The Deathstone Review

OOF This is optimus solo and welcome to the mayhem.

This is mass mayhem Episode 1 and with me today

is my Thunderhawk Co -pilot TF G1 Mike welcome

aboard sir Technically, we should be using the

Rhino since Thunderhawk doesn't have a co -pilot

Yeah, but I want it to have a co -pilot. No,

it doesn't it's Matt trackers only That's why

this is this is our unique journey where we have

two people in the Thunderhawk No, I prefer the

two people. You can drive your Rhino dammit,

I'm driving my Thunderhawk. But Rhino is essentially

a purple Optimus Prime. That's why I don't want

to drive it. It's too much like Nemesis. In this

episode of Mass Mayhem, we will start by doing

a little general talk since this is the first

episode on the just general series notes, main

characters, vehicles, music, etc. And then we

will move into a discussion on episode one, the

Deathstone. So buckle up. and enjoy the ride.

Weapon specialist, tactical strategist, vehicle

code name Firecracker Dusty, Hayes, auto and

marine stunt driver, vehicle code name Gator

Buddy Hawks, master of disguise, intelligence

expert, Firecracker Alright Now some of you might

be used to us talking a little bit to each other

or giving some background on what we've been

doing lately and this or that, but Mass Mayhem,

we're not doing that. If you want to know more

about us, tune in to any of our other shows on

the Geekcast Radio Network. But here on the Mass

Mayhem, we are getting right after it and jumping

into it. And I think first we should talk a little

bit about the main characters that are obviously

introduced in episode one that we will follow

throughout many episodes. Now obviously there

will be additional characters that come along

the way and we will talk about those when it

is appropriate. But the main characters introduced

here in season one, first of all for the good

guys, the mobile armored strike man. We have

the leader, Matt Tracker. We have Bruce Sato

Who is obviously the Asian of the group? We have

Alex Sector Handel McLean Buddy Hawks Dusty Hayes

and Brad Turner. So we have seven good characters

so to speak and We don't really get too much

into these stereotypical characters, which we

will get to as we introduce more characters but

out of those seven did you have a favorite growing

up or One that you were more drawn to, Mike?

Growing up, I liked Matt Tracker. Now that I'm

an adult, and I'll get into this later, I don't

like him so much anymore. One thing to note about

these main characters that we have just mentioned

is that one, two, three, four of them... are

all voiced by Doug Stone. This is one of those

shows, and if you are familiar with our podcast,

you've probably heard of us talk about this during

Tooncast Classic when we talked about some episodes

like Silverhawks or Thundercats or this or that.

This is one of those shows where there is like

seven voice actors doing all of the voices. uh...

so it's a very small voice cast there's a lot

of people doing a lot of different characters

and and yet for the good guys team at least in

this beginning with just those main seven characters

you are not getting a lot of different voices

as far as people go as far as people go yes but

uh... but there are distinct voices i almost

called him a tracker doug stone did an amazing

job change of going from mat tracker to bruce

sato to alex sector leader of sector Oh, not

Alex. Hondo and Dusty, yeah. I think out of those

seven, now obviously you're meant to be drawn

to the leader. You're meant to be drawn to Matt

Tracker who, when I was a kid, I always thought

he looked like Duke's brother. He does, yeah.

From G .I. Joe. So obviously there's a little

bit of you as a kid that wants to be drawn to

Matt Tracker. Personally, kind of like some of

the side characters, I liked Dusty and I liked

Buddy the most probably. Bruce was kind of weird

to me. Alex Sector, he was cool and all, but

he almost didn't look like a good guy to me.

He's a bald -headed he's got the big red like

beard and goatee and yeah, and and Hondo just

seemed a little I like his look But he seemed

a little slow to me when I was a kid Just I don't

know if it was the way he spoke or this or that

And it kind of gets me into what I wanted to

bring up next I the reason I couldn't really

like Hondo as a kid was because I didn't like

his mask And I think that's really where it comes

into play who's it asked you like best out of

those seven good guys Matt's easily. Yeah, I

like Matt's and I like Dusty's For some reasons,

okay Buddies looks like some type of animal.

Yeah, it's a little too weird. I don't just get

the set of glasses basically Yeah, you can still

see Alex's beard. Yeah Bruce looks like he's

getting ready to go fight fire. And Brad's is

kind of cool, I guess. Maybe Bruce and Matisse

share powers. Fight the fire of the art! But

I do agree with you 100 % that I like Matt's

mask on the best. Sticking with the good guys,

just some more general talk. Whose vehicle did

you like the best? Now, this is a... Before you

answer, to me, there's... lot that's not like

a clear -cut winner here that's not like an obvious

answer because the Thunderhawk was very cool

yeah Rhino was very cool Condor was even cool

yeah what vehicle did you like as a kid as a

kid because I had it and I absolutely loved it

I had Rhino and I loved Rhino like you see Rhino

coming you better run That's sad because I never

had any of these toys as a kid. Oh god see that's

different than any of our other shows because

we're coming from almost two different perspectives

because I had a majority of the mask toys and

you didn't and that's weird for me because I

always had the toys for all the cartoons. Yes

and for me just really quickly on a side note

as far as the toys go I've said this before on

other podcasts I believe I was the only one of

my friends to have Boulder Hill. Yeah, that was

never even saw it. Best play sets ever. I will

say I'd like Condor in the show. Yeah, not so

much as a toy. Yeah, because in the show it just

looks cooler and in the toy it's kind of small

compared to like the Thunder, Thunderhawk and

and Rhino. I personally like Thunderhawk the

best just because as a kid, how can you beat

a car with wings like that? It was just. It was

very cool. So I would have probably gone with

that. But I can see why people would like Rhino

or some of those other ones. Let's transition

a little bit into the only three bad characters

that show up to begin the series. And that is

the leader, Miles Mayhem, Sly Rax, and Cliff

Dagger. Those are the three bad guys were introduced

to in this first episode Sorry Cliff Dagger his

his mask Is terrible. Well, not only is it terrible

but when I was watching the first episode which

we'll get to later The first thing I thought

of was oh my god. It's made in the iron mask

before leota Leonardo DiCaprio made that movie.

