MASK

When I first saw this show when I was a kid, I didn't really care for it. But last year when Fox Kids in the UK started showing it again I've come to love it. Okay so it was obviously designed to sell toys, but it is great. The vehicles used by both teams were brilliantly designed and the episodes were always exciting and most of the time funny as well. I actually liked the bad guys better, especially Sly Rax, with that neat accent of his. This is an 80's classic.

I was about ten to twelve years when M.A.S.K. was aired on Sky Channel (yeah, they only had ONE channel those days!). Me and my brother still have many of the toys, some pretty worn down, some like they we're never used. I loved the show, although there were some questions about where the mask technology came from, how VENOM got their hands on them and why NOBODY was surprised to see a young boy's scooter turning into a small robot. Maybe because T-Bob was cool...

Later on there was a second series, in which the secret identity of Matt Tracker and the MASK-team was revealed to the public (and to VENOM), the Boulder Hill was abandoned for some reason, Miles Mayhem had a twin brother and everything was about racing... Pretty cool new vehicles were introduced, but the story wasn't what it used to be...

I was probably 6 or 8 years old when I saw this show last. I remember waking up at 6 am to watch it, wishing I could drive the big-rig cab that turned into a missile command post. WOW!! I am not sure what much I can say about it, except, they don't make cartoons like they used to.

All the characters in the M.A.S.K. show had big ol' helmets they'd put on before they went into battle. Their cars, trucks, motorcycles, even their headquarters (a gas station!) would all become these cool fighting machines. The toys were just like the characters from the show. The figures were small (half the size of GI JOE) and had little helmets that covered their heads. Each came with its respective vehicle from the show, which would transform when you hit a hidden button or panel. Guns popped out and everything, it was cool stuff.

MASK was totally out of this world like many cartoon shows from the 1980's-but it was so brilliant.

The good guys were MASK, the bad guys were VENOM. Each episode MASK would battle the forces of VENOM and foil their wicked plans.

Each character had a mask which could perform a specific function. For example one of the good guys had a mask which could lift things into the air;another guy had a mask which could help him fly. The bad guys had their fair share of masks too;such as a mask that shot out stiletto darts and one that was a flamethrower. It may have been a cartoon but where on Earth did the good guys and bad guys get such technology and how could they afford it?

The vehicles were rather cool as well. We had planes that could turn into helicopters and vice versa; we had a racing car that could fly; the vehicles were superb. The characters in this show must have been billionaires to build such machinery (if that's the case why were the bad guys even bothering with a life of crime if they were that rich).

I must just mention Boulder Hill which was the good guys base. It was a gas station that used to change into a defence HQ and it was the nerve centre for M.A.S.K.

All in all, a brilliant cartoon. Let's just hope it's never made into a live action movie because it would cost billions to make.