General Plastro was the Tan Army’s sadistic leader. He ruled with an iron hand an a cold heart
His sinister deeds have thrown the once peaceful Plastic World into total chaos. Ruling with a plastic fist like if he had an iron fist, General Plastro’s wicked ways will not cease until the battlefield is strewn with the melted bodies of the Green forces.
General Plastro leaded the rapacious Tan Army – a huge force bent on annihilating or enslaving all others. Plastro himself, a cruel military dictator, could watch his own men melt in battle without feeling the slightest pang of remorse.
Named the “Tyrannical Tan Commander” in the original Army Men conflict, Plastro is the general of the Tan Republic and is typically the main antagonist throughout the Army Men Tanic-Greeno conflicts. He has evolved throughout history from a fearsome menace who wields his troops against the Green Nation, to a comical villain who resorts to increasingly desperate plans to defeat his enemies.
We must not make the mistake of believing that he was a loser, but on the contrary: he always ended up falling, being defeated, but not before causing enormous casualties in his enemy forces, enormously greater than those inflicted on his army. For this reason Plastro is one of the most successful commanders in history, who for years kept other nations under his iron hand.
General Plastro wishes to seek the total destruction of the Green Nation, or otherwise absorb it into the Tan Republic. Eventually, his plans and schemes lead him into expanding into other nations, and total conquest of their world.
Nemesis of Green Army’s Colonel Grimm, this dictator was responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands soldiers, one of them Sarge Hawk’s father, a crime that Sarge will not allow to go unpunished.
Some time later, through his secret operatives, Plastro had discovered portals that leaded to an alternate world. This strange land holded weapons of awesome power that plastic soldiers have never seen before. If Plastro could have taken over and deployed these weapons, the Green forces would be melted into a sea of goo before they can aim their weapons. Although in reality they partly did.
Plastro was initially a nameless threat, only known as the “Tyrannical Tan Commander“. But was officially dubbed “The Tan Commander, Plastro” during Army Men II events, officially becoming the first Army Men character to have a proper name in history. In older histories, Plastro would have minimal dialogue and usually rarely appeared.
He’s the leader of the Tan Nation and all-around bad guy. Plastro will stop at nothing to rule the Army Men World. With Blade and his squad tearing up the skies, Plastro plays his ace in hole — Baron Von Beige.
Army Men 2
Major Mylar attempted to lead a coup against General Plastro. He seals General Plastro and Sarge inside of the Real World by detonating the portal once he enters. He does not appear for the rest of the campaign, and it is unknown if the Tan forces Sarge battles against are part of Mylar’s faction, or Plastro’s.
Mylar eventually failed when he was defeated by Sarge. Plastro thanks Sarge for getting rid of this internal enemy of the Tan nation.
Toys in Space
Plastic Surgery goes wrong?
Some time before Sarge’s Heroes, Plastro’s appearance changed significantly. His face became deformed, he became shorter and gained a lot of weight, with a prominent belly. His image in general changes from respectable to probably guffy. But his cruelty is still there, if not it gets worse…
Plastro, before his radical change, was a perfectionist who took plastic baths to repair his scratches. So his search for visual perfection is a fact.
At the same time, a common random soldier born again like the Super Soldier, Sarge Hawk, and the rest of the Bravo Company Commandos where remolded the same way. Some theories say that Plastro knew about the Greens’ Super Super Soldier program and wanted to imitate it, or wanted to steal it, but everything went wrong when he used it in him. No words about this from the Green Army intel.
Theories and gossip say that this was because Plastro underwent the Super Soldier experiment to try to perfect himself, just as the Greens did with Hawk. But what maybe he didn’t know was that with the rest of the soldiers they were remolded with serious attitudinal and mental flaws. Maybe his particularities became more accentuated. Although he still maintains a certain air of the original design, which at a certain distance was difficult to differentiate from the new one, Plastro definitely looks worse than before.
Plastro bios from Sarge’s Heroes to Sarge’s Heroes 2
Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes events
For this era he is a highly intelligent war tactician as he leads his Tan Army to victory over the Green Army.
