1985 Bazooka

Bazooka is a character I almost entirely associate with the cartoon, which I think is probably a common notion. For me, it’s partly because I’ve still not read the comic issues he would appear in, but I don’t think Hama did all that much with him anyways. The Sunbow cartoon doesn’t play a big part in my Joe world; I think it’s well made and I really liked it as a kid, but the comics are way better generally. That preference aside, there’s a lot of things I associate with Sunbow and keep with me, like Cobra La, and probably the Sunbow portrayal of Bazooka, too.

Going through my old photos, something that surprised me is just how much I’ve used V1 Bazooka; he’s in a ton of my photos either prominently or in the background. Partly, I think the reason for that is because he shows up well. While bright red figures draw the ire of realists, as a toy there’s some practicality to it. The V1 HISS tank and HISS Driver are great examples of this, where the entire toy is built around making the driver more visible, which enhances the play value. Bazooka’s similar to this, because the red shirt let’s him be seen basically anywhere, and contrasts really nicely with green, a staple color among GI Joe items. For a kid that’s fun, and for my photos I like adding bright colors like this into the background to make the depth a bit more interesting.

Plus, I do think the bright red jersey and baggy pants just look pretty cool. This figure really benefits from the simple design sense of the early line with just enough absurdity to make him a fun action figure. Maybe it’s my late-millennial tastes showing again, but Bazooka’s design seems like something you’d still see in a modern video-game or comic, in the way that it’s silly, but also doesn’t seem to date itself as hard as the more Village People look’n characters. Speaking of music, Bazooka looks like Freddy Mercury, and that guy’s pretty timeless too, so that’s another appeal. According to Ron Rudat, the #14 jersey is a nod to Steve Grogan of the New England Patriots, cool but I don’t know anything about physical movement games.

I love his accessories, which include his signature bazooka, backpack, and a helmet. He doesn’t come with a ton of crap, just the standard three accessories, but I feel the quality of these are particularly high. The bazooka itself has a handle, so that makes it way less cumbersome than Footloose’s. The sculpt on his helmet and backpack are also particularly good: the little fabric folds are nice and sharp, which makes them a tad more interesting than some of the gear from the same year. I’m also glad that between Bazooka and Footloose they added in some smaller, LAW-like bazookas into the line. I watched Death Wish 3 as a kid and always think of that movie’s final scene when I see a LAW like this.

People like swapping Bazooka’s bazooka with Footloose’s. For variety, I like swapping them every now and then too, especially after the strap broke on Bazooka’s proper weapon (it was cracked when I bought it). Though, for a long time I did it as a reference to a variant of Bazooka, that I can no longer find any evidence to ever having existed. Was this a thing? I thought some Bazooka’s legitimately included Footloose’s weapon, but this seems to be another case of the Mandela Effect. It sucks because I always thought this was cool to do, but I guess I should be glad my trivia got retconed in return for the world not ending: John Titor told us about some bad stuff that happened in the other time line, which I guess got subverted when all of those Bazooka’s disappeared from existence. Dang time travelers.

To my surprise, complete Bazooka’s go for a pretty fair amount, usually around or a little more than $20, with some examples surging way past that. There’s no real reason I can think of for this besides that he’s popular and from the best year, which I guess is reasonable. Still, it stings when I go back through my eBay feedback from years ago and see how little I paid for so much.