M.A.S.K. Home Video Cover Art
M.A.S.K. VHS/DVD Cover Art
I'm always fascinated with fan art. The dedication that an artist puts into drawing and designing a piece from a TV show or movie that they really love is something I rarely overlook. Back in the '80s and '90s when video stores ruled the earth, the box cover was really important in order to stand out from other movies on the shelves. Today with the streaming and digital world, it's something that I believe gets greatly overlooked.
Over the years, M.A.S.K. has been released to VHS and DVD with some really great original box art. I decided to search the internet for as much box art as I could find, including one fan's design for future box art. Here's what I found...
Here are a few VHS covers from U.K. releases. I know I've seen some claiming they are M.A.S.K. the Movie (like the middle one above.) Even though they had the "movie" title, I believe they were just a series of episodes. The cover directly above has some great detail as if taken from a screen caption.
Americans will recognize these two covers from the most recent Shout Factory! release. Both of these are really well done. The Complete Series cover has so much action and then the great statuesque poses of the two leaders. The Volume 1 cover also features some fine character detail in the uniforms and masks.
This box art is the one that Wyatt and I personally own. I believe it was originally released in the U.K. and features a detailed outline of Matt Trakker and Spectrum almost hidden in the background. This is probably my least favorite cover as it just doesn't reflect the action or vibrancy of the show.
The above cover, which is similar to the feature image of this blogpost, was taken from a South African website. I'm not sure of the region for its release, but features the highly identifiable logo with original art of Matt Trakker and Gloria Baker.
Jetix appears to have released M.A.S.K. in many regions. The art depicted in this cover seems a little off, not just with the styling but with the details of the vehicles. It does however give me an image of what M.A.S.K. might look like had it been rebooted in the last 10 years using CGI animation.
The Jetix covers above I believe were released in France, as I snagged them from a French fansite. These have some excellent detail, showing the grid-like background from the cartoon intro and also adding some very nice character and vehicle shots. The boulder hill outline in the above cover is especially nice.
This cover I believe came from the Australian DVD release. Very good detail in this cover as well, but why is Rhino shooting at Scott & T-Bob? I guess Alex and Bruce had enough of them tagging along on missions!
The above art came from the eBay U.K. website. Pretty basic shot of Thunderhawk on this box art.
The final two covers above are not actually taken from official releases. These two were done by EnricoGalli on DeviantArt and are his concept of what an Italian release would look like. Definitely some time and effort went into creating these covers and I hope for his sake that they do end up as box art someday!
Which are your favorites? Let me know in the comments. If I made any incorrect statements or if you have more information about the artists themselves, please feel free to leave that in the comments as well.
Reactions
4 Comments
Sent you boys a little e-mail with images of the UK release of the DVD's.
ReplyDeleteThe first half of the cartoons came out as "The Series Volume 1" and was the same as the cover you have at the top of the page - the yellow one with Matt Trakker and Gloria Baker. The UK release I have came under Cookie Jar Label and not Jetix as your image.
Their may have been a previous version under Jetix but I'm not sure - I know that some sites like Play.com had two different listings for the 1st series - one was dearer than the other and that may have been the Jetix one.
"The Series Volume 2" came out some time later and was a similar style but with an image of Miles Mayhem with Switchblade and Boulder Hill in the background.
The 1st volume had been about for a while before the 2nd came out and then the "Complete Series" Came out on the same cover as the one above that you have taken from a South African Site.
All of the ones I have sent you images of are Pal Region 2 DVD's and state to be only sold in the UK, Eire and Channel Islands - so not sure if South Africa maybe had the same packaging or just sold the UK Version if you have grabbed that image from an SA site.
The rumours of the Complete series I think led to poor sales of Volume 2 - no one seems to be selling series two (at least not for a reasonable price) and in the UK you can actually buy the complete series for less than each of the previous volumes.
If I'm honest, I don't really like the packaging of the UK ones - very stylised and not, in my opinion, very good! The complete series in black with the M.A.S.K. logo covering up most of the poor image is better, but not great.
You may have also noticed, that the M.A.S.K. logo on the case isn't the original logo. There is the addition of fullstops (periods) after each letter and Rhino is drawn very poorly with changes to "Fire" from cannons and the rocket.
I'm not sure, but I think this is the new logo that a former Hasbro Employee Trademarked that is now owned by Hasbro.
I have a collection of old VHS tapes in the house somewhere, will try and get images of them to you.
Forgot to mention, the cases aren't that great. Very difficult to get the DVD's out - so much so that My son broke Disc 3 of the Volume 2 collection.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone out there has a spare disc, can you let me know?
Thanks for the insight and the images!
ReplyDeleteThe first image is dope. And it should be good in terms of style for a contemporary OAV. Rough more adult band adrenalinic.
ReplyDelete