I was like, holy shit It's the worst mask featured

in the entire show. Yeah. From beginning to end.

Now I say that with not 100 % memory of every

episode so maybe someone will come along later

on that we'll review and I'll say what the freaking

hell is that. But right now this looks so much

like a, it looks like a grunt, like a clone type,

like just a bad guy with no name. like just some

like soldier foot soldier type guy oh yeah it

has not any of the personality that any of the

other ones have and none of the other ones basically

have like a face painted on them yeah like the

other ones have places for your eyes or or places

for your mouth or whatever but this it looks

like somebody took a thing and just painted a

a face like a jack -o -lantern on it yep um so

his mask is terrible he has as a person is kind

of a cool looking bad guy Yeah, he's all right.

I mean he's your prototypical, you know kind

of Just he looks like a villain sly rax. I will

say I loved his voice He reminded me of a character

for I did second. Yeah, Joe reference He almost

reminded me of I want to say shipwreck Like an

evil version of shipwreck And just like the good

guys, I am a little bit drawn to, as far as masks

go for the bad guys, to the leader, Miles Mayhem.

Miles Mayhem, oh yeah. He has a awesome getup.

Yes, he does. He may be one of the coolest looking

bad guys in all of 80s cartoon. When he has the

mask on. Well, yeah, when he has the mask on.

When he has the mask off, he looks like your

prototypical boss. Yeah, you know, he's got the

mustache. He looks like a general the army general

type guy So I don't know I think it's a good

start with the three bad guys. It's a little

odd That we're only introduced to three bad guys

compared to seven good guys at the beginning

But that is kind of standard throughout 80s cartoons.

Oh, yeah that you have more good than bad Well

with the exception of transformers, I mean there

was thousands of Decepticons. Well, but at the

beginning There was, at the beginning of G1,

there was way more Autobots than Decepticons.

Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, we kind of had that. As

far as the bad guys vehicles, do you have any

that you like? Switchblade. Yeah. Hands down.

Switchblade. Because the other two, or the other

one, Cliff Daggers, are like, so wait, it just

becomes a gun turret? Really? That's it? And

it looked like a horrible 80s Chevy Blazer that

my aunt and uncle had. I did like the toy of

that. Like the jackhammer toy But it wasn't as

cool as the other ones and piranha It's like

a Motorcycle with a sidecar. Yeah, I always get

cracked up the way they use the sidecar sometimes

and basically, you know, it obviously turns into

like a water submarine type Delio, but yeah,

it's it's by far switchblade on this. It's oh,

yeah, and then Do you know what it reminds me

of? Should I say this? Is it evil to make three

G .I. Joe references? It reminds me of a lot

of the G .I. Joe Cobra Plains. A little bit,

but cooler. Cooler because you could do the helicopter

part. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so much cooler. And I guess

we would be remiss if we did not speak, if we're

talking about the characters and everything else

we forgot to. And that would be Scott Tracker

and T -Bob. Now, I know you have certain opinions

about this. I will say later, but I'm gonna I'm

gonna preface it right now and I'm gonna essentially

give my hand away I Would take kicker from the

Transformers cartoons over Scott tracker any

day. I couldn't disagree with you more See Scott

tracker to me. He's very comparable to any human

sidekick you had in the 80s as far as like The

humans and transformers and g1 I'm talking. Yeah

He's similar to, like, a Daniel or a Spike or

whatever. I would take Daniel over Scott any

day. Well, I would, too. I would, too. But my

point, my opinions of the combination of Scott

Tracker and T -Vap, because usually you have,

like, one comedic sidekick or young character

that the kids are supposed to relate to. I mean,

that's just standard 80s, like, that's definition.

You have an 80s cartoon, you must include a kid

because we think that's what kids will relate

to. That way they can see themselves in the cartoon,

you know, being a part of it. And usually you

have one. You know, you have Snarf, or you have

Orko, or you have Daniel Witwicky. You know,

you have that. Well, G .I. Joe didn't do that,

but all the other cartoons seemingly did that.

This was an instance where you had a team. Scott

and T Bob T Bob being the robot that kind of

turns into like a motor scooter type thing for

Scott to ride on I Will say though and then maybe

I will change my mind as we go through these

75 episodes. I Am not nearly I don't find T Bob

and Scott nearly as annoying as some of those

other sidekicks Not yet, I kind of like his voice

uh... he's not as annoying to me as orco or snarf

uh... i would take bob mcfadden snarf over t

-ball i would take his voice maybe but i don't

know i i i'm not upset about the bob and scott

checker yet Give it time, dude. Give it time.

