Gate of Darkness, The Manakara Giant, and Raiders of the Orient Express Review

The End Hello and welcome to Masked Mayhem. We

have finally reached the 25th episode. Podcast

is over. No, we still have five more to go after

this, but I am one of your hosts, TMJ1Mike. Joining

me is Tune Master Tim. Hello Mike and listeners.

You know, you hoped the last three episodes of

a series through the last couple episodes of

a series, they would go out with a bang instead

of a whimper. Sadly, not the case with Mask.

Definitely, but you know what at least they've

been consistent throughout the series Consistently

bad yeah, yeah Because you have those series

that you know people be like oh, yeah You know

that was great when it first started the first

couple seasons are good, and then it trails off

after that No mask was consistently bad the entire

season. I mean Mask has 75 episodes And I know

people are gonna hate me for comparing it to

this. Mask has 75 episodes. Transformers has

98 episodes. I can at least count 50 of those

98 episodes being ones that I actually like.

I don't know which 50 of the 98 they are. I know,

I remember, you know, some episodes that I do

really love, but it's like 75 % of Transformers

G1 is good. There are a lot of bad episodes,

but 75 % is good in mask Yeah, oh I agree it's

probably I hate to say this, but it's probably

96 % bad and 4 % good. I really hate to say that.

And I'm just counting the first season. I don't

even remember the racing season, hence why we're

going to be doing it. But out of the first 65

episodes, 96 % of them I did not like. 4 % of

them I did. Just oh Right. I mean that there

are a few of them and we'll get into this when

we do the recap I'm sure but you know, there

are a few that stand above the rest, but you

know That's that's not really saying much. They're

not standing very tall above the others. There's

a few things like I remember when we got a little

bit of backstory on on Matt and Miles, and there

was the issue with his brother, and then there

was like a story that involved a little bit of

history about his father, you know, so some things

like that that, you know, I think were some highlights

in the first season, but overall it's just kind

of the same plot. Yeah, just scrolling up, and

I know we're not to the recap yet, but I'm just

going to say this here now, just scrolling up

to the very beginning of the episode list here.

uh... highway to tear again the death stone it

was the first episode i still like the first

episode uh... highway to tear video venom uh...

let's see here assault on liberty uh... and the

which what was it it was uh... the counterclockwise

caper so those are probably be my top picks out

of the entire season the rest are hit and very

much miss yeah um but we are here today to talk

about the final three episodes of mask season

one we are going to get to the gate of darkness

after this i thought the festival lasted till

sunset it turned out to be a limited engagement

You should have seen it, Dad. A king cobra followed

this floating flute and scared everybody. And

Scott climbed a rope that went straight up in

the air. Wait a minute. Floating flutes? Running

cobras? Alex? Well, not that it makes any sense,

but a fake here somehow did the genuine Indian

rope trick. At the same moment, a flute went

winging through the air, luring a cobra from

the festival. Then as soon as the cobra left,

the rope I was climbing went limp. Sometimes

the eye does not behold the truth. I think I

can still catch the curtain call, and maybe Mr.

Subas can help. Alright, first up is the Gate

of Darkness, venom of Daxe Cobra, whose hood

shows the way through a maze that leads to the

treasure in the Himalayan Mountains. Just another

fucking tree. This is kind of like my old quote

from TFG1 Podcast. Just a bunch of fucking repaints.

That's all these damn episodes are now. Just

a bunch of fucking treasure hunts. Ugh. God.

Yep. Yep. Absolutely. I think the rope trick

was cool until we found out what the hell was

actually powering it that, you know, I thought

that was kind of funny. Yeah, I did I did too

I thought okay Well, that's kind of neat, but

then they find out that it's basically like this

There's this air underneath it or something blowing

it and it's a mechanical thing yeah, so it's

some machine and so that kind of took the wind

out of the sails and It's your standard mask

plot Venom is trying to go get something mask

has to stop them There's nothing in this plot

that is any different from any of the other episodes

we've talked about since we've started doing

this podcast again. Yeah, it really isn't. I

like the title of the episode. I thought it would

be something a little different, maybe going

into it, Gate of Darkness. But yeah, this turns

into your typical treasure hunt. We find out

that there's a priceless artifact, so we know

Venom's going to be after that. And this is basically

an ivory throne. Yeah, it's an ivory toilet ladies

and gentlemen is what it is All right, we are

gonna get to the high beams after this You're

driving me nuts with this thing snakes are deaf

anyway, you idiot they are Sorry, I won't do

it anymore I got it! I drew it! Okay Rembrandt,

I hear ya! Now let's move it! Turning on the

high beams. Uh, they're not very high. The only

thing that was really cool about this one for

me is, hey look, Buddy and Brad are back, finally!

