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Witness the Birth and Evolution of a Genius: Three Early Makoto Shinkai Films Land on Blu-ray June 16, 2022
ShareTweet 0 This story first appeared in the pages of Retrofied, a new magazine created to celebrate the 80s and 90s pop culture you grew up with. The quarterly magazine offers modern commentary and perspectives on gems from the past with insight to modern cultural relevance. Grab your free preview issue here, and then go join their Patreon to subscribe! Issue #1 is out now! Listen, if you weren’t a kid of toy-playing age from 1985 through 1988 (aka the mother-flippin’ sweet spot), your understanding of what toys we had on our living room floors during that time might understandably be colored by the popularity of modern reboots and remakes. Yes, of course we had Star Wars, G.I. Joe, He-Man, She-Ra, My Little Pony, and LEGO. But there was so much more. If you were in elementary school in the mid-80s, you were very likely a fan of M.A.S.K. And it might just be the reason you clicked on whatever link brought you here in the first place. (Welcome!) Because here it is, almost 35 years after I last saw a M.A.S.K. toy on the shelves, and I’m still thinking about them. Odds are, you are too. (Also, I’m not going to keep using the periods. From here on out, it’s MASK.) MASK: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand. Even as a kid, I knew the erroneous K was a bit forced—and don’t even get me started on the villains: VENOM, the Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem. But I didn’t care. Because everything about MASK was just pure awesome. Spinning out of the intense popularity of “transforming toys” that took over toy stores (and Saturday morning TVs), Kenner—the same company that launched itself into the stratosphere with its Star Wars toys—jumped on the bandwagon with MASK in 1985. What made this toy line unique was that it wasn’t a direct copycat of Hasbro’s Transformers or Tonka’s Go-Bots, both of which were at their peak in 1985. These weren’t sentient robots that could also be various Earth-based modes of transportation. These were everyday vehicles driven (and flown) by real people that would transform into different vehicles. Whaaaat? Why play with a car that can transform into a robot when you can play with a motorcycle that transforms into a helicopter? Or a helicopter that transforms into a jet? Or a pit stop gas station that turns into a catapult that flings spare tires? Wait, what? Masked Crusaders, Working Overtime Fighting Crime In retrospect, the original pitch for MASK must’ve sounded like the gag in Big, where Tom Hanks gets a job at a toy company and rolls his eyes in confusion at the idea of transforming toys that turn into buildings. “I don’t get it.” Thankfully, though, enough people did get it. And we were blessed with the first series of 10 MASK vehicles in 1985. A year before that, though, in the summer of 1984, a young Bill Kraimer—armed with a fresh BFA in Industrial Design and dreams of becoming a car designer—landed his first job out of college at Kenner’s headquarters in Cincinnati. A hopeful car designer at a toy company? Why not? After all, with dozens of toy lines, there was plenty of opportunity to work on vehicle design (just on a smaller scale), and the designers and sculptors at Kenner were some of the best in the world. Concept sketches for unproduced MASK vehicles (courtesy Bill Kraimer) Kraimer joined an exclusive team of artists, designers, engineers, craftspeople, and sculptors who were charged with inspiring creativity and bringing smiles to kids’ faces (and, let’s be honest, adding dollars to the company’s bottom line). “My first day on the job, I was dressed in a navy three-piece suit. Tom Osborne [Kenner’s Director of Boys Toys] was on his knees in the hallway playing with SSP Racers with Jack Farah [Manager of Boys Toys]. I can’t recall who was the winner, but I thought, ‘I am going to LOVE working here!’” In 1984, Kenner was slowly coming down off its financial high and toy store dominance . . . and trying to adjust to a post-Star Wars world. Kraimer remembers, “The company’s growth stagnated a bit and there were monthly layoffs for a while. Eventually, I was let go, only to be hired back a year and a half later for substantially more money!” If you’ve watched the Star Wars episode of The Toys That Made Us on Netflix, you have a sense for how toys worked their way through development at Kenner. Still, Kraimer’s experience is a window into the creative process that drove Kenner to decades of unfathomable success. “The company would share with us that they were working on a new licensed property and wanted to develop vehicles, figures, and playsets based on that.” Kraimer and the other designers—who were essentially big kids living out dream jobs—would then sit down and design the actual toys. “We had regular design reviews with upper management, including the president, Joe Mendelsohn [who left the company in 1985 and was posthumously inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame in 2019]. And when we had line reviews, we would often stay up all night working on our presentations, just like in college.” Concept sketches for Slingshot (courtesy Bill Kraimer) From their hand-drawn blueprints, artisans and sculptors in the model shop would build patterns of the toys and figures . . . that would eventually make it to the production line. If you ever owned Slingshot, the RV that opened to reveal a jet (from 1986’s second series of vehicles), then you owned a Bill Kraimer original. “As I recall, management wanted a full range of vehicles developed for commercialization. I conceived the Slingshot van because of the popularity of the custom van craze. I wanted to have the jet fire off the launch pad, but the safety engineer shared his concerns. I also had launching middles (which had to pass a choke tube safety test), but we chose drop bombs so we wouldn’t have projectile issues.” “The jet tail was originally conceived to be flush mounted with the body of the van. Engineering had concerns with the cost and complexity, though, so we opted to expose the tail of the jet. There needs to be a lot of compromise to get a product in the market. We had to hit price points and address safety concerns and profit margins. Unfortunately, sometimes we had to remove features and details to accomplish our cost/profit margins.” 1985 Kenner catalog (image from albertpenello.com) 1986 Kenner catalog (image from albertpenello.com) Secret Raiders Who Will Neutralize as Soon as They Arrive In an era when almost every successful toy line had a cartoon tailor made to sell more toys, it was a no-brainer that MASK would make the leap to the small screen. And DIC Entertainment, the company behind shows such as Inspector Gadget, Rainbow Brite, Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling, and Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, was certainly no stranger to Saturday morning and weekday afternoon TV. (DIC would later go on to produce The Real Ghostbusters, Starcom, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, The Legend of Zelda, and Captain N: The Game Master, among many other shows. So even though DIC was known by some in the industry at the time as “Do It Cheap,” it’s not an exaggeration to say that its shows formed an indelible part of many childhoods.) Development began as a collaboration between Kenner and DIC—the former providing the vehicles and characters to include, and the latter coming up with original storylines. Michael Maliani, who was an assistant director or director at DIC for many of the show’s 75 episodes, recalls, “As you develop a property that was brought to you from a toy company, there is always back and forth and they get final approval on the main models. They would suggest stories that help showcase the toys, but the stories were ours.” Interestingly, when it came time to cast the characters, DIC looked to Canada. Per Doug Stone (the voice behind Matt Trakker, Bruce Sato, Dusty Hayes, Hondo MacLean, and many more): “I was in Toronto at the time, so my earliest communications were via my agent, who was speaking to DIC, in Los Angeles. As I recall, we only got a basic outline of the show and, frankly, I was primarily interested in the characters themselves. I learned more about the show details as things progressed.” “I recall seeing initial drawings and descriptions of the characters and their personalities, which is pretty standard. I don’t recall being given a lot of direction as to the voices themselves at first. I auditioned, giving my basic take on them all, based on the visuals and limited information. Frankly, I think they were pretty happy with my initial takes on the characters. I don’t recall there being a great many changes from my original takes on the characters to the final voices. Most of the direction I was given was about nuances they wanted.” Sharon Noble—the only woman in the cast and thus the voice of every female character, including Vanessa Warfield, Gloria Baker, and the MASK computer—concurs. “We actually knew very little about the series when we auditioned.” (The “we” here refers to her and her husband Brendan McKane, voice of Miles Mayhem, Alex Sector, and more.) “We had just moved from Canada to Los Angeles. On our third day in town, our hosts and longtime friends took us to the beach where we met a fellow actor who told us about a new cartoon series that was seeking Canadian actors who had not yet joined SAG. We had both done substantial voice work in Canada, and we were just about to join SAG, so we hastened to set up an audition.” “The two women I read for were, of course, Gloria and Vanessa—easy. The character descriptions were clear and presented no problem at all. I was given no suggestions as to voice quality or delivery, so I was free to explore. There were no pictures of the characters, but the descriptions were clear and concise, so it was easy. The computer had no described personality, so that was a little more tricky. I ran a couple of ideas through my head and came up with something that seemed to fit. We were given great latitude to bring qualities to the characters that distinguished them from each other, so it kept our minds alert and creative both during the audition process and throughout the recording sessions.” In addition to Doug Stone and Sharon Noble, the remainder of the small cast consisted of Mark Halloran (known for his impersonations, which came across in his voices for Sly Rax, Cliff Dagger, Buddie Hawks, and more), Graeme McKenna (voice of Brad Turner, T-Bob, and more), and Brennan Thicke (Scott Trakker). It seemed to connect with many kids on a very deep level. Perhaps part of it was that Matt was a