Does not compute: The 10 most annoying kid + robot team-ups

By Rich Trenholm on 21 April 2008, 5:48pm

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Scott Trakker and T-Bob (MASK)
MASK was a 1980s cartoon and toy line involving a band of crimefighters called Mobile Armoured Strike, er, Kommand, who all wore masks, each of which did something unique, such as shooting sound waves or allowing you to pass through solid objects. Cool enough for you? How about having characters called Hondo MacLean, Ace Riker and Boris 'The Czar' Bushkin, beating up guys called Sly Rax, Cliff Dagger and Lester 'The Lizard' Sludge? Still not awesome enough? Okay, how about having all the characters race around in motorbikes, monster trucks and race cars that turn into tanks?

Inexplicably, having stuffed the show with not one, not two, but three awesome high-concept hooks, the Hasbro toy team that developed MASK apparently ran out of juice. How else to explain the release of stand-alone weapon-platform toys that transformed into... a packing crate and a billboard? Righteous.

But that's nothing compared to the creativity fail that accompanied the introduction of Scott, the son of MASK leader Matt Trakker. What kind of vehicle would he have? Some kind of cool bike with hidden rockets, we'd expect. Actually, it was a scooter. Except it wasn't a scooter, it was a cowardly dustbin on wheels called T-Bob. That stands for Thingamabob, apparently. The intervening years haven't made this -- or the hateful duo's real-life safety tips at the end of every episode -- any less mystifying.