Introduction to the M.A.S.K. Cartoon Series

The End Hello and welcome to episode 0 of Masked

Mayhem. I am one of your hosts TFJ and Mike and

joining me is Optimus Solo. Hello. Yes! Today

we are going to be premiering the next new GCRN

cartoon review podcast all about that classic

80s cartoon series, Mask. Yes! Mobile Armored

Strike Command. Now, for those of you who may

have already listened to the powers of Grayskull,

Episode zero. This is actually Kevin's first

review full -on cartoon review podcast And this

is the next big thing this is what's cool. This

is what all the cool people are doing talking

about mask. Yep So that's what we're doing, because

we're cool. So how did this come about? This

was one of your ideas, wasn't it? Yes. Basically,

this is a two -parter here. But one thing was

we had originally, obviously, we had our Transformers

review shows, which you and Michael and Steve

have been doing, all the way back from TFG -1

to The Beast Unleashed to TAP, et cetera. And

we all knew that was taking a break and whatever

and you and I had King had developed the idea

to do our powers of grayskull as the next multi

show Review thing that would cover, you know

the next podcast series. Yeah multiple cartoons

And we had come up with a start date and whatnot

But we had a brief window of time in between

the two from between when tap was going to end

and when powers of grayskull was officially going

to begin we had a a window a void to fill and

i think somewhere along the conversation we were

talking about stuff that we would like to cover

and the idea of mask came up and it's not that

long of a show of a show uh... and there was

just one version of it. It's not like, you know,

He -Man or Transformers where we've had multiple,

multiple cartoons. So the idea came of putting

something in that void and mask was the choice

and that kind of goes right into the other thing

that we're going to be talking about is we both

were fortunate enough to get our hands on some

DVDs. Yes, before we get to that we need to talk

about the title of the show. When you first came

up with - Hold on, hold on, hold on. Hold on,

hold on. Before you go a little behind the scenes

for y 'all, whenever it comes to naming a show

- Oh god, dude. It probably takes us longer to

come up with names of shows than it does to actually

do the shows themselves, because we have very

different tastes in titles and acronyms. I never

actually came up with any titles for this show.

No, but you are very much an acronym freak. Well,

if it makes sense - In a good way. Okay. Part

of that isn't because I like the acronym freak

part of it and part of it is that If it's something

marketable, if it's something that sounds really

good coming off the tongue, if it's something

that I can build up in a fan page post or a blog

post. For people that know not what we're talking

about, what we're meaning when we say acronyms

is, for example, the Transformation Animation

Podcast. He came up with that name so that it

could be TAP, T -A -P, as an acronym because

he has OCD, or not OCD, he's Rain Man when it

comes to acronyms. we had to come up with a name

for this show and i have no idea where you're

going to and come up with a name for this show

i had nothing to do with the title or anything

like that you had told you had sent me mast mayhem

and you would send m &m and ice the first thing

i said was no we're not having a show acronym

dafter white rapper no instead we have a show

after after eight candy that melts in your mouth

and not in your hands yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

this is not a podcast that's going to melt in

your mouth and not in your hand for the record

though mass mayhem we do have periods after every

letter right so the whole thing's an acronym

right well You know, it would be really cool

if the listeners actually came up with sentences

that go along with like a sentence for M a sentence

for a a sentence for s I feel like I'm in school

again Yes, so we came up with the mass mayhem

or you might be seeing it as M and M Yes, I'm

an M. Yes And going back to what Kevin was saying

earlier This is what I sealed it. Oh, yeah, I

had contacted Tom Chen at Shout Factory and I

said my buddy Kevin and I are super fans of the

cartoon mask we know you guys are doing a complete

series can we get some review copies and we'll

write up a blog review a written review of the

DVD set he said sure at this point I had gotten

a couple other things from Shout Factory I know

Steve Megatron has gotten a couple other things

from Shout Factory So, he sent out a copy of

Mask for me and a copy of Mask for you. We wrote

up the review. That was the most detailed DVD

review I've ever done. And people should go check

them out. We'll put a link to it in the episode

0. Yeah, I will have the link to it in the show

We were like, well, we've got these DVD sets.

