When the Robot Rebellion broke out, the U.S. Government mobilized all of it's armed forces to destroy the threat. After the first US counter-attack failed and resulted in the loss of most of the Eastern Seaboard as well as parts of the Mid-West, the US provisional government turned to GI Joe. This highly trained special mission force would lead the remaining US forces against the BAT onslaught. To accomplish this, General Hawk recalled all former members of GI Joe to active service.

Most of the fighting would be done by the regular Infantry. Robert 'Grunt' Graves was tasked with organizing and leading the 'gropos' into battle. They would be responsible to taking out the BAT ground forces.

Grunt was one of my first figures (Actually, my third after Short Fuze and Flash) and one of my favorites as a kid. When Joes first came out, Grunt was the face of GI Joe and had the coolest gun - an M-16. Although he wasn't used all that much in the cartoon or comic, he has remained a favorite of mine.

For this version, I went back to the Spytroops / Valor vs Venom days for inspiration. I kept the basic soldier look with the bare arms. Since this theme is high-tech, I added the combat vest and night vision to his gear.