Briansgate yeah, and it still does! Besides Scott and T-Bob, it’s still pretty good. Got all episodes on one Blu ray and I just fast forward when Scott is doing his stupid shenanigans. The last couple of episodes with the races are a bit meh though, but still watchable.
@@dangunheadachron1603 That's right. In the 80s, 90% of the cool action shows aired on weekday afternoons. But maybe some independent station somewhere aired it on Saturdays after the original run. It's possible.
@@Desslar Just to confuse things, a different DIC series, "C.O.P.S." originally ran in syndication, but a few years later ran on CBS Saturday mornings repackaged as "Cyber C.O.P.S"
This was a great segment! My 4-year old daughter loves playing with my old M.A.S.K. toys. There’s something about the vehicles that she loves. She gets a kick out of all the working parts.
I think it's a tougher nut to crack than it seems. It was a toy line and "story" born out of gimmick toys and a gimmick name. It's hard to to make that seem even slightly serious. That said- I think it can and will be done. With the continued success of Fast and Furious and their change to kind of futuristic and sci fi premises- someone must be foaming at the mouth to give M.A.S.K that treatment.
@@seangalvin3196 I think it can be done, but it's a borderline miracle. You're right, a MASK movie could be something like a more futuristic version of the Fast series. Perfect opportunity to get some fancy cars, turn them into mobile assault vehicles and have them fly around shooting at each other.
This great video from Michael and the RetroBlasting team, highlights a missed opportunity by Kenner and their M.A.S.K. toy line! I missed out on the original M.A.S.K. franchise, ( because of my age ) but I can see the appeal! Can you imagine if Kenner, Mattel and Hasbro listened to Michael, Tony ( Analog Toys ) and the fans and actually produced the toys that were " missing in action " from our childhood! It's truly unbelievable, that such a vast profit potential, continues to be ignored!
M.A.S.K. literally pulled me back into playing with and collecting toys as a 7th grader! I could NOT simply move onto girls and trying to sit at the cool kid's lunch table with THESE things on the toy store shelves! ( Hey, it was the 80's! ) ; ) Awesome work as always, RetroBlasting !
They were a brilliant mix of all the toys I and many others loved. Transformers, G.I. Joe and Hit Wheels/Matchbox. Even now as an adult car enthusiast- the attention to detail and use of real production cars has me interested again!
I also believe that, at the time, companies like Kenner/Hasbro thought that toys featuring female characters wouldn't sell. For M.A.S.K. I always found this very strange that they never made Shark with Gloria Baker as they did release Manta with Vanessa Warfield. But yeah, perhaps Porsche did deny them the use of their 928 model design. Such a shame. Let's just hope that these days with resin 3D printing and custom builders being able to make impressive plastic replicas that we will get to see a proper (albeit custom) Shark someday that is both durable as well as easy to transform. Currently I'm waiting on a 1/24 scale Porsche 928 model kit from Fujimi (couldn't find a Tamiya version anywhere anymore). Hope the scale matches the figure size so that I can paint it in the proper colors and at least have a custom Gloria Baker figure (that I'm going to order from a custom builder in my country) sitting in her Shark car. No transforming into a submarine though as I lack those skills and equipment. 😅
M.A.S.K. is so underated. My son loves my old toys that still hold up cooler than anything in the past 30 years. Where's the movie!!! Bring the line back.
2:33 I love how they added red nail polish to Jinx, just in case there was any question as to whether or not it was really a woman in that ninja outfit.
That was a great video Micheal . Hopefully somebody in Haslab sees this video and wakes up and smells the coffee and start asking the collectors and fans what we want them to do .
Also for those of you wanting to make your own from a model kit, the shark appears to be based on the original 928 and not the later S, S2, S4 or GT variants. Basically you don't want a front or rear spoiler, side skirts, bump strips down the sides or any wheel arch extensions.
I’ve always wondered whether a Shark was made. Good video, thanks! Hopefully M.A.S.K. Will return someday the way Voltron has, with a quality modern production.
Those were great toys though, perfectly in scale with Star Wars. So you could have like support personnel like nurses, mechanics and backup pilots to help your Rebel figures.
@@michaelwills1926 Many FP figures were the innocent victims of bounty hunter massacres at the hands of my 7-year-old self. I am a sick, sick individual.
My son Anthony used to Love " Mask' & that other one " Mask Rider " grew up with them in the 90's unfortunately he passed away 2 yrs ago , anyways thank you for putting this out 👍
following you for a long time and played with all He-man, GI Joe, Transformers as a kid but I don't know why, every MASK video is a huge excitement ^^ thx again
I love m.a.s.k an I still do.. I'm going to get thunder hawk again! When I was a kid my dog destroyed it I was pissed!! I'm 36 now an i still watch it on the tube.
This was my absolute favorite cartoon show and toy line in the 80’s. I didn’t have many transformers but had TONS of the MASK toys. It’s unfortunate that I don’t have any of them anymore. For some reason I thought I remembered seeing the Shark in the toy catalogs back in the day, but I must be wrong. I do remember clearly seeing the Countach toy in the catalog, and always wanted it but never got it.