Why not? just review the show now it's like a

trifecta of wonderfulness like we had a void

and scheduling window we had three dvds from

shout factory and it's mask i mean it was something

we wanted to cover anyways yeah now it was the

right length too right The Shout Factory set

only has the first 65 episodes of the cartoon.

That's season one. The racing season or season

two, I believe you found on YouTube. So we, this

podcast will cover all 75 episodes of the cartoon.

Yes, we will cover those last 10 in fast fashion

though, since it's a racing. So what are you

saying here, 15 minute episodes? No, not quite,

but we will get there a little bit later here

in this episode. So that's how it all came about.

So now I just want to take a minute or two to

talk about your general mask mayhem memories.

I just want to get as many M's in there as possible.

Your mask memories from your childhood. Without

getting specifics into like characters or details

of the show, just what do you remember about

Mass from your childhood? Did you watch it etc.?

I remember having the toys. I remember having

several of the different toys. I remember having

Miles Mayhem's Venom jet helicopter thingamajig.

I remember having Rhino as a kid. I actually,

I think I was one of the only kids in my neighborhood

that had Boulder Hill. I had the base. Nice.

That was awesome. That was a great friggin' playset.

I never got too many playsets when I was a kid.

I didn't either. I think I only had two playsets

as a kid. I had Grayskull, which I still have

today, even though it's seen better days. And

I had Boulder Hill, which I have not seen to

this day. I don't know what happened to it. But

honestly, the song, the intro song just captures

you. Even as a kid, I didn't like... Certain

aspects of the show that we'll get into later

Certain immature Daniel like kids that yeah anyway

but no it was as I said before I forget where

I said this but It was a perfect mix of Transformers

and GI Joe Yes, it is a mix of a lot of things

like I wasn't I know I've told this story before,

and I know you've heard it before. As a kid,

I had a choice. I could either watch Transformers,

Supergiant, Fighting Robots, or I could watch

G .I. Joe, you know, Fully Articulated Army Men.

And I chose Transformers. I still like G .I.

Joe, Real American Hero. I still respect it for

what it was. It's just, as a kid, I maybe caught

four, five episodes of that show, if that. But

when mass came on in 1985, it was like they took

Transformers and GI Joe and just smooshed them

together I'm sure we'll have many more discussions

about that. Yes. Yeah It was just awesome because

I really loved it. I loved all the cars. I loved

the scene and I'll say this again more later

I loved the scene of them, you know assembling

the team and all that I don't know. What about

you? It just has all the components of an epic

80s cartoon You said that you mentioned the theme

song. This is easily top five 80s theme songs

And for some, a lot of people would be one or

two maybe. On my top ten theme songs of the 80s

list at BehindTheVoiceActors .com, even though

it's one of my personal favorites, I put it at

number four. It's just an epic, epic theme song.

Like I said, it has all the components of classic

80s show. It has the sequence that takes place

in every single episode, which is key in an 80s

show. You had to have some type of stock animation

sequence that happened in every single episode,

whether it be He -Man lifting his sword, whether

it be Silverhawks did something, I can't remember

what it was, but every single show had something

where you did the same, the transformation sequence

with Moanstar or Mumrah, you had to have something

that happened every time, and when they assembled

the team, that was just something that was cool,

it was something you could look forward to, and

even though it was in every episode, it wasn't

the exact same in every episode, and we'll have

to... investigate that more as we go through.