General Plastro and his evil Tan Army have discovered mysterious Portals. These portals offer passage to an alternate reality, a dimension that holds the secret to ultimate power.
General Plastro is the main antagonist for Sarge’s Heroes time, where his role changes significantly. Up until this point, Plastro was a threat that was never really seen, nor was he actually validated as a threat in public. But starting in the Sarge’s Heroes events, he is seen as a more proactive villain, leading assaults and raids on camps, hatching diabolical plans, and even coming face to face with Sergeant Hawk on several occasions.
General Plastro is now in possession of some of this Portals and has sent his soldiers through them to find new weapon technologies which, when brought back to the plastic dimension, can be used to destroy the Green Army. Currently in possession of the most diabolical weapons ever created, General Plastro has mounted a full-scale attack on the Green Nation.
One of the first weapons of mass destruction General Plastro’s forces bring back is a giant magnifying glass. Needless to say, one of the coolest weapons of Plastro’s army, is the dreaded “V-Bot,” which is a toy robot that comes to life once it is brought back from “Giant World” into “Their World”. Any inanimate plastic object that is brought back (using the Portal) from “Giant World” into “Their World” becomes animate.
But something changed on Plastro in between this events and past events. His appearance and personality changed, even after Air Tactics and Army Men: Air Combat – The Elite Missions.
However, this sudden increase of time and dialogue in public knowledge came at a steep price in terms of respect. Instead of his slender, muscular build, Plastro has developed a substantial gut, a somewhat deform face and is relegated to the role of a somewhat bumbling villain.
Many theories said that Plastro suffered some kind of accident during his exploration of the Real World. But all of this remains in just theories.
While many of his schemes and ideas are inherently evil and sadistic, Plastro’s bumbling nature and childish behavior keeps him away from being a psychological true threat in appearance. It is stated that he discovered the portals that lead to the Real World, but how and why he came upon such discoveries are a complete mystery.
Plastro’s main base of operation is Fort Plastro, a giant log maze fortified with a wall of bug zappers Plastro had found in the Big World. Within the fortress, Plastro has been developing a number of weapons, including giant toy robots with gatling gun arms and flame throwers equipped in their torsos, called V-Bots.
Plastro during all Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes events
General Plastro is an evil and ruthless plastic man who has no problem slaughtering hundreds of Green Army men with his newly acquired barbaric weapons.
Plastro has won the support of several other nations, although they had no choice since he conquered them.
At one point during this events, the Tan Army kidnaps Vikki Grimm, whom Plastro is a huge fan of. In what appears to be a bid to keep herself alive, Vikki offers her services to General Plastro, who ably takes her up on it.
Another sign of his genius is discovering the “Alternate World” (Real World) and the Portal devices that can transport him there. From this Alternate World, Plastro has exported powerful weapons that he enjoys using on Green Army Men.
The only positive attribute of Plastro is that he has a dry and evil sense of humor.
With Vikki’s help, Plastro manages to capture Sergeant Hawk, thereby falling into Vikki’s trap to get a hold of Plastro’s plans and giving them to the Green Army. As Sarge rescues the other members of Bravo Company, Plastro finds his plans falling apart, and after discovering Vikki’s treachery, tries to do away with her.
In a living room or the bathroom, depending on what story is related, Sarge and Plastro met once again and battled, with Plastro being defeated when a gigant lifeform from the Real World, a Dog, entered the room and picked him up.
Sarge, thinking he was safe, made it to the bathroom, where Plastro cornered him at the portal and told Sarge:
“For a minute I knew what it was like to be kibble. Now you’ll know what it’s like to be bits!”
Once again, Plastro was foiled by the giant Dog, and dragged off just as the portal was destroyed, cutting him off from the Plastic World.
Apparently trapped in the Real World, Plastro manages to return to the Plastic World because the portal that was supposedly destroyed, leaving him behind, was only partially destroyed, leaving a functional remnant through which he was able to return when recovered from his injuries.
