David L. 'Bazooka' Katzenbogen (Tiger Force) — G.I. Joe Classified Series #54

Overview

David L. ‘Bazooka’ Katzenbogen (Tiger Force) is figure #54 in the G.I. Joe Classified Series — Target exclusive, 2023 at $24.99. The first Classified Bazooka, arriving in Tiger Force colours — the same pattern as Outback Tiger Force (#39) of establishing first appearances in the Tiger Force sub-line rather than at standard retail.

Bazooka is one of the Joe team’s most recognisable second-tier characters partly because of his design: a stocky anti-armour specialist who wears a red football jersey with his number on it over his tactical gear, because he used to play college football and never quite gave up the identity. The football jersey is his visual signature, and the Classified version maintains it in Tiger Force colours.

File Card

Code Name: Bazooka
Real Name: Katzenbogen, David L.
Primary Specialty: Anti-Armour
Secondary Specialty: Infantry
Birthplace: Three Forks, Montana
Grade: E-5, Sergeant

David Katzenbogen is the Joe team’s anti-armour specialist — the person whose job it is to destroy Cobra’s vehicles and fortifications. The football jersey detail humanises a character who could otherwise be an anonymous weapons operator, giving him a specific personal history that makes him recognisable as a person rather than just a combat function.

The Football Jersey Detail

The football jersey worn over tactical gear is the design element that makes Bazooka Bazooka. It’s unconventional by any military standard — you don’t wear a sports jersey to combat — and that unconventionality is the character’s personality made visible. He wore it because he wanted to, someone let him, and it stuck. In Tiger Force colours the jersey element gets the yellow-and-orange treatment, making an already distinctive design element even more visually prominent.

Standard Retail Bazooka

The standard retail Bazooka (#62, 2023) arrived the same year as this Tiger Force version — both in the same product cycle. For collectors who want the classic football-jersey-in-standard-Joe-colours design, #62 is the correct purchase. For Tiger Force collectors, #54 is essential.

Verdict

Bazooka Tiger Force #54 is the first Classified Bazooka and a strong Tiger Force figure. The football jersey in Tiger Force colours is immediately recognisable and visually bold. For Tiger Force collectors, essential. For standard roster builders, #62 is the recommended version.

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Part of G.I. Joe Classified Series | Tiger Force | Target Exclusive 2023. Related: Bazooka #62 | Outback Tiger Force #39 | Duke & RAM Cycle Tiger Force #40.

Anti-Armour in the Joe Team

The Joe team’s anti-armour capability is load-bearing for any Cobra confrontation that involves vehicles — which is most of them. Cobra’s operational force structure relies heavily on vehicles: HISS tanks, Stingers, Trouble Bubbles, and various other platforms. Bazooka’s job is to remove that advantage. His presence in a team display creates a specific tactical implication: the Joe side isn’t just personnel against personnel, it has vehicle-destruction capability built into the formation.

For collectors staging diorama-style displays, placing Bazooka opposite any Cobra vehicle creates the immediate visual tension of an anti-armour engagement — the launcher pointed at the HISS, the tactical consequence readable in the figures’ positioning.

Tiger Force Sub-Line Progress by 2023

With Bazooka (#54) alongside Outback (#39) and Duke with RAM cycle (#40), the Tiger Force Target exclusive sub-line had delivered three wave cycles of figures by 2023. Adding Recondo (#55) in the same cycle gave the Tiger Force display four distinct figures plus a vehicle set — enough for a coherent team formation. The sub-line was building toward a complete Tiger Force team display at a pace that rewarded consistent engagement with the Target exclusive channel.

The Football Jersey History

Bazooka’s college football background is one of the GI Joe franchise’s more specific character details — he played at Montana State, was good enough to attract professional interest, but chose military service instead. The jersey is the physical reminder of that choice: he kept something from his previous life and makes it part of his current one. It’s a small storytelling detail that distinguishes him from the anonymous heavy weapons operators in other action figure lines.

Secondary Market

Bazooka Tiger Force #54 has maintained modest secondary market prices — Tiger Force Target exclusives trade at a consistent tier that reflects the sub-line’s solid but not acute demand. Secondary prices typically run $30–45.

The Simultaneous Release Strategy

The pattern of releasing both a Tiger Force/Python Patrol version and a standard retail version of the same character in the same year — Bazooka Tiger Force #54 and retail Bazooka #62 in 2023 — gave collectors of both types what they needed within the same product cycle. This contrasts with earlier approaches where characters arrived in exclusive sub-lines with no retail equivalent in sight. The 2023 strategy was more collector-friendly: if you wanted the Tiger Force display version you got it, and if you wanted the standard version you didn’t have to wait another year. Both characters served their specific collector bases without one excluding the other.

Completing the Tiger Force Team

The Tiger Force figures by the end of 2023 gave collectors: Duke (#40), Outback (#39), Bazooka (#54), Recondo (#55). That’s four Joe team members in Tiger Force colours — enough for a coherent squad display. Later additions (Tiger Force Flint #89, Tiger Force Wreckage #137) continued filling out the roster through 2024-2025. The Bazooka is the heavy weapons component of the Tiger Force squad, the figure who gives the team vehicle-killing capability in the bright yellow-and-orange colour scheme that makes Tiger Force look like it’s daring Cobra to notice it. Complete Classified catalogue entry. Part of the G.I. Joe Classified Series — the definitive premium GI Joe collection.