So it had that, it had, like you said, the GI

Joe or the Army, you know, human element. It

had the machine element. It had a cool, one of

the coolest toy lines in the 80s and I got in

semi -debate on Twitter a few, what was that,

a month or two ago, I guess. Obviously, there's

some... He man fans, we know out there on the

Twitter world and count Marzo you can call him

out Marzo and pixel man And they are under this

odd crazy impression or understanding that he

man somehow had the best toys ever Which I understand

their human fans, but let's be honest team in

Toys, I mean they did have some cool like play

sets and some stuff that did some individual

figures that did things But they were basically

just static stationary figures Right and for

me what separates action figures or toys for

me when I was a kid was stuff that did something

Stuff that was more than just a figure because

otherwise there's no difference between other

than size between like a human figure a GI Joe

figure a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figure but

with mask There's a whole nother thing like the

vehicles change the vehicles are part, you know

car and part plane or part truck and part ship

and i know i'm mixing those up but you know they

had that ability to change and that made it cool

for me when i was a kid it was like transformers

so it's something that had two forms it's something

that you could do more than just set up on a

shelf and look at um and i know we'll get into

that a lot more probably later but my point was

it was a cool theme song it had epic 80 elements

that made it a standout cartoon it had kick -ass

toys which I never had any I do now right now

on my shelf sitting across from me have both

Matt Tracker and Miles Mayhem in my 80s villain

and hero collection but I was always jealous

of my friend that had him and I remember we used

to go we both had older sisters and when they

were at like Girl Scout meetings or stuff like

that that we got dragged to he would bring them

and we'd be playing with them on the cement floor

or whatever and it was cool and I always wish

I had some but yeah my memories of masks are

positive and good, but I honestly don't remember

anything about the actual episodes other than

the repeated features. So I am very much looking

forward to diving into individual episodes and

dissecting this and either having all my memories

trampled on or thinking maybe it'll be reaffirmed

that it's as good as I remember it. I don't know.

Yeah. I agree. You agree with all of that? Yes.

I don't know. I'm very interested to see what

happens when we go through this, which kind of

leads us into what people can expect out of the

Mass Mayhem show that we're bringing to you.

Yes. Now, we are going to be doing something

slightly different with this episode or with

this not this episode with this podcast because

For the most part Kevin and I out of the entire

GCRN crew We're the ones that have the most amount

of time to talk with each other I mean hell we

spent between six and 25 hours talking to each

other about the GCR and top 100 animated series

you know we did all that and Control freaks yes,

you more than me me more so than he is The way

we're going to do this is, I think we haven't

really fully decided, but the thing that I brought

up to you was since we have a lot of time each

week where we can dedicate maybe one or two nights

where we'll actually pre -record the podcast

episode. Say this starts in April sometime, the

podcast starts in April, middle of March, end

of March, we may already have the first five

episodes. Already recorded the main point is

that you will be getting consistent on time releases

of these episodes because we will have them done

ahead of time So you're gonna have a set schedule

that you can you'll know when and where you can

get your next episode of mass mayhem. Yes, exactly

and Give them the date that we're airing our

first episode Well episode zero will probably

go up next week, I mean episode one Episode one

will the premier date is Tuesday April 10th 2012

so you can expect this to fully kick off April

of 2012 and Give them the information as far

as how long this is going to last like when are

we wrapping things up? be a 30 episode podcast

and we're giving them to you on a weekly Right.

Yeah, we decided weekly basis. So 30 weeks from

whatever date. He just said Which was if we said

April what April 10th 2012 all right, so Hold

on So we'll be ending in September sometime is

that right does that sound right yeah, okay,

so we're gonna be going April to September of

2012 yes, we had that ball pre -planned out what

we're gonna say right then. So April to September

of 2012 is when you can be expecting mass mayhem

on a weekly basis. There will be no interruptions.

There will be no hiatuses. There will be no delays.

