DE 
EN 
Series: M.A.S.K. (by the Loyal Subjects)
Pilot & Mask: Miles Mayhem (with Viper)
Year: 2026
Prelude: I considered including a trigger warning here in the prelude, as the last time I posted a review of a M.A.S.K. toy from The Loyal Subjects and dared to see it in a positive light, it did trigger quite a few people. Well, that’s their problem, not mine. Suffice to say that I’m a big M.A.S.K. fan and while I am not one hundred percent down with how The Loyal Subjects has handled the rebirth of the franchise, I am happy to see new M.A.S.K. vehicles regardless. So today we’re looking at what used to be Switchblade, now simply called High Tech Helicopter. Let’s say go!
Vehicle: For this review here I pulled out my old Kenner Switchblade from storage and put the two vehicles side by side (see pictures 19 through 23). While there are some differences between new and old, they are really quite minor. If not for the sticker wear on the older one, one would be hard-pressed to say which of them is the new one at first glance.
Switchblade (I’ll keep calling it that, hope you don’t mind) is a mostly blue helicopter with a purple-tinted cockpit and a red interior. I don’t believe it’s based on any real-world helicopter model. Unlike many other vehicles in the toy line, Kenner created a new, futuristic model here instead of using an existing one. The helicopter stands on two skiffs and lacks a tail rotor, but we’ll just imagine that future technology has rendered that obsolete, won’t we? There is a mechanism to make the rotor blades spin, too.
The helicopter can transform into a futuristic attack jet. The rotor blades fold in, the sides of the tail fold out as wings, the skiffs flip upwards and extend gun barrels, and the tail rudder flips upwards. The jet mode doesn’t really look that different from the helicopter mode, but it’s still a pretty nicely-done transformation.
In jet mode you have two differences to the Kenner toy, or rather the European Kenner toy that I have in my possession. For the European releases Kenner somewhat reduced the military aspects of these toys a bit, thus Switchblade came without missiles. The TLS Switchblade does come with one, naturally, which can click into the missile bay on the underside of the jet and be released at the touch of a switch. Also, there are chromed jet boosters behind the missile bay (as seen in the cartoon), where the original had none.
The TLS Switchblade also includes an effect parts here, as you have a second missile with a contrail that can click into the missile bay, making it look like the missile just launched. Nicely done. So bottom line for the vehicle: almost identical to the old one, still a very nice transformation, and some nice additional touches like the boosters and effect-missile.
Pilot: The Switchblade’s pilot is, of course, Miles Mayhem, the leader and founder of the Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem (V.E.N.O.M.). He is an older man with grey hair and a big moustache, wearing a military-style dress uniform. According to his bio he is a former general, though his uniform does not really resemble any current United States uniform all that much. The closest are probably the “dress blues” worn by Marines. Miles has shed a few pounds when compared to the original Kenner figure, but also carries fewer medals on his chest now. He also has painted eyes now and bushier brows and apparently got a hair transplant, as his forehead isn’t quite as prominent now.
Mayhem wears the Viper mask, which allows him to shoot acid at his enemies. Like all TLS figures we get two versions of the mask, one with a special effect attached to simulate the acid attack. The mask with the special effect also foregoes the black mouthpiece, so you can see Mayhem’s lower face when he wears it. Overall a nice figure, closely resembling the character from the cartoon, and with improved features and articulation when compared to the original.
Remarks: Miles Mayhem featured prominently in the M.A.S.K. cartoon (I think he was in every episode apart from two or three of those terrible racing episodes) and most of the times he flew the Switchblade, his aircraft of choice. Nine times out of ten he got into a dogfight with Matt Trakker’s Thunderhawk and eight times out of nine it did not end well for him. I’m not sure how many times Switchblade got wrecked in the cartoon, but we’re talking double digits at least.
The High-Tech Helicopter by The Loyal Subjects is a very faithful recreation of the old Kenner toy with only minimal differences. The biggest difference is the price point, of course, as even adjusted for inflation the new one is a lot more expensive than the old one. Well, it’s a collectors item now, no longer a toy, I guess. You can still get vintage Kenner Switchblade on eBay for not that much more than the TLS version costs, just saying.
Still, despite already owning the Kenner version, I am pretty happy with this new version, too. Sure, it’s not a revolutionary reinvention or anything like that and, as mentioned, quite expensive, but if you’re an old school M.A.S.K. fan like me (and have the cash to spare), I think it’s worth it. Just don’t expect it to be much of an improvement over the old one.
Rating: B
Picture Gallery:
