Critical to helmet certification methods is a neck model that offers lifelike head kinematics and neck kinetics in direct head impact testing. This study develops a phase 1 mechanical surrogate neck prototype that approximately matches the overall length of a 50th percentile human male. Our primary objective for the phase 1 neck was to test flexion/extension sagittal bending and dynamic head impact, for comparison to previous cadaveric literature, to ascertain whether the phase 1 neck can offer head kinematics and neck kinetics comparable to cadaveric models. Bending moments ranging up to 2 Nm and head impacts up to 5 m/s were simulated. When subjected to sagittal bending, the summation of all vertebral rotations was approximately 14 degrees for the phase 1 neck;​ less than the rotations of approximately 40 degrees presented in previous literature. In head impact, the phase 1 neck yielded kinematics within 40% of those reported in our selected cadaveric literature. Generally, the phase 1 neck yielded 22% less angular head acceleration and 77% lesser neck kinetics than those measured using HybridIII equipment in frontal, lateral, and rear head impacts. Head linear accelerations between the phase 1 and HybridIII were within 25%. Maximum inter-test variance of the phase 1 neck and HybridIII equipment were comparable (maximum 30% COV at peak magnitudes considering all data). The phase 1 neck sustained approximately 100 experiments without failure. Overall, we recommend re-design of the phase 1 neck toward allowing greater sagittal rotation, perhaps by approximating the neutral zone behavior noted in previous human cadaver literature. Additionally, we recommend further testing of cadaveric necks to yield a broader dataset to which we can compare, and further testing of the prototype neck to understand whether it yields head kinematics comparable to what has been measured for athletes.