Bazooka (BW)

Bazooka is a Predacon from the Beast Wars Neo portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

HISSATSU SHINING DINO FACE

Bazooka (バズーカ Bazūka) could probably teach Dinobot a thing or two about honor. When this hard-headed saurian samurai makes a promise he sees it through to the bitter end. And if "the bitter end" means a gruesome death then, well, hey, at least he kept his word. This ironclad sense of duty and dedication has made him one of Magmatron's most loyal and appreciated subjects, which is something Bazooka takes great pride in. Alas, Bazooka naively expects the same standards of dedication and honor from his fellow Predacons, which is a pretty foolish thing to believe, considering the company he keeps.

In battle, Bazooka is just as rock-hard as his word. Any enemy in melee range is likely to feel the force of his "Gigaton Stamp" attack, a powerful blow from the bony hammer at the end of his tail. For most foes, that's the last thing they ever feel.

Fiction

Beast Wars Neo cartoon

Voice actor: Hajime Komada (Japanese)

With his partner, Crazybolt, Bazooka used masks to disguise themselves as Maximals and stole an old Maximal ship. With it, they docked on Space Station 424, where they spotted Big Convoy's ship, the Gung Ho. Hoping to get back into Magmatron's good graces, the two again disguised themselves and snuck into the Gung Ho while its crew was enjoying some R&R in the base. There, they referred to themselves as the base's guards, "Erimaoinarin the Fox" and "Darumajiro the Armadillo", to NAVI. When NAVI noted that an unmanned base shouldn't have any such personnel, Crazybolt quickly shifted their story to being inspectors of navigational-type computers and ordered NAVI to launch the ship, which NAVI refused to do without Big Convoy's direct order. Their ploy foiled, Crazybolt then put on a story of "Darumajiro" becoming a Predacon, a disease that would soon affect other Maximals. Convinced by the show Erimaoinarin put on of becoming a Predacon, NAVI launched the ship to force a quarantine of the "plague".

Who brought the bazooka to the tea party?

Once they were far enough, the two "inspectors" revealed their true identities to NAVI and the computer was caged. The two contacted Magmatron about their success and Guiledart was wary of Crazybolt, considering his dishonest reputation, and agreed to believe him only if they met at the rendezvous point with the Gung Ho and its cargo of Angolmois Capsules. Unbeknownst to them, Big Convoy had already used the Seagull to catch up to them and broke in. Big Convoy fooled the two into thinking he set up a bomb in the cargo room that could cause the complete destruction of the ship and the Predacons were lured into the ship's hologram room, where Big Convoy used the two as "training partners" while NAVI did the appropriate resetting to the computer systems. Once the other Maximals made it to the Gung Ho with Bazooka and Crazybolt's stolen ship, the duo were kicked back to their old ship. They limped to the rendezvous point with the Dinosaur, where Magmatron simply ordered the ship's cannons to be fired on the pathetic pair. The Stolen Gung Ho

After the defeat of Unicron, Bazooka returned to Cybertron. There, he attended a meal hosted by Artemis. Graduation Ceremony!!

Beast Wars: Uprising

Bazooka was a pilot or helm specialist in the Cybertronian Navy, serving aboard the Dinosaur and patrolling the limits of the Allowed Zone. His ship received a distress call from a marooned Maximal prisoner on planet LGC-8803 and was dispatched to investigate. Bazooka flew the away team's shuttle planetside, but the Dinosaur was attacked by an Intruder ship during their descent and the shuttle was pulled to earth by a tractor beam. The team separated once they reached ground, and Bazooka got into a scuffle with the Destructons alongside Crazybolt and Hard Head. Bazooka was damaged by the locals and was only saved by the intervention of their prisoner targets, Trans-Mutate and Rampage. The collective Cybertronians realized Lord Imperious and his Destructons intended to hijack their shuttle, and fought to prevent him from escaping. Hard Head was killed by the Destructons, but Imperious was seemingly defeated by Rampage when he brought the shuttle back down to the planet.

