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Published: 2009-04-28 14:47:49 +0000 UTC; Views: 8988; Favourites: 79; Downloads: 0
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Description
I love the old 1980s cartoon series MASK (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand). If you never heard of them they are a highly trained international special mission team that wage war against their polar opposites VENOM (the Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem), an international terrorist group dedicated to wealth and power by force. Both teams use illusion as their ultimate weapons in their goals and each team possess ordinary vehicles that can become high tech war machines.
If GI Joe and Transformers had a child, MASK would be it.
Matt Trakker is the leader and co-founder of MASK. The PNA (Peaceful Nations Alliance) contracted Matt Trakker and his younger brother Andy, a teenage prodigy and mechanical genius and older brother Joseph, a career military man. Also assigned to the task force was decorated United States Air Force Major Miles Mayhem. Together the Trakker's and Mayhem developed a special task force that could deploy anywhere in the world and operate covertly among most any civilian locale.
Matt, an independently wealthy billionaire playboy supplied much of the financial backing for the group while Andy designed and developed the MASK vehicles and power helmets. Joseph was to lead the hand picked team of MASK agents while Miles Mayhem acted as a military advisor and tactician.
Being an idealist and optimist Matt often clashed with the rigid and bitter views of Mayhem over tactics and how the team should be run but he developed a grudging respect for Mayhem's vast military knowledge and innovative ideas concerning the development of the weapons.
Unknown to all, Mayhem plotted from the beginning to steal the MASK vehicles and found his own mercenary terrorist team code-named VENOM.
During the last day of desert trials of the completed MASK team and vehicles Miles Mayhem set up an ambush using his VENOM agents who then killed Joseph Trakker and the original MASK team. Matt, who was attached to the team that day as a civilian observer, survived the attack and managed to make a makeshift sail powered vehicle to get back to base.
When Matt arrived he was horrified to find the test facility was on fire and he was only able to rescue a badly injured Andy from the flames. Andy revealed Miles' betrayal of the group and how he stole half of the plans Andy had developed, but he managed to save the other half and give them to Matt before dying in his older brother's arms.
From that day on Matt Trakker vowed to bring Miles Mayhem to justice and dedicated his life to making the MASK team a force for good in the world. Matt hand-picked a new team of trusted friends and experts in various fields to make his new team and develop the vehicles and technology his brother Andy created.
Despite his vow and total dedication to MASK and it's mission, Matt keeps up his public persona of being a wealthy playboy who sky dives for sport and races cars for charity. Matt spends much of his spare time with his adopted son Scott who often accompanies his father on his many trips around the world.
Codenamed Hunter, Matt has proven to be an excellent leader, expert fighter pilot and a brilliant tactician in his own right making him the bane of Miles Mayhem's existence.
Matt Trakker pilots Thunderhawk, a red Chevrolet Camaro G3, which can transform into a gull-winged fighter jet with amazing maneuverability and speed on land and in the air. When piloting Thunderhawk Matt often wears Spectrum mask which is one of the most versatile and powerful masks developed for the team. Spectrum can fire a sonic force wave that can deafen people temporarily, disorient them and can cause them unbearable pain. Spectrum mask can also disrupt radio transmissions on any frequency.
Spectrum can envelope Matt in a glowing low yield anti-gravity field that allows him a limited ability to glide and it can act like a parachute when he's in free fall. The glider function can be employed while Spectrum uses it's sonic based and visual functions though this can drain the mask's energy rapidly and damage it if it's used for too long.
Spectrum also allows Trakker to see in different visual spectrums and can project different spectrums of light which makes it an invaluable tool for tracking enemies, and finding clues on missions.
Forever striving to be ready for whatever the team may encounter Matt wears the most masks of any member of the team many developed for special missions. Matt is also the pilot and/or co-pilot for Rhino, Volcano, Goliath, Hornet, Coast Patrol, Jungle Rescue and Skybolt.
MASK and above characters copyright Hasbro
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Comments: 37
joebev910 [2024-09-30 20:49:09 +0000 UTC]
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ssaffr01 [2017-09-27 09:01:26 +0000 UTC]
You know in the comics he's black. (I wanna say)
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MJMJR In reply to ssaffr01 [2017-09-27 16:32:35 +0000 UTC]
Β In the original comics, and cartoon from the 1980s Matt Trakker is blonde haired, blue eyed and white. It's the way the original creators made him and it's the way I'm keeping him and all the other characters from MASK. I don't believe in race-bending or gender bending original characters. It just seems overtly racist and sexist on top of shitting on the original creator's vision of the character.Β
The current comic (which was cancelled because of poor sales after 8 issues) was just a bad reboot written by an idiot who decided to change every character to suit his weird ass vision of making it a Fast and Furious rip-off instead of the kick-ass secret agents vs terrorists theme it's been for over 30 years.Β
To me making Matt Trakker black was just as idiotic as having a white British woman play the character of the Ancient One in the Doctor Strange movie. The character is supposed to be an elderly Asian male.Β
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BMWTaylor In reply to MJMJR [2018-03-02 03:36:14 +0000 UTC]
As a fortysomething MASK fan from the old school, I can say without hesitation that the swift demise of the comic was a mercy killing.