As far as the overall characters, I did make

one note, and this will come in later with the

rest of the episode notes, but I didn't want

to read this here. My note was, Matt Tracker

seems to be a caring and clueless father, especially

when he doesn't know his son is sneaking off

to follow him. And I'm sure this is going to

come up later, and I'm sure at some point my

own issues with my own father are going to come

up at some point in this episode. uh... because

the episode that we're going to be reviewing

uh... just uh... it hit me really really weird

when i re -watched it mat tracker and i know

this is a tiny bit off the subject but what it

is about mat tracker to me now i know the voice

work is hit and miss in this show some of it's

good some of it's bad and i'm not saying this

is going to Be consistently how Matt is portrayed

but in this at least for the first episode It

almost seemed like there was a disconnect between

Matt's look and Matt's voice Like to me it almost

like didn't go together Yeah, it was like he's

this leader cool calm collective guy, but his

voice almost seemed like it was coming from somebody

else Exactly was the only one I felt that with

everybody else I fit the voice with a character

But his it just seemed weird to me, but we'll

kind of explore that as we go throughout the

and throughout the series The only other thing

I had written down for our general talk was a

little bit about the music I Say I love the music

well have stated this in numerous podcasts and

I don't know which ones but I'm sure people that

know me know this but the mask theme song is

one of the top three to five theme songs in the

entire decade of the 80s agreed it I know a lot

of people have other shows that they like better

and they mistakenly think that the theme songs

are good because it reminds them of that show

this blows away Almost every other boys action

theme song out there. It's better than GI Joe.

It's better than Thundercats. It's better than

Silverhawks. It's better than Transformers And

I'm the biggest Transformers fan in the world,

but it never thought you say anything was better

than the Silverhawks theme song This theme song

blows every one of those out of the way the only

one that can even come close to competing it

and it kind of depends what kind of theme song

you like is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Teenage

Mutant Ninja Turtles and Mask are the two best

theme songs from an 80s boys action show Would

agree but I also and I know I'm probably Kevin's

probably gonna look at his computer and be like

what the fuck are you talking about? This is

an explicit podcast by the way during the time

Oh people that have listened and does before

they fucking I know I just wanted to say it since

it was episode 1 For me Comparing the theme song.

I do agree with you. This is Well, I love all

those other theme songs. This is by far my favorite

and the only other one I would really equate

this music with is the gem theme song and that

might girls Yeah, right. Well that another thing

is that might be because when I caught these

episodes of masking, you know in reruns on since

indication as a kid I saw them either right before

or right after Jam. So that's why I have the

connection between the two shows. If I was ever

creating a cartoon, if I had the ability to create

a cartoon and it came time for the theme song,

I would search out whoever made this mass theme

song. Everything was good about it. You have

words that are explaining stuff. You actually

have a song with lyrics. The sound gets you more

pumped up for a show than just about any other

theme song I've ever heard. You know, I mean

the only ones in the 80s that can compete with

us like I said our turtles maybe gummy bears

ducktails and I have a small special place for

mysterious cities of gold which most people don't

even know what that is, but But the themes throughout

this Show are good, too The variations on the

intro that they use when they're selecting the

team. The villain theme is awesome when they

go to the bass, when they go to the Miles Mayhem

bass, that's awesome. There's great themes that

come out throughout. I'm sure at various times

throughout our journey we will come back and

talk about the music, but we just had to get

that out of the way right now that this show

musically kicks some butt. The only criticism

I give the theme song, and this is not the intro,

this is for the outro theme, is i wish that there

was a completely holy instrumental version uh...

i love that they had words at the end of it because

most of the other ones as far as i can like specifically

the one i can remember off to my head is season

one of g transformers g one it was just in the

instrumental theme without the words true uh...

i would have loved from the mask team to have

that at least once didn't have to be in every

episode at least once because I don't know, I

just would have loved to have that. I can understand

that for the outro part and stuff like that.

Right. But as far as the intro, there was no

other way, no other better way to introduce an

episode. Oh, no, no, no, no. I'm not even, no,

no, no. I'm talking about specifically the outro,

the closing music is what I'm talking about.

Right. No, no, I'm agreeing with you. Yeah. I'm

just saying that the intro music is by far one

of the best ways to introduce someone to the

upcoming episode. All right, Professor Stevens,

consider me handling the situation. in the meantime

just stay here and rest please hurry mr tracker

the radioactive power in that meteor is the key

to my new life -saving technique the wrong people

could use it for destruction not if i can help

it and now we move into episode one the death

stone um This is the first episode We're just

gonna jump right in give you a little bit of

a plot synopsis And then we'll give a few comments

on the plot in general To start things off now

the episode you start off at a dig site basically

where a meteor or Something to that effect has

landed. We're introduced first to a character

which we'll later find out is a character named

Professor Stevens. And she is videotaping the

scene there, where the meteor is coming down.

And then we are introduced to what seems to be

some bad guys, because there's some type of craft

that is stealing the meteor, which we will later

find out is the Death Stone. There is a chase

that ensues, which sees Professor Stevens fly

off a cliff into water below. and the bad guys,

which we'll later find out is Venom, have stolen

the Deathstone. We then jump to Boulder Hill

and Matt Tracker, who has gathered Professor

Stevens. Wait a second, sorry to interrupt you.

It was at his house first. He wasn't at Mass

Headquarters. Well, at his house, which is connected

to Mass Headquarters. and he has he they basically

kind of skip over by saying hey a member of my

team found you or rescued you blah blah blah

and so professor stevens is at his house and

she has heard of him so there's some type of

connection there that we're not 100 sure why

they are know of each other um but she quickly

kind of explains to him the threat that is out

there and that this meteor had some special powers

and in the right hands it could uh help Create

life save life bring life and in the wrong hands.

It could take away life or essentially It's the

Holy Grail before he went to the temple. Yes

so the Main just of that is you need to get this

back before it's used for evil. Yes classic good

versus evil storyline. So Matt tracker then introduces

us to the mask assembly montage and the team

is selected and on goes the task to get the stone

back. Now what we don't know or what the mask

team doesn't know is when they're assembled and

they go out to find the stone and get it back

from Venom that Scott and T -Bob do stow away

in the back of the the Thundercracker. Thunderhawk.

Did I say Thundercracker? Yes. Well it's Transformers

and me. And then we have the whole chase and

Venom has broken the stone into three pieces.

