Young America's Favorite Way To Fly

Bazooka was famous for its comics once Bazooka Joe got into the mix in 1954 and on those comics were almost always those crazy premium offers.  Some were cheesy, some were not but I have to say a recent eBay auction featuring the "Bazooka Airfleet" from 1974-75 may take the cake.

Check THIS out:

Eastern was still a major airline in the mid 1970's so I presume Topps got a good deal on the whole shebang. The cardboard airport was probably an item they sold in their terminal gift shops and knowing Topps they took advantage of an overstock situation. The planes are styrofoam and meant to glide when thrown. The terminal graphics look to me like they could be a fanciful rendering of their space at LaGuardia Airport but really could represent any of their airport homes.

That pamphlet has some good information on assembly and basic aeronautics for both 70's kids and modern collectors (and researchers):

Check out this miscut comic from the fabulous Bazooka Joe Comics Website:

I love miscuts as they reveal all sorts of information.  Here we see Topps was mixing in some larger premium offers along with their usual comics.  The sting of not having the normal comic was thought by Topps to be alleviated by doubling the value of the insert vs a regular comic I guess.  I've seen others that are only worth one comic so your experience may vary.

The mail in address (Woodbury, NY) is the only time I have seen that particular town, which is located only a couple of miles from Westbury, where a large number of premiums (and me!) came from in the 1970's.  In addition, there is no number number assigned to the premium.  It's all a bit mysterious but the larger "comic" would have been useful showing how big the airfleet was.

This is even neater than the infamous Exploding Battleship premium!