Historically, the Army Men franchise is full of cultural references from literature, film and television… and we are not going to be left behind of this habit.
Since many of us in the Army Men Toyverse project are fans of Sci-Fi, war and action films in general, we take references from here and there, not only visual, but from the personality of a character being based on an iconic popular character, to certain sounds or weapons based on popular sound pieces.
We think that in the Army Men Microverse the toys themselves adopt and personify characters, as if they were children in a game, and that personality they adopt becomes the purpose that drives and defines them.
Army Men known references
Army Men: Green Rogue:
The introduction of the Omega Soldier in Army Men Green Rogue is almost a copy-paste of the storyboarding of the scene where Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 appears in Terminator 2: Judgment Day
The previous suspense, the tempo, the metallic beat music sound typical of the Terminator franchise and the nudity of the character, among other details, are totally based on these introductory scenes of the films of this franchise. For this reason one of the frames of reference for Omega’s personality will be Arnold’s T-800.
Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes
Sarge’s Heroes is an obvious reference to Kelly’s Heroes, the film of the same name. In fact, each member of Bravo Company has a very different personality and appearance from each other, and each member has a different specialty. The same thing happens with Kelly’s men. Besides, everyone is crazy… in their own way.
The Red Baron and the Beige Baron
Manfred Albrecht von Richthofen, known as the “Red Baron” or “Baron Von Richthofen”, was a German fighter pilot during the human’s World War I. He is considered the ace of aces of war because he managed to shoot down eighty enemy airplanes. The obvious parallels with Baron Von Beige don’t need much clarification, but it has nothing to do with the Red Baron’s personality, except that he was an honor fighter equivalent to the English gentlemen he fought against. The Beige Baron has equal respect for his enemies, like Captain Blade and instead of finishing off his opponents, he just knocks them down and leaves them a Beige scarf as his trademark. Therefore Von Beige is not a murderer, but an avid fighter who likes to compete against other great pilots.
During the First World War, pilots were considered to be medieval knights “riding” the skies, and that rivals recognized each other as such when they crossed paths on the battlefield. Certain pilots had the habit of giving the military salute to their opponents when passing each other during a reconnaissance mission, but that solemn salute was soon replaced by a much more practical gesture within the context of a total war, although perhaps less chivalrous: the aviators began to carry guns (and use them).
One of the reasons World War I pilots wore scarves was not to be thrown at downed enemies (although they got used to doing it), was the combination of open cockpits and open engine oil systems, which used castor oil. Many early aeronautic engines used an open oil system, in which, instead of circulating the oil, it was dripped out of the engine and replenished from a reservoir, since being rotary engines, the castor oil used It was thrown in all directions, even towards the pilot. Ingesting castor oil not only tastes disgusting, but can also cause quite catastrophic effects on the digestive system. A silk handkerchief filtered out most of the castor oil.
Cajun Joe Colonel
“Cajun Joe’s mansion” was written in the back of the mission list, or description of some kind about missions, in the poster of an Army Men PC special edition, product of a partnership of 3DO with Ubisoft, which led us to the lyrics of a song, called “Cajun Joe (The Bully Of The Bayou)”, a “Country” 60′ style song that coincides in some sort of way with the Gray Colonel mission, like the terrain where the mission take place, the Bayou land.
Colonel Blintz, Lord Malice, Major Malfunction and a Green Colonel
Both the former Colonel Blintz, later called “Blintz” or “King Plurtz One” from Army Men RTS and the Green Colonel from Army Men 2, were clear references to the character of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz from the movie Apocalypse Now. In some very diluted way, the plot of both games, RTS & 2, was based on the primary idea of this movie: hunt down the renegade Colonel because he is out of control or knew a lot, and that is considered dangerous…
Even Lord Malice was also partially based on this character, and Sgt. Hawk goin evil when he became Major Malfunction. Or at least the game’s plot was. Only at the end of the game we found out that Malice was Gooding and Hawk was Malfunction (when in the movie the identity of the villain is known from the beginning). All of them were good men that went crazy.