So it's like a three different prong chasing.

We do have at one point Scott being thrown from

the Jeep thing and then Hondo covering him and

getting hurt. So Hondo is hurt. That's kind of

a, there's two main storylines here that kind

of. Break off here. One is getting the stones

back and one is Hondo being hurt and is he gonna

be alright and because he had to save Scott etc

right now the rest of the episode is basically

a Each part of the death stone being tracked

down by the difference mask vehicles and people

They gather back at the base towards the end.

Two of the Deathstone pieces have been recovered,

but Matt Tracker has failed in getting the third

until Scott comes in because Scott and T -Bob

comedically have got the last piece of the Deathstone.

They combine the Deathstone, use it to save Hondo's

life, and everybody lives happily ever after.

That is the main plot for the first episode now

not necessarily getting into your your favorite

parts or your least favorite parts because we'll

get into that in a minute um but just as a general

plot did you have any thoughts or notes about

this one oh boy really they're gonna do a meteor

story right off the bat and i am the evil businessman

i will cut this up and sell it for billions of

dollars this is just classic 80s storytelling

with you know cliche upon cliche upon cliche

which you can kind of expect yeah I mean you

know to me this this is one of the problems but

I can kind of under this is a pilot episode Yeah,

so there's a lot of things that are gonna have

to be introduced and gone over in and you know

Brought to the attention of the viewer, right?

So maybe you give it a A pass because in a 22

-minute episode that's a lot to do But but they

did it well, though No, no, but but I'm saying

what they should have done which is what most

shows did is The pilot is not a singular 22 -minute

episode. Right, it's a multi -part. Yeah. The

pilot is two, three, or five episodes. Because

what that does is it allows you to not just introduce

everything, which I mean the characters, the

main themes that are going to be done over and

over again, the sequences that you're going to

get used to, because a lot of 80s shows, you

know, there's routines. There is like the mass

team being assembled, which you're introducing.

You can expect that every time. That's like Thundercats,

you know, holding up the sword and doing Thundercats,

Thundercats Ho. Or, you know, Mumra or Monstars

transformation. There's stuff that happens over

and over again. Yeah. And then you have to have

that because kids like that. Right. So you have

to introduce characters. You have to do all that

stuff. To do all that in 22 minutes is impossible

to then also have a story that has a good plot.

Yeah, unless you do two three or five episode

pilots or mini -series which a lot of them did

mini -series first And so my problem with the

plot in this first episode is there is no plot.

Yeah now it's not because it couldn't have been

you could have had a Complex plot given the fact

that you have this stone, you know It can do

different things and it's out there and the bad

guys have it and you have to try to track it

down But to do that in 22 minutes, it became

literally the entire episode was a chase. The

entire episode was the good guys trying to track

down the bad guys in vehicles to get these pieces

back. There was there's nothing else to this

plot. I mean, they kind of tried to throw a side

story in with one of them getting hurt and because

then you need the stone and then it will kind

of complete the story because the stone will

be destroyed at the end by using its powers to

save him. so you don't have to deal with it again

but that's the only attempt at a side story otherwise

it's basically vehicles chasing other vehicles

trying to get a rock yep pretty much so there

really is no plot no and i will give it a pass

somewhat only because it's a pilot episode but

i think it's their fault for trying to do a pilot

episode as one singular episode switching to

laser guided jet mode Now before people think

we're gonna be negative Nancy's throughout this

whole thing, yeah We're gonna talk about some

highlights. We're gonna change it to a positive.

We're gonna talk about some highlights from the

death stone Would you like to go first oh, yes,

cuz they're few and far between But they are

few and far between is all I'm saying what are

your positives I love the assembling of the team

that is just so awesome First of all, the music

that comes up, the computer voice that gives

the information of what team member is what,

cutting to each of the scenes of the team members,

like one of them's at a pizzeria, the other one's

at a rock concert. And during this whole thing,

each of them has a Dick Tracy watch the mask

appears on. So awesome. The assembling of the

team is by far one of my It is a scene in every

episode that I can watch over and over and over

again because it's so awesome. And this is one

of those things, like I said, that this is what

made kids want to tune in every time. You get

things that you're familiar with. You have the

theme song, which is cool. It pumps you up. You

have this scene, which you count on. And not

only that, it was a clever way to do it because,

unlike some of those other things, like I mentioned,

like when Moan Star or Mumra Transform or in

some other shows, whatever else they do, those

are the same every time, basically. yeah what

this is clever about it's the same but it's different

it's very different it's the same but it's not

the same team every time right so you get different

well it's not hard it's not the same team but

also like you know I don't ever remember and

again that's why we're going through this podcast

and I'll have to wait and I'll probably correct

myself on this I don't ever remember like Rhino

not being there. Well, I know we're gonna see

this as we go But from what I remember it was

not the exact same team every single time No,

it wasn't there was like one or two like people

were left out new people came in Dusty and buddy

switched out a lot of times with other people

Yes, you will have to explore this and maybe

we'll keep a running track of who gets called

on the most and yeah You know we can keep track

of that But I I think that's a cool way to do

it because it is the same sequence But you're

looking to see who is it gonna be this week?

Right is it gonna be that character that you

have the toy of oh, you know stuff like that

And I got to mention that the cutscenes were

cool because it gave you The only background

information you get for now on the characters.

Yeah, and There was also some clever things like

they have the pizza falling on the floor They

have the snake being put around the other person's

head. Yeah my favorite though And I even as a

kid this struck me as odd the teacher Sitting

in front of the class, if Dick Tracy watch goes

off, which is what alerts all of them that it's

time to go, he leaves. He just leaves. The entire

class has nobody watching them now and he's out

of there. That's a job you won't be keeping.

