Head: Outback '87
Torso: Firefly '92
Waist: Croc Master
Arms: B.A.T. '86, Buzzer
Legs: Monkeywrench

Real Name: James L. Proud
Birthplace: Detroit, CityFac sector

James Proud was a strong young man when his family needed it most. He lived in a poor section of Detroit, which was on its way to becoming the CityFactory it is known as now. As a result of his surroundings, he became quite adept at machinery and engineering. While in his early teens, he met up with a Dr. Glendale, who also lived in the slums of Detroit and worked for the large factory there run by the Cobra Corps. He was their chief engineer and Proud learned everything he knew about machinery from him. When the young man turned eighteen, he and his family quite simply ran out of options. He was forced to enter the Cobra Security force, or otherwise not have enough money to feed his family. He did so unwillingly, but out of necessity.

A few years later, Proud reached the rank of Sergeant, and had earned leadership of his own squad. Small rebel factions had begun to break out in CityFac Detroit, and his squad was sent in to squash a certain clan. Proud's squad was charged with the mission to take out the leader of this little faction, who was supplying the rebels with weaponry and advanced technology. Proud quickly tracked this rebel group down, but with shock discovered the leader to be Dr. Glendale, the man who had become almost a father to him. As his team rushed in, Proud turned at the last moment to protect his mentor. With no hesitation, his own team gunned him down mercilessly, leaving him for dead. In the ensuing chaos, Glendale slipped away and Proud's squad returned back to face the music.

But needless to say, Proud was not dead. Yet. Luckily for him, Dr. Glendale returned and dragged the young man to his underground lab where he had been working on bio-metalic fusion, hoping to give the rebels an aid to overthrow Cobra. Using the still untested process, he grafted cybernetics to young Proud, replacing his entire right arm, and much of his left. The left side of his face also had to be repaired and his left eye replaced with another. It was a long, ardurous process, and one that Glendale took to his grave. On the day that Proud finally awoke, five years after he was shot by his own squad, Dr. Glendale died peacefully, his dream finally realized. As Blacksmith held the dying Doctor in his arms, he swore vengeance on Cobra for what they had done to Glendale. Blacksmith soon found to his pleasure that the doctor had somehow input his own massive array of knowledge into his processor, and programmed his computerized brain and body to be able to adapt and react to a given situation. He now had the capabilities to turn even the most wrecked junk into a force of weaponry and create amazing things with it. Hence, he gave himself the name Blacksmith and went off in search of something to fight for.