MASK season 2

 I never got to watch this second season of the fantastic MASK cartoon, as it never was aired overhere back then.

 

But thanks to the magic of YouTube, I finally caught up in the swansong of this saturday morning cartoon and toyline.

 

Now don't get me wrong, as a kid, and even now still as a collector, MASK has always been my second favorite toyline, the honour of first being held for StarCom.  But where the first season and the whole take on the series was a world of MASK agents trying to stop the evil VENOM organisation from crimes, the second season went to... the races.  Who ever decided on that?

 

On the other hand, I always loved the Razorback toy, reminds me to find one to update my slowly yellowing one I guess.

 

Now, in a cartoon and toy infused market, this new angle wasn't a success, and it resulted in a short series of only a dozen episodes.  But the toys that came out with them where as great as the first line, though felt less "military" to compete with GI Joe, and Transformers had really cornered the market by this point on transformation gimmicks.  But they where still better then the Split Seconds series that came after this, of which not even cartoons where ever made to tell the story of the toys.

 

And it is odd they used the intro music still from the first season and line, meaning you don't see anything of that during the season...  

 

 The story of the season is that they participate in a demolition derby, which doesn't have any rules.  Other episodes include confrontations for trade rights and the likes, and it still forms in a rough way the same sort of stories as the first series... but the race gimmick just detracts from it to be honest.

 

What has been kept though is the little "morale lesson" at the end of the episodes, like not taking a bath with your radio and the likes, or leaving stuff cluttering around in order to prevent accidents.

 

Was it a good series?  Actually, yeah, though I might be biased considering my love for the franchise ever since I was a wee little bloke.  But does it stand up to the original series?  Not by a long shot, though it does leave a bit of a curiosity taste of "what if" the final toyline series had also been animated...