Hardball

There's a lot of GIJoes out there that just don't get a lot of attention, some Joes just get forgotten. Over the years online, I've seen posts about these not-as-often mentioned Joes, posts that ask which Joes fans often forget about. I think Backstop was the guy that I often named as one I forgot, for example.

However, as I've been picking through my figure collection, I realized there was a Joe that I really was (more or less) forgetting. And the guy was kinda really always in my mind, but..., I guess I can't think of why I forgot about him so much.

This GIJOE character is Hardball.

As I was sorting the GIJOE figures through and evaluating each one, I DID pick Hardball out to keep in my (potential) small force. I even gave him my Marauder, Inc. 40mm grenade launcher as I was (essentially) playing with the figure.

At the same time, I was writing down on list all the figures I was going to keep.

Guess who I forgot?

Right, and obviously due to the title of this post, Hardball.

And one could say, maybe I just didn't write down his name. It could have completely have been a random omission and it could have been any of the other figures.

It took me awhile to figure out who I was missing on my list compared to the figures on the shelf (that I picked out as "top" picks). I figured out it was Hardball, but it kind of surprised me.

Now, about 2 years ago, I was going for the all inclusive GIJOE team. I wanted every individual character, and these I put into my "departments." (see that "departments" post for more on that).

I had EVERY character on a large sheet of paper all sectioned up into different categories. I even had a Sgt. Savage stand-in figure for that character. I even had Fast Draw in a category.

Who did I miss? Once again, and obviously, yes, Hardball.


Anyway, as-is, I did pick Hardball out as one of my "keepers" for a (potential) small force. He's a decent figure with some not-so-straight-military flair (baseball style), and he's a grenadier.
I think the modern 40mm grenade launcher in real-life-world is an incredible (and scarily deadly and accurate) weapon that really does exist. Hardball simply brings his larger fictional gun to the battle!


So, I guess in summary, I'm kind of surprised that a fairly simple, straight-forward, and (at least I thought so) used figure has been kind of slipping under my radar somehow. I would have guessed several other figures would have been unconsciously not getting used.

Check out Hardball at the GIJOE Index.

What do you think about the guy?


OH, and check out JMMs page on Hardball, too!