M.A.S.K. (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand) was an animated television series directed by several uncredited Japanese studios, KK C&D Asia, Studio Juno, Studio World, Ashi Production (now called Production Reed), and produced by the French-American
DIC Enterprises, IncDIC may refer to:In science:* Differential interference contrast microscopy, an illumination technique in optical microscopy* Diisopropylcarbodiimide, a reagent in organic chemistry...
(
Jean ChalopinJean Chalopin is a French producer and writer. In 1971, Chalopin created the company DIC Audiovisuel, which later evolved into DIC Entertainment, and wrote and produced programs animated by Japanese studios. Jean Chalopin is married to Chinese/Singaporean ex-Model, Ethel Chalopin...
&
Andy HeywardAndrew A. "Andy" Heyward is the former Chairman and CEO of DIC Entertainment, an animation production company. Heyward's father is Louis M...
) and also the toyline of the same name sold by
KennerKenner Products was a toy company founded in 1947 by three brothers, Albert, Phillip, and Joseph L. Steiner, in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, and was named after the street where the original corporate offices were located....
.
A total of 75
syndicatedIn broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows to multiple individual stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in countries where television is scheduled by networks with local affiliates, particularly in the United States...
episodes of
M.A.S.K. were broadcast from 1985 to 1986.
M.A.S.K. (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand) was an animated television series directed by several uncredited Japanese studios, KK C&D Asia, Studio Juno, Studio World, Ashi Production (now called Production Reed), and produced by the French-American
DIC Enterprises, IncDIC may refer to:In science:* Differential interference contrast microscopy, an illumination technique in optical microscopy* Diisopropylcarbodiimide, a reagent in organic chemistry...
(
Jean ChalopinJean Chalopin is a French producer and writer. In 1971, Chalopin created the company DIC Audiovisuel, which later evolved into DIC Entertainment, and wrote and produced programs animated by Japanese studios. Jean Chalopin is married to Chinese/Singaporean ex-Model, Ethel Chalopin...
&
Andy HeywardAndrew A. "Andy" Heyward is the former Chairman and CEO of DIC Entertainment, an animation production company. Heyward's father is Louis M...
) and also the toyline of the same name sold by
KennerKenner Products was a toy company founded in 1947 by three brothers, Albert, Phillip, and Joseph L. Steiner, in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, and was named after the street where the original corporate offices were located....
.
History
A total of 75
syndicatedIn broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows to multiple individual stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in countries where television is scheduled by networks with local affiliates, particularly in the United States...
episodes of
M.A.S.K. were broadcast from 1985 to 1986. One of many cartoons produced during the 1980s as a vehicle for
toyA toy is an object used in play. Toys are usually associated with children and pets, but it is not unusual for adult humans and some non-domesticated animals to play with toys. Many items are manufactured to serve as toys, but goods, or services produced for other purposes can also be used as toys...
merchandising,
M.A.S.K. (which is an acronym for the
Mobile
Armored
Strike
Kommand), was a hybrid of popular era cartoons
G.I. JoeG.I. Joe is a line of military-themed articulated "action figures" produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. Armed Forces with the Action Soldier , Action Sailor , Action Pilot and Action Marine . The term G.I. stands for...
and
The TransformersThe Transformers is an animated television series depicting a war among giant robots who could transform into vehicles, other objects and animals. Written and recorded in America, the series was animated in Japan...
. It featured a special task force featuring an array of characters, led by Matt Trakker, with transforming vehicles engaged in an ongoing battle against the criminal organization
V.E.N.O.M. (an acronym for the
Vicious
Evil
Network
of
Mayhem), with an emphasis on super-powered helmets called masks worn by the characters on the show.
The original series focused mainly on the vehicles and characters from the original 1985 toy line. More characters were introduced as the line expanded with a second wave in 1986. The format for the last season of the show featured a racing theme to correspond with the theme of the third wave M.A.S.K. toys. A major difference from the first season is by the second, V.E.N.O.M. agents knew the personal identities of the M.A.S.K. team, whereas V.E.N.O.M. did not know their identities during the first season. The second season lasted for only ten episodes. There is a storyline difference in the mini comic books which came with each toy. In the comics, Miles Mayhem knew the identity of Matt Trakker and had originally helped start the M.A.S.K. team but betrayed him later. This was very similar to the second series of the cartoon.