Yay! Yeah. And, you know, I just happened, like,

in this episode it really occurred to me that

there are a lot of masked team members that have

a first name that starts with a B. Because we

have Bruce Brad and buddy in this one. Yeah What

else did you like about this one anything Well,

you talked about the team members that I did

like that, you know We get to see what they're

doing when they're called up and you know, they've

gotten less interesting over time They've kind

of basically used some of the same Backstory

events then this one we get buddy and kind of

a humorous scene where he is working on somebody's

tire and The guy's standing there and you know,

he's filling up the tire with air and then all

of a sudden he gets called so he just takes off

and The tire just keeps getting bigger and bigger

and finally the guy's like I got to get out of

here, too And then it explodes It's good it's

not yeah, it's not the same as you know, the

pizza place with dusty it just isn't the same

anymore No, and it's so funny. I mean I was just

thinking about you know when they show these

The thing the things that the people are doing

when they're getting called up, and you know

they immediately drop Whatever they're doing

and take off when you know if they give it like

three to five seconds They could wrap up. Whatever's

going on So they kind of you know he kind of

left a dangerous situation there where this guy

could have been extremely hurt or killed Yeah

The other thing I did like about this one, there

was a decent battle scene at the end of the episode.

So that elevated this one a little bit. But another

thing I really thought was good in this one was

Miles' frustration with his goons. And I know

we've talked about this in some of the past episodes.

But in this one, he makes a joke about finding

the map by walking into a gas station and asking

for a map to the Gate of Darkness. So I thought

that was pretty funny. And then there's another

incident where he is talking with Dagger, and

Dagger says something like, who turned out the

lights? And then Miles replies with something

like, your lights have been out since you were

born, idiot. So again, Miles mayhem. He's a true

leader. Yeah, really. Yeah. You know, I like

the comedy amongst the villains, I really do,

but if you can't give me an interesting enough

story in 22 minutes, I mean, the 7D gives me

two interesting stories in 22 minutes on the

Disney Channel. You know, He -Man, Thundercats,

Voltron, they're all, you know, If you don't

count the commercials, they're all 22 minute

episodes. They all give me interesting stories.

Sure, there are plenty of things that Kevin and

I and even you when you comment on them on the

post that we do or don't agree with each other

on as far as whether things are good or bad in

He -Man, but at least there's actually things

to talk about with the plot of an episode that

lasts 20 to 23 minutes. And I'm sorry, but Mask

just doesn't have it. I don't think, and I've

said this before in the show, I don't think these

people cared. I really, I'm not talking about

the voice actors, I'm talking about the people

in charge of doing the show, the producers, the

directors. I honestly don't think these people

cared. And, you know. Was watching I'll talk

about this now because we we're at the end of

season one here and on the end on the last disc

of season one The final sixth disc of volume

2 and the DVD set from shout factory It has a

special feature where it's Saturday crusader

Saturday morning crusaders unite and it's all

these Supposed to mask fans you're getting together.

There's like comedians and I don't even know

half. I've never heard of any of these people

I've never seen them anywhere talking about this

and They're all taught and don't get me wrong.

I like that Brian Ward and shout factory got

you know with these people, but it's like They're

like, oh well mask is basically a big, you know

middle finger to Transformers and GI Joe because

mask is so much cooler because it combines those

two shows a blah blah blah Yeah, sure. The concept

is cool But story execution sucks You know, it's

like, you know, this feature, I don't even know

how long it is. It's probably, I don't know,

five, 10 minutes, and they just keep going on

and on. Oh, no, it's like 20 minutes. Oh, is

it really? Because I did watch that today, and

I stopped. I, like, you know, checked to see

how long it was before I even proceeded with

watching it. Yeah. You know, a few minutes into

it, I was thinking, OK, this is kind of worthless.

