Tuesday 29 September 2020

Interview with Robert Grignani - MASKforce.com

Through my M.A.S.K. pages I’ve become friends with many other M.A.S.K. fans around the world.  I became friends with Robert Grignani back in 2014. 

After a hiatus from the M.A.S.K. scene, Robert has come back with one fantastic site.  I had a little chat with Robert to find out more…

M.A.S.K. Comics (MC):  Hey Robert, it’s good to have you back on the scene!

Robert Grignani (RG):  Thanks, so much Scott. Great to be back and more involved again!

MC:  Firstly, can you please let my readers know a little bit about yourself?

RG: I’m a father of two boys and one girl and my eldest Rayner was instrumental in getting the website made. By day I work in the medical industry and I was 8 when M.A.S.K first came out so my age can be calculated. I’m a collector of predominantly 80’s toys with M.A.S.K as my first focus. As a collector of nostalgia, I do like the toys opened so that they can be held and admired. But I was and am a huge fan of the packaging art from the 80s and the history of the production and animation process. They really took the time to make something special. So, in addition to the toys, I collect the boxes and packaging of the toys, comics, animation cels/comic art and Any prototype/preproduction items as I can get my hands on them.

MC:  When we first chatted all of those years ago, you were running the Epic Toy Box page, can you tell us more about that?

RG: Would be delighted. With the collection I had, I thought it would be a great idea to share it online and be another portal to reintroduce our generation to relive their childhood. I decided to predominantly share via a Facebook page as it was more interactive and had plans for a Website. A couple years later I transitioned primarily to Instagram. It was great connecting with other like-minded collectors and new fans of the toys and cartoons. The demographic and interactions on the pages, especially on Instagram, was and is quite different to being on Facebook groups. 

MC:  M.A.S.K. is what brought us together – how do you get into M.A.S.K.?

RG: So like many, I’ve been a fan since I was 8 years old when M.A.S.K first came out as a toy and cartoon. I didn’t collect then, instead enjoyed the toys as they should be for playing. I fondly remember recreating the scenes from the cartoons. I would even bring Gator and Piranha in to the bath! It wasn’t until I was in university when the toy collecting bug hit. 

MC:  Like me, you have the full collection of the UK M.A.S.K. comics – how did you get into these?

RG: To be perfectly honest where I grew up for some reason, we didn’t get the UK comics, at least I didn’t see them. It is weird as I used to read the Beano and Dandy. I vaguely remember having 1 or 2 issues as a kid. What I did have were the DC comics and the mini comics that came with the first series. As an adult collector my love of all things toy and animation art brought me further into the comics realm and I proceeded to collect comics based on 80’s toy lines. Over the years I had collected the UK M.A.S.K comics as the opportunity presented itself and had about 50% of them. This year I had the opportunity to get the whole set and jumped at that chance. 

MC:  So, you have the comics from other countries, which country do you think did the M.A.S.K. comic best?

RG: Man that is a loaded question. I think each has their pros with no cons. I think it often boils down to nostalgia. The DC comics were more tailored to be in line with the cartoon and did an amazing Job. As I grew up with these, the nostalgia index kinda tips it. It also helps that Joe Del Beato, the amazing inker of the first run is a friend of mine for many years now. I also had the opportunity to get to know the lovely family of the late Bob LeRose who was the Colourist on the DC run. 



The UK comics are amazing. What is unique is that each artist brings their own style and feel. Artists such as David Pugh were able to bring hyper-realism of the toys themselves. I was fortunate to be able to get my hands on a couple of pages from David and this Switchblade in Jet mode is better than the box art, I think. I’m just in awe of the art. It is truly art, not just comic art. 

MC:  Indeed, David Pugh's artwork really brought M.A.S.K to life for me!

From a collector’s point of view, it isn’t just the comics you have, how big is your M.A.S.K. collection?

