Dane is the American born son of McCleod Destro. He grew up between the Mars controlled western half of the former United Sates and back home in Scotland, learning the in's and outs of the arms business and the politics of the world at a young age.

His father, whom had taken over the family business, taught Dane the value of life and loyalty to the family name, while trying to steer him in the direction McCleod was taking MARS when he took over the company from his father. While still dealing arms and investing in the future of the company, MARS had began to be seen as the place to be if you wanted to be treated fair and out from Cobra's oppressive regime. This new outlook only strengthened after the New World was decimated by a plague from within.

MARS and the Destro family were essentially rebranding themselves, while still conducting business as usual, which only caused the relationship with Cobra to deteriorate even further. By 2213, MARS is openly speaking out against Cobra, leading to hostile encounters across the globe and helping fuel proxy wars between Cobra and their various adversaries worldwide.

In 2214, Dane, a rising political force and inspiration, is invited by the leaders of Mega City America to speak about the state of affairs in the world, and propose a partnership between MARS and new America, whom has been under the influence of Cobra for years now.
An assassination attempt is made, with Dane barely escaping with this life. Rumors of Cobra being responsible run rampant, though unproven. At this same time, Cobra provides a distraction and declares war on Extensive Enterprises, and eastern Asia.

McCleod realizes that the uneasy truce is coming to an end, and mobilizes the Iron Grenadier Army to begin and prepare to invade Las Vegas, the only western Cobra city, and to invade Russia, which has been decimated by Cobra.

Realizing his army cannot possibly fight 3 different battlefronts, McCleod rests his hops on the countless rebels operating in the country. After the destruction of the GI Joe resistance team in 2207, rebels dare not band together for fear of being wiped out again. McCleod sees his son, a popular political figure and rising leader, as the person to bring the rebels together again and with the backing of MARS, reform the GI Joe team and take the war to Cobra.

I experimented with a lighter to cause some battle damage on some of the armor pieces, and went through a couple builds of webgear befre coming up with this combo. The flag was there from the beginning, and I used a lighter to "shape" the flag, by using a quick flame burst here and there, i was able to shape it to fall at the shoulders and wave out at the bottom.
The back pack with the detachable gun was a late addition that I wanted to add, as he had no weapons besides the wrist gauntlet.