Shoulder Pads: Joy Toy Yearly Army Builder Figure
Weapon: G.I.Joe 2009 Destro V23 Missile Launcher
The Rest: Marauders Task Force Parts

I want to make a group picture with all of the original 1983 Joes, but in their later gear (or made-up gear). For example, I want to take a picture of VvV Scarlett standing next to V2 Zap, or POC Hawk in front of my made-up Battlecorps Short-Fuze. Running with that idea, I realized that I was so tired of only seeing Grand Slam in his silver pads, so I figured I would make up a version of him.

I'm also a bit bored of Grand Slam only being a JUMP trooper. I kinda want him to be a laser guy again. Okay, so I figured I would bring back the HAL in some way. I knew I didn't want him sitting in it. I wanted him carrying it, what with all the advances in laser technology after all these years. To differentiate him from Flash, and to reference the original MOS for Grand Slam, I wanted to give him the biggest, tacky-est, launcher (LASER) I could find and pretend that it was the new HAL. I thought I might give Grand Slam a dark green and orange color scheme, but with silver accents to homage his V2 colors.

I wanted to lean just a tad bit more into the baseball aspect of his call sign. Give Hardball someone to chew the fat with. So, I gave Grand Slam an off-duty look with the cap and bat. I also wanted to give Grand Slam a new designation, again with a baseball tilt. I thought I might revisit that thing G.I. Joe did in the first couple of years with those stupid, contrived acronyms like VAMP (Vehicle Attack Multi Purpose, yuck). So I am calling him a B.A.L.R Trooper. Or the "Battlefield Artillery Laser (Recoil-less)" Trooper. Stupid but fun.