RG: I’ve been lucky to start my collecting journey in the early 2000s before the collecting waves and recent surge. As for the collection itself, currently everything on MASKFORCE.com is all from our personal collection. I wanted to have control and time to do the spins. It was a matter of finding the best item for the spins so I ransacked my toy shelves. To see more of the collection, it might be easier to redirect your readers to our Instagram or Facebook page (links below). We do occasionally do live feeds and have interactive sessions. 

MC:  Are there any items you don’t have in your collection that you are looking for?

RG: My main focus is now on prototypes and original art. I’m always on the lookout for any preproduction items be it concept art, slides, internal Kenner documents, proofs, unproduced toys, prototype toys, as well as original comic art and animation cels. Novelty items such as various M.A.S.K stickers and naturally any comics from countries that I haven’t posted about are things I’m also hunting down. 

MC:  Apart from M.A.S.K., what other properties do you collect?

RG: When I first started collecting, I focused on toys that I had as a kid such as M.A.S.K, G.I Joe, Silverhawks, Centurions, Starcom, Transformers and MOTU. I then expanded to toy lines that I remember watching the cartoons from and went in from there. That being said M.A.S.K was and still is the top. Since then I have decided to focus the number of toy lines and so my focus apart from M.A.S.K are Centurions, Sky Commanders, Silverhawks and BraveStarr.

MC:  You recently contacted myself about your new page, M.A.S.K. Force, tell us all about it?

RG: Yeah, I’m so excited to present MASKFORCE.com. I’ve always appreciated seeing toys in motion and wanted to replicate that and present the whole Kenner M.A.S.K toy line with 360 spins. There are a lot of amazing M.A.S.K sites out there and our aim was compliment them and come up with a different “spin” on the presentation of the toys. We hope we can be a resource for both new and old collectors alike and be a handy reference guide. 


MC:  That sounds awesome, how long did it take to complete?

RG: For about 5 years I’ve been contemplating this project, flirting with ideas. Finally, this year we started it in earnest and have been working hard on it for the last half of the year. I say “we” as this was a combined effort with my eldest son Rayner. Without him MASKFORCE.com would not be up and running as it is today. It’s still a work in process but we wanted to get the spins out first and make them the star. But we do have lots more planned!

MC:  Ok, so, what I’m really interested in – you have rotating 3D, I guess are they GIF’s?, on your site.  How did you manage to create these?

RG: Great question. When designing the site, we experimented with different products on the market and settled with using spins of many images compared to a GIF. This allowed for smoother spins with better control. These are not videos or GIFs but each spin is made up of individual pics of the toys from all angles. 



MC:  They are bloody awesome and the colours as so vibrant!

RG: Thank you so much. Credit goes to my boy who did a fabulous job!

MC:  Now, you messaged me recently with some great news about an update to your site, can you please let everyone know what that is?

RG: Yes! I’m happy to present a new section that has been requested. It was always planned, but the sheer number of issues made it a daunting task. I’m naturally talking about the UK comics. We have added the covers of the full run of the Original 80 issues and specials as well as most of the Eagle and M.A.S.K issues. All covers can be zoomed into and enjoyed in high definition.

This is just the start and as we will be expanding on this section in the future and I’m hoping this can be a collaborative effort between MASKFORCE and M.A.S.K Comics. So, stay tuned for more!

MC:  That’s brilliant – thank you very much for coming to us first with this.

RG: Appreciate the invite. I couldn’t think of a more fitting place to present the UK comics. 

MC:  I’ve set up a hyperlink here to M.A.S.K. Force – can you let us know any of your other sites that the readers should look up? 

RG: Sure thing, our 80s toy collection can be found on our Epic Toy Box Instagram page @epic_toy_box and on our EpicToyBoxFacebook page

I do want to make one final shout out to your readers. If anyone wants to share pictures of their collections, customs or childhood photos of them with their toys I’d be delighted to show them on our MASKFORCE community collections page. 

Thank you again for having us. Was a blast!

MC: It was a pleasure having this chat and good luck with the new site!!


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