M.A.S.K. S1E12

Solaria Park

Synopsis

A statue with raised arms stands among stacked glass panels.

On a sailing holiday in the Aegean, Matt, Bruce, Scott and T-Bob watch their ship catch fire from the top of the sails down. Matt and Bruce find a circle of scorched ground on high ground above the coast, triangulate the source, and discover the New Solaria Amusement Park, which is not open yet and has a giant statue of Zeus as its symbol. Switchblade attacks them, and Matt calls in the team. On the island they find the rides are false fronts and the buildings are full of mirrors. Matt works out that the statue and the mirrors form a heat ray that Miles Mayhem is charging to dominate the Mediterranean, and the team goes after it.

Memorable Quotes

I figure V.E.N.O.M. just landed about 60 million years of bad luck.

mask.toys Episode Review

The most sensible place to hide a very large mirror is somewhere that already has a lot of them. Dusty Hayes goes into the funhouse in Solaria Park looking for trouble and finds only funny mirrors, and that gag is the key to the episode, because the heat ray that burns the Trakkers' ship is hidden behind a place built to be all front.

This is what the episode is about: a park made entirely of surfaces. Hondo reports from the video arcade that there are no video games in it, only a big dark building full of mirrors. The others report the same from the rides and the buildings, and somebody sums it up: nothing in the park is real except the silly mirrors. Everything else on the island is stage dressing for a single working machine, and the machine is a statue of Zeus with its arms raised, ringed by solar collectors and stacked panels of glass. As a way of hiding a weapon it is perfectly sensible, and it fits Miles Mayhem, who greets the team with a welcome to the park.

The detective work in the first third is better than the standard. Scott says the fire on the ship started at the top of the sails and came down, so Matt reasons that the cause must have come from outside the ship and from higher up, and he and Bruce go up for a better look. A circle of burnt ground on a hill gives them a second point, Thunderhawk's computer triangulates, and the heat points to a spot on the island. It is a simple chain of inference, each link of which is visible on screen, and it is more convincing than the computer's usual announcements.

The animation has some fun with the setting. A wall of clown faces blasts apart in flames, a carousel with white horses stands in front of a Ferris wheel, and rings of light surround the underside of a truck. The best images come near the statue: an orange truck skids in front of it, and a red car crashes through white panels in a shower of fragments. The voices are comfortable and relaxed, with T-Bob and Scott grumbling about their sailing chores in the opening and Bruce offering a proverb that a teammate has to translate.

The standout moment comes near the end. A closing remark that V.E.N.O.M. has just earned itself about sixty million years of bad luck, a count tied to the mirrors, is the right joke for an episode about mirrors, and it works because the whole episode has been setting it up.

The weakness is the machine's logic, which arrives as a lecture. Matt explains that one mirror directs the main mirror's energy, that the solar collectors will store it so that the statue is invincible even at night, and that no weapon on Earth will be able to approach it once it is fully charged. All of that is reasonable, and most of it is delivered in dialogue, so the stakes of controlling the Mediterranean are taken largely on trust. Cliff Dagger and Vanessa Warfield are also on the island with nothing to do, according to the fan wiki, and Jackhammer is used only as a getaway car, which leaves Mayhem and Rax to carry the villainy.

Even so, Solaria Park is a pleasant, well-built entry with a clever hiding place and one very good joke. The safety tip at the end, in which Scott assures his father that he has set the handbrake tight and blocked the wheels before working on a car, comes with a surprise: the car turns out to be a new Thunderhawk, which the team has worked double time to build for Matt!