Great Video. A lot of fond memories of the show and the toys. Shame Gloria didn't get more love. LOL. The 'Outro' reminded me of the episode were Gloria gets summoned for a mission while attending (not teaching) a Judo class so she effortlessly tossed the instructor across the room and ran out the door... Even as a kid i wondered why she was taking the class not teaching it...
Because they have to show how tough she is by bettering a man that's supposed to be an expert. It's called empowering. Not for the male characters but they don't count.
All that was based on the idea of them creating a "Hasbro Cinematic Universe" at a time when everyone was trying to jump on the MCU bandwagon. And IDW actually gave it a try while Hasbro was putting together a much-hyped "writer's room" to bang out scripts that would combine those properties into the same world as GI Joe and Transformers. But nothing came of it. All those IDW books were canceled with them even rebooting their Transformers comics. And the stillbirth of Universal's Dark Universe combined the mixed reaction to the DCEU put a dampener on the mad rush to create "Cinematic Universes."
Thank you for bringing us actually interesting news and updates on toys that we care about. Not jumping on the band wagon of the latest toy craze is why I will continue to support RetroBlasting.
Everytime I watch one of your videos I realize I had a lot of toys I've forgotten. Valuable toys. Valuable toys I threw away, traded for twinkies, destroyed, or allowed my mom to sell for 50 cents at garage sales.
while the M.A.S.K. content was great... I cant help but feel Michael buried the lead on this one. That is the most impressive collection of female figures I have ever seen (as noted always the most rare in any 80's line)... watching that montage of all actual examples from Michaels collection was inspiring
That was a dope video man, really enjoyed getting all that info and pics that took me down memory lane in a condensed format, and very informative too.
I'm gonna say it was Porsche that put the brakes on the the toy. The 928 was supposed to replace the iconic 911, but since nobody really liked the 928 and everyone loved the 911 that never happened. Having it in the cartoon is one thing, but having it be a physical toy is something else. They probably didnt want dads with kids seeing them play with a 928 and then associating it with a toy. Just a thought. They may have not even gotten permission to have it in the cartoon and that may be why it went away.
MASK was a pretty good show. Lot of nice shows. Laser Tag, Pole Position, Wheeled Warriors, COPS, Voltron. Lots of good innocent violence. Loved to roleplay these shows in kindergarten to 3rd grade. Between 4th and 5th grade seemed that most kids imaginations had drifted off to sports, fashion, music/rap, dispersing into the ubiquitous shallow cliques/gangs. If we did play them it was at our homes but no longer on the school playground where people just hung out or methodically trudged around the track talking about what is cool, or on SNL that night, telling jokes.
Yeah back in the eighties when mask was made I often complained about the fact that Gloria Baker and her shark was never produced. I often stated why did the Man 2 with Vanessa Warfield get created in toy form but not Gloria Baker and the shark.
Yes, ironic for Kenner (who I’m aware are now Hasbro) to have made Vanessa Warfield (driver of Manta, and whose mask is ‘Whip’ - creates a laser whip) but not Gloria Baker.
I love M.A.S.K. and I've missed out on getting a fan made Shark several times and I'm glad i did because i would have been disappointed if it was as delicate as the one in your video. Also I'm glad you did this video because if there is ever a decent fan made version I'm sure you'll likely know about it and let us know. I'll definitely get behind anyone who can make any decent M.A.S.K. toys that we never got in stores. I can remember if you did a video about the Argentina only released M.A.S.K. toys but if not it'd be a good video to consider in the future. Thank you for doing the heavy lifting I'm sure a lot of us appreciate your work.
Serie bellissima. La seguivo da piccolo, ma mai vista tutta. I veicoli mi piacevano tantissimo. Anche i giocattoli sono stupendi, ma introvabili oggi come allora, almeno in Italia.
I must be totally Mandelaing myself because I swear I had a SHARK as a kid. Gloria was my favorite character and was the first MASK figure I remember wanting. The only other vehicle I remember getting for sure was the Raven.
Ah M.A.S.K... the toyline that I only ever owned the Raven as a kid... and now as an adult, I find myself slowly collecting them at higher and higher prices... love it!
We have so many 3rd party companys that make transformers. you would think they could do something similar with MASK. Would there be a market for such a thing?
Still one of my favorite vids. Love how you covered so many of the woman characters and action figures. This with Analog Toys coverage is great. Would love more on this topic just because it's so interesting but this does it so well! Great job!
I had a Vanessa figure back in the day - as a proxy for Serena from Dino Riders, who came exclusively with the massive playset on legs that was the Brontosaurus.
Seriously, I would part with some coin for a Haslab M.A.S.K. Shark with all the goodies. Gloria and Shark were always two of my toy unicorns growing up too!
Playmobil actually kinda did with their "spy" line from a few years ago. I got their "hidden base" cause it reminded me of Boulder Hill, and the main characters cars were basically a white version of the Thunderhawk & a close similarity to the Jackhammer.