I personally didn't have a huge problem with Matt being black.Β Indian Gloria Baker, however, was BEYOND idiotic. No idea what IDW was thinking with that one.
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MJMJR In reply to BMWTaylor [2018-03-02 05:17:59 +0000 UTC]
I honest to God hate when they race bend or gender bend established characters. Like they could have just made new agents and expanded both teams that way and it wouldn't have pissed people off so bad.Β
Besides the race stuff that whole thing was a shit show from issue 1. The writer purposely went out of his way to make fun of the fans and with the exception of Mayhem and Warfield wrote every character wrong.Β
If you follow the link to my group MASK Fans United on the deviation page you can see I wrote a few journals about the series and pretty much everyone in the group feels the same as us.Β
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MJMJR In reply to Megatron1997 [2017-05-24 04:09:46 +0000 UTC]
I did a better version of Matt later on. I plan on redoing some of the earlier MASK art pieces because I wasn't entirely happy with how they came out. Plus I am a lot better at textures and faces now.
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Megatron1997 In reply to MJMJR [2017-05-24 04:22:14 +0000 UTC]
Which mask is he wearing? Also I was saying he reminds me of char aznable.
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MJMJR In reply to Megatron1997 [2017-05-24 04:30:10 +0000 UTC]
Spectrum. It's right in the title.Β
I don't know who that is.
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Megatron1997 In reply to MJMJR [2017-05-24 04:39:17 +0000 UTC]
You ever see mobile suit gundam? He's the guy with blonde hair and a mask. He has a thing for red mechs that go three times faster and his nom de Guerre is the red comet.
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MJMJR In reply to Megatron1997 [2017-05-24 06:09:32 +0000 UTC]
I tried watching Gundam ages ago but it never grabbed me. I just didn't care for it.
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FlapjackStantz [2014-11-01 14:55:32 +0000 UTC]
Hey wonderman, I was wondering if you ever saw the episode "Green Nightmare", which features flashbacks of Matt's dad, whose name is also Andrew.
If so, what did you think of it?
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MJMJR In reply to FlapjackStantz [2014-11-01 15:18:55 +0000 UTC]
I have all the episodes on DVD. That also showed the origins of the power crystal the team used to energize their masks.Β
I thought it was a good episode. I wish they had done more to touch on the origins of the Trakker brothers like the comics did but still I thought it was cool seeing what Matt's father was like even if it was only briefly.Β
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MJMJR In reply to Junesguy [2012-04-05 23:53:29 +0000 UTC]
Thanks I'm going to re-do his head shot eventually since I'm not happy with how Trakker looks in it.
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Gothiczartan [2012-03-28 08:40:35 +0000 UTC]
I've been thinking a out doing a turn around of the members of M.A.S.K. and Venom. I could so the rear view of every characters since I just seen the front view like Matt you have up here.
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MJMJR In reply to Gothiczartan [2012-03-28 10:19:26 +0000 UTC]
I bought all the characters I've drawn. You can actually get a hold of loose MASK figures fairly cheap on eBay.
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GokuMartin [2011-12-28 08:48:48 +0000 UTC]
M.A.S.K. crusaders!
Working overtime, fighting crime, fighting crime!
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MJMJR In reply to GokuMartin [2011-12-28 11:11:07 +0000 UTC]
Yes!
I have lots of MASK art in my gallery if you're interested in checking it out
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guyverunit05 [2009-12-04 07:13:15 +0000 UTC]
I must ask, do u have any of the toys? Cuse I am trying to find some pics of them and I want to see all the diffrent masks and vehicles in some detale. I see the toys on Ebay and cant see any of the masks very well. I'd like that if u can put up pics of the toys!
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MJMJR In reply to guyverunit05 [2009-12-04 14:26:25 +0000 UTC]
I actually have most of the original toys but My camera isn't good enough to get detailed pictures of their masks because of their size. I've tried before and they come out blurry or too shiney to see detail.
If you can find the UK Comics, they had a lot of highly detailed pictures and art of the original figures, masks and vehicles. Also Albert Penello's Mask Fan page has a lot of large pictures and scans of the toys and blue prints. You can find his page by doing a Google Search
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guyverunit05 In reply to MJMJR [2009-12-05 04:06:09 +0000 UTC]
thanks anyways ill try the comics.
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MJMJR In reply to guyverunit05 [2009-12-05 04:41:30 +0000 UTC]
Sorry I couldn't be more help.
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donatien1740 [2009-04-28 18:06:24 +0000 UTC]
Reading your bio of him, I must applaud you because I think you showed his character very good in his facial expression!!
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MJMJR In reply to donatien1740 [2009-04-29 00:33:49 +0000 UTC]
Hehehe thanks so much! I guess watching every episode of the cartoon and reading every comic from the US and UK series was worth it. His character is sort of like Bruce Wayne/Batman in a way. He's very happy go lucky and snarky to people but when he's on a mission he becomes all business. Though it still doesn't stop him from making wise ass remarks and puns during the fights.
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