But then it did have some humorous moments. But

it was kind of funny because, yeah, they did

say that. There was somebody saying, oh, yeah,

it's a mesh of GI Joe and Transformers. So it

was so much better. It was so much cooler. And

I don't know if that was meant to be facetious

or if he was, you know, if he'd actually seen

the show recently. But there were some things

they did agree with us on, which I thought was

good to see as well. Yeah, so let's get to the

low beams for the gate of darkness It was nice

of the India Department of Records to let us

borrow this Yes, if we can combine our modern

technology with the ancient info on that map

Maybe we'll come up with the location of the

gate all right getting to the low beams honestly

other than buddy and brad being back there and

a few funny lines between miles and the rest

of venom there's not much here and at the end

there are way too many puns way too many this

is just i don't know it's it's more of like we're

at the end of the season i wanted something more

they didn't give it to me and this is if this

episode was in the middle of the season it would

probably get a slightly average maybe slightly

below average score from me but at the same time

it's like we're coming to the conclusion of the

season here people do something and they didn't

right what about you yeah i kind of feel that

way and i kind of felt that way with the episode

we'll be talking about next as it started off

different i thought okay we're going to be getting

something different here it's almost like you

know, Stan Lee deciding to put Spider -Man in

Amazing Fantasy because the book's gonna be canceled

anyway, so what the heck? And I thought, well,

maybe somebody, you know, somebody's taking a

chance, or, you know, the story editor or something

said, okay, fine, this is breaking the mold,

but just go ahead and run with it. And we would

get something different, but no. And that's exactly

what you're talking about with this episode.

It's something that we've seen so many times

at this point that have we seen this early on?

in the series when I've been like, okay, not

too bad. Like you said, maybe about average or

so. But at this point, we're just so frustrated

with these recycled plots. And one of my low

beams here is something I mentioned I think in

our last episode is the voice acting and just

how flat it is. We have this moment, okay, where...

Matt is driving rhino into the village. You know

they're all hyped up They're ready to go and

he runs over these spikes that one of the Indian

guys was sitting on and so it flattens rhinos

tires rhino flips over onto its side driver side

down and lands on top of these hot coals and

Then Matt just calmly asked if everyone is all

right It seems like you know the way he delivers

that line. There's no impending danger even the

animation Doesn't give us any sense that there's

any real danger here But obviously there is and

you know smoke starts filling the cab of Rhino

But again, you know, we cut we cut to the commercial.

We you know, we feel like there's something Dangerous

here, you know, our team's in danger and we need

to get You know, we need we need to have some

concern for what's going on. But the the voice

acting is just so flat and So then I am I paid

attention to the credits after the episode was

over, and just picked out who was doing the voice

direction. And it's Stu Rosen and Marcia Goodman.

And so then I looked them up. Now we're kind

of getting, you know, off topic. I think we need

to kind of talk about this for a minute. I mean,

I think this is interesting. So, Stu Rosen, he

also was a casting director for Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles. So I give him some credit there,

so he went on to do some other good stuff. And

he worked on other shows like, let's see, Captain

N, The Game Master, Defenders of the Earth, and

Fraggle Rock. And I think that, you know, that's

a pretty good resume. I think those are some

pretty decent shows. I mean, I wasn't a big fan

of the Captain N. But, you know, I mean, he also

worked on My Little Pony, the movie. I mean,

those are well -renowned, well -known franchises

from the 80s. And then Marcia Goodman, she was

also known for her work on the real Ghostbusters

and Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Adventures

of Sonic the Hedgehog. So it's not like, you

know, these were just unknowns in the industry.

I mean, maybe this was one of their first series,

because I think Mask was 1985. Yeah, 1985 and

so some of these other shows came later So, you

know, maybe they were just cutting their teeth

on mask and then went on to do better things

But yeah, but it was just interesting cuz I know

like, you know We've what we've talked about

the writers before and how we didn't recognize

the writing team Except for well except for Chuck

Laurie. Yeah Just bad very very very bad so all

right we are gonna move on to the next episode

up next is the mana cara giant okay Venom uses

a magnet weapon to crash ships into rocky beaches.

Local natives believe it is caused by an ancient

curse until mass discovers otherwise. Dun dun

dun. So this one had me hooked. Yeah it did.

