I'll let Jasper, the sculptor of this replacement head and builder of this kit, explain it himself:
As owner of Escape Hatch Hobbies, I'm always looking for new replacement parts possibilities. I briefly considered doing something with this reissue of the Haunted Mansion Grave Robber's Reward, but nothing obvious struck me as being worth the investment. But I jumped to contact Jasper about this one and we made an arrangement to add him to the Escape Hatch inventory.Jasper Anderson wrote:Another Aurora-adjacent 1970s MPC Haunted Mansion model reissue (now Polar Lights Haunted Manor). I almost didn’t get this one because the grave digger it comes with has this creepy grinning face that doesn’t relate to the Mansion ride at all. But I had the idea to do a digital sculpture of the caretaker from the Disneyland ride, and 3D printed it in resin to make a custom replacement head. I also gutted a flickering LED tea light to illuminate the lantern, and made some mud with sand mixed in resin to the bottom of the weirdly flat open grave.
Interested? Sign up for the mailing list at escapehatchhobbies.com to be among the first to get release information. I'm thinking he'll go on the market somewhere around the first of September.
Thanks for looking.