It always struck me as weird because even as

a kid you're like, that never happens, the teacher

never leaves us. I love that sequence where he

just is like, bye class, and he doesn't even

say anything, he just walks out. Yeah, I love

the the vehicle conversions like Oh God, whose

is it? It's um Gator has a conversion I believe

Gator Condor Gator and Condor have the conversions

Thunderhawk Thunderhawk and Rhino have conversions

as well, but I mean Thunderhawk essentially it's

a DeLorean. Yeah, I know it's I know that's not

what the car is in the in the cartoon it's supposed

to be a uh... poniacs i don't know what the hell

it is supposed to be something i forget but as

soon as i saw that i was like okay it's a delorean

in a cartoon but i love the vehicle conversions

because they were so awesome and yes i'm calling

them conversions and not transformations because

they convert camaro okay i think yeah you're

right you're right i love the vehicle abilities

like the hologram projection The What does Matt's

do some tortoise Thunderhawk do sometimes I think

as we see this they're all gonna do different

stuff as we go through because I don't think

that was consistent No, well like Rhino's consistency

was the lasers out of the smokestacks, but we

did have we had lifting beams. We had freeze

rays We had holograms right box speed. Yeah,

that's one of the things that Those things though

the thing that I agree with you 100 % the The

cars and their abilities. Yeah, or the mass and

their abilities. Yeah Are really because as a

kid you like all the gadgets. Oh, yeah I mean

even now we like all the gadgets I mean right

but I'm just saying like the the fact that they

had these cool watches that gave them an alert

The fact that they wear these masks that could

give them powers Yeah, the fact that they're

in cars that are as close to transformers that

without being transformers. Yeah Being as bad

as go -bots Well, it wasn't anything like transformers

or go by so you didn't watch this as a kid. You

didn't watch masculine think Hey, this is like

transformers. You never did Because the vehicles

aren't you know talking or doing anything like

that. It's more like wow What is that Jeep gonna

turn into? You know, like what else can it do?

What's that second mode and that's what made

the toys cool, too But uh, I think that's what

this show did really good on. Yeah also what

the show did really good on was you know, we

talked about the music earlier, the sound effects

are amazing. Yeah, sound effects are good. The

laser effects, they had one of the best, along

with a lot of the other 80s cartoons, best sound

effect libraries ever. And I also will give them

a lot of credit, and this really stood out to

me watching this episode back, that they went

to the length to make the characters' voices

sound different. when they have the mask on than

when they have them off. Yeah. I thought that

was really cool. And that's not something that

they would have had to do. They probably could

have cut short, you know, taken a shortcut and

been like, it's just going to sound the same

always. But I respect the fact that when they're

in the mask, it has a little bit of an echo slash,

you know, coming from inside a mask sound. Yeah.

I thought that was really cool. I just have two

more here. I like the the ice animation bit.

When they freeze, right? Yeah, the freeze ray.

I love that. That was so cool. Yeah, and I think

it just goes back to like all those different

things and especially in this first episode where

you don't really know what to expect and it's

almost hitting you left and right like This one's

doing a freezer and this one's doing some type

of lift beam You know this one's doing that and

it was like what is each one? capable of you're

trying to sort it out in your head as you're

watching this for the first time like Who has

what abilities? Yeah. Oh, yeah Yeah Well, you

never know for the most Sorry, go ahead. It's

not something you expect going into it. Oh, no,

not at all. It looks from a visual aspect. It

almost looks like GI Joe as far as the people

go. Yeah, they have that same kind of look and

it's in its organization, the evil organization

against a good organization. And it all kind

of looks like that. And then when they start

doing this other stuff where the vehicles all

have these abilities, you know, it's like, wait,

this is something completely different. Yeah

as a kid and I think that it really helps separate

this from some of those other shows This is kind

of my final note for this episode is kind of

leading into the negativity The best thing about

Scott Tracker is when he kept his mouth shut

during the PSA What about you what did you have

for highlights that you liked out of this one

well a lot of it you've already touched on I

love the the mask routine of the team selection

Yeah, I love I just think they did a real good

job with gadgets and and Vehicles like a car

that can fly who doesn't love that You know the

cars that could transition and go in the water

All that different stuff is stuff that they did

and they did well and they didn't bombard you

with I mean it seems like they're bombarding

you in this first episode because there's a lot

to take in Yeah, but overall it's not like they're

throwing dozens and dozens and dozens of vehicles

and cars and characters Even though the 80s cartoons

often get accused of being a 30 minute toy commercial

Yeah, this one almost even though it was and

it was selling certain toys This wasn't a situation

where they wanted to sell so many toys that they

keep introducing you to new new new new new vehicles

New new new new characters. There's consistency

here where you just have your your core Yeah,

and it was kind of cool because you you get used

to them on a weekly basis instead of seeing a

new thing I mean that they do introduce some

new stuff, but it's not like new stuff every

week And so I just appreciate all the gadgets.

That's a highlight for me though all the different

abilities The only other thing I had that we

didn't mention was How fun would it have been

to live in Matt trackers mansion as a kid? Seriously,

I mean they show him playing ping -pong or whatever

with t -bob and then scooting around on a scooter

with him from place to place and there's You

know secret tunnels and you can spy on his dad

and there's windows that have barriers that come

up I mean, it's a kid's dream house. Yeah, it

is so I gotta love not only the vehicles and

all the gadgets but the but the actual houses,

buildings, locations and stuff like that. At

least the ones that we see in this episode. So

those are my highlights. Unfortunately, we could

only stay positive for so long with this first

episode. Now it's time to put the low beams on.

