I never got into M.A.S.K. By all means it should have been a series I loved right? Here was a toy line that took the best of G.I. Joe and combined it with the best of Transformers. I mean what’s not to love right? Well there’s one thing not to love, the drivers of the vehicles.
What I liked about Transformers wasn’t that they were cars with rocket launchers. What I loved about them were they were robots. Living, breathing robots that turned into cars with rocket launchers. The appeal of M.A.S.K. was they were vehicles the soldiers drove. They weren’t alive. They vehicles had no names, personalities or bios.
Okay but what about the G.I. Joe part, the solders that drove the M.A.S.K vehicles? See unlike other 80s kids I never cared for G.I. Joe all that much. I had a handful of the figures I obtained as gifts or picked up at a thrift store in a bucket of other toys. The only reason I even watched the cartoon was because it came on right after the Transformers cartoon and featured many of the same voice actors, so it was like an extra 30 minutes of Transformers, sorta.
I get why M.A.S.K would appeal to kids who were into both G.I. Joe *and* Transformers or even kids who were *just* into G.I. Joe alone. It had a certain cross over appeal that would lend itself quite well to that demographic. It just wasn’t me. I never watched the cartoon. I have no memories of the characters or their personalities. I never played with the toys except while at the one friend of mine who had M.A.S.K toys. I pretended they were Transformers stuck in vehicle mode.
Today whenever I hear other 80s kids get nostalgic for M.A.S.K. I feel nothing. I have nothing more than faded memories of barely playing with a couple toys a handful of times at one kids house. I have no memories of the cartoon. I don’t even know if there was a comic book or not. I have no nostalgia for it. No fond memories. No warm fuzzy feelings.
However, as a concept I fully see the potential of the line. As an action figure enthusiast and hard core toy collector I do in fact see the appeal to the toy line. Does that mean I am wanting for it to exist as a revived classic or modern line same as hard core fans and collectors? Fat chance. At best I would support a single character/vehicle from both factions appearing as a G.I. Joe and Cobra respectively. That’s the most I’d want to see from this line. I don’t want to be the one stopping a fan or collector out there getting what they want but as a part of the demographic that this line cross promotes to I can assure you myself and others who share my sentiment aren’t interested in a revived M.A.S.K. and that alone could be what is holding Hasbro back from giving it an honest go. If I had it my way they’d bring back all the toy lines *I* love and everyone would buy them. But that isn’t how it works. In a world where a finite number of toys can exist I am glad Hasbro isn’t wasting resources reviving a line I have absolutely no interest in. I am happy as can be the spend those resources keeping the brand I love so dearly alive. I am not so selfish as to say oh I don’t want M.A.S.K. fans to get their toys too, but not at the expense of me getting another Optimus Prime that does exactly what my 15 other Optimus Primes do. In that regard I guess I am selfish.
Stephanie Bri 