Notes of Interest

  1. The M.A.S.K. wiki notes that the sequence of Brad Turner receiving the M.A.S.K. call while practicing his guitar was first seen in Highway to Terror.
  2. The M.A.S.K. wiki notes that the sequence of Dusty Hayes dropping a pizza when he gets the call was first seen in The Deathstone.
  3. The M.A.S.K. wiki points out that the jeep half of Gator is left at the starting point of the mission, so the speedboat half has to be carried on the back of Firecracker for the rest of the adventure.
  4. The M.A.S.K. wiki lists Cliff Dagger and Vanessa Warfield as present at Solaria Park with no active role in the scheme, and says Cliff's Jackhammer is used only as a getaway car.
  5. The M.A.S.K. wiki records that Matt asks Thunderhawk's satellite link to call the Boulder Hill computer, but the answer comes from the computer in his mansion.
  6. The M.A.S.K. wiki records that, during the first confrontation between Thunderhawk and Switchblade, the jet engines can still be seen burning in one wide shot right after Matt switches them off.
  7. The M.A.S.K. wiki records that when Dusty and Gloria enter the funhouse, their shadows are not drawn past their shoulders when the camera pulls back.
  8. The M.A.S.K. wiki lists the closing safety tip as Scott assuring his father that he set the handbrake really tight and blocked all the wheels before working on a car.