But some time after the Air Attack and Air Attack 2 campaigns, Plastro was trapped again in the Real World, abandoned on a table. He was soon Plastered thereafter.
In General Plastro’s absence, Field Marshal Tannenburg stepped in. Either due to low morale because of Plastro’s disappearance, or Tannenburg’s poor guidance, the Tan forces were losing on all fronts throughout the first half of Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes 2 events. Eventually, Sgt. Hawk captures Tannenburg, and a peace treaty was planned to be signed.
Bridgette Bleu manages to recover General Plastro in the Big World, who was still Plastered. She uses her Dr. Madd’s anti-plastrification serum on him, which restores his vitality.
Shortly afterwards, Plastro is led to a toy shop, where he brings all of the Toy Robots to life sing the same serum as his elite guard and launches an all-out attack on the peace conference between the Tans and Greens.
Once again, he captures Vikki Grimm.
After capturing Vikki, Plastro betrays Bridgette by launching an attack on the Blue Nation, which up until now had been a major ally of the Tans.
Despite his treachery, Bridgette still sides and works with Plastro, even aiding in plastering Sarge.
After Plastro had captured all of Bravo Company for a second time, eventually Bleu uncovered that she was a double agent and signaled “Little Man” to sabotage the pinball machine where Bravo Company Commandos were held, and Sarge was healed by a passing helicopter that sprayed more serum on him. In the end, Plastro was captured and forced to sign the surrender papers.
Following the events of Sarge’s Heroes 2, the army Plastro had build was seemingly taken over by Brigette Bleu. During the events of Portal Runner, however, she ends up ultimately being imprisoned alongside Plastro.
By the time of Army Men: RTS, Plastro goes unmentioned and is a small enough threat to the Green Nation that the entirety of Bravo Company can be diverted to fighting against RTS Tan faction leader, Blintz.
Despite being imprisoned and outside of the war scene during a a long period, Plastro finds the time to sent an full attack during Army Men: Sarge’s War events, as well as being mentioned as the leader of the Tan during that time. Most likely, Plastro at some point escaped or was in communication from inside prison, kicking off these events.
Omega Soldier incident
Despite being absent, the dictator and leader of the Tan Army, Plastro, has suffered numerous losses in the past. But a recent string of victories, as well as a secret strategic manufacturing plan, have given him the confidence that he can eliminate the Green Army once and for all. All this from prison, with Tannenburg as his executioner on the battlefield.
Portal Runner
Plastro was still in prison during this events…
Army Men: Sarge’s War events
As usual, Plastro is in some sort of way, the leader of the Tan during the first part of this events. General Plastro would launch one final assault on the Green Nation, which once again ended in failure. Plastro seemingly admitted defeat at last, and proceeded to the peace ceremony in Greentown. Unbeknownst to everyone attending, however, Lord Malice had hidden a bomb in a statue meant to symbolize the peace between both nations, which he detonated remotely. The blast incinerated almost everyone in attendance immediately, and as Plastro was standing right next to the statue, he was almost certainly killed as well.
Little Blocko-man Plastro: Real or Fake?
Many years later an even funnier character appeared on scene. A small Blocko-man riding a large Mecha, claiming to be Plastro himself. Taking into consideration that Plastro died in Lord Malice’s Terrorist Attack, there is no way this little guy can be him.
Who was the original Plastro?
Who is Blocko-Man Plastro?
Little is known about this individual and whether if he really is Plastro or not. But at this point it is not something that anyone cares about, since with the opening of the large scale colonization of the Real World and the conflicts of this Big World, this supposed “Plastro” goes unnoticed and insignificant compared to other threats, loosing already too many more times than the past Plastro, and even joining the Green army once in circumstances that no one has bothered to clarify.
We mention this as a curiosity and nothing more, but from the editorial team we doubt the veracity of his statements.
This Plastro owns a HQ somewhere in the Real World. But since no one cares, we don’t know where exactly.