single dad, raising Scott on his own. Some of the fans I’ve spoken to, who were from broken homes or felt neglected growing up, related to Matt as a father figure. —Doug Stone Once the cast was assembled, the recording process ran like a well-oiled machine. Noble recalls, “We received scripts and storyboards when they arrived, and we began our work within a day or two. In the studio, we discussed potential problems or tossed around ideas as we went along, but the show was so perfectly cast, we knew what was required, and we all had the skills and experience to produce a finished product in two hours. We usually completed two scripts during a four-hour recording session.” With the exception of Brennan Thicke, who was a child at the time, the rest of the cast recorded as a group. “The adults all recorded together,” Noble shares, “and Brennan recorded separately under the supervision of [voice director] Marsha Goodman.” “We had a marvelous time in the recording sessions. As we discovered very quickly, each episode was set in a different locale, so we had characters with many different accents and personalities. We didn’t know which of us would play the incidental characters until we arrived in the studio.” “Of course, it was a foregone conclusion that I, being the only woman, would voice all the women. I was also all the children (except Scott), all the animals, and several inanimate objects. That left the men to struggle with the incidental male characters. So the first question was ‘Who can do the accent?’ Then each actor would audition for the role using his version of whatever accent was required. If it was a young character, Graeme usually captured it. If it was a peculiar character, it usually went to Mark. Then Doug and Brendan would dance around the others until one or the other hit some tone that bespoke the character. That was the most fun part of each session.” Like many shows during the 80s and 90s, the first season of MASK included 65 episodes. You’ll see this number (or a multiple of it) a lot. The quest for syndication enforced this magic number because 65 episodes equals 13 weeks of material if you figure on one episode per weekday. From a network’s perspective, this ensured enough material to play in (lucrative) reruns without having to repeat anything for three months—or a quarter of the year. And no matter how much we all love MASK, we’d be fooling ourselves if we tried to claim it was serious drama . . . or even really all that great. It was phenomenal when we were 7, but it just doesn’t hold up to modern scrutiny. Nevertheless, for a few months’ work by writers, voice actors, and animators, the show lived on in syndication and remained incredibly popular (and financially rewarding) for years. Trakker’s Gonna Lead the Mission Toward the end of 1986, less than two years after MASK first launched, executives at Kenner and DIC felt the property was beginning to stagnate. After 65 episodes and almost 20 vehicles and playsets, they needed to shake it up somehow and make MASK feel fresh and exciting. As a result, MASK went to the races. A second season of the show, consisting of only 10 episodes, was developed and took the characters and storyline in a dramatically different direction. Though the show was always set in various far-flung locations around the world, it stayed centered on good (MASK) versus evil (VENOM)—and the former thwarting the latter. By contrast, the second season was a racing show. Every episode, the characters would enter and race in various competitions around the world. Think Wacky Races but with MASK and VENOM vehicles. There was something in the MASK series that struck a chord with young boys at that time. I think part of it is the father/son relationship between Matt and Scott . . . and of course T-Bob was a novelty. —Sharon Noble Why change the formula when everything was ostensibly going so well? And why so few episodes? Why not another 65? Even Michael Maliani, who directed all 10 of the second season’s episodes (and was assistant director on many of the first 65), doesn’t really remember why. “I can’t recall why we changed direction, but [it was probably] input from Kenner and internal to keep the project fresh and relevant. We already had 65 episodes, and at the time, it was very common to have a pick-up of fewer episodes.” To coincide with these episodes, a third series of vehicles—known as the “Racing Series”—hit store shelves. By this point in the franchise, Kenner’s toy designers were firing on all cylinders and really had a handle on what made MASK toys so great. Series 3 saw some of the most detailed, ambitious, and creative toy designs in the entire line. I mean, this was the point at which Kenner convinced kids to play with a billboard, toll booth, and pit stop gas station—simply by masquerading them as cool toys with plastic projectiles. Brilliance. Ironically, though, the show’s writers had gone in the opposite direction. After 65 episodes, they’d seemingly run out of juice, and even with the new direction, the episodes felt uninspired and lackluster. (These 10 episodes weren’t even included in the “complete series” DVD box set released in 2011 by Shout! Factory. Logic says this was because of rights issues, but I couldn’t get a firm response from anyone at Shout! for why those episodes were absent.) Brian George joined the cast (as Lester Sludge and Ali Bombay), but