The Loyal Subjects M.A.S.K. Thunderhawk with Matt Trakker

Haim Saban and Shuki Levy would dance to this - classic nostalgia from the 80s!
Don’t listen to the negative reviews – this is an exact 3D mould print of the original Kenner mould from the mid 1980s- and yes, I am one of those sad 80s kids that make up the niche audience of uncle/dad types that is trying to re-capture our childhoods in mid life crises mode so much so that the toy companies now target us instead of our nephews and kids! But accusations of childishness aside, truth be told, I have the 1980s version from those days and I did a full comparison side by side of both Thunderhawk and Condor (the two most iconic – Rhino, Switchblade and Raven should be added as well I guess)..but yeah, look, I placed my Kenner Thunderhawk which sits next to my books on a bookshelf side by side and the only differences I can spot are that they added a plastic gap fill for this new piece at the front of the car chassis- for some weird disc shooting device- and, the spring loading on the doors are not as solid to hold up the gullwing doors (which my 1980s kenner one surprisingly only droops by a little)…the stickers may also not be as tactile…but guess what, they also added side view mirrors, they put transparent plastic instead of the painted lights on the rear…and essentially, you get a 2025/26 release of a 1985/86 toy that used to be made in Kenner’s Hong Kong factory….for 40 over years, I think TLS did a great job in a sense; and should be commended. Yes, a few things (if they’d tidied it up) would have meant it was perfect, but even so, they did add a few cool features too- they put in effort to cast the sculpt and mould for the figures- whilst maintaining the same scale so you can still display them with the other older models. Trakker and Turner get the correct look- night and day and much more accurate to the animation that DIC (Chalopin, Heyward, McDonnell and the Japanese animation team led by Tetsuo san!) originally helmed…so for that alone, and the fact that you get reworked animation accurate sculpts (no more Brad Turner looking like a Sky Commanders generic with black hair) and proper masks (and the fact they added in the original longish UK toy mini mask versions- albeit this time with friggin shark laser beams attached to their heads – to quote Dr Evil from 15 years later in 1999)…then you have a pretty fantastic rendition that every nostalgia hound and 80s kid, quite frankly, we not only cannot, rather, we should not carp about. I for one, appreciate the fact that they even launched this as M.A.S.K is quite frankly, super niche and known only to our middle aged generation. My only question is will they bring out the other characters…maybe they can’t do it for the price point/market manufacturing profit margins to bring to market here in Asia – but I’m telling you they’d be wrong – I think there are many crazy uncle/dad types like us who don’t mind being captured to relive our childhoods- even if the item just sits there on our shelf as a memoir to a bygone age when we were young….either way, IT WORKS!