It was around this time I walked away from my Star Wars figures and started really getting into Lego. It wasn’t until TMNT came out that I got back into figures. I completely missed M.A.S.K., Transformers and G.I. Joe. I had some friends who got into Transformers and G.I. Joe, but M.A.S.K . never really caught in with any of us. It looked pretty cool, though.
I did a review of Stiletto years ago for a friend on youtube - back when buying MASK was relatively cheap, a few years later people began to notice and drove the prices up. I am certain that either 1- a design was done but taken no further for reasons or 2- a prototype was made but didn't pass internal. The reason is due to the Gloria figure with Stiletto, it is an EXACT replica of her cartoon design both in mask and outfit. Gloria certainly was meant to have had a vehicle otherwise she would have came as a co driver in another set like some of the other characters. As for rebooting MASK they did do a GI Joe figure of Matt Trakker (but strangely not Miles Mayhem) where they integrated them into GI Joe by having MASK as a separate division. They could easily integrate some of the characters and vehicles into the line to test the waters for more releases.
Even as a little boy I remember being annoyed with how few female action figures were made. I liked She-Ra as a way to give MOTU some balance (even if they didn't match up that well with Evil-Lyn, Sorceress, and Teela).
MASK was hard to get into because the figures were smaller than Joe and Star Wars. They really needed to be the same scale as the previous hit toy lines so it would be easier for kids to merge them with existing toys during play.
Steelheart reminds me of Black Bolt from Marvel's The Inhumans, particularly with regards to his original design by Jack Kirby in his run on The Fantastic Four, a series that I've been rereading lately thanks to my Marvel Masterworks. Nuff Said
My personal Mandela Effect: I could swear I saw the Sharc available for sale at my local K-Mart back in the 80s. Also, in the GIJoe line you left out Zartan's sister: Zarana,
Great video! Not sure if others mentioned this, but there were a number of female Gobots that were toys - Crasher, Smallfoot, Pathfinder, Sparky, Spay-C, Vamp, Snoop. Casual fans may not be able to tell if the toy versions were female or not.. but as a "boy" and a big Gobot fan, I collected all of these (except for Snoop which was and is super rare) and without any reluctance. =D
One of my "backburner" (as in when have space/time) projects is a working shark toy, having seen the other fans' versions, and not being able to get one, or the limitations like you've said here- partsforming usually means parts lost.
Vanessa Warfield's Manta was also in Season 2 which featured the Racing series and Manta with Vanessa Warfield was only released in the toyline as part of the Racing series
Another excellent video! 👏👏👏And yes, Gloria basically has the exact same face I had as a kid every time new M.A.S.K. toys came out.........with STILL no Shark and Gloria! 😕 And I never knew that connection with Buzzard! But the more I thought about it: Miles' Mayhem' Flexor mask, did have the near identical same power as Gloria's Aura (i.e. a flexible field of energy!)😮 Anyway, thanks again for doing such a great job covering the most glaring omission from my 80's toys as a kid! 👍 PS---I'll let you get back to reporting to Matt 'Is the guy on LITHIUM?' Trakker! 😂(Thought I forgot about that from the One-Season Wonders panel? Hahahahaha)
05:30 just a quick note, in case you didn't know. MASK was a year behind in Europe. So the European release of this tooling would have been the same year as the US
Awesome video. M.A.S.K. is actually my favorite cartoon and toyline from the 80s specifically; I actually prefer it over Transformers. Though once it gets past the 80s, it's unfair to compare, given Transformers went on to become a multi-sequel and multi-universe juggernaut that has lasted until this day. I had VHS recordings of it that I re-watched frequently, so my original childhood memories of it are better than G1, too. Shark was one of my favorite vehicles from the show and I liked Gloria Baker too. Of course you are right that a submarine has limited utility, and in the show this often resulted in Gloria being the copilot of another vehicle, which always disappointed me when that happened. At least Sly Rax's motorcycle had a limited ground attack option, being able to deploy laser cannons from the side car, which is nicely replicated on the toy. Funny enough the only MASK toy I remember having as a kid was this vehicle, only the launched side car portion. Probably got it from a garage sale or something. I am imagining the price of the toys and my young age was why I never had any more! But years later I got many of them as an adult. I have all the original vehicles and a good number of the later ones. Wow I had no idea Hurricane had so few appearances, haha. Funny how it is in the show intro from day one! Definitely can't say it it because of lack of screen time for Shark, then! Vanessa and Manta got made, but not until the racing series, when she and Manta were in the show from the beginning. Don't know if they took so long because she was a girl, or because of the difficulty of engineering the vehicle. Speaking of Manta, wasn't one of the techniques of making a Shark was to sacrifice a Manta and modify it into a Shark by replacing the body with a Porshe model kit and modifying the fins? It's a very similar transformation scheme to Shark. Of course, you are destroying an original classic MASK toy, to do this. Isn't there a figure pack of at least Gloria herself in her original suit, though? Maybe I misread the old Toyfare price guides. Yes the toys are really well done. Almost model car quality, but of course more durable, rubber tires, but also chromed pieces, really adds to their realistic look. And your custom Shark looks GOOD with the others. Man, just