Prototype: Grunt Head 2-UP

One of the steps in creating an action figure is the "2-UP" stage - where a figure is created at twice its size.

Pictured above are images of a 2-UP clay bake mold of what would eventually become the head of the original Grunt action figure. This was sculpted well in advance of the production of the original Real American Hero series and may have been the first ever Real American Hero character.

There are a few differences worthy of note with this piece. First, the helmet is part of the actual head mold of the figure. Eventually it would be decided that the figures would have removable helmets and this concept was scrapped. Also the helmet itself differs from the actually released helmets in that it has a realistic ridge detail which runs down the center of the helmet and branches off in the back.

This head was saved by Kurt Bozigian.