| Chewbacca Mask plaster mold, Adult 1/2 face Cesar | |
| This is the mold or matrice that was actually used at CESAR’s French licensee factory for producing the Chewbacca ADULT 1/2 face mask. It's a ONE-of-a-kind plaster material hand-made sculpture (made by an in-house designer / artist), it’s quite fragile and heavy (about 2 kilograms / 4 pounds). Adult 1/2 face masks followed the same vaccuform manufacturing process as children masks (see children Chewbacca mask resin mold entry), hence the small dots noticeable on the photo, which are actually tiny holes that goes through the piece. But unlike the children masks which were produced multiples at a time from resin molds, it looks like only ONE PLASTER mold was made per character for the 1/2 face adult masks (with the only exception of a handful produced in resin, among the hundreds of characters made). An explanation could be that since children masks were produced in very large quantities, it needed a material that could support being handled a multiple times over the months / years they were referenced on the catalogue. Adult masks were far much less produced than children masks, so they would need much less handling and could be manipulated more gently. CESAR was renowned for its masks, initially picturing Carnival faces, and animals, followed by popular Disney characters, and later-on popular real-life characters such as stars, politics, leaders, athletes etc… and pop-culture characters. This mold comes from the entire warehouse stock of the company that was sold in 2023 after the company went to compulsory liquidation. Only a few hand-picked persons had the opportunity to obtain some of those molds from the owners, in the mid 2000s, but at that time, the company wouldn’t let go the resin and plaster molds. More information about the CESAR company and the production process can be found from old TV footages available on the internet. Last but not least, the group photo shows the various items from left to right – adult plaster, children resin, children production , soft adult negative. |
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| Description by: | Stephane Faucourt |
| Photo: | Stephane Faucourt |
| From the collection of: | Stephane Faucourt |
| Country: | France |
| Film: | A New Hope |
| Licensee: | Cesar |
| Year: | 1978 |
| Category: | Costumes and Masks / Masks |