such a shame it was never made. There are urban myths about people finding this toy somewhere but of course by now we probably would have seen it if these stories were true, what with the internet. I would love to be able to dig into the Kenner archives and see how far along they got with the toy, and if maybe a prototype even does exist. Hasbro probably won't right the wrong, yeah. But several years ago there was a G.I. Joe figure of Matt Trakker made and on his file card it revealed MASK and VENOM were secret divisions of G.I. Joe and Cobra, respectively. Not a stretch to believe that, haha. And there was supposed to be a Hasbro shared universe, including a MASK movie! Whatever happened to that?! We could have gotten a Shark from that, even if an updated version. And if they did decide to use a modern car and new design for Shark in this MASK movie, they could still do a "retro" line to spin off of it, maybe reissue or remake the old toys, and finally make Shark! I never heard the story about Porsche not allowing them to use the license. Wouldn't they have had to get permission to use the car in the show in the first place? A story I always heard was it being too close to the James Bond submarine car and Kenner running into legal issues over that. But I don't know how true that is. That fan model is kind of dodgy, isn't it? Yeah, best used as display. I'm sure on the real toy, the hood fins would flip up as panels or pop up through slits in the hood, and the periscope would pop up from the roof or maybe flip out from the back window or something. It's just that the Split Seconds aren't in the show, but most of them are ugly, to me, and a silly concept, with the holographic driver. Stiletto is probably one of the better looking ones. Was it these, crappy, ugly toys that ended MASK, or the racing series? I actually quite liked the racing series and toys, though. And Buzzard is actually an example of a very cool and nice looking MASK vehicle that splits apart. Yeah I am taken aback by the HASLAB thing. I didn't realize it was even legal for major companies to do crowd funding stuff? It definitely doesn't seem right, even if it is legal. Yeah, just about any Star Wars, Marvel, or Transformers property wouldn't have trouble selling.
"M.A.S.K. - is the mighty power that can save the day!" Can't talk about M.A.S.K without starting to sing that incredible theme song!
I'd drive to it. But I'd drive to any 80s tv themes.
Nah, just sing it. I would for the hell of things. LOL
mobile armor strike komand
aside from The Transformers, M.A.S.K. was my absolute favorite Saturday morning cartoon. It freakin rocked!!!
Briansgate yeah, and it still does! Besides Scott and T-Bob, it’s still pretty good. Got all episodes on one Blu ray and I just fast forward when Scott is doing his stupid shenanigans. The last couple of episodes with the races are a bit meh though, but still watchable.
Did it air on Saturdays? I remember it airing on weekday afternoons.
@@Desslar That's how you can tell who is a hipster. We 30-40 year olds knew the action cartoons came on after school
@@dangunheadachron1603 That's right. In the 80s, 90% of the cool action shows aired on weekday afternoons.
But maybe some independent station somewhere aired it on Saturdays after the original run. It's possible.
@@Desslar Just to confuse things, a different DIC series, "C.O.P.S." originally ran in syndication, but a few years later ran on CBS Saturday mornings repackaged as "Cyber C.O.P.S"
It was amazing to finally get Gloria as a kid with the Stiletto, but I always wished they had come out with the Sharc and her original coloring.
This was a great segment! My 4-year old daughter loves playing with my old M.A.S.K. toys. There’s something about the vehicles that she loves. She gets a kick out of all the working parts.
Can't understand why they don't bring this franchise back!🔥
They were going to with a G.I. Joe movie crossover.
Anything pretty much needs a mainstream movie with “A list actors” unfortunately
I think it's a tougher nut to crack than it seems. It was a toy line and "story" born out of gimmick toys and a gimmick name. It's hard to to make that seem even slightly serious. That said- I think it can and will be done. With the continued success of Fast and Furious and their change to kind of futuristic and sci fi premises- someone must be foaming at the mouth to give M.A.S.K that treatment.
@@seangalvin3196 I think it can be done, but it's a borderline miracle. You're right, a MASK movie could be something like a more futuristic version of the Fast series. Perfect opportunity to get some fancy cars, turn them into mobile assault vehicles and have them fly around shooting at each other.
This great video from Michael and the RetroBlasting team, highlights a missed opportunity by Kenner and their M.A.S.K. toy line!
I missed out on the original M.A.S.K. franchise, ( because of my age ) but I can see the appeal!
Can you imagine if Kenner, Mattel and Hasbro listened to Michael, Tony ( Analog Toys ) and the fans and actually produced the toys that were " missing in action " from our childhood!
It's truly unbelievable, that such a vast profit potential, continues to be ignored!
M.A.S.K. literally pulled me back into playing with and collecting toys as a 7th grader! I could NOT simply move onto girls and trying to sit at the cool kid's lunch table
with THESE things on the toy store shelves! ( Hey, it was the 80's! ) ; ) Awesome work as always, RetroBlasting !
They were a brilliant mix of all the toys I and many others loved. Transformers, G.I. Joe and Hit Wheels/Matchbox. Even now as an adult car enthusiast- the attention to detail and use of real production cars has me interested again!
I always thought vanessa warfield was a cool character name.. I still always remember it to this day...
sxhbk she had the hottest hairstyle of the year, the quasi Baroness costume and the “whip” MASK as well
Coolest of the coolest chic names back in the day.