Yeah it actually did. In the very beginning I

thought they did an excellent job with that scene

with the ship. And all the sailors on there are

panicking. We hear this voice coming from the

island, and the ship's being pulled in, so they

all have to abandon ship. I thought that was

done very well. And as I was alluding to in our

discussion about the previous episode, I thought,

OK, they're taking a chance here. They're going

to do something different. Let's hope to God

that Venom isn't behind this. And we have some

sort of supernatural element here. And it's just

going to be Matt and mask members trying to figure

out what the mystery is. And I wish they would

have done that rather than always making Venom

being behind it and chasing after some treasure

or some artifact or something. You know, it's

kind of like with other series, you mentioned

He -Man before. And or even thundercats, you

know Mumra wasn't behind everything that was

going on on Thundera in every episode and and

neither were the the the mutants or or You know

are the main bad guys. They would bring in new

bad guys Same thing with he man, you know, it

wasn't always Skeletor or you know, he is his

evil army You know, they they tried to branch

out and do other things so it wasn't It wasn't

boring, you know, it had some new elements to

it Yeah, see the thing with with human investors

universe that I found out is that they don't

use the vitally Here's here's the difference

between mask and human message universe from

83 Mask uses venom too often and doesn't give

us enough You know who else could it be outside

of them and then human masters universe they

use too many one -shot villains and not enough

of Skeletor and his evil warriors. So it's kind

of a flip sides of the same coin. And it's like,

oh, come on. With this one, this one is, out

of the final three, this one's probably the best

one, honestly. Well, for me, it started off real

strong, but it quickly became less and less interesting.

So for me, this one is not going to be my favorite

of the week, but I think it did have some good

moments. It's not, well, to me, because it had

such promise in the beginning and then failed

to deliver, I was very disappointed. I think

for me what the plot is out of the three that

we have. for the final three this is probably

the best written plot out of the three of them

at least the most interesting plot yeah sure

it kind of goes downhill one i mean that's like

you know somebody asking a magician how did you

do that and he shows them and then it just becomes

less mystifying on how he does his trick it's

the same thing here you know once you find out

that oh the machine did the rope and blah blah

blah and whatever else and and the the flute

is magnetized and yeah You know once you find

that stuff. Oh, yeah sure it kind of goes downhill

from there, but the overall you know the episode

plot on on a whole here is a hell of a lot better

than What we've had recently yeah the plot itself.

I agree. I like that it again It's one of those

episodes where it takes us a while to get things

moving I mean, we have this we have this scene

in the very beginning that opens up the episode

that has some pending danger in this mystery.

And then, you know, we spend probably, I mean,

I would say probably the next 10 minutes or better.

Just wandering around and, you know, T -Bob thinking

everything is the Manicara giant. And I mean,

there were so many times that that he called

out, it's the Manicara, it's the Manicara. This

is like, shut up, you know, let's Let's move

on already. There were too many attempts at humor

that, you know, I think they could have just

been skipped and we could have had a much tighter

story. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So let's

get to the high beams. Legend says when it gets

angry, nothing is safe that gets in its path.

The pilot told me this Manakara giant was responsible

for all these accidents. There's no logical explanation,

Matt. A monsoon, for instance, that explains

what pulled the freighter ashore. Then it must

have been the giant. Wow, I wish I could have

been there. Well, I don't. One giant step and

I'd be just another pile of scrap metal. But,

Stephen, your freighters have used that straight

for years to transport cargo. Why did Manakara

dip his fingers into this one? I don't know,

Matt. But this platinum shipment was one of the

biggest we've ever transported. And I've got

an even bigger shipment of platinum that must

go through. My entire business holdings are at

stake. I need your help. Hmm. I've got some friends

who might be interested in checking into this.

I'll give them a call. Thanks, Matt. I'll arrange

for them to stay in a house on the island. Don't

worry. We'll get to the bottom of those footprints,

Stephen. Alright, turning on the high beams.

