My 5 year old son has started watching Transformers Rescue Bots.
I don't really get the premise of it myself - you have a handful of Autobots who have come to Earth and are disguised as various rescue vehicles. They work in co-operation with some humans on the fictional island of Griffin Rock where they all live.
There don't seem to be any Decipticons, there is no war and barely seems worthy of the name "Transformers".
However, The Transformers series of movies are aimed at the older generation - having a 12 certificate. So, having this cartoon series aimed at younger kids opens up the Transformers Universe. Start them off young and I guess they will then move onto the "Real" Transformers as they get older.
As my script is aimed at the same age group as The Transformers movies, I too came up with ideas from a more "child-friendly" version of M.A.S.K. This would allow cartoons, comics and toys to be marketed in a similar way.
Watching it, there seems something a little too familiar about it....
When I wrote my Open Letter to Hasbro back on the 16th of September 2014, I made reference to the M.A.S.K. Story that made it's way into and IDW comic book for a Comic Convention.
M.A.S.K. had become some sort of Police Task Force - a far cry from the M.A.S.K. that we know and love. Aimed at an older audience, there do appear to be some similarities to the bastardisation of Transformers mentioned above.
There is close symbiotic relationship between man and machine. Moreover, Transformers is becoming as much about the human characters as it is about the vehicles.
This is also true of the Movies. How else can you have a "live action" movie if you don't have any live action in it! In fact, maybe too much of the story is given over to the human characters.
Transformers is evermore like M.A.S.K. everyday. The vehicles are just tools used by the humans.
It is surely time that M.A.S.K. made it's return.
#assembleMASK #Hasbro #MASKComics
#DIC #MASKday