S.H.A.R.K... Should Have Actually Releasedit, Kenner. (Hey, if they can spell command with a K then I can get away with this.)
Ha I love it
What he said!
Hopefully Ramen Toys correct that.
They also never made Mainframe, Mirage, Night Shade or Miss Demeanor for COPS.
And that is the real crime
Was just about to say that
@@Transfixed in a future time
I never realized that they never made Ms. Demeanor. It seems like some lines gave the most priority to the heroes.
I also believe that, at the time, companies like Kenner/Hasbro thought that toys featuring female characters wouldn't sell. For M.A.S.K. I always found this very strange that they never made Shark with Gloria Baker as they did release Manta with Vanessa Warfield. But yeah, perhaps Porsche did deny them the use of their 928 model design.
Such a shame. Let's just hope that these days with resin 3D printing and custom builders being able to make impressive plastic replicas that we will get to see a proper (albeit custom) Shark someday that is both durable as well as easy to transform.
Currently I'm waiting on a 1/24 scale Porsche 928 model kit from Fujimi (couldn't find a Tamiya version anywhere anymore). Hope the scale matches the figure size so that I can paint it in the proper colors and at least have a custom Gloria Baker figure (that I'm going to order from a custom builder in my country) sitting in her Shark car. No transforming into a submarine though as I lack those skills and equipment. 😅
31 appearances makes Gloria Baker 4th on the MASK agent list.
I never knew there was a 928 in MASK I’ve completely missed this even tho I loved it as a kid. Interesting! Thanks!
M.A.S.K. is so underated. My son loves my old toys that still hold up cooler than anything in the past 30 years. Where's the movie!!! Bring the line back.
2:33 I love how they added red nail polish to Jinx, just in case there was any question as to whether or not it was really a woman in that ninja outfit.
And the red shoes… every ninja girl has to have the right shoes 😄
Great, GREAT clip!!! I've always wanted Gloria and RC... I still want them!
Tha SHARK looks nice, always reminded me of the Lotus Esprit submarine
That was a great video Micheal . Hopefully somebody in Haslab sees this video and wakes up and smells the coffee and start asking the collectors and fans what we want them to do .
Also for those of you wanting to make your own from a model kit, the shark appears to be based on the original 928 and not the later S, S2, S4 or GT variants. Basically you don't want a front or rear spoiler, side skirts, bump strips down the sides or any wheel arch extensions.
I’ve always wondered whether a Shark was made. Good video, thanks! Hopefully M.A.S.K. Will return someday the way Voltron has, with a quality modern production.
I L.O.V.E. This video! Very well done Michael
I never saw the show, but still found this really interesting. I hadn't realized fans were 3D printing custom toys.
There tons of females in the Fisher Price Adventure people. I love that line.
Those were great toys though, perfectly in scale with Star Wars. So you could have like support personnel like nurses, mechanics and backup pilots to help your Rebel figures.
FP figures were excellent stand ins for civilians.
@@michaelwills1926 Many FP figures were the innocent victims of bounty hunter massacres at the hands of my 7-year-old self. I am a sick, sick individual.
I remember the toys being gradually shown on TV in commercials and wondered why I never saw this one, now I know why, thanks.
HELMET
Heroes
Enthusiastically
Letting
Miles
Escape
Time (and time again)
M.A.S.K was freaking Awesome. Barely anyone I meet remembers it.
Oh yeah, the Manta was sweet. Well made, held up well. I was pretty rough on my toys.
My son Anthony used to Love " Mask' & that other one " Mask Rider " grew up with them in the 90's unfortunately he passed away 2 yrs ago , anyways thank you for putting this out 👍
Our sympathies to you on your loss.
@@retroblasting thank you very much
Man my cousin loved all of them ever since he watched this video.
following you for a long time and played with all He-man, GI Joe, Transformers as a kid but I don't know why, every MASK video is a huge excitement ^^ thx again
Nice looking custom and very interesting topic!
I love m.a.s.k an I still do.. I'm going to get thunder hawk again! When I was a kid my dog destroyed it I was pissed!! I'm 36 now an i still watch it on the tube.
This was my absolute favorite cartoon show and toy line in the 80’s. I didn’t have many transformers but had TONS of the MASK toys. It’s unfortunate that I don’t have any of them anymore.
For some reason I thought I remembered seeing the Shark in the toy catalogs back in the day, but I must be wrong. I do remember clearly seeing the Countach toy in the catalog, and always wanted it but never got it.
Great Video. A lot of fond memories of the show and the toys. Shame Gloria didn't get more love. LOL. The 'Outro' reminded me of the episode were Gloria gets summoned for a mission while attending (not teaching) a Judo class so she effortlessly tossed the instructor across the room and ran out the door... Even as a kid i wondered why she was taking the class not teaching it...
Because they have to show how tough she is by bettering a man that's supposed to be an expert.
It's called empowering.
Not for the male characters but they don't count.