Well, for the first time ever, Scott actually

shows emotion and sadness for T -Bob when he's

going to get whisked away. It only took them

63 episodes to get to this point. Because Scott

does look like he's about to cry when T -Bob

gets whisked away by the water. Yeah, that is

true. He was torn up about it. Yeah, so this

isn't a treasure hunt episode. This is a platinum

theft episode so Since it's not actually a treasure

hunt is probably gonna get a much higher score

for me Since it wasn't that boring because every

at this point I never want to see another treasure

hunt plot ever again unless it's finally unless

they finally finally release national treasure

3 Fair enough What about you? What did you like

about this one? It was fitting that Venom's own

magnetic machine was what defeated them in the

end. I did like that because Scott is at the

wheel basically of this magnetic machine and

uses it to pull in Venom's vehicles which explode

and then... It's kind of funny. There's a scene

after the explosion where Miles and Vanessa are

flying through the air and Miles is like, you

know, I'll get you next time. And Vanessa is

just kind of like basically laying on her side

with her arm under her head and just like, you

know, with frustration saying, yeah, this is,

you know, this is going nowhere. So I did like

that. And then. I've got a high beam here. That's

also going to have somewhat of a low beam and

that is we've talked about T Bob and how he often

gets treated as being a human being And Scott

actually reminds T Bob. He's not human He's a

robot. He's a robot because T Bob is concerned

that the island natives may be cannibals and

T Bob says you have nothing to or Scott says

you have nothing to worry about T Bob You're

a robot But then he contradicts himself later,

which is going to be in the low beams. Yep. So

let's get to the low beams after this. I still

don't understand why you made us move the machine

from the other island. Foolish female. Only the

local people were fooled. That's why we moved

the machine before investigators came. Now continue

the test. I want to make sure the machine wasn't

damaged in the move. Love to. Here comes our

bait, now! Alright! Working, it's working! Got

it off, Vanessa! For the low beams, take it away,

sir. Well, I thought for sure you would have

this in your low beams, and maybe you do, but

basically mine is kind of a big one. I've already

kind of alluded to it, but... Scott told T Bob

that he is a robot. He is not human but then

T Bob is underwater and Scott is asking mad if

T Bob can hold his breath that long Why? Why

did you do this to us? You just showed you know

some some reason here and I'm so frustrated with

this show Ladies and gentlemen you now see why

and you hear why optimus solo did not want to

come back to this podcast Because it you know

I've said this before as much as you know I enjoy

working with Tim on this show It still cannot

compare to how bad this show is The only thing

I wrote down because this was such a I'm gonna

make this joke. It's such a breast of fresh air

compared to the last episode. The only thing

I wrote down that I complained about was fire

insurance. Really? That's the PSA? Fire insurance?

Why is it that there are so many fire safety,

fire -related PSAs in this series? I don't know.

I mean, they can't even come up with good ideas

for PSAs. Nope. Not at all. I can watch a marathon

of GI Joe PSAs on the Rhino release of the GI

Joe movie. There's maybe like 23 or 20 some GI

Joe PSAs as a special feature just lined up back

to back. Right. And I watched those and I thought

they were all good. They didn't tell the same.

They didn't have the same public message. They

were entertaining they were fun But these these

PSA's They're just awful yeah, most of them anyway

and it's so funny because Not all of the Transformers

episodes that I remember not all of them ended

on a PSA They just ended they just went front.

You know they closed out. It wasn't a sharp ending

like Couple of things but it was you know, they

they closed out then they went to credits and

not often Unless it was after the credits before

the next show came on did the PSA's happen? And

this is something that is strange with certain

80s properties Transformers has them but they

don't have them on every single episode At first

I didn't think gem was gonna have PSA's. Yeah,

it takes until like the 12th or 13th episode

out of 65 for Jim to start incorporating PSAs

at the end of its show and Mask has a PSA after

almost every single 65 episodes and none Mask

should have done what He -Man did they made the

PSAs Relevant to what happened in the episode.

Yeah. Well, I think that with He -Man and the

Masters of the Universe they Wrote the plot around.

I mean they often seem like they developed the

plot around an idea. They wanted to deliver in

the PSA You know, they did they didn't work backwards.

They worked forwards and I said, okay, we're

gonna have this episode be about You know respect

for your elders And so, you know, they would

have an episode that was interesting and had

that element in the episode and then they could

talk about that in the PSA. And they didn't always

do that. I mean, you know, I both know that,

you know, not every episode had that PSA that

tied in directly to what had happened in the

story, but there were a lot of them that were.

And M .A .S .K. is just tacked on. Yep. Pretty

much. Absolutely. So, I think we are going to

get to the final episode of the day, final episode

of season one, after this. wants trouble to escape

the allies. Wow! Lots of famous people traveled

on the Orient Express. Spies, kings, and criminals.

But you, T -Bomb, are our first robot. I am?

How about that? I'm Scott's first robot, too.