In their absence, a mutiny had broken out aboard the Dinosaur when the protoformer crew learned about the Grand Uprising against the Builders happening back home. Circumstances led to the Dinosaur (secretly the Builder war criminal Trypticon) falling out of orbit as his higher brain functions were severed in the struggle. The ship unfolded into a new colony dubbed Dinosaur City, and many chose to stay. Bazooka and Crazybolt had grown close during the mission, and they chose to return to Cybertron and join the resistance alongside Rampage, Guiledart, and the former chief engineer, Magmatron. They used the shuttle to make their way back home. Intersectionality

Bazooka and the others joined the resistance, but they soon found a new mission. Aliens known as the Antares Eight threatened Cybertron, and Magmatron's resistance cell had to join forces with a Builders unit and several unaffiliated 'bots to defeat them. This led to a new cross-factional alliance known as the Ex-Bots. Bazooka and the 'bots prioritized saving lives above the politics of warfare, and fought to keep civilians safe as the Grand Uprising continued. Cultural Appropriation

Bazooka and Crazybolt helped defend Proximax over the next stellar cycle with the Ex-Bots. By this point, they had formalized their relationship through the rites of Conjunx Endura. Bazooka took some damage when capturing the renegade Predacon Tarantulas just before the Vehicon Apocalypse began. In the meantime, he and the Construction Skavenger located a lobotomized Sweep from a salvage yard. With some retrofitting, the Dinosaur's ex-pilot now had an Ex-Jet of his own to man for the team. All forces were zeroing in on the Grand Mal, the control center for the Vehicons. Bazooka deployed the Ex-Bots at the front, then he and Crazybolt continued to operate the Ex-Jet and provide air support.

At the Grand Mal battle, Crazybolt spotted a necessary vent on the enemy station, a vulnerable spot to target if they could breach the shields. As Bazooka unloaded their firepower on that spot, Crazybolt ran the numbers and determined their energy weapons were failing against the shields, but ordinance and physical matter ammunition was penetrating, at least partially. Unfortunately, the Ex-Jet had exhausted its supply of ammo. Bazooka realized they only had one thing heavy enough left to hit the Grand Mal with. He lured Crazybolt near an open hatch and pushed his conjunx to safety. Bazooka then plotted a ramming assault towards the vent, carrying the Ex-Jet through the Grand Mal's shields and causing enough damage to permanently damage the defenses. Derailment

Toys

Beast Wars

If one robot part is one angstrom off its non-intuitive position, that beast mode will refuse to lock together.

• Bazooka (Basic, 1999)

• ID number: D-38
• Release date: March ??, 1999
• Accessories: "Axe Buster" weapon
• Known designers: Takashi Kunihiro (TakaraTomy)

Part of the third wave of Beast Wars Neo products in Takara's Beast Wars toyline, Bazooka is a Basic Class figure that transforms into an organic Euoplocephalus. In beast mode, his mouth opens slightly when you pull forward on the small spike on his right cheek as his "Crash Bite" attack. His tail is spring-loaded and can be lifted up and locked into an upright position and then released via a small button on his back, simulating his pounding "Gigaton Stomp" attack. Stored under his tail is his small "Axe Buster" weapon that can be used in robot mode as either an axe or a blaster, depending on which peg is used to hold it.

Bazooka is notoriously hard to get into beast mode, with the two massive chunks of his armored back not wanting to line up properly unless you somehow position his ball-jointed robot parts juuuuuuuuuust right without any of them locking down or tabbing in or any other method of securing them in the proper, unintuitive position. Good luck.

This mold was also used to make the Walmart-exclusive Dinobots Slapper.

• More information on Bazooka at TFU.info

A "Shell in a Cell" match

• Extreme Showdown: Bump VS Bazooka (VS pack, 1999)

• ID number: VS-38
• Release date: March ??, 1999
• Accessories: "Axe Buster" weapon

Bazooka was also available in the "Extreme Showdown" (極限の対決 kyokugen no taiketsu) two-pack with the Maximal Bump, also released in the third wave of Neo toys.

Both toys are identical to their individual releases.

Notes

• Development art for the Bazooka toy shows another large panel of beast mode back-armor hanging off his butt that does not exist on the final toy. Just where exactly this piece of kibble would go in beast mode is uncertain.
• Bazooka is one of three Beast Wars Neo toys whose designs were determined via a contest held by TV Magazine. The winning designs were revealed in the April 1999 issue. The other winning designs became Archadis and Mach Kick.
• The Beast Wars: Uprising incarnation of Bazooka is a "virtual redeco" of Generations Warpath.