Characters in this episode

Full roster →

Matt Trakker

Bruce Sato

Brad Turner

Hondo MacLean

Dusty Hayes

Gloria Baker

Miles Mayhem

Cliff Dagger

Sly Rax

Vanessa Warfield

Scott Trakker

T-Bob

Episode screenshots

T-Bob mops the deck with Scott while Bruce leans over the rail.
T-Bob mops the deck with Scott while Bruce leans over the rail.
Matt walks across the deck past T-Bob, Scott and Bruce.
Bruce, Scott holding a mop and T-Bob pose together on deck.
A hand lifts the lid of a boxy blue and white machine.
A shirtless man in sunglasses and green shorts stands beside T-Bob.
T-Bob stands facing front with his arms hanging at his sides.
T-Bob crosses both arms above his head, eyes wide.
T-Bob lies on deck while a shirtless man in sunglasses lounges beside him.
T-Bob and a shirtless man stand beside a mast engulfed in flames.
The back of a red car with a lightning bolt sits on a cliff road.
The back of a red car with a lightning bolt sits on a cliff road.
Black smoke rises from a burning boat far out on the sea.
T-Bob and the shirtless man crawl across a sandy beach.
Matt and Bruce stand over a shirtless man bent forward on the shore.
T-Bob stands on a rocky shore with green hills behind him.
T-Bob throws up both arms as water sprays from his body.
Matt drives with Bruce beside him in the cockpit.
A huge black slick covers a forest road beside a parked red car.
Matt and Bruce stand beside the Thunderhawk with its wings extended.
Matt scowls at the road while Bruce leans over his seat.
Matt smiles from the driver seat as Bruce leans in beside him.
Matt smiles from the driver seat as Bruce leans in beside him.
Matt grins behind the steering wheel with both hands on it.
A burst of smoke billows beside a mask emblem on a red door.
Bruce points ahead from the passenger seat while Matt drives.
A stone statue of a man in a tunic stands on a hill near a pink castle.
Matt and Bruce glance upward from the cockpit.
A blue helicopter with red panels flies through the sky.
Matt drives while Bruce looks ahead beside him.
Bruce sits in the cockpit wearing his orange mask and respirator.
Miles grips a radio handset, helmeted in blue and gold.
Miles grips a radio handset, helmeted in blue and gold.
Bruce in an orange mask and Matt in a red mask sit in the cockpit.
Bruce and Matt, both masked, ride in the cockpit seen through the windshield.
Matt drives in his red mask with both hands on the wheel.
Pine trees and a slope fill the windshield above a dashboard screen.
Bruce raises both hands beside his head in his orange mask.
A control panel shows a round screen and rows of buttons.
A blue screen shows a man in sunglasses drawn in green outline.
A red outline motorcycle appears beside its transformed version, split by a bright light beam.
A wristwatch with a mask icon sits on a hand over maps.
A green outline drawing shows a man in armor with face views and a helmet.
A green outline drawing shows a man in armor with face views and a helmet.
A green outline drawing shows a woman with head views and a helmet.
Two women stand in a dressing room, one holding blue clothes.
A monitor shows a statue with a raised sword inside a control room.
Matt smiles on a wall screen and waves a red glove.
A round conference room has one person seated at the table.
Several people sit around the round table in the control room.
A bright beam shoots from a round ceiling device with struts.
Swimmers and a diver use a resort pool beside palm trees.
Photographs of sailboats lie scattered on a yellow table.
Photographs of sailboats lie scattered on a yellow table.
T-Bob stands among palms and rocks on a hillside.
T-Bob raises both arms among palms and rocks.
Brad rides a green motorcycle beside two men in a red jeep.
An armored pickup truck faces the camera on a dusty road.
Matt and Bruce sit in the cockpit seen through the windshield.
Matt smiles at the wheel as Bruce sits beside him.
A pickup truck floats in the air inside rings of yellow light.
Brad flies the green motorcycle helicopter above the clouds.
Two helmeted agents sit at a cockpit control panel.
A driver in a dark helmet with a breathing tube grips the wheel.
A driver in a dark helmet with a breathing tube grips the wheel.
A small yellow helicopter motorcycle flies over rippling sea.
Rings of light surround the underside of a truck against pale sky.
Brad in a yellow suit and blue visor grips a green motorcycle.
A gold-masked agent and Hondo sit behind the cannon turrets of an orange vehicle.
Hondo drives the orange vehicle while a gold-masked agent sits beside him.
Hondo steers while a gold-masked agent rides next to him.
Swirling blue water fills the frame.
A small screen shows a blue crossed display and two dials.
A red car flies in a pink sky above an orange vehicle ringed by light.
A red car flies in a pink sky above an orange vehicle ringed by light.
Bruce in an orange mask stands in a red vehicle amid swirling gold rings.
Miles in a blue and gold helmet grips levers amid pink pulse rings.
Miles in a blue and gold helmet raises a fist amid pink pulse rings.
A red vehicle plunges into rough water beside a rocky cliff.
An orange and brown explosion bursts over the sea near cliffs.
An orange boat reaches a cliff cove where two figures stand.
A red wheel spins in yellow swirls as Hondo and a gold-masked agent watch.
A gold-masked agent waves from beside a red truck while Hondo stands near.
Bruce in an orange mask and Matt in a red mask sit tense in the cockpit.
Brad in a yellow suit sits on a green motorcycle inside a cave.
Brad in a yellow suit sits on a green motorcycle inside a cave.
Matt and five agents gather beside a red car and a green motorcycle on the beach.
Matt holds his helmet and talks with Hondo in front of the cliffs.
A carousel with white horses stands before a Ferris wheel.
Brad spreads his hands in front of a park castle.
Hondo in a blue mask walks beside a gold-masked agent past a rocket and cottage.
Hondo stands in a blue mask in front of a curved wall.
Two small figures stand inside a glass-paneled dome.
Matt and Bruce in masks stand before a roller coaster track.
Matt and Bruce in masks look on in a park.
Matt and Bruce in masks look on in a park.
Thunderhawk, a motorcycle and an orange truck wait beneath a stone arch.
Brad sits on a green motorcycle in a yellow suit and blue visor.
Hondo and a gold-masked agent ride in an orange vehicle with gun barrels.
A wall of clown faces blasts apart in flames.
An orange truck skids in front of a statue with raised arms.
Brad flies the green helicopter motorcycle under a castle arch.
Bruce and Matt, masked, look to the side in the open air.
Matt points ahead with a red glove.
A gold-masked agent and Hondo sit in an orange vehicle by the sea.
Hondo reaches over to the gold-masked agent in the orange vehicle.
Hondo reaches over to the gold-masked agent in the orange vehicle.
Brad leans over the green motorcycle handlebars.
A gray armored truck with two riders on top drives toward the camera.
An orange truck carrying a boat speeds away from a blast of smoke.
Miles scowls and grips controls.
Matt grips the wheel in his red mask.
Brad leans on a green motorcycle.
A masked figure in red is lifted by swirling gold rings in a glass tube.
A monitor shows a small red vehicle seen from above.
A red car crashes through shards of white glass.
A red car crashes through shards of white glass.
Matt and Bruce stand beside an orange truck with Hondo and a gold-masked agent.
Miles sits with Sly Rax and a red-haired woman behind him in a cave.
Two yellow-tipped missiles sit in a gray rack.
Miles points at the camera.
A blue door stands in a rocky cave tunnel.
Hondo smiles from a vehicle seat in his red vest.
Scott runs after T-Bob rolling along a driveway past a house.
Matt gestures beside Bruce, who stands with arms folded.
T-Bob crouches under a large white sheet beside a house.

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