Season One Recap & The Creeping Desert, and The Scarlett Empress Preview

The End Welcome to mass mayhem. This is episode

26. Oh my god. We made it through 65 episodes

of this cartoon I am one of your hosts TF2 unlike

and joining me is tune master Tim Hello, it's

another round Thankfully, it's over Yeah, we

made it to the end of season one. I'm so happy

that that we finally came to the end of the series

65 episodes And we still have like 40 or 30 something

left to do for the he -man show, but at least

those are somewhat better than Ladies and gentlemen,

we've said it throughout this entire podcast

and Tim and I have said it since we finally brought

the podcast back after a two -year hiatus The

theme song and sometimes when the original the

um... the original mask members would assemble

and get the vehicle that's really the only good

thing about this show uh... i'm sorry ladies

and gentlemen We tried to get some positive stuff,

and all three of us, when Optimus Solo and I

were doing it, and now that you and I are doing

it, we have put some positive stuff in there,

but the negatives outweigh the positive, like

2 ,000 % to negative one. It's, oh my god. Oh

yeah, by far. Normally how I set a recap show

up is we have favorite, least favorite episodes,

favorite episodes, least favorite episodes, favorite

characters, least favorite characters, and other

thoughts. We can kind of do that looking at the

original episode list. I only have, let's see,

one, two, three. I have like five episodes out

of 65 that I absolutely loved. The rest of them

are just oh my god Oh my god, you know What what

before I get into the the numbers which optimus

solo so graciously put together for us What overall

thoughts on the season do you have so far? Just

that of disappointment you know, that we talked

about this before. This was one of those series

I was very excited about purchasing when I saw

the announcement that Shop Factory was going

to be releasing the entire first season. I mean,

they said it was the entire series, but it's

actually just the first season. Yeah, they didn't

get the rights to the other 10 episodes, which

is weird. I don't know why they couldn't do that,

but yeah. But hey, at least we got this and had

very cool packaging. If you got the entire complete

series set, you got the nice box that the two

volumes of the DVD sets come in. And then you

could buy the two volumes individually as well.

But I ordered it. I think I pre -ordered this

one. I know I got it shortly after it came out.

I was very excited about it. And Shout Factory,

they did an amazing job with it. I think the

series looks very good. They threw in a couple

of bonus features on the DVDs. But as we started

going through the series, watching the episodes,

I just struggled to get through them. Immediately,

the first thing that hits you is the voice acting.

This isn't very good. And the plots are kind

of thin. you know, start to get a few episodes

into it, you start to realize there's a pattern,

which we've talked about many times before. But

yeah, just overall disappointment. I was really

hoping for a more exciting series, something

along the lines of what the series seemed to

be based off of. So, you know, something in the

vein of G .I. Joe and Transformers, you know,

something more of that caliber is what I was

hoping for. Yeah, sadly we didn't so Optima Solo

compiled these scores for us and he did so with

his scores and my scores and with your scores

and my scores for the first half this is episodes

1 to 14 of the podcast for Optima Solo his His

overall for the first half was 2 .79 as far as

rating on the show mine was 2 .53 for the second

half yeah for the second half yours was this

is episodes 15 to 25 this was yours was 2 .37

Mine was 1 .90. Wow. So that's the second half

where I joined up, basically. Right. So yours

really dropped significantly. And overall, the

entire 65 episodes, you and Kevin tied at 2 .59

for ratings. This is an overall... Score my overall

score was two point two three And I actually

thought that mine might average out to be a bit

higher because I know I did have a few threes

and fours in there but I know I had several once

and twos as well which you know had to have brought

it down but You know when you when you let off

there with like, you know, two point five and

two point seven I was like, oh mine's probably

gonna be higher than that but yeah there's just

so many so many bad ones that that bring it down

even though there are a few that that kind of

stand out as some fairly you know decent or watchable

episodes i should say the um worst combined rated

episodes episode six was a one and a zero episode

13 was a double zero episode 15 was a zero and

a one Episode 37 was a 1 and a 0 episode 51 was

a 1 and 1 59 was 1 and 1 and 61 was 1 1 so Optimus

Solo only was on till episode 34 of the cartoon

which is episode 14 of the show so his his ratings

are only on 6 13 and 15 and then for you and

I are worse combined or 37 51 59 and 61 the best

combined episode ratings are for episode 8 of

the show of the cartoon show 4 and a 4 14 404

19 404 So you and I have not had a best combined

rating Because the show really does suck Again,

thank you so much to Kevin for putting that together

what I Find for my like my favorite episodes

I'm only going to put the first one in there

because it was the first one and it was the first,

you know, time I remember watching the show,

which is the Deathstone. I really did like it.

