6 INCH: GRUNT

When I was a kid, Grunt was just a figure to me. I'm sure I broke his thumb and crotch piece in shorter order, as I did several of those old 1982 figures. Back then, I would have said it was from me playing with them. As an adult, I'd say it was poor design or material usage. Grunt, as far as I could tell, didn't get much time in comic or cartoon. I didn't have much use for him other "just another soldier". At some point, due to him being such an open slate, I decided he would be perfect to write in how I saw fit. When I MTF'd him, I had a lot of fun. I had also just found (and watched) Daylight's End, a zombie movie starring Johnny Strong. I liked the look of the main character so much, I modeled Grunt after him. That's the small scale version. Grunt even get his own story called SAN REJA (WIP). The story follows loosely the same ideas as Daylight's End and Army of the Dead. It brings 'zombies' into the Zedd Universe in a contained sort of way, but also introduces the Joy Toy toyline into the Joe Verse (which is part of the Zedd Universe; it just shows that Joy Toy exists with GI Joe/MTF). If only I could build a large scale Grunt in the same fashion as the small one. In fact, I wish there was a action figure company that was like MTF but specialized in large scale. I'd have so much fun with that.

Big Grunt was purchased to simply help out round out my good guys which were outnumbered 3-1 by the bad guys. It was just the way things worked with my buying. There are Joes I do want, but their priority shifts quickly and often. Nunchuk, Hawk v2, Steeler & Short Fuze, and Big Ben are figures that keep getting pushed back. Visually, I preferred the new version compared to the classic Grunt that was being offered. In short order, I purchased a bunch of cannon fodder figures for a 4 Horsemen vignette. That short diostory shifted focus so heavily from what I had planned; Lady Obitus was not the focus, it ended up being a greenshirt squad led by Grunt! In that regard, the large scale figures became a harder presence in the Zedd Universe and not falling under an alternate universe or a 'classic' universe. (I had thought of using the big figures as a more traditional GI Joe universe but that fell apart quickly)

In the end, Grunt went from a nothing character to a loved character/figure. The larger version, the story that he's in, actually will feed into the San Reja story. He basically goes from team member to squad leader to solo warrior.