BW Media Spotlight

MASK was one of my must-watch shows as a kid. Based on the Kenner toyline, the series followed the Mobile Armored Strike Kommand (had to make that acronym work, even if they had to misspell a word) as they battled the Vicious Evil Network Of Mayhem (VENOM, who had it easier I guess). Both sides had vehicles that converted into battle modes which had extra weaponry and even acted like whole other vehicles, like the motorcycle/helicopter or the helicopter/jet. The narrative gimmick also included each mask offering a particular power or weapon to the wearer. Spectrum had enhanced sight on various electromagnetic spectrums and could create energy glide wings…somehow. Lifter had antigravity rings or a beam depending on the media. And so on. I have a few of the toys and an incomplete set of DC Comics both from the shelves and the minicomics that came with the first wave of MASK toys. I reviewed those comics here at the Spotlight.

Kenner would later be bought by Hasbro long after the MASK line ended. Once in a blue moon Hasbro might drop an homage Matt Trakker into the GI Joe figures, or currently let another toy company do the resurrecting for them, and that was it. Meanwhile they made a spiritual successor called Vor-Tech, which included a TV show that wasn’t as good, and no comics I’m aware of. It didn’t last very long and was kind of uninteresting. Other toylines used a similar gimmick over the years, like Switch Force, but nobody quite lived up the MASK’s success, a success that happened during the rise of G.I. Joe’s “A Real American Hero” period and the debut of the Transformers. You might have heard of those lines. Kenner was probably inspired by both. Transformers even played with MASK’s ideas with the mailaway “Omnibots” and later the Triggerbots/Triggercons in the stores. Even Tracks kind of steals the MASK vehicle gimmick with a flight mode, and the gimmick was part of the Beast Wars Transmetals. It’s a neat gimmick. That doesn’t mean the stories behind them mesh as well.

Recently, during IDW’s “1.0” period, Hasbro made the questionable decision to combine many of their toylines into a shared universe. Now MASK, the acquired Rom: Spaceknight, and Micronauts, all lines Hasbro has done little to nothing with since the 1980s, would exist in a shared universe with G.I. Joe and the Transformers despite never sharing their universe(s) until then, even in the comics. Retcons came into play and by that point I had dropped out of IDW’s take on the Transformers so outside of some previews I wasn’t interested, and the previews showed me something that was so altered from MASK’s lore it might as well have been Vor-Tech.

Now Skybound is set to do it again. While their “Energon Universe” was built from the ground up as a sort of “Hasbro Cinematic Universe” with G.I. Joe, Transformers, and Skybound original Void Rivals starting together from the start, I still wasn’t a fan. Admittedly, the darker, adult content (graphic violence, including KILLING MY MAIN BOT BUMBLEBEE TO SHOW THEY WERE “MORE MATURE” NOW SCREW YOU, KIDS!!!) already turned me off but while I can at least understand putting the Joes and Autobots together since it’s been done more than once, I like them better as separate universes. Their concepts are quite different even though companies tend to licence them both. Yes, there were nods in the cartoon and I know all about Hector Montoya of 20 Questions and his ties to numerous Marvel/Sunbow/Hasbro shows. I don’t care. They were just nods, not constantly interacting but doing their own thing. Jem never fought the Inhumanoids. Surprisingly. Well, despite MASK getting new toys, made NOT by Hasbro but a company called Loyal Subject, Hasbro wants to work them in again. I’d rather they didn’t.

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