I gotta start with a couple things and we'll

kind of go back and forth. Go ahead. My one biggest

problem with this episode, it's a pilot episode

and it gives no backstory, no origin story, and

no background whatsoever. The only background

you get is the brief seconds that you could somehow

get from the team selection sequence. Yeah, you

can kind of figure out what each mask member

did as a side job or for his regular, you know

kind of Cover life job this cover job to not

show what he did So you can get a tiny bit of

that but otherwise it's like you instantly are

Bombarded with these two teams of people mask

and venom that are battling each other that have

cars that have masks We don't know why they have

masks. We don't know exactly what the mask the

power of the Mascar. We don't know why they're

fighting each other. And you, I mean, you kind

of can tell who the leaders are of each group,

but there's really no origin story. And I am

huge on origin stories and backstories. Now they

say that I've heard people mention that the comics,

which I think there might've been like nine comics,

that that goes into a little bit of the backstory.

But if I'm remembering right, those were not

available before the series started. So when

you're a kid watching this, there was no way

for you to know what the hell is going on here.

Now what I remember without actually looking

anything up on my computer, what I remember from

reading about the comics is that Miles Mayhem

and Matt Tracker were once friends. They created

the masks. They created the technology. And I

think that's stuff that's revealed in the series.

Right. Something happened, I think... I don't

know if miles killed him or if it happened an

accident something something happened where matt's

brother died and that's where the veer went off

and you know miles became venom and and that's

something we'll be able to explore when they

reveal that but if you're a kid watching this

first episode that stuff you don't know right

and to me it's kind of a mistake on their part

it's another reason why they should have had

a multi -part pilot because they would have been

able to introduce you because you spend half

of your time in this episode first of all distracted

by all the stuff that's going on yeah because

you're looking at this car doing that and this

mass doing that and this chase over here and

that gun hologram thing over there and the other

half you're in the back of your head trying to

figure out what is going on and you're trying

to sort it out and to me that's a low light of

this episode Yeah. So, yeah. What do you have

as one? Because I got some other ones too. Yeah.

Why don't you take your... I mean, I'll go ahead.

Well, I'll take my minor ones and then you can

take one of the ones you have and then I'll go

into my major ones. T -Bob sucks. End of story.

T -Bob is just... You disagree. Not in this episode.

The dumbest thing I have ever... I mean, like...

T Bob is worse than wheelie. No, he's not really

is not bad either. So I Kind of and again, I

haven't seen these episodes in years, you know

shout factory amazing as they are finally got

mask on on DVD here in the US Was it last year?

Yeah last year And I had seen this in a while,

and when the motorcycle turned into a helicopter,

I was like, wow, really? Because it just shocked

me that it would turn into a helicopter. That

was cool, though. It is cool, but it was like

one of those things where, oh, wow, how is that

even technologically possible? Well, that's what's

cool about all of them is that they're basically

not possible. And it was kind of cool seeing

what each thing was going to transition into.

That was the one that kind of caught you off

guard, but I thought it was kind of cool Yeah,

it is kind of cool, but it's still it made me

just go like what the fuck So what about you?

What are some of your other lowlights such as

my biggest one besides the no origin story and

the no no backstory type thing is the issue of

character immortality now Let me preface that

by saying I know it's the 80s And I know we're

not gonna see characters die because that happened

once and it caused some uproar Some uproar, I

love how you downplay that Well, you know Just

look at my name and you should be able to figure

out what character I'm talking about But uh,

so I realized that overall generally in the 80s

characters are not gonna die That I don't have

a problem with My problem is then when you put

them in situations that no human being could

ever survive. Exactly. Like, if you're not gonna

have anybody die, that's fine, but don't have

them in death situations. And this episode does

a terrible job of highlighting that, because

first of all, we have Professor Stevens, who

goes off of her Jeep, off of a cliff, which is,

by the animation, at least, a... Two story. Yeah,

at least a two story drop. Yeah, if not three

story drop Yeah, all right. I don't care if you

hit water Dead Dead and The tape that you're

carrying is no longer intact Yeah, no, the videotape

is damaged. You're dead All right Then we have

Scott tracker Who first of all gets thrown thrown?

He's a he's a wow does he are we gonna say ten?

Yeah, ten or eleven maybe you know somewhere

in the nine to eleven age range He's not middle

school, but he's not a young young kid He gets

thrown from a moving vehicle out the back onto

a Not water not a padded room. He's thrown onto

dirt pavement rocks Yes. Alright, he's dead.

Oh wait, let's say he survives that. At least

he has a concussion. Let's say he survives that

without a couple broken arms and legs. He later

gets in a helicopter, slash plane, he gets into

Miles' vehicle, and starts to bounce around the

pavement on it. Because he can't fly. Yeah. So

it's literally like bouncing around almost like

a... This is the most cartoony sequence of the

entire episode. And he survives that. So that's

bad. Those are bad things. Because I can understand

that they're not going to die, but don't have

them do these things that are just something

that you can't relate to. Because he's a kid

you're supposed to be able to relate to. You

can't relate to somebody flying out of a car

and not having to scratch on them. What makes

it worse, and this is the ultimate low light

of this entire episode, is when Hondo, though,

covers him up. Gets hit by nothing and is gravely.

I know I was I watched that like oh It seemed

like five fucking times before we recorded this

episode and I was like, wait a second. Nothing

hit him How is he near death even if they didn't

show it? I mean, I know they show the you know,

what do I call it blows up the bullet and there's

rocks and debris falling and maybe we're supposed

to think that a Big rock hit him or something.