Plastro’s Past
Plastro in his beginnings was a young Yellow military leader molded directly to be one, coming out of special molds for it. But he was thrown into the toughest battles of the latter part of the Great Gray War, which caused him to become discolored from staying on the front lines for so long.
The yellow color of his body became pale, whitish… like a half-baked plastic soldier, similar to all those soldiers molded from recycled plastic, commonly assigned to lower ranks and thrown to the front like cannon fodder. Among the officers, everyone laughed at him, calling him “a sad and different color”, which generated an idea in his head: Make all that Yellow workforce, exploited by their nation, independent, under a single flag: The Tan color.
The color of these second-class soldiers was due to the recycling process, which with each recycling the yellow saturation was lost.
There came a time when the war spread so much that it became somewhat strenuous for the Yellows, and without realizing it there came a time when these “second-rate yellow soldiers” were more than the pure saturation Yellows, and the bad treatment never change.
Plastro moved his cards and conspired against the Yellow Army, wanting to take control of it to overthrow the Yellow government, organizing a coup d’état… which ultimately was unsuccessful.
Plastro’s rise to power
Plastro was imprisoned since the crowds that followed him at that time, who were already derogatorily called “Tannic” instead of Yellow, would have caused more problems to the already war-hit Yellow Nation. But unfortunately for the Yellows, Plastro did nothing more than be the flame that started a fire in an ammunition depot soaked in fuel.
Little time passed, and as Plastro wrote in his memoirs: “A few months later, isolated from all information outside my cell, I began to hear all kinds of sounds of confrontations inside the base, and then some Tannic soldiers arrived to take me out of there, calling me ‘Leader.’”
By the time Plastro was freed, he left the prison facility being greeted by a thousand Tannic soldiers raising their weapons and celebrating, with fire, debris and dead Yellow soldiers everywhere, shouting “Plastro, Plastro, Plastro”.
The Genocide
Having taken advantage of his time in prison to plan his new intention to take power, adapting to the new circumstances, Plastro made the yellow government and the armed forces believe that despite considering him dangerous, he actually had the power to appease the insurgency to end the civil war.
Given the situation of the war against the Grays, the Yellow government had no choice but to accept it and thanks to this Plastro gained the trust of the Yellow Army, and over time he climbed through the high ranks, achieving an important position despite his “Tannic” condition. This even began to change society’s opinion about these second-class citizens, becoming more respected. At the same time, the Tannic of the Yellow Army became one of the most experienced and hardened divisions in the army, being sent to the toughest battles not out of contempt, but because they were the most capable.
Being led and strategically commanded by Plastro, these forces became unstoppable, and after patiently waiting a few years, Plastro achieved the perfect context for his final blow on the Yellow.
On a date around 1954, the “Tannic”, now respectfully called “Tan”, deceived the Yellow higher-ups into believing that they would win the war against the Grays by cornering them in the Thermopiles, making them fall into deception due to the fact that having managed to make the Grays move there. But it was all a trap…
In reality, the Tans had been secretly allied with the Grays for some time. In exchange for destroying the Yellows, the Grays promised power and glory to the Tan. Plastro accepted… and between them they made the Yellows fall.
But Plastro did not trust the Grays, and distracted, worn out and trusting, the Grays near the end of the war were betrayed by Plastro, who kept almost all of his production power, leading to the end of the War. The Reds and the Greens, along with the Blue remnants decided to leave things as they were. The chances of losing a new war were high.
The surviving Gray remnants retreated and managed to survive. Although neither they nor the Blues were ever able to fully recover. The offpring of the Red, the Oranges, took the opportunity to become independent without much resistance from the Reds, who were quite plasticophobic themselves, they allowed it. Lo Tan remained the greatest power almost forever, until they were worn down by Plastro’s conquering greed. The Greens, although very inferior, remained the second most powerful nation. The Reds closed themselves in and nothing more was ever heard of them, except that they still exist.
Sources for this article:
Army Men Omega Soldier PS2 Manual
Army Men Air Attack official website (Internet archive)
Army Men Air Attack 2 official website (Internet archive)
https://armymen.fandom.com/wiki/General_Plastro