Who's who in the MASK Universe? Why not read all about it down below...

MATT TRAKKER -- Matt was the leader of MASK and your stereotypical leader guy. The Captain America of the bunch who gave orders. Matt raised his son Scott apparently alone (the fate of Mrs. Trakker was never revealed). Matt, his brother Andy and Miles Mayhem were the creators of the original masks before Miles betrayed them and took half of the masks for evil purposes. Matt had several different masks and vehicles. With Rhino he had the Ultra-Flash mask; Thunderhawk begat the more famously known Spectrum which has such super vision; Volcano came with the LavaShot mask; and Goliath had Matt using a mask known as Shroud which created a smokescreen.

BRUCE SATO -- Why was it that Bruce managed to be chosen for EVERY MASK mission? It was almost a given when Matt would ask for the MASK agents best suited, the computer would go "Bruce Sato... mechanical engineer and design specialist... vehicle code name: Rhino." And the poor guy, a toy designer, seemed to walk out of every meeting on what seemed like a daily basis. How did he keep his job? May also be considered as MASK's Yoda, as in a very stereotypical way Bruce would often speak in riddles.

ALEX SECTOR -- Can we get a red beard on Patrick Stewart for "MASK: The Movie?" Alex was MASK's resident brain and scientist. Liked to say silly things like "Tally Ho." His mask was called "Jackrabbit," and it made him jump really high. Yeah, I know, dumb power. He also hung out on Rhino, even though his action figures came with the Boulder Hill playset and a mail-away "Collector" tollbooth toy that took forever for them to deliver. My parents ended up complaining when it had been 4 months and still no Collector, so we ended up getting two (and before anyone asks -- I don't have a complete extra one, and even if I did, none are for sale).

GLORIA BAKER -- Grrrr. That's all I can say about this one. You see, Gloria Baker and her Shark vehicle is one of those great urban legends of MASK-dom. While the vehicle appeared on the show frequently, and Gloria DID have a figure made in the "Split Seconds" line, no one can seem to provide proof that a Shark vehicle actually DID exist. I remember when we took a vacation when I was 9 and we stopped everywhere to look for Shark and Manta (the only two I thought I was missing at the time). While Manta WAS eventually made a year and a half later with the racing series, Shark was never found. Adding to the mystery was a visit to a toy store in New Jersey that claimed they had Shark that morning, but sold out of them. Hmmm... if anyone knows where I can find a Shark, please tell me by e-mailing me at MASKAgent@aol.com!

BRAD TURNER -- Brad Turner was the kind of guy who would have been cool in the 80's, but if he was real, he'd probably be on VH1's "Behind the Music" by now. It was hinted that there was a little something going on between him & VENOM's Vanessa Warfield, too. His figure came with the Condor motorcycle toy, which at $5 turned out to be the toy that I'd always get my friends for their birthdays because it was all I (or rather, my mom) could afford. Brad's mask, "Hocus-Pocus," created holograms, and on the cartoon he always liked to use Condor's handy-dandy anti-matter ray.

HONDO McLEAN -- I don't mean to sound ignorant or racist here, but Hondo was probably only created to be the MASK token. Gloria Baker filled the female token role, now they needed a black guy to get the African-American kids to watch. Hondo was cool, though the only cool thing I remember him doing (besides having a cool mask) was when he saved Scott's life and almost died himself. Hondo had two variations of the Blaster mask, but strangely never wore his "Hurricane/Night Stalker" uniform shown on his action figure on the show. Also interesting to note about Hondo is that while Firecracker wasn't in the original MASK assortment, his character was mentioned in one of the mini-comics from the original run. Hondo, as a history teacher, was also the kind of teacher I'd want -- his watch would go off and he'd leave the class unsupervised. PARTY!

1980's cartoons had a trademark: Every show must have a kid sidekick or annoying character that kids can identify with. He-Man had Orko, the Thundercats had Snarf, and MASK had Scott and T-Bob. I'm in the minority because I actually liked these two, but I know there are many who didn't. It took them forever to make toys of this dynamic duo, and they never really did get the T-Bob action figure right. And here's a curious question: Whatever happened to Scott's mom?

