 Alright. I am ready for some football! Ready for some football! Go football! Ready for some Superbowl football! The Patriots aren't in the Superbowl. You can take that jerseyed on. Fine. That one too. Hello everybody hooded Cobra Commander 788 here. This is the show where we review every vintage GI Joe toy from 1982 to 1994. This week we're looking at a fan favorite, Bazooka. This character has a following, but he's also controversial. For fans of military style GI Joe, he has a very obvious problem. This is Super Bowl Sunday. Before you enjoy an evening of football, let's look at a GI Joe action figure that directly referenced a football player. Hasbro headquarters is located in Rhode Island, which is in New England. They just couldn't resist adding an homage to the New England Patriots. Grab your fudgies and join me in looking at GI Joe's lovable buffoon. HCC 788 presents Bazooka. This is Bazooka, GI Joe's missile specialist from 1985. This figure was first available in 1985 and was also available in 1986. It was discontinued for 1987. It was reissued as a mail away offer in 1989. There were three versions of Bazooka in the vintage line. Version two of Bazooka was in the Tiger Force subset in 1988. It used the same mold as version one, but with different colors. Version three of Bazooka was issued in 1993 as a battle core figure. It had an all new mold and was radically different from the first two versions. Collectors sometimes refer to this figure as Fisherman Bazooka. As the missile specialist, Bazooka replaces GI Joe's first Bazooka soldier, Zap, from 1982. Although their specialties are not related in the GI Joe animated series, Bazooka was friends with 1985 Alpine. Oddly, the same year Bazooka was released, GI Joe got a new infantry trooper, Footloose. Footloose included an anti-tank rocket launcher similar to Bazooka's. That may have made Bazooka redundant in 1985. A Bazooka is an infantry carried anti-tank rocket launcher. The traditional Bazooka has been replaced by more modern anti-tank weapons systems, but modern systems are sometimes still informally called Bazooka's. The Bazooka got its name from an instrument played by comedian Bob Burns. The soldiers that used the original recoilless rifle thought it looked like Bob Burns' Bazooka, so they gave it that nickname. Here's some footage of Bob playing the Bazooka. Unrelated to the Joe called Bazooka, there was a comic strip character called Bazooka Joe. Bazooka Joe comic strips were included with Bazooka bubblegum. I don't think this was what Hasbro had in mind when they were naming the character, but it is a coincidence. Cobra didn't get its own Bazooka soldier until 1989 with the heat viper, way behind GI Joe. Cobra did have a missile specialist who mainly worked for Destro back in 1984, Scrap Iron. Later GI Joe characters that had basically the same specialty included 1990 Salvo, the anti-armor specialist, and 1991 Super Sonic Fighters Zap. Really, most of the replacements for Bazooka were just later versions of Bazooka. Starting in 1991, some GI Joe figures started including spring-loaded missile launchers, so you could look at them as all having Bazooka's job. Let's take a look at Bazooka's accessories starting with his weapon, which the card contents refer to as an MAT missile launcher. It doesn't say what MAT stands for, but I assume it's something like missile anti-tank. It is in black plastic. It is a short tube with a pointed tip at the front end. It has a grip at the front and a strap. That strap will allow you to sling this over Bazooka's shoulder, but I find it convenient when he has the grip in his hand to use the strap like a buttstock. As for a real-world analog for this accessory, it bears a striking resemblance to the M72 Law light anti-tank weapon. It also has some similarities to the M136, but it has some differences from that one too. This accessory is very similar to the one that came with 1985 Footloose. It would be easy to mix these up. Footloose's rocket launcher is most likely an M72, and it is different from Bazooka's, and that suggests Bazooka's is a different model. The next accessory is the helmet. The helmet is in green plastic. It looks like a Pasquette helmet with a cloth covering and a band around it. It looks really good. It's very well sculpted, and it looks pretty good on Bazooka's head too. The final accessory is the backpack, which the card contents call a missile pack. It is in green. It's a different shade of green from the helmet. It has some well sculpted details. It has some pockets and some buckles and a canteen, and it has extra missiles for Bazooka's missile launcher. These missile tips can break off very easily, so be on the lookout for broken backpacks. One problem I have with this backpack is not so much with the backpack as with the figure. The figure does not have any sculpted on straps or load bearing equipment for this backpack, so exactly how does he carry it? Does he pin the backpack to his shirt? Let's take a look at the articulation on Bazooka. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures by 1985, so it could turn his head from left to right and look up and down. He could swing his arm up at the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow that allowed him to bend his arm at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep that allowed him to swivel his arm all the way around. This was an O-ring figure, meaning the figure was held together with a rubber O-ring that looped around the inside. That allowed him to move at the torso a bit. He could move his legs apart about so far. He could move his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's take a look at the sculpted design and color of Bazooka. This figure is wearing the football jersey of Steve Grogan. Grogan was the quarterback for the New England Patriots NFL football team from 1975 to 1990. He's something of a legend in New England. Hasbro headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, which is in New England, so it's natural that GI Joe would reference the Patriots. Grogan war number 14. Bazooka's red jersey is almost identical to the Patriots home jerseys at the time. The 1985 season was a successful one for the Patriots. They finished with an 11 and 5 record, then went on to win three road playoff games to make it to the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl was played on January 26, 1986. Unfortunately, that's where the success ended. They were destroyed by the Chicago Bears in the Super Bowl 46-10. Apparently, there were no hard feelings because Hasbro created an action figure of one of the Chicago Bears that beat the Patriots in that Super Bowl, William the Refrigerator Perry. Looking at Bazooka's head, he has black hair and a black, thick, Tom Selleck mustache. GI Joe loved mustaches in the 80s, and they weren't little teenager mustaches either. They were thick, beautiful men's mustaches. On his chest, Bazooka has that red shirt with a number 14 on the chest in blue numbers with a white outline, and those numbers are actually sculpted on. They are slightly raised on the chest they're not just painted on. He has a blue collar. He does not have numbers on the back, so it's not an authentic looking football jersey. Unfortunately, the chest and the back are missing some kind of straps for the guy to carry his backpack. His arms feature short red sleeves with white and blue stripes around the sleeves. His lower arms are bare except for some green sweatbands around his wrists. These look like the kind of sweatbands that you would wear while exercising in the 80s. So are these army-issue sweatbands? His waist piece features a green belt that is nicely detailed with some pouches and a really nicely sculpted buckle, and that green is a different shade of green than his trousers. That's a nice subtle color difference. His legs feature olive drab trousers with pockets on the thighs. It looks like part of a really nice authentic military uniform, and then he has some gray boots. These lower legs were used on another 1985 figure, the 1985 keel haul. The top half of this figure is brightly colored and totally unsuitable for combat anywhere but the football field. The lower half of the figure has a nice realistic military look. Early concept drawings by Ron Rudat had Bazooka in more traditional combat fatigues. The decision was later made to give him Steve Grogan's jersey. Ron was and is a Patriots fan. Even though it means Bazooka is trying to wear a bright red shirt into the field, I'm not terribly offended that Ron represented his home team. Let's take a look at Bazooka's file card. There are a couple variations of this file card. One text variation and one color variation. The file cards issued with the 1986 releases of Bazooka had a gray background. It has his faction as GI Joe. It has a portrait of Bazooka There are no straps for the backpack even in the card art, so I guess that backpack is just held on by magnets. He is the missile specialist codenamed Bazooka, filenamed David L Katzenbogen. Hasbro wanted Bazooka's specialty to be Bazooka soldier, exactly like Zap. The file cards were written by Larry Hama, the writer of the comic book series. Larry protested that Bazookas were outdated and more modern anti-tank systems should be referenced instead. So the specialty became missile specialist, but the character still got stuck with the name Bazooka. Primary military