M.A.S.K. is a 1985 science fiction animated television series produced by DIC and ICC TV Productions, Ltd. The series was based on the action figures of the same name produced by Kenner Products (acquired by Hasbro in 1991). It was animated in Japan by Ashi Productions, Studio World and K.K. DiC Asia (later known as K.K. C&D Asia).
M.A.S.K. (an acronym for "Mobile Armored Strike Kommand") is a special task force led by Matt Trakker, who operate transforming armored vehicles in their ongoing battle against the criminal organization V.E.N.O.M. (an acronym for Vicious Evil Network Of Mayhem) with an emphasis on superpowered helmets (called "masks") worn by the characters of both factions. The background is that Matt former business partner Miles Mayhem betrayed him, killed Matt's brother Andy Trakker, and stole some of the masks which used to form V.E.N.O.M. and distribute to his minions. Matt formed M.A.S.K. which also consists of Hondo MacLean, Dusty Hayes, Bruce Sato, Alec Sector, Jacques LaFleur, Nevada Rushmore, Julio Lopez, Calhoun Burns, Buddie Hawks, Ace Riker, and Gloria Baker.
V.E.N.O.M.'s primary goal is obtaining money through either robbery, extortion, counterfeiting, kidnapping, or attempting to steal historical artifacts as he leads Cliff Dagger, Sly Rax, Vanessa Warfield, Bruno Sheppard, Floyd Malloy, and Nash Gorey into committing these crimes. M.A.S.K. always foils their plans.
The second season details some racing episodes that involved M.A.S.K. and V.E.N.O.M. competing in different races as M.A.S.K. prevents V.E.N.O.M. from causing trouble. While M.A.S.K. gained Boris Bushkin and Ali Bombay as new members, V.E.N.O.M. gained Lester Sludge and Miles' brother Maximus as new members.
Each episode ends with a safety tip told by either someone from M.A.S.K. or V.E.N.O.M.
A total of 75 syndicated episodes over two seasons were broadcast from September 1985 to November 1986. The first season consisted of 65 episodes. The second season, whose theme deemphasized crimefighting in favor of auto racing, lasted only ten episodes.
One of many cartoons produced during the 1980s as a vehicle for toy merchandising, M.A.S.K. was a hybrid of popular era cartoons ' and The Transformers. When originally broadcast, M.A.S.K. was the first closed-captioned series to air in first-run syndication.
Several episodes of the series were released under Karl-Lorimar's "Kideo Video" branding on VHS in the 1980s, with two episodes per tape. The "racing" second season was distributed by Tempest Video.
In the United Kingdom, two releases titled M.A.S.K The Movie, and M.A.S.K The Movie II were released by Tempo Video, featuring episodes edited into a feature-length format. Several episodes of season one were distributed by The Video Collection in association with Karl Lorimar's Kideo Video, then a lot of these episodes would be distributed on later VHS tapes by Castle Vision. The episodes from season two were distributed by Golden Book Video.
M.A.S.K. episodes have been released on DVD in three different regions:
While certain critics criticized the show for showing the weaponry and vehicles "at the expense of anything deeper in terms of plotting and characterization", the show was quite successful. IGN voted M.A.S.K. the 99th-best animated series in 2009, calling it one of the most popular cartoon/toy marketing franchises of the 1980s, stating that it took many of the strengths of G.I. Joe and Transformers while taking few of their flaws.
In 2015, Hasbro and Paramount were planning a cinematic universe combining M.A.S.K. with G.I. Joe, ', Micronauts, and Rom. In April 2016, a writers' room was formed consisting of Michael Chabon, Brian K. Vaughan, Nicole Perlman, Cheo Coker, John Francis Daley, and others to develop storylines, but it disbanded in July 2017. The next year, F. Gary Gray was attached as the director for a live-action M.A.S.K. adaptation, with Chris Bremner hired in 2020 to write the script. The project has since remained in development.