The shape of the ears also distinguishes the masks. Unlike the very distinctive eye detailing, this variation is less obvious and presumably resulted from the hand-made nature of the papier-mâché masks (papier-mâché was used in imitation of the authentic 19th Century technique). Most noticably, the hero has a rear-pointing tip near the top of the right ear, where the dummy's ear is more rounded. The 2008 mask once again matches the dummy exactly, every contour of the ears is consistent between them.

mask ear detail

Another important difference between the hero and dummy masks is that the hero mask had holes in the nose and ears to allow the actor to breathe and hear. These holes are visible during the TV episodes and in behind-the-scenes footage filmed for the 1977 documentary Whose Doctor Who.

hero Mr Sin mask with nostril openingshero mask with visible ear opening

The 2008 head has no such openings, indicating that it was never intended for a person to wear. It can be seen that the dummy mask lacked these holes.

Mr Sin dummy

Another interesting point about the 2008 Mr Sin is the polystyrene headblock. There are patches of reddish paint on either side of it, with sharp edges corresponding to the lower edges of the facemask's cheek areas. These areas of the mask also have red dabbed on to them, another make-up technique used to "warm up" a flat base colour. It appears that the painting of this mask was completed while on this actual block, leading me to believe that this is not just the original mask and wig, but the prop dummy's whole head.

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