I thought how it set it up really well. I also

like Highway to Terror. I thought that was kind

of a cool thing. It's the one where Mask tries

to retrieve a stash of plutonium that Venom plans

to use to power an earthquake machine. I did

like episode 5 video Venom. Venom hypnotizes

innocent people through their television sets

and threatens to use them to attack a Texas oil

refinery if not paid a hefty ransom. So I liked

that one. And then the other one that I liked

was... where is it here? It's episode 24 of the

series. This is probably my high I think this

is the only one that in my knowledge that I gave

a five to Was episode 24 of the series counterclockwise

caper venom conducts heists of Las Vegas casinos

and they do this by Some magnetic suction machine

or something where it sucks out all the gold

out or whatever else. I really still love that

that episode There are certain moments in the

rest of the series that I like but I cannot say

that You know that I like any other episodes

out of this original 65 I just can't they become

so monotonous and repetitive and it's just So

horrible what are some of your favorites that

you remember for episodes from the show? There

really are just a couple that I wrote down that

I thought stood out One is fog on Boulder Hill

That was the one where again they they did something

a little bit different where they have the old

lady that's driving by Boulder Hill and she needs

help with her vehicle and We we get more shots

of Boulder Hill in this episode. Venom comes

along and the mask team deploys some fog and

that throws off the Venom vehicles and, you know,

Boulder Hill transforms during the... while they

have the fog screen out so that Venom can't,

you know, see exactly what's going on. And it

was just fun. I mean, again, Venom was after...

the money printing plates that were stored in

the lady's car. She didn't know that they were

hidden in there. But, you know, that was different

than going after some treasure or something like

that. So I really did find that one very enjoyable.

Any others? Green Nightmare, I think it was,

which it told some of the backstory about Matt's

father. Mm -hmm. It's the one where his plane

went down in the jungle Yep, so I you know I

like that It was one of the few times during

the first season where we actually got some backstory

on the characters And then I would also say that

that like you I like the first episode the death

stone. I thought that one worked out nicely And

again at that point we were not tired of these

You know use plots Yeah, no Who are some of your

favorite characters from the show? I liked Rax

and Vanessa a lot and I know they get used quite

a bit during the series. Rax is kind of like

Shipwreck from G .I. Joe in a way. Mainly because

the voice actor portraying him is using sort

of a Jack Nicholson like impression which i i

like plus he just seems to be a strong character

overall i mean he's he's goofy he has all these

things happen to him i mean it's where some of

the slapstick comedy comes from in the episodes

he gets tossed around he gets thrown from his

vehicle a lot other other members of the team

make fun of him but he's also not Somebody who's

just going to take a beating either, you know,

he gives as good as he gets a lot of times You

know, he doesn't he doesn't take all this flack

from miles. He's he's willing to stand up for

himself And just seems like one of the one of

the stronger characters on the villain side Even

though we don't get a lot of backstory on him.