I had half of these as a kid. The 57 Chevy. The Jeep the truck and the copter cycle
Thank you for this great video! 😊👍
Your videos are always informative, entertaining, and something to look forward to. Thanks for the years of effort the whole team has put in.
8:58 "is highly unlikely that Hasbro will ever right this wrong"
it goes beyond that, they can't even get the gijoe retro line out correctly.
All that was based on the idea of them creating a "Hasbro Cinematic Universe" at a time when everyone was trying to jump on the MCU bandwagon. And IDW actually gave it a try while Hasbro was putting together a much-hyped "writer's room" to bang out scripts that would combine those properties into the same world as GI Joe and Transformers. But nothing came of it. All those IDW books were canceled with them even rebooting their Transformers comics. And the stillbirth of Universal's Dark Universe combined the mixed reaction to the DCEU put a dampener on the mad rush to create "Cinematic Universes."
They can't even get the Classifieds line out correctly.
Thank you for bringing us actually interesting news and updates on toys that we care about. Not jumping on the band wagon of the latest toy craze is why I will continue to support RetroBlasting.
Great historical breakdown, as always. Enjoyed the vid!
Everytime I watch one of your videos I realize I had a lot of toys I've forgotten. Valuable toys. Valuable toys I threw away, traded for twinkies, destroyed, or allowed my mom to sell for 50 cents at garage sales.
Excellent video again. Well done! Love Retro Blasting!!! :)
Man I loved mask when I was a kid!!!!
I loved Gloria ❤
while the M.A.S.K. content was great... I cant help but feel Michael buried the lead on this one. That is the most impressive collection of female figures I have ever seen (as noted always the most rare in any 80's line)... watching that montage of all actual examples from Michaels collection was inspiring
It was a travesty it was never made and I continue to live in hope that one day Shark will be fully realised.
That was a dope video man, really enjoyed getting all that info and pics that took me down memory lane in a condensed format, and very informative too.
I wouldn't say Stiletto was cool myself, but it always weirded me out over how it was named after Sly Rax's original mask.
Glad to see one of these videos thier my favorites
Aww, that’s so sad. I hope you guys get a good well built Shark one day.
I'm gonna say it was Porsche that put the brakes on the the toy. The 928 was supposed to replace the iconic 911, but since nobody really liked the 928 and everyone loved the 911 that never happened. Having it in the cartoon is one thing, but having it be a physical toy is something else. They probably didnt want dads with kids seeing them play with a 928 and then associating it with a toy. Just a thought. They may have not even gotten permission to have it in the cartoon and that may be why it went away.
Well done Michael!! I really enjoyed this video.
Your shows are absolutely awesome and super insightful
MASK was a pretty good show. Lot of nice shows. Laser Tag, Pole Position, Wheeled Warriors, COPS, Voltron. Lots of good innocent violence. Loved to roleplay these shows in kindergarten to 3rd grade. Between 4th and 5th grade seemed that most kids imaginations had drifted off to sports, fashion, music/rap, dispersing into the ubiquitous shallow cliques/gangs. If we did play them it was at our homes but no longer on the school playground where people just hung out or methodically trudged around the track talking about what is cool, or on SNL that night, telling jokes.
Yeah back in the eighties when mask was made I often complained about the fact that Gloria Baker and her shark was never produced. I often stated why did the Man 2 with Vanessa Warfield get created in toy form but not Gloria Baker and the shark.
They did make Gloria, just not in her cartoon-accurate colours.
Yes, ironic for Kenner (who I’m aware are now Hasbro) to have made Vanessa Warfield (driver of Manta, and whose mask is ‘Whip’ - creates a laser whip) but not Gloria Baker.
I love M.A.S.K. and I've missed out on getting a fan made Shark several times and I'm glad i did because i would have been disappointed if it was as delicate as the one in your video. Also I'm glad you did this video because if there is ever a decent fan made version I'm sure you'll likely know about it and let us know. I'll definitely get behind anyone who can make any decent M.A.S.K. toys that we never got in stores. I can remember if you did a video about the Argentina only released M.A.S.K. toys but if not it'd be a good video to consider in the future. Thank you for doing the heavy lifting I'm sure a lot of us appreciate your work.
The Shark was my favorite vehicle on that show as a kid. My favorite character was Alex Sector though.
Alex Sector was *my* favourite, *too*.
Serie bellissima. La seguivo da piccolo, ma mai vista tutta. I veicoli mi piacevano tantissimo. Anche i giocattoli sono stupendi, ma introvabili oggi come allora, almeno in Italia.
I love my few M.A.S.K. collection! Only one is 100% Complete of the three.
love to see the collection. 😍
This channel deserves more views
Love me some mask!
I must be totally Mandelaing myself because I swear I had a SHARK as a kid. Gloria was my favorite character and was the first MASK figure I remember wanting. The only other vehicle I remember getting for sure was the Raven.
I so love the time and research you put into your videos. Congrats on 75K subs!
Ah M.A.S.K... the toyline that I only ever owned the Raven as a kid... and now as an adult, I find myself slowly collecting them at higher and higher prices... love it!
Great video , love mask toys growing up!
Great video, a new way to use the "jumping the Shark" saying.