BUDDIE "CLUTCH" HAWKS -- Ok, here's another great MASK mystery: If VENOM saw Boulder Hill turning into a fortress, why didn't they attack it secretly when it was in gas station mode? Duh. Buddie got stuck with sharing Firecracker until he finally got a vehicle of his own (and the nickname "Clutch") for the racing series. But as far as being a part of the team, Buddie was about as valid to the team as Uhura was on Star Trek -- SOMEBODY's got to sit around and pump gas at the fort while the others go out and do cool things like make pizza or, in Matt's case, lounge around telling Scott to buckle his safety belt and not run after balls in the middle of the street, or the great "wear safety goggles" lesson.

DUSTY HAYES -- Dusty started out with one of the coolest vehicles -- a jeep that turned into a boat. Unfortunately the annoyingly-voiced Dusty got relegated to sitting in a billboard for the racing episodes. Wouldn't that make you feel so cool? That's about as much fun as sitting in a tollbooth or shooting tires from a Pit Stop. In his spare time Dusty made and delivered pizza -- guess the MASK job didn't pay too much.

NEVADA RUSHMORE -- While we didn't have to worry about, say, Hondo shooting his fried chicken mask at people, we did have the racial faux pas that was Nevada Rushmore's mask. I can just see what Matt and crew were thinking when they found Nevada's "Totem" mask. "Hey, this shoots totem poles at people! Let's give it to the Indian guy!" Riiiight.

ALI BOMBAY -- At least he got a cool mask to go with his incredibly stereotypical name. "Vortex" threw wind at people and was pretty cool. Ali also had a nifty motorcycle which probably was about as cheap as Condor was to buy in the store. Be incredibly nice to Ali and he may go "Sim Sim Salabim!" Ali only appeared in the racing series.

JULIO LOPEZ -- Sadly no relation to Jennifer Lopez, but still a MASK miracle -- Julio's NOT a stereotype! No tacos or anything like that. Julio was a doctor in his civilian life as well as a MASK agent. In fact, there was at least one episode where he was used primarily for his doctoring services and NOT his MASK-ness. An interesting tidbit about Firefly (called "Dragonfly" on the cartoon), his vehicle: I had a friend who got this before anyone else did in school. So, I got together a lot of pennies I collected and bought it from him. Both our moms think I got ripped off, but in retrospect, I don't feel that I did at all.

BORIS BUSHKIN -- The MASK stereotype game continues with Boris Bushkin, the Russian MASK agent. The most ridiculous thing about Boris was on his action figure -- he had a big old tattoo of the MASK "M" on his bald head! Boris only appeared in the Racing series, and was usually treated as somewhat of a buffoon. If he had appeared on Transformers he probably would have been running around going "Me Grimlock!" all the time. Bushkin's stereotypical mask was "Comrade." Okay, tell me, what word did people associate with the Russians more than most any else in the 80s? Yup, Comrade. Which should make us thankful that Julio Lopez is not the wearer of the "Chalupa" mask.

CALHOUN BURNS -- Calhoun was to MASK what Bluegrass was to the Silverhawks if I remember correctly. Meaning, they had to have SOMEONE from the South who could talk like a hick. But the coolest part of Calhoun wasn't Calhoun or his accent or whatever... the cool part was his car. Raven was one of my favorite MASK vehicles, and it was pretty versatile in that you could make it a boat, or even fly. Sadly, Calhoun was another one of those MASK agents who came along later in the run and didn't appear too much. He also had one of the coolest masks -- Gulliver, which could change the sizes of things -- a great way to get women to notice you.

JACQUES LaFLEUR -- Jacques was MASK's token French guy. He drove Volcano which was a pretty cool vehicle. The thing that stands in my mind the most about Jacques was when he'd be going into his silly accent and go "Jacques LaFleur and zee Volcano van to zee rescue." Jacques later learned of his mutant powers and became Gambit of the X-Men. Okay, just kidding. Jacques was NOT a mutant. He was just French. That's all. French, with a rainbow shirt. Oh, and when Jacques appeared... Matt usually wore his really cool (but underused) LavaShot mask.

OTHER AGENTS

So far I can't find a picture of Ace Riker, but here's his profile:

ACE RIKER -- Ace is the place for this helpful hardware man. When not trying for bad John Wayne impressions, Ace drove two MASK vehicles -- the pretty-cool RV Slingshot (in the original series) and Meteor (in the racing episodes).

And that's it for our trek back to look at MASK agents of history! Be sure to tell me what you think! And check out the new VENOM page!

VENOM's on the loose again! Gotta fly!