Really? I still think he's a fun character to

watch Oh, absolutely And I think that that he

and Vanessa play well off of each other Yeah,

oh very much so Yeah, I mean I agree with you

and they are racks in this are two of my favorites

as well I like Gloria in some aspects. It just

depends on what they give her to do Did too I

think that she is she looks like an interesting

character and sometimes she comes off as this

strong female character That you really want

to root for but then there are episodes they

bring her in and it's almost like She's not even

there. I mean there were some episodes where

she was called in because you know, she had an

amphibious vehicle and you know, she like Shows

up toward the end of an episode to rescue somebody

who's drowning or something. I mean It isn't

user very effectively a lot of times Nope, not

at all I Like Alex, I think he's really cool,

but his mask is a little strange Jack rabbit

is It's cool, but it's just thought the whole

point of the show and the whole point of the

concept of wearing a mask is you don't expose

your face and if you look at his mask his entire

mouth and you know beard are like there's a center

point where he can breathe out of his mouth and

it's like I thought the whole point of these

things was that they had you know Breathing machine,

you know, it's Darth Vader. They have breathing

machines in them Yeah, right. I and I I'm going

to agree with you. I have him down as one of

my favorite characters on the mask team but and

I've said this on earlier episodes that I Just

I don't like the mask design for Alex. I don't

like Jack rabbit That's the helmet and his powers

it just I don't think it fits as well in the

series as a lot of the other ones do Yeah I wish

Hondo was used more. He wasn't used enough. Especially

in those later episodes. I mean he basically

disappeared and you brought in like Julio and

whoever else and I just don't think he was used

enough. For characters I don't like... I guess

I'll start out with the obvious three. We can

see this coming folks. You can see it coming

a mile away. Matt Tracker, Scott Tracker and

T -Bob. They are three of the worst 80s cartoon

characters ever. Matt Tracker is easily the worst

80s cartoon dad. Yeah, that was actually one

of the points made on one of the bonus features

on the sets. The fans that are talking about

the show and one of them actually makes that

point that he's one of the worst fathers ever

He's always sending Scott off. He never knows

what he's doing. He's always getting into trouble

Yep, terrible parenting Just horrible parenting

And then Scott and T Bob themselves, they're

just annoying there is I think I think I mentioned

it it was either episode 23 or 24 of the podcast

The only time I really felt any emotion out of

Scott was when he thought T -Bob was dead or

something or other. But the rest of the time

he treats T -Bob like a piece of crap. I mean,

I know T -Bob is a a robot. He has no feelings.

But I mean, if this thing is supposed to be your

best friend, at least be nice to the damn thing.

Last thing we need is, you know. You know t1000's,

you know t -bob turning into the t1000 or anything

like that. Um Rampage t -bob just going around

killing people. Yeah um as far as other characters,

I don't like I As I said, I wish they used dusty

buddy, um and hondo more yeah they didn't uh

and even brad they stopped using brad for a while

too it's like if you're gonna have this elite

group of people why are you not using all of

them or at least you know interchanging all of

them throughout each episode like the last what

was it 50 or so episodes We got, like I said,

Julio, and we got somebody else, and it's like,

oh god. And if they would have stopped going

to the godforsaken South American jungle, or

Venezuelan jungle, or jungle in China, or jungle,

it's like, oh my god. How about having some city

adventures, damn it. Right. I mean, here's the

issue is that it's not necessarily that they're...

my least favorite characters, just like I don't

think they are yours, is just that they didn't

have the character development that they deserved.

We know that Gloria, for example, that she is

into martial arts. I don't know that they ever

actually use that in the episodes. Let's say

that Bruce Sato, okay, he's a toy designer, so

he can obviously... He has some engineering background

he can invent things when did he ever use that?

Ingenuity in an episode to help defeat venom

never Was it see I think was buddy that was the

master of disguises Mm -hmm. They did use that

a couple of times. They did use that. Yeah Yeah,

they did use that a few times and used it very

effectively But yeah for the most part they they

just didn't and you know, that's one of the one

of the Downfalls of this show of the show was

that they could have done that more effectively

Absolutely What are some of your least favorite

characters? So my least favorite characters are

basically the leads So so Matt and miles are

my two least favorite I just they're just not

effective leaders either one of them You know

Matt He's just he's No, he's just so dry. His

delivery is so dry. I just don't see him being

the strong leader. Yes, he has the money. He

has the tools. But I don't see him as being a

motivator. And like I said, he can't keep track

of where Scott is. So points off for that. And

then, yes, Miles is, he's a dirty, conniving,

you know, evil leader. He treats his people like

crap. Again, we really don't get any any development

with him development with him either You know,

he's just he's just evil and he's just out to

do evil things for no apparent reason Yep, pretty

much Overall I cannot say As I mentioned before

the theme song the music Some of the animation

in the first 25 episodes of the series is awesome

But I I just on a whole I cannot say anything

good about the show I I Don't know it just like

Don't get me wrong, you know, and I'm not confusing

this when I say I cannot say anything good about

mask I'm specifically talking about the cartoon

series I love the toys. The toys were amazing

and they still are. So I'm not, you know, sitting

here bashing the toys at all, but like you have,

and when we've said this, you have, let's see,

G .I. Joe, Transformers, He -Man, Thundercats,

Voltron, Silverhawks. That's at least six. Gem.

Uh, what else? Ninja Turtles. Turtles. Real Ghostbusters.

