The Mask (Kenner)

The Mask
Kenner
1995

I remember when The Mask hit movie theaters. It was the year before I graduated high school, and a buddy and I went to the local movie theater to catch a viewing. Jim Carrey was exploding in Hollywood as the most highly sought after, and as a result highly paid, comedian of the time.

The Mask not only provided a hearty dose of the actor, but showcased a slew of special effects straight out of the likes of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. unfortunately, as time went on, the film didn't age very well. For me, this was only made worse by the fact that Jim Carrey didn't actually play characters in his movies. He played himself. The end result is a fair amount of films staring Jim Carrey, playing Jim Carrey, equating to the same film over and over and over. It was great when I was a teenager, but as an adult, it's paper thin.

I digress though. This post isn't about my personal opinion of the actor.

Though there was a toy line based on the film, it's interesting to note that it didn't come about until the film was released on home video in January of 1995. It's possible that this was due in part by nobody really realizing just how popular the film would be at the box office. Let me help put it into perspective for everyone. The budget was twenty-three million. It took home three hundred fifty-two million.

Kenner released two waves of figures, the first on red card backs, and the second on yellow. The first wave only included three figures, while the second featured six.

 Head's Up Mask

 Wild Wolf Mask*Tornado Mask

The series wasn't too popular, and this is probably because Kenner continued to make the same mistakes with the line that it had and currently continued to make with its Batman figures. Too many of the main character, not enough variety of anyone else.

Out of the nine carded figures, seven were variations of The Mask. The remaining two were his pet dog Milo and the villain of the film, Dorian, in his Mask variation. If you take a closer look, you'll see that, to an extent, even Milo got over produced. He's packed in with two figures, a vehicle, and then has a larger variation on his own cardback.

 Belly-Bustin' Mask*Chompin' Milo

 Killin' Time Mask*Face Blastin' Mask

 Heads-Up Dorian*Quick Draw Mask

Kenner produced two separate vehicles for the line. The Mask Mobile is the same as Superman's Conversion Coup from the Superman the Animated Series line. What's interesting is that the bike appears to be a recycled Joker Cycle from the original 1989 Batman line. However, this was a Toy Biz product. Whether this is coincidence, or they somehow got the mold, I don't know.

 Mask Mobile

Mask Cycle with Milo

Unlike the film, the toy line didn't make a big splash in toy isles. While they're not give-away prices, you can still get the majority of each figure fairly cheap. Mint on card, they'll set you back around ten to fifteen dollars a piece, on average. The vehicles can sell for between fifteen to twenty-five dollars in the box. None of the items seems to be any rarer than the other, and in fact, the entire set is fairly readily available. If you're in to "cheaper" sets of toys, this may be one to check out.

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