It must have been exciting being on a train with

all kinds of criminals. If that's what you want,

just hop on the subway. Thanks for giving us

the tool. Scott's getting a real kick out of

it. It is my pleasure to share the mystery and

intrigue of the Orient Express with such honored

guests. All right, final episode of season one,

episode 65, Raiders of the Orient Express. Where

is Indiana Jones when you really need him? Yeah,

this is what like the second episode recently

where they've had raiders of something I mean

as the title Treasure Scarlet Empress incident

in Istanbul stone trees plunder of glowworm grotto,

okay, maybe not I thought we had Raiders of something

in the title No, I'm all the way back up to episode

44 and there's no Raiders. So anyway, Raiders

of the Lost Orient or Raiders of the Orient Express,

Venom infiltrates the Orient Express train looking

for clues to Mad King Ludwig's treasures. I didn't

know Koopa's kid was in this series. Let alone

being a king. All right, so this is the final

episode of the series or well of season one I

should say yeah It's better than The first episode

at least sure it is it sure it is still a treasure

hunt episode, but it's it's better than Than

the first one that we talked about today. I don't

know I I don't know if it's that by the time

I get to the third episode Sometimes I am just

like I don't care anymore But I just found this

one so boring I really did Yeah, I I thought

it was interesting At least at first Liked how

venom could never get into the thing The treasure

because they couldn't figure out the clocks Overall

as a season finale episode This is just standard

that there's no cliffhanger. There's no nothing

especially with Coming back with only ten new

episodes for the racing series um they should

have done a better job with this and done some

sort of continuity or some some sort of story

with matt's brother or with how matt tracker

and miles mayhem came up with the technology

for the masks and they just should have done

something a little differently i don't dislike

this episode on a whole by itself but as as a

season finale episode this sucks Yeah, I absolutely

agree. I would like to have seen them go back

to some of those things that you were talking

about. You know, again, hit on the backstory

between Miles and Matt, you know, what happened

there and try to try to, you know, tell more

backstory or or wrap things up in some way. I

mean, even though they have the second season

coming up, which I'm not sure how much different

it's going to be from the first, I'm hoping that

it takes somewhat of a different direction. But

it would have been nice to see something like

that, because we talked about this when we were

discussing the last episode, the Manicara giant,

that special feature at the end of the last disc

on volume two. And again, they talk about this

history with Matt Tracker and Miles Mayhem. And

I guess one of the guys on that special said

that there was a comic book included with Rhino.

And it told the backstory, which actually was

kind of a dark and violent backstory between

Miles Mayhem and Matt Tracker. During this incident

of them having this falling out and miles wanting

to take the technology and steal it his brother

got killed, right? Yeah, Matt's brother. Yeah,

that's brother got killed You know pretty dark

material for for a cartoon back in the 80s But

it would have been nice if they could have at

least Done something with that. I mean, I think

there's a lot of story there that you could tell

I mean certainly over the course of 65 episodes.

We haven't really delved into that very much

So yeah, it would have been nice to have seen

that come back around in this last episode of

the first season Absolutely Yeah, I mean this

is a nice thing I Mean it's an interesting It's

this episode is interesting, but at the same

time it's still this is more middle of the road

than then the first episode is Because you know,

this is basically a richie rich plot Seriously,

it's basically a richie rich plot where the person's

treasure isn't an actual tray or okay It's a

Casper the friendly ghost plot. I mean, you know,

it's Venom looks for this treasure of this Mad

King Ludwig and turns out the treasure that he

has is a Model train set of the Oriental Express

because he loved riding the train all the time

So there's like, you know it every time I watch

this before recording I'm like, when's stinky

fatso and stretch gonna show up or something?

It's like, seriously? So, yeah, I don't know.

Yeah, we've been down this road before. I mean,

if it's miles after some great treasure and it

just turns out to be its steam that was so valuable

during the ice age, that was the treasure. Or

this hidden money that... you know, is hidden

around the Washington Monument, and it turns

out it's old Confederate money, so it's worth

nothing. It's under a giant W. But yeah, I mean...

Yeah, I dunno. Alright, let's get to the high

beams if there are any after this. Interesting.

Back in the 1800s, they were the private quarters

of King Ludwig. Mad King Ludwig. He slept in

an empty swimming pool. He threw lavish parties

for ducks, built crazy gigantic locks. He was

a regular loony. Looks like he was a regular

passenger too. But of course, he was crazy about

the Orient Express. He even built a castle along

its route so he could travel on the train several

times a year. It's said he hid a fabulous treasure

somewhere in his castle, but no one even knows

what it is. Hmm. Mad King Ludwig's castle. Where's

it located? You are fortunate. It is in Zermatt.

Our next stop... Alright, time for the high beams.

This is really the episode where they really

destroyed almost all the vehicles except Switchblade.

Jackhammer gets killed, uh... Manta gets killed.