Due to the short-lived nature and new format of the racing series, many characters from the first season were given reduced roles to establish the new cast members and their vehicles, or to reintroduce older characters with new masks and vehicles. Buddy Hawks began using the name "Clutch" and gained a more prominent role with a double-act partnership with agent Boris "The Tzar" Bushkin. Matt Trakker and Miles Mayhem's rivalry remained strong, but the two usually only appeared in their own focus episodes. Other V.E.N.O.M. operations against M.A.S.K. agents were now exclusively handled by Vanessa Warfield.
The toyline's fourth and final wave went to one other variation, "Split Seconds", in which the vehicles sold under the line would split from one whole into two different vehicles for a M.A.S.K. pilot and a "clone" holographic partner (a transparent version of the same figure carried with the vehicle), but the cartoon was not renewed for the fourth wave. Besides the cartoon and toys, there were also various
merchandisingMerchandising is the methods, practices, and operations used to promote and sustain certain categories of commercial activity.- Promotional merchandising :...
products like sticker books and comics to capitalize on the success of the show.
In the DC Comics series, the M.A.S.K. team is sponsored by an organization called the Peaceful Nations Alliance (PNA). Their exact relationship is never explained. The liaison between the P.N.A. and M.A.S.K. is Duane Kennedy. Duane and the P.N.A. did appear in the cartoon, although in a much more limited role in such episodes as "The Roteks" and "Assault On Liberty".
It is never made clear what sort of criminal organization V.E.N.O.M. is, exactly. They were not the typical world-conquering villains and their schemes mostly revolve around profiting from illegal activities and doing mercenary services. The comics tried to give them a more believable background. They appear to be the foot soldiers of an even higher evil organization called Contraworld. Like M.A.S.K. and P.N.A., their relationship is not explained, nor are Contraworld's larger goals.
In 2008, twenty-two years after M.A.S.K.'s cancellation, a Matt Trakker figure was released as part of the
G.I. JoeG.I. Joe is a line of military-themed articulated "action figures" produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. Armed Forces with the Action Soldier , Action Sailor , Action Pilot and Action Marine . The term G.I. stands for...
toyline, with the codename "Specialist Trakker". His filecard states that V.E.N.O.M. was created by
CobraCobra is the fictional nemesis of the G.I. Joe team in the Hasbro action figure toylines G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and G.I. Joe: Sigma 6, as well as their related media....
instead of the comic series' Contraworld. The release of "Specialist Trakker" has caused speculation of a M.A.S.K. revival.
Video games
In 1987, M.A.S.K. was released for the
Commodore 64The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January, 1982. Volume production started sometime in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$ 595...
. Gremlin Graphics released three M.A.S.K. games for the Commodore 64.
Comics
The first
M.A.S.K. comics to appear were three mini-comics produced by
KennerKenner Products was a toy company founded in 1947 by three brothers, Albert, Phillip, and Joseph L. Steiner, in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, and was named after the street where the original corporate offices were located....
and packaged with vehicles from the 1st line of
toyA toy is an object used in play. Toys are usually associated with children and pets, but it is not unusual for adult humans and some non-domesticated animals to play with toys. Many items are manufactured to serve as toys, but goods, or services produced for other purposes can also be used as toys...
s in 1985.
Following the success of the
M.A.S.K. property,
DC ComicsDC Comics is one of the largest and most popular American comic book and related media companies, along with Marvel Comics. It is the publishing division of DC Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary company of Warner Bros. Entertainment...
picked up the rights and produced a 4-part mini series of
comicsComics is a graphic medium in which images are utilized in order to convey a sequential narrative; the term, derived from massive early use to convey comic themes, came to be applied to all uses of this medium including those which are far from comic...
in 1986-87. This was soon followed by a regular series of comics that lasted nine issues. Two
M.A.S.K. Annual comics were produced as well, one in 1986 and one in 1987.
These
DC ComicsDC Comics is one of the largest and most popular American comic book and related media companies, along with Marvel Comics. It is the publishing division of DC Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary company of Warner Bros. Entertainment...
were reprinted in the UK in
FleetwayFleetway, also known as Fleetway Publications and Fleetway Editions, was a publishing company, mainly producing comic magazines for the UK....