Like some other podcasts on this network. There

will be no delays. And the podcast, as far as

what each individual podcast will be, as far

as what it's covering, you're gonna see... Little

bit of differences between maybe some of the

transformers podcast that you've had will be

varying Most of our episodes will be covering

two episodes of masks About half will be covering

two episodes about half will be covering three

Yeah, and then again it goes back to our control

freak issues. He likes to do three or four episodes

per show I like to do one or two so we've compromised

and you'll be getting kind of a back -and -forth

where some episodes will be covering to it shows,

some will be covering three. There will be one

episode at the end where we cover four, but that's

because we're going fast through those racing

episodes. I did want to bring up a couple episodes

for people to be watching out for or looking

out for just as a little sneak preview kind of

thing. Obviously episode one, which we just gave

the date for, We will use that to kind of do

something different that I don't think we've

ever done on any I don't think you've ever done

this on any of your other shows because usually

we just jump in straight into the episodes. Yep.

We're using episode one to actually give you

a because what happens if we don't do this is

we spend half of the first episode talking about

it anyway. Yeah. So we're going to break down

all of our thoughts on the characters, our thoughts

on the voice actors, our thoughts on just stuff

in general on the episode or on the series. And

then we'll jump into episode one. So episode

one of this podcast will be a combo of general

talk and the actual first episode. Right. Another

episode we'll be looking out for. So episodes

one through 25 will be season one. So the first

25 episodes of the podcast will all be about

season one. We will use episode 26 to both recap

season one and to preview season two. And then

It'll just be 27 through 29. Just three episodes

to cover season two. And then episode 30 will

be the final episode where we both recap season

two and we recap the series overall. Did I miss

anything? No. So that is what you can expect

out of the mayhem that is masked. Yes. Which

is hard to say. Masked. i don't know why i think

when we get into when we get into the finale

episode 30 when we do the overall recap that's

kind of where i'm going to talk about the toys

more in depth and the merchandising more in depth

I'm thinking that episode will have two parts.

It'll have the actual cartoon series recap and

then it will have like a merchandising section

that we can talk about all the different like

everybody had a mass lunchbox or a mask thermos

or you know all that all those 80s properties

had lunchboxes. So you know we'll be talking

about that in the finale. We're not actually

going to dedicate an entire episode to the toys

because as Kevin has said he never really had

them even though he played with his friends toys.

I did have them, but it's been so long since

I've seen them. We don't have enough of them

on hand to give them a valid discussion, but

there will be talk, and I'm sure other people

will chime in with comments and stuff on the

web page as far as their thoughts on mass toys,

and maybe we'll have another Twitter debate,

because that's fun to have. I like those guys.

But yeah, so I don't know. I'm excited. I think

it'll be cool. I'm excited too. It's going to

be pretty awesome. And the fact that we're going

to be seeing all of these, not just on YouTube

or something like that, besides those last couple

of racing episodes, we have 65 episodes in pristine

Shout Factory DVD quality. Yes. So we'll be able

to get all kinds of cool, you know, screen caps

and arts and sound clips and all kinds of fun

goodness to throw at you along the way. Oh, yeah.

And I guess the only question you'll have to

answer is if you're Team Mask or if you're Team

Venom. Was that too much of a twilight It just

came out of theater the other day I haven't seen

it but it got on that note We're gonna head to

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journey! So there you have it, folks. That's

the introduction to Masked Mayhem. Yes! Okay,

you sounded like you were not doing something

so pleasant over there just then. Oh, my bad.

Yeah, you're supposed to do that in your own

privacy. Thank you very much. I had a mask on.

So yeah, April 10th, 2012 is when Masked Mayhem

will premiere. We will have weekly episodes airing

every Tuesday on geek cast radio network you

can find the RSS link in the show note post and

you can find the the review that Kevin and I

did In the show notes as well. Thank you for

joining us here on mass to mayhem There are some

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We hope you enjoyed this episode of Mass to Mayhem

and wish you'll join us in April. when we'll

be kicking off the podcast and talking about

the characters as well as the review of the first

episode that being the death stone yes it's kind

of cracking there for a second stupid voice uh

for now i am tfg on mike with optimus solo saying

tune up your supervision as podcasting is the

ultimate weapon illusion is the ultimate weapon