Way before the holidays, okay about two weeks before Christmas 2008, I found a rather reasonable auction on ebay for a long lost friend of mine. I won the auction without a minute to spare, and got away with a rather nice example of a classic GI Joe, Bazooka. My original Bazooka was the victim of a senseless war back in the mid eighties. My son and nephew were given some Joes to play with on a rainy day and an hour later only two survived out of about twenty. That's all water under the bridge, I need to let it go I'm told (though I will never let the Bossk Encounter go, I will be reminding you both of that every chance I get, family get togethers, birthdays, weddings...)
Best part about this figure is that seventies, adult industry mustache. That is one nice stache. That and where else besides a Top Secret Military Covert Operations Team can you get away with wearing a Football Jersey with your fatigues. Come to think of it, this is probably the reason I found my original split in two, he wasn't wearing effective camouflage.
Now for the new! At first glance the guy sneaking up behind Bazooka looks just like any other vintage GI Joe, Beachhead to be exact. You know Beachhead is my all time favorite Joe, I'm surprised that he has not made it into the blog before this. This Beachhead was a "dollar store" exclusive, if they can have exclusives. He came as is, sans weapons, on a much smaller card, and he was more than a dollar, actually three total. By today's standards I guess that's cheap considering that a 3-3/4" Spider-man goes for almost nine to ten bucks. Ole' Beachhead was released in 2008 with several other re cast and re painted Joes and Cobras, but he was one of the only ones to use the vintage mold. The others used the more updated versions of the characters from early 2000.
I wonder why they decided to use this mold, not that I am not happy they did, just curious. I still have a complete Beachhead, he survived the Nursery Room Massacre, and as soon as I find what tote I put him in he will be making an appearance on Eclectorama, till then Vintage Bazooka will just have to hang with this version.
I wonder if I should start a vintage GI Joe Tally? What about the newer vintage looking figures that are obviously new, but look vintage???
How about Classic Style:
GI Joe: 2
Cobra: 0
2 comments:
Nice eBay win!
Thanks, lucky find, I probably paid about as much for him as his buddy in the post minus shipping.
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