That's fine. But you can't have one character

go flying off a cliff Three stories high survive

another character gets thrown from a Jeep and

another in the same character being bounced around

in a helicopter They all survived this guy lays

over somebody might possibly get hit by a rock

and he is on the verge of death Yeah, that to

me was the worst part of this episode. Oh I so

agree Oh, by the way when Scott jumped out of

the helicopter after it was bouncing around He

cleanly landed on his feet and started walking

and running around. He jumps out of the helicopter

that is moving and lands on his feet. So that

is probably my biggest lowlight. So the tape

should have been damaged, those people should

have been hurt. Hondo on the other hand should

not have been hurt. And that is the main, the

second main storyline of this thing is him being

hurt and needing to be saved. When he did nothing,

he laid on a kid and got hit by nothing. My minor

ones real quickly. There's a scene where they

the mask team is trying to locate the the death

stone And they use a radiation tracking satellite

Because the death stone will have radiation in

it Yeah, all right the radiation tracking satellite

scans what I only can assume to be almost like

a small towns space of Geography right it scans

a big area it finds one source of radiation like

nobody was using a microwave yeah that's now

it could be explained away to maybe they were

looking for a very large possibly scale radiation

because you know microwave radiation or radiation

that emits from Appliances and stuff like that

is small is is kind of small There's nothing

in that whole area that had radiation besides

what they were looking for Now two things that

I will give them a pass on there seem to be some

very melodramatic dialogue going on there and

and and the pace of this first episode is slower

than I remember the series being Now slower,

I don't mean slower because there's a lot of

action going on and there's a lot of chases but

like The whole beginning sequence where Matt

is discussing stuff with Professor Stevens and

then they select the mask team. That's a slower

version of that than. Yeah, there's a lot of

dead space before and after that. Yeah, there

is like where he's going down the thing and getting

into the car and then taking it to mask headquarters

and center that that seemed like it played out

very much slower than I remember that. And we'll

have to see if that gets faster as we watch episodes.

I don't tell you it does. OK, I don't remember

being that slow. the reason why i can tell you

it does is because i don't remember them always

using the um the the under shuttle the tunnel

car the shuttle car i don't remember them always

using that sequence but i see why it is needed

in this episode yeah it shows the connection

there and whatnot but it just seemed like it

was very slow like they needed to like uh fill

some time so they made those scenes very slow

um my only my last one and this is another one

that kind of made me go now i like all the gadgets

and i like the uh freeze ray that's used and

you know a lot of the different i couldn't keep

track of them all because there's so much happening

in the first episode but i liked a lot of the

stuff the cars were doing yeah i had a major

problem with the fact that a missile which i

assume was a heat seeking missile somehow follows

a hologram like he puts a hologram out there

of the car of the vehicle and the missile then

decides to latch on and follow a hologram now

maybe I'm retarded I thought holograms were visual

well there are holograms that are almost real

they're called hard light constructs this is

just a visual one isn't it this is just something

on optical illusion like mirage from transformers

it could be i don't understand why a missile

is following something that's not real i i don't

know and if that that that was the only gadget

that bugged me was the fact that the missile

followed the hologram yeah so what were your

other little lights okay here we go hondo's hurt

and it's all my fault Well, no shit, you dumbass

kid, you shouldn't be trying to interfere with

adult situations. And you're riding in the back

of a Jeep with no seatbelt. Okay, that's - that's

one. So, you get in the Switchblade to contact

Mask, then you stupidly touch the controls. Even

I knew as a kid not to touch the goddamn steering

wheel or the gear shift in my mom's fucking car.

What the fuck is wrong with this kid? That was

- The only thing that could make me remember

or think of was Anakin Skywalker being in the

fighter in episode one and somehow going off

into space and being able to fly it. He was a

better flyer though than Scott. Oh yes, most

definitely so. My final one, which this makes

absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. Let's expose

Hondo to radiation that'll make him live. It's

good radiation. it's good radiation there's a

such thing trust me it's out there somewhere

go put your hand in a microwave it'll cure your

finger shut up I just can't oh god this Now before

people I'm glad you put in the highlights first

because I guarantee you as we go through and

analyze this I'm going to have way more lowlights.

I'm not going to say we do. I want I don't people

think we hate on the series. We love the series.

At least I do. I love it. I loved it. I loved

it as a kid. And I'm not going to be it's not

going to be a hate fest this entire time. We're

going to point out things that we see that we

don't like, or we're going to try to be some

nitpicky stuff or whatnot. But if an episode

is good, we're going to say it's good. And if

it's bad, we're going to say it's bad. But don't

think we're hating on the show specifically because

that's not necessarily the case. We did it, partner.

Why don't you all bring in the last piece of

that old meteor and we'll fix up Hondo good as

new? I don't have it, Dusty. I failed. Hey, anyone

want a meteor? Ta -da! It was stashed in the

truck me and T -Bob took. Alright, now we're

going to go over some overall thoughts on episode

one, the Death Stone, and we will also give our

radians, and we'll explain that whole system

at the end of this part. Before we get into the

overall thoughts, one thing we didn't talk about

was the good old PSAs. I mean, we kind of mentioned

it in passing, but I do want to point something

out because I was listening to some other stuff

out there on the internet. There was some confusion

on why the PSA was included in these episodes.

And the question was, was it included? as filler

because they needed to fill more time was it

included because it was supposed to be some comedic

relief or whatnot and i think apparently uh those

people that were questioning that forgot what

the 80s was like um psa's were the reason why

we could get these types of shows there would

be no mask uh he man thundercats transformers

gi joe without psa's um because there was parental

groups galore that would have protested this

stuff out of the airwaves if there was not some

type of pro -social announcement at the end.

So this is mandated. They didn't have a choice.

They had to have these in there. And each show

had their own way of doing it. But the reason

they're there, if you're wondering, is because

they had to be. And the PSA in this one was a

kid looking both ways before he crosses the street

so he doesn't get hit by a car while he reaches

down for his baseball. Yes. And it was fantastic.

