In the minds of a lot of Joe fans, this is the shining star of this first wave of Commando figures for 2007. Grand Slam has a solid following among the adult fandom...being a member of the original 13, the character has engrained himself in a lot of minds of collectors, not to mention his original filecard text which describes him as a sci-fi fan and comic book collector, both things which can really endear him to collectors for the obvious reasons. Hasbro takes the character in a somewhat different direction, yet still manages to make him true to the character we all knew back in the day.

Right off the bat you can see that Hasbro almost seems to be taking a slight departure from the signature Sigma Suit look that we've been getting through the first run of these figures. Grand Slam really seems to be designed in a more standard military look. Sure, he's obviously got a typical Sigma Suit shirt (without the color trim, of course) but the sculpted more military pants immediately make this guy look like your more standard soldier and less like a specially suited super-hero type commando. My feelings are a bit mixed on the subject. Initially I was a little disappointed, just because the Sigma Suit gave a great feeling of unity to the figures. You could really tell that everyone was on the same team and they all had similar looks. However, at least with GS there isn't TOO much of a separation.

In fact, you really can't say that Grand Slam is a big separation from the Sigma 6 style because he uses the exact same mold (from waist to neck, including arms) as Heavy Duty. I wasn't aware of this for some reason, but upon looking at Grand Slam, it's immediately obvious that he has the same body, same arms, and same power gloves as the original Heavy Duty. I suppose it's not a huge deal, since Grand Slam is a large, imposing figure anyway, I guess I just was hoping for some new tooling besides the legs and head. This means that there are no figures in this assortment that are 100% new tooling at all. I imagine this was done to offset the large amount of new molds required from the first Soldier assortment of 2007, but it still leaves you at least a bit cold when you stand back and look at the figures.

Even with the same body and arms, though, Hasbro manages to make Grand Slam still look unique. I mean, he is a large guy wearing a Sigma Suit, so there's no real reason why he shouldn't share some parts with Heavy Duty. Hasbro manages to offset this somewhat by shortening his legs a big, which makes Grand Slam actually a bit shorter than Heavy Duty, even though he appears just as huge at first. This slight difference makes a nice impact, and even though these are newly tooled legs instead of soft goods, but I was surprised that the legs work remarkably well. Even in an animated style, the sculpted cloth has some substance to it...it's got some physical feeling and the cloth works surprisingly well. I like the kneepads, and I really like the monster boots. Yeah, even with the reused Heavy Duty parts, Grand Slam ends up looking at least somewhat different and looks great. He absolutely stands out among the crowd.

His head sculpt is amazingly unique as well. It's a simple face...closed lips, broad chin, close cropped hair...nothing really remarkable about it, but it really gives him some great character. He seems almost calm, cool, and collected, which is surprising for someone toting around a rocket launcher as big as they are. It fits the character perfectly.

Speaking of the rocket launcher, all of Grand Slam's accessories are pretty darn great. From the top of his helmet-covered head, to his shoulder mounted launcher, to his chest-strap bandolier, and his gun and knife, Grand Slam comes across as the consummate soldier. The Kickback Blaster is very much over-the-top, but Hasbro manages to squeeze in a nice amount of secondary weapons, too, ending up with a great assortment of functional gear. The Tactical Ops approach has left me a bit cold this early in the year, giving us lots of massive action-featured weapons and not so many complimentary ones. But Grand Slam bucks that trend and does it well, toting equipment well served for many different operations. His submachine gun is perfect. I do really like how the Kickback Blaster ejects shell casings as it fires, but something can just be said for a nicely designed science fiction-inspired submachine gun. Very nice.

So, really, Grand Slam comes with pretty much all of the great stuff you could expect. A nice, large, powerful gun with a great play feature...awesome helmet, great complimentary weapons. Plus he's a new character with some new tooling. How can you go wrong? I love the Grand Slam character, and this figure is a pretty good representation of him. I approve 100%.