Apparently, it's rumored that Hasbro wants to do a cinematic universe involving their popular toy lines such as MASK, Transformers, and GI Joe. Hell, there's even some rumors that they also now own the toy rights to both Power Rangers and Visionaries, so they could potentially become a part of this cinematic universe too according to rumors; ala Marvel universe style.
Not sure how most of these franchises tie together honestly. Part of the reason the Marvel movie universe works so well is because all the characters were conceived in an established comic book universe where most of their backstories, and adventures, were usually tied into each other, so it's not that hard to adapt onto the big screen as many might think.
For example in a Spider-Man comic, his alter ego, Peter Parker, might need to seek legal counsel because J. Jonah Jameson screwed him over on some photos he sold to him, so he may call on Matt Murdock for legal counsel, whom many people know also moonlights as the infamous crime fighter of Hell's kitchen, Daredevil. Or maybe the Avengers might need to deal with an otherworldly interdimensional threat, so they may call on Dr. Strange to come into help them out and whatnot. The point is if you honestly ever read the back stories of a lot of Marvel characters, you'll be very surprised to find how many of their stories are interconnected, which make it easier to adapt onto film.
whereas with toy lines like GI Joe, Transformers, MASK and etc, that's a bit of a stretch in my opinion.
Especially when you want to include Visionaries and Power Rangers to the mix too. While my memory of visionaries is limited since it's been DECADES since I last saw the cartoon as a child, I do remember the pilot surprisingly well. I remember in the pilot that the visionaries lived on a distant planet similar to He-Man's world, where it was a world based on both magic and futuristic sci fi technology, where you had some characters able to control futuristic vehicles, while others had staffs that could literally do various things. And they had those holograms on their chests that allowed them to turn into whatever animal was on said chest.
And then there's MASK. Again, my memory of that show is very fuzzy as well for the same reason as I just said for visionaries, but if my memory serves me correctly, it's basically a show where a group of random ass people across the globe are part of this government operation to save the world and shit like that.
MASK is an abbreviation for Mobile Armored Strike Command. Ugh...shouldn't the abbreviation be MASC then? Ugh what do I know? However, each member of MASK wears actual helmets that cover their entire head, and when they wear them, it gives them all these special abilities, and they ride in vehicles that would make both Batman and James Bond speechless. And even their nemesis, VENOM (which is another acronym for Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem), which was a terrorist organization also wore these special MASKS and same style vehicles.
As for Transformers and GI Joe, I'm assuming most of you know all about them considering they've had movies before, so I'm not going to explain it. Same for Power Rangers.
However the point is when you honestly look into the backstories of these characters, there's not a lot of connective tissue, so it makes it that much harder to connect them into a seamless cinematic universe the same way Marvel did it with meticulous planning and a bit of luck on their side.
Not saying it can't be done, but I think Hasbro will have a harder time doing it though. However, what are your thoughts on this? You think it'll work? Or probably not? Please discuss.
0