Real Ghostbusters. That's close to nine cartoon

series that have very well done writing. And

arguably, as you said earlier, this is probably

the best concept. They took GI Joe and Transformers

and combined them. You would think that they

would get better writers. to write, and I know

the 80s cartoons were not continuity driven like

everything is today, but Jesus Christ, how, you

know what, I really want, out of those 65 episodes,

I want somebody to go back and count how many

treasure hunts Mayhem went on, because oh my

god, there were way too many, and it had to have

been at least 95 % of the series' treasure hunts.

Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, that was just a

recurring theme through every episode. Well,

for a lot of episodes. And like you said, this

had the right formula. It really did. It had

some interesting designs as far as the suits

and the masks go. And the vehicles were really

well done. Boulder Hill was nicely designed.

They had a great design team that worked on this

show. Yeah, it was just putting it together with

the right writers, you know developing a good

series Bible and allowing the writers to you

know to branch out a bit and to you know have

some freedom have some fun with it and Take it

in in some different directions rather than you

know trying to follow this very strict formula

of okay We've got to start out with with mask

doing something trying to figure out this mystery

and it's probably going to be in some remote

location, and then we're going to have Matt call

in some of the M .A .S .S. members whom he needs,

and then we'll have some mystery, and we'll kill

some time with Scott and T -Bob running off doing

something, and then we'll come back to the main

point of the episode, and probably about halfway

through, or maybe a little bit over, we'll reveal

that Venom is the one behind it, which we know

all along. And then we'll have a battle, and

we'll wrap it up. That was the formula. But you

said the toys were very good, and I do agree.

I've gone online. I've looked at a lot of pictures

of the toys. I don't personally have any in my

collection of things. My brother did have Thunderhawk

at one point. But they're very cool looking toys.

And you know what? They're on model with what

you see on the TV show. They're very nicely done.

Yep. I had Thunderhawk, Raven, Rhino. I had Boulder

Hill, the play set. Nice. So. And this is one

of those cases, too, where you have a TV show

that is, well, it's developed to sell toys. But

the toys actually were done well. There are some

cartoon series where the toys, in my opinion,

really weren't done very well. And two of them,

we've already mentioned Silverhawks and Thundercats.

I think those toys, just in general, were just...

Terrible and I know that it was a different toy

company that produced them and and I didn't have

I'll say this about I'll say this about Silverhawks

and Thundercats or Silvercats and Thunderhawks

is that The Silverhawks were a better toy design

than Thundercats Thundercats were stout stubby

figures the sort of omens that supposedly came

with lino was really like cheap cheap plastic

the only really two great amazing oh my god things

that came out of the thundercats line and i had

them both cad slayer and the thunder tank right

and the thunder those were awesome but the figures

themselves yeah no um And see that's the cool

thing about the mass toys is the figure came

with the vehicle instead of this You know, you

can get this vehicle action figure sold separately.

Yes, like oh my god. Yeah, that's right Yeah,

and they fit in their vehicles, too Fitting the

vehicles came with the came with the mask helmets

and everything else See, that's it for season

one. We have ten episodes of the pod while we

have No, we don't have 10 episodes of the podcast

left. We have four episodes of the podcast left.

But those are going to be dedicated to the 10

episodes that's called the Racing Series Season

2 of M .A .S .K. We're going to take a quick

ad break, come back with our little teases for

Season 2 after this. Now for a behind the scenes

look at GeekCast Radio Network's newest show,

Talking in Circles. So, Chuck, Greg, what are

you guys thinking for this week's show? Well,

Dan, how about we just talk about the things

that we've read or watched this week? We do reviews

like that every week, Chuck. How about a game,

like Factor Fiction, or The Power of Names? Those

are great, and we're always coming up with new

ideas for games. And how about some top fives?

You know how I love my top fives. What about...

tournament style brackets or sequel reboot and

destroy who will win in a fight taking too far

crazy but true news or yes it appears we have

lots of things to work on listen to talking in

circles taking timeless topics in new directions

every tuesday on itunes or geekcastradio .com

the geek cast radio network hey dan who's the

guy with the creepy voice It isn't 65 years in

the future, but Legends of the Dark Knight has

gone beyond. Batman -beyond, that is. Ears are

too long and I missed the cape, but not too shabby,

not too shabby at all. Join Steve and Mike as

they delve into the remaining episodes of the

podcast where they'll cover Batman Beyond, products,

games and more. Check it out only on GeekCastRadio

.com. 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 premieres 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. Are

you ready for more? Let's go! Alright, we are

back here on Mass Mayhem episode 26 and for season

2, up until watching it for the podcast, I do

not remember anything from these 10 episodes

whatsoever. I have not, like, until Shout Factory

made the announcement a number of years ago that

they were putting out the DVD set, I mean, I

thought about Mask, you know, in passing, but

I haven't... I hadn't... Up until Optimus Solo

and I wanted to start this show because of the

DVD set coming out and because we wanted to go

back and look at it and see if it is what we

remembered it isn't. You know, I hadn't thought

of Mask in... Well, coming up next year is its

30th anniversary, so I haven't... Until we started

doing this podcast, I hadn't thought of Mask

in 30 years. And... Remember nothing about the

second season Until we started watching it and

I was rediscovering it and that's what we're

gonna be getting in 27 28 and 29 Of the of the

podcast and then episode 30 optimus soul is gonna

come back and the three of us are gonna close

out mass mayhem And the podcast will be done

What do you do? Have you had you gone back to

look at the racing season at all or anything

before this? No, I really hadn't. And even the

original season, the first season, I I don't

recall ever having seen the cartoon series growing

up. I knew of it. I saw commercials for the toys.

And obviously, like I said, my brother had the

Thunderhawk and I remember seeing the commercial

for Rhino and wanting that toy, but I never got

it. So that's really the familiarity I had with

it and I had completely forgotten about this

series ever having existed until I was watching

probably some YouTube videos on like top Cartoon

themes from the 80s and I was like wow, you know

that I remember that, you know, I remember those

toys and and I remember the theme song so Don't

know where I heard it. Maybe I did watch some

some episodes, but I certainly don't remember

watching any when I was a kid It's not something

I would have watched regularly or I would have

recalled it but yeah Season two I I have no clue

really I I've said before that being called the

racing season. I kind of have this vision in

my head of what that's supposed to be like and

I don't know if it's gonna measure up to that

or not Alls I can think of is Sweet Daddy D and

Bubba J. Oh, look, they're making a left turn.

They're making another left turn. I wonder what's

gonna happen next. Come back in 10 minutes. You

ain't gonna miss a thing. Oh, God. Yeah. Yeah,

when I first heard they were calling it the racing

series. And it's nothing. Like... wish mask had

been more successful with this because with the

cartoon because it could have been one of those

jobs I mean don't get me wrong when people say

mobile armored strike command you know exactly

what they're talking about and you know It's

just one of those things you know because it's

part of your childhood from the 80s as a child

of the 80s. But going back and looking into it

further, it's just like one of those mysteries

you never want to uncover. I mean, it's like

the alien goop stuff in the 1998 X -Files film.

Those guys should have never broken into that

cave. It's just one of those things. Just leave

it alone. Just let it be. Just don't even get

in any trouble Yeah, it might have been good

the first time around but leave it be yes very

much so leave it be Well, and the thing is you

know people remember the show Yeah, they do know

it's just that it doesn't have the following

that other shows do and reason being that it

just doesn't hold up that when you're you know

seven or eight years old or somewhere around

there it seems like it's fun but you know there

as far as i know there aren't mass conventions

like there are for other popular series from

that era no i don't think so um i know there

was Power and Thunder con which was he man and

Thunder cats convention That was back when the

2011 series was going on for Thunder cats I don't

think that convention is even going anymore with

he man at this point which kind of sucks, but

but yeah, no I You know mask at this point is

something you see on like Toy Hunter with Jordan

Hindenborough on the Travel Channel. I mean,

it is nothing. There's nothing going on with

it. I know on Twitter we have some followers.

I think it's called Mask, the movie they're trying

to put together. I would have to look it up and

find it, but they've been really supportive of

the show, even though we were on a two year hiatus.

But, you know, it just. I hate to be repetitive,

folks, but as Tim said, this show, just animation

-wise, on certain episodes, it holds up very

well and it looks very awesome. Oh, yeah. But

storyline -wise, this is atrocious. If I can

only have a top five out of 65 total episodes

for the first season, there's something wrong.

folks there's really something wrong um so season

two is coming up the racing season as i said

over episode 27 28 29 of the podcast uh coming

up next we're going to be talking about demolition

duel to the death um uh let's see other one uh

wear eagles dare and homeward bound I didn't

know Michael J. Fox and Sally Field were in this

show. It's a bad Disney joke. All right. So that's

going to do it for this episode of Mass Mayhem.

We will catch you next time when we talk about

the racing series. For now, I am TFG1 Mike with

Toon Master Tim. Podcasting is the ultimate weapon.