not even a great character actor could save the sinking ship. “As performers,” Doug Stone says, “our focus is on delivering the best characterizations we can. Personally, I wasn’t aware of how it was being marketed and didn’t realize how well the toy line was doing. We don’t share in any of those monies and only received acting fees. I was just hoping it would do well in the ratings and that we might get several more seasons out of it. Sadly, that didn’t happen.” To this day, Stone, Noble, McKane, and Halloran are all still friends. Noble shares, “We forged personal friendships, and we are still close friends today. [We] still function as a loving family who share warm memories of an exciting year in our lives.” Stone also looks back on that time with fondness: “I find it fascinating that the two characters I’m known the most for, Matt Trakker and Psycho Mantis [from the Metal Gear Solid series of video games], are so unalike and were voiced at very different times. It simply goes to show that one can never predict what will resonate with fans. All we can do, as performers, is give our all to each characterization and hope that it resonates with those who are listening.” 1987 Kenner catalog for the “Racing Series” And Spectrum’s Got Such Super Vision By the end of 1986, the cartoon had run its course. With 75 episodes in the can, it had cleared the syndication hurdle, and the episodes could play in reruns for as long as the network saw an audience. But in order for that to happen—and to extend the life of the show as much as possible—there needed to be new toys on the shelves to entice kids. Therefore, in 1987, Kenner introduced a fourth (and final) series of vehicles called Split Seconds before the company was acquired by Tonka that year. None of these vehicles ever appeared in the show, and—to be perfectly frank—they weren’t very good. The “transforming” action was essentially that the vehicles split into two separate, smaller vehicles. But since the designs were . . . less than inspired, most just looked broken at that point. Interestingly, the “story” behind this line was that the driver’s mask had the power to create his “splitting image,” who would then drive the second vehicle. That might’ve worked in a cartoon, where the idea could be explored more fully, but as a mere theoretical concept underpinning a toy car? It failed to ignite many imaginations, and as a kid, I never knew anyone who owned any of these vehicles. Sadly, MASK had lost the “wow” factor that set it apart. When asked if DIC ever considered continuing the series, based on the Split Seconds toys, Michael Maliani demurs, “With 75 episodes done, there was really no need to produce more. The cost of production dictates these kinds of things.” Short answer: no. European Split Seconds catalog (image from albertpenello.com) Still—and this is a little-known fact—there were other designers and companies working on MASK ideas and products outside of Kenner. Meet George Gomez, who was a designer and inventor at Marvin Glass & Associates, an independent toy consultancy, in the mid-80s. “We had an amazing studio. No one told you what to work on. Whatever you did that day is what you did. The concepts were pitched to all the major toy companies. Due to the studio’s reputation, we had strong relationships at every company, and Kenner routinely came by to look at product.” “If a toy company was interested in something, they took it back for review. And if they liked it, they eventually licensed it and we got a royalty. One of the great advantages of working as we did was that we were not limited in our thinking by a company’s directives; this meant that our stuff could be free of any of those constraints.” “An example is the Wearable Warriors concept I pitched. The idea was wearable gadgets—cool watches, bracelets, sunglasses, rings, etc.—that all had some mechanical transformation. I was trying to create the coolest kids’ watches ever. I used the MASK line because the transformation was a good fit for MASK.” “We only pitched working prototypes—meaning that we built everything and got it working. There was no arm waving. We pitched Kenner and they loved it, but for some reason decided against it and returned the concept. I also pitched a different concept as an extension of the line where I added an LED in the visor of the mask and a watch battery hidden in a backpack that was attached to the mask. They looked great; the LEDs were rectangular and very small, and you pressed on the backpack to light it. However, watch batteries were not as easily sourced at the local stores at the time and Kenner passed.” Fear not, gentle reader, for I can hear you now: “Working prototypes? I need to see these!” Well, you’re in luck. Wearable Warriors prototype toy design, unproduced (courtesy George Gomez) After a relatively brief—but vibrant—heyday, MASK was sadly on its way out and in clearance bins by 1988. Tonka and Kenner were bought by Hasbro in 1991, and the Kenner brand continued for some years after that. Though Kenner tried to repackage the MASK idea (complete with transforming vehicles and powered masks) as Vor-Tech: Undercover Conversion Squad in 1996—in both toy and animated forms—the line failed to find traction or an audience. Ironically, the Vor-Tech toys today command at least as much on eBay as MASK toys. (Nerds and disposable income are a dangerous