Yeah, even piranha piranha gets killed Like goes

off a cliff and the motorcycle part slams ran

into a cliff and explodes explodes. Yeah Jackhammer

basically gets cut in half Kind of reminds me

of 2007 you want a piece of me? No, I want to

and Megatron rips jazz in half so yeah they really

I'll say this for this episode even though the

plot isn't that great at least for leaving it

on a cliffhanger as far as what the vehicles

are gonna do for the second season who knows

I mean normally when the mask or the venom vehicles

have been destroyed before they just kind of

come back brand new like hey we repaired them

off screen Um, so yeah, I'm at this point. I

have no idea what is, I don't, I've said this

before. I don't ever really remember seeing the

racing series season. So that's going to be totally

fresh and new for me. Hopefully it's just not

the same recycled plots. Um, and then, Hey, a

PSA that actually aligns with the episode since

it's, you know, train related. So, so that's

good. What about you for high beams? There was

some humor here when deep Bob and Scott suspect

that one of the passengers is miles mayhem in

disguise Because we'd seen that Vanessa was in

disguise as this countess or something on the

train Yep So I thought that that actually worked

out real well and provided for a very humorous

scene because I thought it was going to be miles

It looked just like him, but it wasn't him. So

yeah, you know, they're they're doing the The

Bugs Bunny gag or whatever where he was trying

to like pull his mustache off and stuff Throw

him water on him. So it's pretty funny And then

there was this other scene where Matt makes a

joke about being cut from the team Yeah, and

Everybody is laughing just hysterically. They're

so boisterous. I was it just became comical just

laughing You know how hard they were laughing

at that joke. I mean, it's like It just got louder

and just just crazier and it went on for a long

time Yeah, it went on for way too long Absolutely

way too damn long Yeah, at least it wasn't Scott

laughing along with them though at least it was

just Which, I don't even know where he went in

that scene, but... But yeah, I'm trying to think

what else did I like about this one. No? I think

that's it. I mean, I guess I guess I was hoping

the runaway train would have just, you know,

crashed somewhere and... Scott and T -Bot would

have ended up in the hospital or something, but

that'd be cruel for me to say that. Oh wait,

whoops, I already did. So I think we're gonna

get to the low beams after this. A hammer! All

that trouble for a crummy toy hammer! Hey, it's

not a waste! Maybe someday you'll get some toy

nails! Dagger? You've got more holes in your

head than two tons of Swiss cheese. I'll take

that! This toy is obviously a clue to Mad King

Ludwig's treasure! To your vehicles! Alright,

for the low beams, something about the Countess

looks familiar. Are you flucking kidding me?

He should know who Vanessa is. Really? He needs

the computer to tell him that? Yeah. It has her

mug shot right there on the computer screen and

they have to like peel back the hat and the clothes

to tell him This is Vanessa Warfield. Come on.

I know it's it's just so so ludicrous and then

Just another treasure hunt episode to end the

season no less What about you? What didn't you

like about this one? Some of the things I've

already mentioned, I didn't like that the real

treasure was the train set. I also didn't like

that, well, actually my biggest issue with this

episode is that it feels like it's trying too

hard to like build in all these layers because

we go through the trouble of Venom stealing the

doors from the Orient Express. And so we're thinking,

okay, well, why would they want the doors? What

is it with the doors? It's so important. And...

So then they cut the we find that venom cuts

the doors open just to find this little bitty

hammer and then they go to What was that the

mansion or something? Yeah, they go to Ludwig's

castle. Yeah, they go to the castle and they

Go to this room where there's all these all these

cuckoo clocks and they fit the arm into this

man on the cuckoo clock so then that produces

a sound that opens the door to a hidden room

and Then they go into the room, but they still

can't Get behind the panel that's inside the

room that leads to the treasure. So it's it's

just too many layers You know, it just became

too convoluted it was just it was just too much

they didn't need to go that far with it Yeah,

yeah I agree. I mean it's just I Think they're

trying to be Clever and write something with

you know multiple layers and and you know make

it interesting and and Maybe fun to follow or

maybe that maybe the kids will have fun trying

to figure out this mystery But in the end we

did we just want to see big battles and some

cool action and you know throw in some humor

You know, I just thought this was the most boring

episode of the week No, that first episode is

worse than this one for me. So we're going to

take a quick break, come back with final thoughts

and ratings after this. So get altered, get geeky

with The Altered Geeks every Friday on the Geekcast

Radio Network. Yes, that's right. We have traveled

to Eternia to enter Castle Grayskull. Join Optimus

Solo and TFJ and Mike as they find themselves

telling tales of Eternia. We cover all things

He -Man in this 45 episode long podcast. You

can find us on iTunes and www .geekassradio .com.

By the power of Grayskull, we all have the power.

Hey, I'm Gary. I'm Mike. I'm Chuck. And I'm Justin.

