#316 BUCKY O’HARE – DEADEYE DUCK (1991)

Bucky O’Hare is a character created by Larry Hama. You’ll probably know him because he was the brain behind the G.I.Joe toyline, as well as a writer for many superhero comics, like Daredevil, Spiderman, the Punisher or G.I.Joe. He worked for Marvel and also for DC comics.

Larry Hama created Bucky O’Hare in 1978 or 1979, and is a green rabbit that commands a spaceship of rebels from the “United Animals Federation” that fight against the Toad Empire. Bucky and his crew belong to the S.P.A.C.E. organisation.

The story reminds a little bit of Star Wars, and probably Larry had in mind the film when he created this story.

The first appearance of Bucky O’Hare on a comic book is from 1986, and a few years later (1991) it became an action figure line, and also a videogame in 1992. Larry also did a second comic book with this character, but it was never published.

I knew the character since it was available in toy shops, so I was very surprised when reading a German Star Wars comic from Ehapa I discovered a character that reminded strongly of Bucky O’Hare. And it was not only the rabbit… other characters include a boy with a grey helmet that reminds a bit of Willy DuWitt. There also a cat character, a woman and an older man. In Buck O’Hare there was a female character which was a cat, but this can be a coincidence.

Here you can see two images taken from the comic. The name of the rabitt is Jaxxon, and the boy, Starkiller-Kid.

Two cartoon samples of the comic depicting the green rabitt Jaxxon and some other characters

I guess Hama lent these characters to Don Glut and Howard Chaykin for their story “The Monster from the Depth” (literally translated from German: “Das Monster aus der Tiefe”), when he was working for Marvel, or maybe this is just a big coincidence. In the wookipedia there’s a lot of info on Jaxxon.

No matter what, Bucky O’Hare is extremely cool. The comic book and (later) the figures were designed in a very funny way: the characters were quite “toonified”, as other toylines like Playmates TMNT did before. The characters themselves are also very funny: A duck, a bulldog, several frogs, a small robot, a young human…

Unfortunately there was only one toy wave ever made. A second wave was never sold in toy shops, although there are some prototypes, drawings, and artwork for it on the internet to see (http://buckyohare.org/unreleased.shtml).

The first and only wave comprised 10 figures plus two vehicles:

• Bucky O’Hare (Bucky’s S.P.A.C.E.)
• Deadeye Duck (Bucky’s S.P.A.C.E.)
• Willy Du Witt (Bucky’s S.P.A.C.E.)
• AFC Blinky (Bucky’s S.P.A.C.E.)
• Toad Air Marshall (Toad Empire)
• Toadborg (Toad Empire)
• Bruise the Berserker Baboon (Bucky’s S.P.A.C.E.)
• Al Negator (Toad Empire)
• Commander Dogstar (Bucky’s S.P.A.C.E.)
• Storm Toad Trooper (Toad Empire)

• Toad Croaker (Bucky’s S.P.A.C.E.)
• Toad Double Bubble (Toad Empire)

The figures were sold in blister cards and the vehicles in boxes. The blister cards are very well done, since they include a small catalogue, a file card with all the data and the history of the characters (Larry Hama already did this with G.I.Joe) and also a short comic story with the start of Bucky O’Hare’s adventures. In just three cartoons, we are told that Willy Du Witt arrives in a parallel universe called the “Aniverse” (from “Animal” and “Universe”), were lots of toads want to destroy him. Fortunately he is saved by Bucky O’Hare and his team. From this point on, you create your own story.

 Filecards are also written with much wit and the characters are quite funny. 

The figures were, as said at the beginning of the article by Hasbro, and distributed in Spain by M.B. Spain/ Hasbro Spain. As far as I am concerned, this series was also released in many other countries, like France, Netherlands, Belgium,

If you want to know more, watch more pictures, visit: http://buckyohare.org/toys.shtml

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: DEADEYE DUCK
• Alternate Names: Patuerto (Spanish)
• Toy Line: Bucky O’Hare (Wave 1)
• Year: 1991
• Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 12 cm approx.