EMGY Grunt was a secret drop that came along with the release of the MK2 Squares, which was on 09 June 2011. I remember that very vividly, because I missed the Grunt a couple of times during the day, and when I reached home, I spent a little over 4 hours F5-ing on Bambaland and at the same time monitoring A.Wood's Twitter. The whole entire process was dreadful, I still remember the adrenaline rush when it finally appeared later in the night, I think it was 10pm Singapore time. The painful experience was only made bitter sweet when I managed to nab one and check out smoothly on Paypal, swearing to myself: Never again. Well, never say never, they always say...
So was that 4 hours worth it? Item in hand, I think it was rather worthwhile. But if your occupation can earn you 400-500USD within 4 hours, I suggest you don't go through what I did. Simply go on eBay and you'll see the figure flipped at roughly within that price range at the moment.
The EMGY colourway is arguably the most popular for all the repaints that ThreeA has to offer for each of their figures. I do like the contrast between the black pouches and prints against the bright yellow, which reminds me of a cab in NYC. EMGY Grunt comes equipped like a regular Grunt, except for a longer coat that ends mid-shin. Accessory-wise, he's equipped with an additional riot shield. The riot shield's rad... and I'm sure lucky owners of the EMGY Dropcloth are delighted that it's included. I've seen pictures online with them duo together and I think to myself... Please let there be an EMGY coloured Dropcloth version 1.5, equipped with a riot shield too!!! The shield's thicker and heavier than I thought, but the articulation of the figure's arm has absolutely no problem holding it up to various poses.
The inner lining of the helmet was, however, not included. Initially, I wasn't too bothered by this omission. Truth be told, I ripped it out of my Stealth Grunt's helmet, and would almost certainly do the same when I find time to open my Deep Powder Grunt too. But in a casual conversation with a fellow local ThreeA collector buddy of mine, he mentioned that the lining was actually quite crucial if you want to display the Grunt without the face mask on, but wearing the helmet. That's true, because the head of the Grunts is pretty small and, without the mask, would certainly not fill the helmet. Perhaps 3A would consider reintroducing it back for future Grunt releases, and give the collectors a choice whether or not to rip it out.
I don't have much complains about the figure, except for how the frayed edges and cuts in the coat was done. It isn't very realistic, and somewhat over done in my opinion. I'd be happy if some parts of the edges were nicely finished, and some subtly frayed, rather than having huge chunks of threads hanging around it, as though an amatuer seamstress was fooling around with a pair of blunt scissors...
The Grunt remains one of my favourite original design released by ThreeA in 2011, and the EMGY Grunt is, in my opinion, the best among all the Grunts released so far. It does have an uncanny resemblance to the Jinroh designs, but I would guess that it was because both figures were inspired by soldiers from WWII. Overall, I think the quality of this figure has met my expectations for ThreeA, and I hope they continue to upkeep their standards, cause I have an EMGY Caesar coming soon (paired with Deep Powder Caesar...) and I am looking forward to it (ie. already cleared some shelf space for them). Them being so nice, I think it is such a pity that the EMGY Grunts were not made available for order like the rest of 'em Grunts. Personally, I'd rather it be a mass release so that more folks out there can enjoy it, as long as mass-production doesn't mean that quality suffers...
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