Grand Slam was born in San Diego. Obsessed with planes, he was destined to be a pilot, until he turned 18. The U.S. Navy rejected his entry due to his eyesight not being good enough. He got LASIK surgeory, reapplied, and was rejected again. It was then that he sought out alternatives. The terrorist organization that was creating havoc in its infancy was recruiting in South America. It was there that Grand Slam made his mark and joined G.I. Joe. He was recruited and began flight training. Starting with Russian made MIG 29s. He was a natural, despite his eye problems.

As time passed, and the Joes grew in their power, so did Grand Slam. When they began testing their own aircraft designs, it was Grand Slam that was approached to be their test pilot. When the Joes needed commanders for their full air force, Grand Slam took on one of the open roles. When the Joes created their own version of the Air Force Special Forces, Grand Slam stepped down from his position and went in to join them. The biggest draw for him, testing the new Joe JUMP units. It became clear when he took on the role of a commander of the Joe air forces; it was getting his hands dirty in an aircraft or testing new designs that got him going. He was ready to get dirty again, and to kick the rear ends of those that would never give him the chance to do what he loved.

My vision for Grand Slam in this mirror universe was close to the original. He is the Joe team's equivalent to Destro, minus the big company. I liked the idea of the JUMP, but I decided it would be used as a highly maneuverable propulsion unit for high altitude drops and fast escapes over rough terrain to a pick-up point. It's size makes it more suited to this since it cannot hold much fuel. I have also always admired the uniform. I have tried to incorporate the colors and armored look into this custom. However, I have also added the concept of the Chinese stealth/battle armor from 2D.'s Wraith character. The combination makes Grand Slam a different character.

This custom involved much less work on the figure, but the equipment was almost completely scratch-built. The only real mods I did to anything on the figure was to glue the belt onto the short waist piece. It gives him the short-torso syndrome, but for whatever reason, I feel it works on this custom.

The JUMP was a huge pain, but Grand Slam just isn't Grand Slam without the JUMP. I went through several ideas before this one. Every design looked too complex or too ridiculous to use until I came to the use of the gundam rockets. At first, I was going to mount them as they are on the gundam, but then decided they needed to have a fuel tank. I only happened to find the outboard in my fodder box and it was the perfect size. Since I was going with a personal flight pack, I had to deal with how to use it. I assumed the amount of propellant it could carry would have a definite effect on how far it could carry a person. That was when I decided its use was for short stints or as an alternative to using a parachute for insertions. I also decided that if the drop was short enough, it could be used for short getaways over harsh terrain in almost any setting. Over small buildings, forested areas, sand dunes, etc.

When I decided to incorporate the Wraith concept, I ditched the invisible bit as too far over the reaches of reality. However, I did keep the modular weaponry and body armor parts. I went with something simple, guns, rather than a whole array of specialized weapons, especially the ninja-esque blade pieces. Grand Slam is military, not a ninja, he always will be, and so is my custom. I used the simplest approach to building the removable guns, I chopped up the "communication gauntlets" and used them as the base, then glues the gundam Vulcan cannons on them. Then, I painted them black, and dry-brushed them with silver for weathering. Voila, arm-guns.

I'm fairly pleased with what I accomplished. I may retool the JUMP in order to incorporate some way to hold the arm-guns at some point, but it works as is. Sometimes simple works, and I think this was one of those cases.