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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Vintage M.A.S.K (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand)

The M.A.S.K (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand) toyline produced and distributed by Kenner ran from 1985 to 1988, releasing four official series through those years. Each series featured a group of common vehicles with the ability to transform into combat, armored vehicles. Most vehicles came with one or two drivers, and each character had a mask with a certain ability.

The first two series focused on a premise of crime-fighting between the M.A.S.K. team and the V.E.N.O.M. criminal organization. The last two series changed the premise to a racing-oriented theme, albeit still with the two teams competing against each other.

M.A.S.K was a toyline which I loved but I did not get many of them. If I remembered correctly I only owned 2 vehicles, Gator (series 1) and Vampire (series 2). My cousin the other hand was a huge M.A.S.K fan and he owned all the vechicles from series 1 to series 3. I would always looked forward to going to his house every weekend to play with his M.A.S.K toys!

Another thing I love about 80's toys are the packaging art!
He-Man, Starcom and M.A.S.K, the art was amazing!

I was exposed more to series 1 to 3.
When series 4 came out, I was around 12 years old.
My focus was not really on toys anymore....fast forward 24 years later, focus is back on toys and I am trying to buy back these memories!

Gator
Gator was the first vehicle I got, hence it was one of the vehicles I tried to look for when I started to buy back the M.A.S.K toys.
In the cartoon, whenever Matt Tracker calls the computer to assemble the team for the mission, I really get a kick when Gator is chosen!
Gator is an orange jeep and its combat mode is a hydroplane.

Gator as a 4X4 orange jeep








Transforms to a hydroplane with depth Charge,roll-bar Machine Gun and freeze gun!







The driver for Gator is Dusty Hayes
He is an auto and marine stunt driver, all-terrain specialist and tracking and demolition expert. His day job is a pizza cook.
His mask is Backlash which fires a kinetic blast. 


Firecracker
Firecracker was from the series 1.
A pick-up truck that elevates into a mobile weapon platform. Not really into its combat mode...but love the pick-up truck mode.




Firecracker elevates into a mobile weapon platform! Not very innovative I must say.




A cool accessory is the motorbike that comes with Firecracker! It can be attached to the back of the truck.




Hondo MacLean was the driver and he is the weapons specialist and tactical strategist for M.A.S.K. When he is not with M.A.S.K, he is a history teacher.
He uses the Blaster mask which fires a destructive energy beam.


Condor
Condor was most probably the first M.A.S.K vehicle we would buy.
It was the cheapest vehicle from series 1 and a great start for any M.A.S.K collection!
Condor is a green motorcycle which transforms into a helicopter.




Condor in helicopter mode!




Brad Turner, operator of Condor, is a rock musician by day and helicopter pilot for M.A.S.K.
His Hocus-Pocus mask can project holograms.


Hurricane
Hurricane is one of my favourite vehicles in the M.A.S.K universe.
This is one vehicle I had to get.
Being a 1957 Chevy with a flame paint job is already cool, turning into a six-wheeled attack tank makes it bad-ass!
The overall design for Hurricane is really cool!





Attack mode!






The operator of Hurricane is Hondo MacLean, the driver for Firecracker.
Hondo was given Hurricane when Firecracker was destroyed in the cartoon series. Talk about good employment benefits!
He uses the improved Blaster II mask.



10 comments:

LEon said...

I love these toys but I have never owned one because I only have enough money to buy cheaper toys. LOL

jimho said...

Great memories. Those were the good old days of fun toys. Nice mint collection you have there. Thumbs up!

jimho said...

Nice mint collection you there. Brings back fond memories of the god old days of toys. Thumbs up!!!

chrismandesign said...

i vaguely remember this series, probably just a few episodes, but the vehicles are awesome !!!... i love specially the jeep and the pickup, they look great and playable after all those years... it has a sort of resemblance with the Centurions series... =)

desmond said...

Adrian, I am glad you have all these M.A.S.K. toys and they are in good condition. Very well maintained indeed. I also sometimes browse ebay trying to score a few more I quite liked previously. But money is always no enough to buy extra :)

desmond said...

i love all your mask vehicles as shown above..i still browse ebay for a few that i would like to have but pricing is expensive..money is not enough..haha!

Unknown said...

Just started picking these up starting with the only one I had from my youth....The Condor. Am just having a blast with mine now.

Little Plastic Man said...

@Leon - Just buying back some of my childhood memories
@ Jimho - Yup...Just buying back some of my childhood memories.
@ chrismandesign - will review centurions soon. Love centurions too!
@desmond - finally started getting back vintage toys. sometimes on ebay can get good deals but must be patience. These masks toys were quite reasonable...becasue buy in bulk save on shipping.
@jboypacman - don't we all miss our youth

Unknown said...

I love M.A.S.K. too! But I keep mine in boxes, no space to display them.

Little Plastic Man said...

wow kelvin...mint in box or kept in boxes??...haha

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