Join the four of us every week on the internet's

number one and longest running G .I. Joe podcast,

What's On Joe Mind? It's Joe news, reviews, and

interviews like you've never heard them before,

delivered right to your MP3 player. Our guests

include Jason Marsden, Kevin Michael Richardson,

and Matt Yang King from G .I. Joe Renegades,

Larry Hama, Robert Adkins, and John Barber from

IDW Publishing, and many more from around the

online Joe community. Yeah, it's guys talking

about Joe. Think of it as Joe Talk meets Sports

Talk, and we make fun of Chuck. Right, and we,

hey, again? Come on, Chuck. We're just kidding,

kinda. Sometimes Chuck makes fun of himself.

Right, and we... Okay, seriously, this is just

getting ridiculous now. It's What's on Joe Mind,

every week on the Geekcast Radio Network. Inside

Pulse .com, Stitcher Smart Radio, and iTunes.

Download and listen today. I suppose I still

can't say something about Transformers, can I?

Come on, man. Good grief. What about sports?

Yeah, that's alright. Remote Control is the new

TV podcast from the Geekcast Radio Network. We'll

be covering TV shows and topics from the year

2000 to whenever now is. We'll have special themed

episodes entitled Pilot and Season Premiers as

well as finishing finales. We'll also have season

pass episodes where we take a look at an entire

season of a TV show. Remote Control can be found

on iTunes, Stitcher, and www .geekcastradio .com.

So tune in because we are all remote controlled.

Now back to Mask and Venom. We are back. So ratings

for the episode, the first episode, sir, what

are you going to give us? How many masks or how

many non masks? Yeah, a negative number. The

Gate of Darkness for me gets two masks. It was

enjoyable. I mean, it was kind of middle of the

road. I didn't mind some of the moments in that

one. I mean, it had some low beams that, you

know, I I didn't like the voice acting in this

one as I mentioned You know there was definitely

a moment of danger there. They could have they

could have done a better job of delivering those

lines Yeah, but yeah two masks for me it gets

a one just It's by far the worst out of the three

episodes for me I was expecting more than what

we got, as we said in the episode review. You

see a title called Gate of Darkness. You think

of something like, you know, Gozer the Demon

King coming to hunt the Ghostbusters or something.

You know, something interesting. And it just

wasn't interesting enough for me. What about

the second episode? Well, this was the one that

started off strong that I I had hoped that there

would be some Supernatural element to it and

we would get away from venom being behind everything

You know, maybe they would show up, but maybe

they wouldn't be behind it necessarily or after

some treasure or artifact But I you know It just

turned out to be so boring. It took so long to

get things moving after that initial scene. You

know, they're wandering around the island trying

to figure out what's causing the footprints and

everything. So I ended up losing interest in

it. I'm going to give it one mask. For me, this

was easily the best episode of the day. It was

the most interesting for me out of the three

of them. Liked all of the mysteries surrounding

How like was it really a sea monster and whatever

else I really dug that It's not great, but it's

not below average for me. So I'm gonna give it

three out of five masks Well, what about the

season one finale? Yeah, you can probably guess

I'm not going to rate this one very well either

Raiders of the Orient Express You know, I did

like a few things about it. You know, there is

that scene where T Bob and Scott are in the train

car and it's rolling down the hill. And so we

have all the mass team members team up and they,

you know, shoot the. I can't think what the name

of it is. Basically some sort of anchors or something

through the roof of the car and haul it off the

track so it doesn't go over the gorge. So that

was kind of a cool moment. And as you said, there

were some moments where the vehicles get destroyed.

But again, I just had this problem with it just

taking so long and just having so many layers

in there where they try to be clever and mysterious.

So I didn't like it. I found it boring. I'm going

to give it one mask. All right for me it's only

gonna get it to like I said if you would have

Done something a little bit more interesting

with the season finale. It would have been better

for me But sadly they didn't do that. So yeah,

I mean they could even have You know besides

telling more backstory about the main characters

or something they could have used some of the

newer characters again we basically got the The

the standard characters for both teams here Mm

-hmm. Yep All right. Well, that's gonna do it

for mass mayhem. Thank you for joining us There's

some ways to get in contact with us. We'll leave

feedback for the show. Visit the website geekcastradio

.com Leave us reviews on iTunes. Please do this.

You can shoot email to feedback at geekcastradio

.com Call the Weisman line 502 -526 -5821 coming

up next we have the season one finale kind of

recap show as well as we're gonna tease a little

bit of season two and then after that we'll get

into season two we'll only have three episodes

of mass mayhem left and it'll be done for now

I am TF2 on mike with tune master Tim And remember,

podcasting is the ultimate weapon.