BEHIND THE MASKS - An Introduction To Masked Men 6

One of the other big snags at The Card Show last weekend was the bulk lot of Masked Men 6 cards spread out over a huge table full of stacks of singles priced to go.

I love half price tables...especially when the cards are nicely priced to begin with.  To top it off, it was late in the show Sunday so I was able to grab these at $2 a pop.  FYI....I'll do that all day long.

This year's goalie mask offering is a diverse and interesting checklist.  Some good, some bad, some ugly.  At 50 cards it makes for a challenging chase.  One that I will take my time with (as always).

So let's see what faces I came home with.

Vintage!!!  I love anything and everything fibreglass.  Garrett's Nordiques lid is a definite fave.  Even in hand drawn form this card just pops with color and design.  Goalie mask design that is.

I'll admit, the latest Masked Men design doesn't quite do it for me.  The square box, thick marshmallow font and simple textures just take away from a very impressive sketch of the goalie.  I also think that there is a little too much wasted space.  More room could have been utilized for the actual mask and less on the background and overall design.  But that's just me.

Kelly Hrudey.  An interesting choice.  Both in the sense that he's in the set to begin with and that ITG didn't go with his Hollywood lid from his LA days.  This Sharks mask is still pretty sweet.

I like that they went with some unique names from the past.  Better than seeing the same ol' faces year after year.

This Curtis Joseph mask is interesting in that it reminds me of Ron Tugnutt's lid.  It's definitely not what most people think of when they hear "Curtis Joseph's mask".  But fear not, there are two Joseph cards on the checklist.  So I can only assume the other is the CuJo special.

The King (and if he continues his ways....MVP).  A nice rendering of Lundqvist's mask.  Great detail.  I really like the work of the artist on these cards.

Henrik has slowly built his mask into one of those iconic designs that will likely stand the test of time.  And there is a long line of big name NYR masks to fall in line with.

Another interesting choice.  Clint Malarchuk is definitely known more for one single event as opposed to his goalie mask, so it's nice to see that he gets some face time for his Buffalo mask.

It would've been nice to see a little more of his mask as the angle really doesn't give much away in terms of design.  I see a lot of purple and gold and a little bit of character design but that's it.

And unfortunately there is zero information on the back.  Nothing to indicate what is on the mask, when the mask was used and even what team the mask is associated with.  Big miss there.

Remember these two?  If you collected mask cards back in the day, these guys were the ones to get.  Manny and "Locks".  Hey, I think I just created a new cop show.

To this day, Lacher's mask is still one of the most intimidating and awesome looking.  Love it.

Some Chicago detail in spades.  A pair of really intricate goalie mask designs which can really be appreciated in these cards.

I'd love to see a little more color in Crawford's mask but I'm slowly coming to accept it.  The "Bulin Wall" mask is instantly recognizable.  Great stuff.

Fantastic Flyers.  Mason always has great designs on his mask - even going back to his Columbus days.  Emery's offering looks to be an older model as I think he still employs the boxer motif.

Regardless, they are a couple great adds to the checklist.

Meh.....I'm not that big on International masks.  I think the Masked Men sets should just be NHL goalie masks.  Or do a completely unique subset. But these two cards don't really do anything for me.

Moreso these cards.  Who are these guys, what teams do they play for and why do I care about them or their masks?  Are they NHLers?  If not, get 'em out.

As an aside, the Captain America mask is kinda neat.

So that's 15 cards to start off with, leaving me with 35 on the wantlist.  These cards don't seem to be popping up very much so it might take a while for me to complete the set.  But that's ok.....I've still card a couple cards from Masked Men I still outstanding.