combination.) Alas, after only 13 episodes and a handful of knockoff vehicles, Vor-Tech was dead in the water. In 2000, Hasbro finally shut down the Kenner offices (and brand) and merged all of their product lines under one umbrella. It was truly the end of an era. MASK is the Mighty Power That Can Save the Day After years of dormancy (and skyrocketing nostalgia), MASK once again seemed to hit the big time in 2016. The previous year, IDW Comics had acquired the license as part of a larger interconnected story (Revolution) involving several iconic Hasbro-owned 80s brands: Transformers, G.I. Joe, ROM, Micronauts, and Action Man. According to IDW editor-in-chief John Barber, “Revolution and the shared Hasbro universe came from IDW looking for a big thing to do at the company in general, and I’d always wished we’d had all the Hasbro stuff in the same universe.” Revolution was a dream come true for many 80s kids who spent years playing with all these toys in one giant shared universe . . . just on our bedroom floors. And even though the IDW comics threw them all together, the creative reality of doing so was much trickier. “We had Transformers and G.I. Joe,” Barber explains, “and we were just launching ROM, Micronauts, and Action Man—so we sort of pivoted to making those fit in to the same universe.” Nevertheless, a solo, ongoing MASK comic—written by Brandon Easton—spun out of Revolution and propelled the property even further into the spotlight. As a kid, the toys have a great playability—here’s a vehicle I can do two things with; I can drive or fly or swim or . . . whatever you call what Rhino does. Become a headquarters? Plus there’s the puzzle aspect. There are secrets and fun in the mode-changing that’s really cool. As an adult, there’s a fantasy when you’re driving that you could pull a lever and start flying or whatever. I mean, I don’t really want to get in a helicopter car chase laser fight, but I kinda like thinking about it. —John Barber “There weren’t specific directives,” Easton explains, “but I had to make sure that the concept and story remained connected to the Revolution event. It was truly ambitious and smart, and I had a degree of freedom to explore the MASK team and their adventures.” Barber concurs, “It turned out Brandon had ideas that very much matched ours. We were pretty in tune from the get-go. There may have been some things he was bringing to the table that maybe he thought would be a battle to make happen, but they turned out to be just what everybody was hoping to see. There were things he suggested—like the new take on Matt Trakker—that were exactly where everybody wanted to go.” Easton continues, “Hasbro and IDW both wanted a greater degree of diversity and inclusion within the series, and I was allowed to change Matt Trakker into an African American man. That change was not originally pitched by me, and I (as a freelance writer) did not have the power to make that switch without express permission from both companies.” It should come as no surprise that this change ruffled the feathers of a certain segment of intolerant nerddom who hadn’t had their Frosted Flakes that morning. Consequently, Easton was forced to deal with some of the ugliest aspects of 21st century entitled fandom. “There were some very, very angry MASK fans who hated the switch and condemned me endlessly. They even started a Restore Matt Trakker petition aimed at returning him to being a white guy, and things got weird after that with some members of the fan community.” “After the petition fizzled out, the Restore Matt Trakker crowd did everything they could to trash the series publicly. They invaded forums, blocked coverage on their social media sites, and totally refused to have a conversation even when I reached out to them as a show of goodwill. There was considerable negativity surrounding the title from folks who had never even read a single issue.” “I can appreciate if a fan or comics reader in general dislikes my work. I can’t control how people perceive the material, but I do try to tell an entertaining tale for the sake of professionalism and respect for the audience. However, some of these folks went too far in their open hatred of the series without actually giving it a chance.” Despite this childish petulance from entitled “fans,” Easton told a wholly compelling story that managed to go deeper into the characters’ backstories and psyches than anything that had come before. Case in point: Easton spent a couple issues exploring the nature of evil (perhaps inspired by the Restore Matt Trakker crowd?). “I really enjoy the sociological underpinnings of why someone turns to ‘evil.’ While it is possible for someone to be born with villainous intentions, it is much more likely for someone to experience a series of events that changes or destroys their moral compass. Those kinds of stories are far more interesting than a sniveling or moustache-twirling bad guy who commits crimes for the hell of it.” MASK was released at the perfect time when kids’ genre action-adventure zeitgeist was red hot. It mixed the coolest elements of both Transformers and G.I. Joe and managed to connect with fans across the world. And nothing on the planet could top that theme song! —Brandon Easton As it goes all too often in comics, IDW’s MASK run saw an untimely end—well before its time. Easton “was in the midst of plotting/writing issues #8, #9, and #10 when I got the call saying that MASK was being canceled. It was a bit shocking, but as a working writer in comics, you eventually learn to always be prepared for the potential cancelation of an ongoing series. I was in the process of setting up everything for the second year of the comic run, but all of that was over in the matter of a single conversation with my editor.” “I think the biggest hurdle we had,” Barber shares, “is that while I fully believe in all the characters and stories, I think we probably put too much together too fast. And maybe a more fundamental issue is that some of the characters were best known to very specific age ranges. I loved MASK as a kid, and I really loved the toys, but there’s really only a narrow age range where you grew up loving MASK, for the most part. And that generally didn’t overlap ages with ROM or Micronauts. And [all three are] unlike Transformers, where there are a ton of versions that made new fans for decades.” So what might’ve been? We’re so glad you asked. Easton pulls back the curtain on his plans: “In the second year, I wanted to add in some Transformers characters to help the MASK team unlock the Cybertronian technology embedded within the weapons and vehicles. We’d learn over the course of the next 10 issues how and why the bodies of dead Cybertronians were reverse-engineered into the transforming vehicles we all know and love.” “I planned to introduce Matt Trakker’s son and have him be manipulated by Miles Mayhem to hate his own father. It would have been an epic tale of Matt Trakker coming to terms with some of the poor decisions of his past that I’d dropped hints about in the first few issues. From there, we would have continued exploring the romance between Matt Trakker and Gloria Baker and also have a story where someone would betray MASK and join VENOM, and all of this would lead to a massive conflict where Matt Trakker had to make a choice between killing Miles Mayhem or saving his family.” Sigh. The epic we could’ve had. But will we ever see more MASK stories at IDW? “The subject comes up now and then,” Barber admits. “There are a few Hasbro series that I think maybe need a little time between versions so they can seem new again. I think MASK is something that could use a real introduction to a new generation—a new angle on the premise. Though, I really love the original.” No One Knows What Lies Behind the Masquerades In 2016, while MASK was brewing at IDW, the so-called Hasbro Cinematic Universe was announced. An all-star lineup of screenwriters, including Michael Chabon, Brian K. Vaughan, and Nicole Perlman, were attached to the projects, which would have included interconnected feature film adaptations of G.I. Joe, Micronauts, ROM, and MASK. However, speaking with IGN in 2018, screenwriter Jonathan Goldstein said, “[MASK and ROM] are probably not likely to see the light of day. . . . It’s a funny thing. We spent three weeks in a room with a lot of talented writers. We broke 11 or so movies, and I don’t know. It just kind of went into the vortex.” Hollywood is a notoriously curious beast, though, and the status of any project that hasn’t actually begun filming is always in doubt (and even then, nothing is certain). Even though, as of this writing, a connected universe of 80s Hasbro-owned toycentric films doesn’t seem likely, we might still see a MASK movie in the future. Director F. Gary Gray (The Fate of the Furious, Men in Black: International) is currently attached to the project, and in early pre-pandemic 2020, it was announced that Chris Bremner had been tapped to write the film. It’s unclear if Bremner will use any aspects of the script that came out of the Hasbro Cinematic Universe writer’s room, but it looks like the project is still moving forward in some shape or form. (We reached out to both Gray and Bremner but, unsurprisingly, neither agreed to be interviewed for this piece.) But what about you, dear reader? What do you want to see in MASK’s future? “Collector quality” toys? Toys meant to be opened and played with? A big-budget, big-screen adaptation? More comics? For a toy line that only lasted a few years 35 years ago, MASK has surprisingly long legs and still has a horde of fans. And its future is wide open. Come see the laser rays. Fire away! Notes: If fans are interested in an autograph from Doug Stone, you can contact him at Doug Stone, 8391 Beverly Blvd #465, Los Angeles, CA 90048, and he will send out an autographed MASK photo. Please include a SASE (best to have a piece of cardboard inside) and a check for $10 or more made out to Kitty Bungalow. The Kitty Bungalow Charm School for Wayward Cats is a non-profit, no-kill cat rescue. (Stone volunteers at the rescue and serves on its Board.) You Might Also Like... Jamie GreeneJamie is a publishing/book nerd who makes a living by wrangling words together into some sense of coherence. Away from The Roarbots, Jamie is a road trip aficionado and an obsessed traveler who has made his way through 33 countries (and counting). Elsewhere on the interwebs, he's a contributor to SYFY Wire and StarWars.com and hosted The Great Big Beautiful Podcast for more than five years. Watch The Roarbots on Youtube Twitter Youtube
Witness the Birth and Evolution of a Genius: Three Early Makoto Shinkai Films Land on Blu-ray By Jamie Greene Animation
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