Sonic Fazer by Kusan
Sonic Fazer ad from 1979
While generally considered a Star Wars Knock-Off, if “Luke Solo” above wasn’t enough of a clue, the Kusan Sonic Fazer is one of those toys that’s better than Kenner’s official products. (that prize also goes to Milton Bradley’s Star Bird) While the Kenner blasters sounded like my blender when I put in too many frozen cranberries, the Kusan Sonic Fazer had all the bells and whistles.
It offered kids five sounds with cool names like “Ion Transport” and “Radiate.” However, the best feature was voice amplification, yup, it was a bullhorn. This kind of tech is commonplace now but in the late 70s, it was state of the art. Kusan smartly had “Try Me” sections at toy store and what kid could resist that? Not me. I remember playing with the Sonic Fazer every time I visited the Hudson’s Bay store. It was near the Fisher Price movie viewer which always had “The Black Hole” so that was my second stop.
Sonic Fazer Try Me Display
It also didn’t hurt that the gun strongly resembled the pistols used in “Battlestar Galactica”. Which is a good thing because the “official” Battlestar Galactica gun from Mattel was just a label slapped ray gun from Taiwan.
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I still have my Sonic Fazer and yes it still works! I don’t have many toys of my youth, but I still have that one!
Funny you should bring in Battlestar, Luke Solo there kind of looks like a younger version of Richard ‘Apollo’ Hatch to me.