We have so many 3rd party companys that make transformers. you would think they could do something similar with MASK. Would there be a market for such a thing?
Yes, yes there would, unless Disney gets the i.p. then it's dead in the water.
As much I like mask, it nowhere as popular like transformers.
Hurricane was one of my favorite vehicles on the show...
Awesome video buddy! I always thought the character Gloria was cute.
My fav cartoon.. had the action figures to sticker books.
Hopefully the Makina's Great White will be the one you are were looking for. Seems they did a good job with the Thunderhawk.
Still one of my favorite vids. Love how you covered so many of the woman characters and action figures. This with Analog Toys coverage is great. Would love more on this topic just because it's so interesting but this does it so well! Great job!
I had a Vanessa figure back in the day - as a proxy for Serena from Dino Riders, who came exclusively with the massive playset on legs that was the Brontosaurus.
Seriously, I would part with some coin for a Haslab M.A.S.K. Shark with all the goodies. Gloria and Shark were always two of my toy unicorns growing up too!
Great stuff !!
Playmobil could actually do MASK vehicles to some satisfying degree.
And the robustness would certainly improve.
Playmobil actually kinda did with their "spy" line from a few years ago.
I got their "hidden base" cause it reminded me of Boulder Hill, and the main characters cars were basically a white version of the Thunderhawk & a close similarity to the Jackhammer.
It was around this time I walked away from my Star Wars figures and started really getting into Lego. It wasn’t until TMNT came out that I got back into figures. I completely missed M.A.S.K., Transformers and G.I. Joe. I had some friends who got into Transformers and G.I. Joe, but M.A.S.K . never really caught in with any of us. It looked pretty cool, though.
I can't believe someone made a video on this! no Shark toy was bullshit!!! when I was kid it was my favorite vehicle...
Mine too... Now you know why I was pissed about it.
Keep up the good work!!
It's criminal the way that Gloria and Shark were treated in the toyline.
I finally got my Rebel Snowspeeder as a teenager as well. Though it was the mid-late 90s rerelease.
I did a review of Stiletto years ago for a friend on youtube - back when buying MASK was relatively cheap, a few years later people began to notice and drove the prices up.
I am certain that either 1- a design was done but taken no further for reasons or 2- a prototype was made but didn't pass internal.
The reason is due to the Gloria figure with Stiletto, it is an EXACT replica of her cartoon design both in mask and outfit. Gloria certainly was meant to have had a vehicle otherwise she would have came as a co driver in another set like some of the other characters.
As for rebooting MASK they did do a GI Joe figure of Matt Trakker (but strangely not Miles Mayhem) where they integrated them into GI Joe by having MASK as a separate division. They could easily integrate some of the characters and vehicles into the line to test the waters for more releases.
I had the Rhino, that thing was awesome!
Had M.A.S.K given a Japanese adaption, 80% of the team would be schoolgirls and vehicle transformation would rival that of Transformers.
Only if it had been made circa 20XX. Anime in the 1980s was still based.
Aben, I hope you know how silly your comment is actually, since the M.A.S.K. cartoon was animated in Japan!
Look up Transformers Kiss Players :)
@@SaschaCharlieDjuderija Not anime enough for him, he wants Sailor Moon Masterforce. 😂
Even as a little boy I remember being annoyed with how few female action figures were made. I liked She-Ra as a way to give MOTU some balance (even if they didn't match up that well with Evil-Lyn, Sorceress, and Teela).
Why would you be annoyed by that?
Was you annoyed at how most of the male characters in She-Ra was villains and there was only one good male toy?
Because the female figures sold like shit.
Sy Snootles was a female Star Wars character.
So was ev9d9
Was literally coming here to say that 🤣
As was the Sarlacc, obviously 😏
MASK was hard to get into because the figures were smaller than Joe and Star Wars. They really needed to be the same scale as the previous hit toy lines so it would be easier for kids to merge them with existing toys during play.
Steelheart reminds me of Black Bolt from Marvel's The Inhumans, particularly with regards to his original design by Jack Kirby in his run on The Fantastic Four, a series that I've been rereading lately thanks to my Marvel Masterworks.
Nuff Said
Thank you for pointing out Haslab being just a hype machine.
My personal Mandela Effect: I could swear I saw the Sharc available for sale at my local K-Mart back in the 80s.
Also, in the GIJoe line you left out Zartan's sister: Zarana,
I was just thinking the same thing! I could have sworn it was a late addition to the line.
Great video! Not sure if others mentioned this, but there were a number of female Gobots that were toys - Crasher, Smallfoot, Pathfinder, Sparky, Spay-C, Vamp, Snoop. Casual fans may not be able to tell if the toy versions were female or not.. but as a "boy" and a big Gobot fan, I collected all of these (except for Snoop which was and is super rare) and without any reluctance. =D
One of my "backburner" (as in when have space/time) projects is a working shark toy, having seen the other fans' versions, and not being able to get one, or the limitations like you've said here- partsforming usually means parts lost.
Stinger, Jackhammer and Outlaw also had partsforming elements. I suppose Gator was technically a shellformer as well.
fast forward today, cant wait for my shark via ramentoy!