's
M.A.S.K. weekly comic magazine, which later included brand new adventures produced by British writers and artists. This weekly title lasted 80 issues before merging with the second incarnation of
EagleThe Eagle was a British weekly comic, which ran in two main incarnations over the period of 1950 to 1994 . It is strongly associated with its flagship character, Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, , doing battle against the Mekon and other interplanetary foes.In the gender gap...
, with the
M.A.S.K. strip carrying over into its new home.
Reception
M.A.S.K. was named the 99th best animated series by
IGNIGN is a multimedia news and reviews website that focuses heavily on video games...
. They called it one of the most popular cartoon/toy marketing franchises of the eighties, and that it took many of the strengths of
GI Joe and
TransformersTransformer may refer to:* Transformer, a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another by magnetic coupling* Transformer , Lou Reed's 1972 rock album...
while taking few of its flaws.
Video releases
Several episodes of the series were released by Kideo Video on
VHSVideo Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, was a video tape recording standard developed during the 1970s. It was released to the public during the latter half of the decade. During the late part of the 1970s and the early 1980s it formed one-half of the VHS vs Betamax war, which it...
in the 1980s, with two episodes per tape. The "racing season" of the series would be distributed by Tempest Video. Several episodes were also released under the label
M.A.S.K The Movie, and
M.A.S.K The Movie II. No true direct-to-video or theatrical M.A.S.K movie was ever made.
M.A.S.K. episodes have been released on
DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
in three languages.
- English: Madman Entertainment
Madman Entertainment is an Australian company which specialises in the distribution of Japanese anime and manga in Australia and New Zealand. The company is owned by the ASX listed Funtastic Limited and Madman Entertainment is one of the major entertainment companies in Australia, along with Warner...
released the complete series over two DVD collections for the first time in Australia and New Zealand. Collection 1 was released in November 2006 and contains episodes 1 - 38, Collection 2 was released in March 2007 and contains episodes 39 - 65 as well as episodes 1 - 10 of the racing series.
- English UK: Collection 1 was released in the UK in November 2007 by Jetix Films - Maximum Entertainment, containing the same amount of episodes as the Australian set. Collection 1 was re-released on the 31st August 2009, and Collection 2 was finally released on the 28th September 2009. Both sets are distributed through Lace DVD, replacing Maximum Entertainment, and both sets are in Region 2 PAL format.
- French: The entire series has been released, divided across 24 DVDs and grouped into four box sets.
- German: Three box sets have been released. The first two consist of 24 episodes each. Due to copyright
Copyright is a form of intellectual property that gives the author of an original work exclusive right for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation, after which time the work is said to enter the public domain...
problems the third box set consists of only 23 episodes (bringing the total to 71 episodes). The episodes left out are "The Star Chariot", "Bad Vibrations", "Vanishing Point", and "Riddle of the Raven Master".
In popular culture
- The Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken is an American stop motion animated television series created and executive produced by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-Head Writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root...
episode "Rabbits on a Roller Coaster" had a sketch in which, after grounding his son Scott for holding a wild party at Boulder Hill, Matt Trakker developed an internet relationship with an overweight woman named Darlene. On their wedding day, Matt is shocked to discover that Darlene is actually Miles Mayhem, who only donned the disguise to know all of M.A.S.K.'s secrets and gain legal ownership of half of the M.A.S.K. organization. The sketch ends by humoring the idea of homoerotic undertones in Trakker and Mayhem's past. Robot Chicken has done multiple parodies of the show since then.
See also
- List of M.A.S.K. toys & characters
- List of M.A.S.K. episodes
- Vor-Tech
Vor-Tech: Undercover Conversion Squad was an animated television series produced by Fox and Universal Animation which also aired later on ABC's The Power Block. This show also had a toy line....
, an animated series with a similar premise to M.A.S.K., aired in the mid-1990s.
- A.T.O.M.
A.T.O.M. is a French animated television series, which chronicles the adventures of five teenagers , set in the fictional Landmark City...
, an animated series and HasbroHasbro is a U.S.-based, multinational toy and boardgame company. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States. The majority of its products, however, are manufactured overseas.-History:In 1923, two brothers—Henry...
toyline with a similar premise to M.A.S.K., premiered in 2005 on JetixJetix is a Worldwide children's television programming brand owned by The Walt Disney Company. The Jetix brand is used for blocks and channels featuring action-related and adventure-related live-action and animated programming....
.
External links