quickly, if the mask is handled. Just imagine what the chemicals in a rattle can spray paint would do to the latex in a very short time frame. Now that we know what the condition of the hero is currently in, and that considering the abuse the mask has taken over the decades, the paint on the mask has held up remarkably well.
Now it may very well be possible that TLW had specific knowledge on exactly how to paint a latex mask using an airbrush with either a mix of liquid latex and acrylic paint, or even oil paint mixed with rubber cement. But, this information would then directly contradict his story of how the mask was painted, or at least as I understand it.
The paint did not survive well though. So much had rubbed off during the production of Halloween. By the end of Halloween 2 there was no white left on the neck of the mask as we can see in the polaroids Dick sent to Ken.
There’s no doubt in my mind the mask had the paint touched up and possibly some restorative work done to it by the time Sean Clark took his video. That would also explain why the owner says the mask is TWICE as thick as kh/dw that doesn’t add up with the pictures of the hero or the story of Dick keeping it folded up in his back pocket.
There is a spray used in taxidermy in the color of ‘Bass Belly White’. It has an elastic agent that is more flexible than standard spray. Could’ve used that.
Allow me to be more clear. I’m saying that if the mask had been painted with something other than a flexible paint mixture, the paint would not have simply rubbed off of the latex with repeated handling, it would have cracked all over the mask, including the face. Furthermore, the likelihood that the chemical propellants in the spray paint would have greatly accelerated the decay of latex itself is extremely high. Everywhere that the latex would have been spray painted would have completely dry rotted.
The condition of the mask, in spite of it’s heavy usage, is pretty good. The areas of dry rot are most likely the result of sweat, handling, and time.
Lacquer based spray paint with petroleum based solvents in it are kryptonite to latex. Now, there is a small possibility that a different type of spray paint may have been used, but my knowledge on alternative types of spray paints is limited. Especially on what was available in the 1970’s.
Paint rubbing off can certainly happen from a latex based paint mixture, especially if the mask is painted with a thin coating, which the hero definitely was. The thin, precise spray coating of the mask would further support the notion of the use of an airbrush.
Possibly. Wouldn’t it be applied via airbrush though?
Interesting you say that, because Tommy Lee Wallace always said he painted the mask “fish belly white”.
Most likely. Unless there’s ‘taxidermy in a can’ supplies. 
Just found it funny that the color is effectively the same name as ‘Fish Belly White’.