I loved the show and the toys. I have the entire series, and wished they would make a SHARK
Vanessa Warfield's Manta was also in Season 2 which featured the Racing series and Manta with Vanessa Warfield was only released in the toyline as part of the Racing series
I’ve enjoyed the Victory Haslabs lol. But I agree what’s the point if they don’t do things we REALY want and have wanted for decades
M.A.S.K. Theme song greatest of all time.
Another excellent video! 👏👏👏And yes, Gloria basically has the exact same face I had as a kid every time new M.A.S.K. toys came out.........with STILL no Shark and Gloria! 😕 And I never knew that connection with Buzzard! But the more I thought about it: Miles' Mayhem' Flexor mask, did have the near identical same power as Gloria's Aura (i.e. a flexible field of energy!)😮 Anyway, thanks again for doing such a great job covering the most glaring omission from my 80's toys as a kid! 👍 PS---I'll let you get back to reporting to Matt 'Is the guy on LITHIUM?' Trakker! 😂(Thought I forgot about that from the One-Season Wonders panel? Hahahahaha)
05:30 just a quick note, in case you didn't know. MASK was a year behind in Europe. So the European release of this tooling would have been the same year as the US
Awesome video.
M.A.S.K. is actually my favorite cartoon and toyline from the 80s specifically; I actually prefer it over Transformers. Though once it gets past the 80s, it's unfair to compare, given Transformers went on to become a multi-sequel and multi-universe juggernaut that has lasted until this day.
I had VHS recordings of it that I re-watched frequently, so my original childhood memories of it are better than G1, too.
Shark was one of my favorite vehicles from the show and I liked Gloria Baker too. Of course you are right that a submarine has limited utility, and in the show this often resulted in Gloria being the copilot of another vehicle, which always disappointed me when that happened.
At least Sly Rax's motorcycle had a limited ground attack option, being able to deploy laser cannons from the side car, which is nicely replicated on the toy. Funny enough the only MASK toy I remember having as a kid was this vehicle, only the launched side car portion. Probably got it from a garage sale or something. I am imagining the price of the toys and my young age was why I never had any more! But years later I got many of them as an adult. I have all the original vehicles and a good number of the later ones.
Wow I had no idea Hurricane had so few appearances, haha. Funny how it is in the show intro from day one! Definitely can't say it it because of lack of screen time for Shark, then!
Vanessa and Manta got made, but not until the racing series, when she and Manta were in the show from the beginning. Don't know if they took so long because she was a girl, or because of the difficulty of engineering the vehicle.
Speaking of Manta, wasn't one of the techniques of making a Shark was to sacrifice a Manta and modify it into a Shark by replacing the body with a Porshe model kit and modifying the fins? It's a very similar transformation scheme to Shark. Of course, you are destroying an original classic MASK toy, to do this.
Isn't there a figure pack of at least Gloria herself in her original suit, though? Maybe I misread the old Toyfare price guides.
Yes the toys are really well done. Almost model car quality, but of course more durable, rubber tires, but also chromed pieces, really adds to their realistic look.
And your custom Shark looks GOOD with the others.
Man, just such a shame it was never made. There are urban myths about people finding this toy somewhere but of course by now we probably would have seen it if these stories were true, what with the internet. I would love to be able to dig into the Kenner archives and see how far along they got with the toy, and if maybe a prototype even does exist.
Hasbro probably won't right the wrong, yeah. But several years ago there was a G.I. Joe figure of Matt Trakker made and on his file card it revealed MASK and VENOM were secret divisions of G.I. Joe and Cobra, respectively. Not a stretch to believe that, haha. And there was supposed to be a Hasbro shared universe, including a MASK movie! Whatever happened to that?! We could have gotten a Shark from that, even if an updated version. And if they did decide to use a modern car and new design for Shark in this MASK movie, they could still do a "retro" line to spin off of it, maybe reissue or remake the old toys, and finally make Shark!
I never heard the story about Porsche not allowing them to use the license. Wouldn't they have had to get permission to use the car in the show in the first place? A story I always heard was it being too close to the James Bond submarine car and Kenner running into legal issues over that. But I don't know how true that is.
That fan model is kind of dodgy, isn't it? Yeah, best used as display. I'm sure on the real toy, the hood fins would flip up as panels or pop up through slits in the hood, and the periscope would pop up from the roof or maybe flip out from the back window or something.
It's just that the Split Seconds aren't in the show, but most of them are ugly, to me, and a silly concept, with the holographic driver. Stiletto is probably one of the better looking ones. Was it these, crappy, ugly toys that ended MASK, or the racing series? I actually quite liked the racing series and toys, though. And Buzzard is actually an example of a very cool and nice looking MASK vehicle that splits apart.
Yeah I am taken aback by the HASLAB thing. I didn't realize it was even legal for major companies to do crowd funding stuff? It definitely doesn't seem right, even if it is legal. Yeah, just about any Star Wars, Marvel, or Transformers property wouldn't have trouble selling.
Just saw this video pop up.. its a good time that ramen toy now is creating a shark. There thunderhawk is looking awesome.