specialty armor defeating missile systems, secondary military specialty tank driver. It actually describes his background as a tank driver here. Place of birth, hibbing Minnesota, and grade is E5. Given his birthplace, I'm surprised he's not a Vikings fan. This first paragraph says Bazooka was driving an Abrams tank in the third horde in parentheses third armor division. When he came to the realization that an illiterate farmer armed with a $200 disposable rocket launcher could knock out a million dollar tank with less than two weeks training. He put in for a transfer immediately. This reference to the third horde is almost correct. The third armor division is nicknamed the third herd. So he started out as a tank driver until he realized that all that armor wouldn't protect him from a relatively unsophisticated attack. He decided he would rather be the guy firing missiles at the tanks than the guy in the tank getting missiles fired at him. This whole paragraph is about his training and he has a lot of it. It says training advanced infantry school fort Benning, armor school fort Knox, qualified expert dragon anti-tank missile, Milan system, law rocket, recoilless rifle, law system and all Warsaw packed RPG systems. Subject is also EOD in parentheses explosive ordinance disposal qualified up to the tack op category. Here's where we have a text variation. The earliest releases of the file card do not say tack op category. They say tack nuke, meaning Bazooka is qualified to handle tactical nuclear weapons. But I guess somebody at Hasbro decided they did not want to have nukes on their file card. So they changed it to tack op, which I think might be kind of meaningless. This bottom paragraph has a short one sentence character profile. It says subject is a decisive fast thinker with all the instincts of a natural survivor. That's surprising because as he was portrayed in the GI Joe animated series, Bazooka was kind of dumb. Looking at how Bazooka was used in GI Joe media, he appeared many times in the animated series produced by sunbow. He and alpine were buddies with alpine being the smart one. Bazooka was portrayed as a dim bulb. He may not have been too smart, but he had a few memorable moments. He and alpine met quick kick in pyramid of darkness part four. Quick kick was shirtless and shoeless in a snowstorm. Bazooka really wanted some fudgies. I could explain what that means, but it's more fun to make you guess. Another memorable episode featuring Bazooka was titled Bazooka saw a sea serpent. Even though this channel doesn't cover post vintage animated appearances, I think it's fair to point out that Bazooka was killed off in the mini series GI Joe Resolute in 2009. He wasn't used as much in the comic book series published by Marvel Comics, but he had a few appearances. He first appeared in issue number 44 along with other new Joes. After his initial appearance, though, Bazooka didn't have much to do in the comic book. He was mainly in the background. Like if there was a crowd of Joes on a page, he would be in there somewhere. Looking at Bazooka overall, I have mixed feelings about this figure. GI Joe needed a new anti-tank specialist. He has appropriate equipment. The figure looks great. The sculpting is very well done. The lower half of the figure looks like it belongs to a realistic military guy. The jersey is a problem. As a kid, I didn't like it. It annoyed me when GI Joe gave me action figures that were only half ready for combat. As an adult and as a patriot fan, I appreciate the jersey a bit more. It still isn't appropriate for his job, but I appreciate the history and the personal touch from the creator, who is also a patriot's fan. Even though I don't mind the jersey as much now, he still doesn't have a way to carry that backpack. No straps. I am assuming he safety pins the backpack to the back of the jersey. Another problem with Bazooka is he seemed kind of redundant. Footloose was released the same year and he had similar equipment, and Footloose was 100% ready for combat. That was a great figure. Considering everything about the figure on balance, it is a good figure, and I'm happy to have the old goofball in my collection. That was my review of Bazooka. I hope you enjoyed it. Now, please enjoy the Super Bowl. My prediction for this year's game? Pain. No, no, no, no. That was Rocky vs. Clubber Lane. No, my prediction for this year's Super Bowl is 49ers win 24-17. I'm not making any bets on that. Last time I bet on one of these, I had to sing the Philadelphia Eagles fight song. I never win these, so just enjoy the game. Thank you for watching this video. If you enjoyed it, I'm making more like it. 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