So we will see what the other ones are but this

was this is your prototypical 80s PSA Fantastically

So then for overall thoughts as far as Episode

1 the death stone goes Go ahead Mike it ties

into my rating. So why don't you go ahead first?

All right Well, I'll go into that and then I'll

explain the ratings and then we'll let you go

Some of my main thoughts on this one There was

no stone left unturned in episode one There was

no tricks that were up their sleeve that they

did not show us or use an episode one. Yeah from

the Standard things like the mass select the

team selection to the kids tagging along and

causing problems But then somehow being the heroes

to the every single episode vehicle being showcased

Every vehicle having a transition having different

gadgets and weapons the the watches, you know,

they threw everything at you I agree in Episode

one they introduced you to everything to the

point where it was almost too much The only thing

that was missing was the kitchen sink. Yes, there's

nothing left I mean there will be new characters

and there will be new vehicles and there will

be new masks and stuff like that But but there's

not a lot not shown to you in this first episode

And because of that, we sacrifice the plot. Yes,

exactly. And there basically is no plot. And

I don't care what anyone says, there is no plot

in this. This is a chase. The entire scene, the

entire episode is a car chase over an artifact.

Over an artifact that crashed to the earth that

after it saved the life of a guy that didn't

even need a life -saving Procedure it just dissipated.

Yes now that means said I don't want it to sound

like it's overall like there's no redeeming qualities

to this episode because a lot of the stuff they

do throw us a Lot at us a lot of the tricks a

lot of the gadgets vehicles masks Etc etc are

cool, and that's why you tune in again Yeah,

so there's a lot of cool things for boys boys

like their toys story -wise. It's got to get

better It better get better and the way we're

gonna do that our ratings every episode is we

are going to rate it on a scale of zero to five

masks Yes, so we will score each one zero to

five and I will give my rating and then I'll

let you talk about your overall thoughts My rating

for this one and only because it's the pilot

episode. So I'm giving it a little bit of a slack

I'll give it two and a half masks out of five

So go ahead with your overall thoughts The Death

Zone gets a 2 out of 5 masks from me. Yes, it

introduces the heroes and villains and all the

awesome stuff that Kevin just mentioned about

the theme song and the assembling the mask team

and everything else, but it also shows that Tracker

barely pays attention to his son's activities.

I mean, like, what is this guy, like, is this

guy supposed to be some 80s Tony Stark that doesn't

pay attention to anything in his fucking life

seriously outside of, you know, running? you

know, his vehicle service. I mean, really. First

of all, he's in a secret room with this mass

computer that there's a lot of important things

going on, messages and stuff. No kid, nobody,

no person, no anything should be able to overlook

and overhear and eavesdrop on what's going on

in that room. And yet Scott Tracker stands right

there in the doorway. on the corner of the doorway

and listens in. If it's that easy for a kid to

do, you're inviting your nemesis and the bad

characters to, I mean, come on, get some better

security here. Exactly. You know what? I just

kind of thought of this. And the reason, and

some people are going to be like, oh, you're

hating this on this episode, giving it two and

a half masks. If you were to take every other

80s boys action cartoon, And if we were to do

a comparison of all of the different pilots,

literally, realistically, this would be at the

bottom. It would be yeah Well, and the other

thing is is because this is just as we've said

before in the end earlier in the episode This

is just a one episode pilot whereas Transformers

had a three -parter Joe had a five -part miniseries

Thundercats had a was a two -parter three Miniseries

for each season, right? Right, but what I'm saying

is, you know all those other ones this and Silverhawks

would have be the the two probably worst pilots

for a boys action show in the 80s Yeah, I mean

even gem had a better pilot because it was like

hey this is gonna be to be continued next week

yeah and they continued like even though gem

the first five or six episodes were all individual

episodes they all tied to each other they didn't

they didn't list them as part one part two part

three part four part five maybe one day on Geekcast

radio we'll have a thing where we look at pilot

episodes Yeah, that's possible. But this is not

a good one. No, not at all. And to be fair, on

a 0 -2 -5 scale, 2 and 2 .5, that's half of...

It could be worse. We didn't give it a 0 or 1

or anything like that. We're not saying it's

awful. There was some redeeming qualities in

it. It's just, from a story standpoint and stuff

like that, it hopefully will improve as we continue

our journey. Yes, so with that we're gonna take

a quick break. Hold on. There's a battle. We

have to tend to be right back And when you download

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It's Stitcher Smart Radio. Don't forget to enter

promo code KEYCASTRADIO when you register. These

are your Masked Mayhem quotes of episode 1. First

up, let's hear from T -Bob. The next quote has

something to do with Lady Godiva. No one could

survive that crash. Too bad she was a good driver.

But not a good diver. There's a gator in them

there waters. Excuse me, which way did he go?

Thank you kindly. Ah yes, parenting at its finest

of the 80s. I don't know whether to hug you or

spank you. The villain of the week. Mask may

have won the battle. but the war goes on next

time the victory will be mine we got him now

back to the show all right we're back and we'd

like to thank you for being a part of mass mayhem

today if you'd like to get in contact with us

or leave feedback for the show there are several

ways to do so first of all you can visit the

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this is your first chance to be the first one

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So please do that. That would be awesome. And

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You can follow us on Twitter. The show there,

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zero two 526 -5821. We hope you enjoyed this

episode of Mass Mayhem and don't forget to join

us on our next crusade when we'll be discussing

episodes 2 and 3, the Star Chariot and the Book

of Power. For now, I'm Optimus Solo with DFJ

on Mic. Tune in next time when we take another

look at what lies behind the masquerade. Illusion

is the ultimate weapon.