| “ | "You know, I've been thinking for some time now that there is one thing that I still lack. Behind every strong man is a strong woman. And you are so very, very strong | „ |
| ~ General Plastro |
General Plastro is the leader of the Tan Republic and the main antagonist of the Army Men series of video games on the 3DO. He seeks to take over the entire Plastic World with the Tan Army.
He was voiced by Jim Cummings, who also played NegaDuck (both, original and the 2017 DuckTales version) in Darkwing Duck, Steele in Balto, Fuzzy Lumpkins in the PowerPuff Girls, Nessus in Disney's Hercules, Long John Silver in The Pagemaster, Ed in Disney's The Lion King, Dennis in Disney's Tarzan, Pete from the Mickey Mouse franchise, Hernán Cortés in El Dorado, Jacques in Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, Razoul in Disney's Aladdin, Doctor Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog SATAM, Budzo in Zambezia (also known as Adventures in Zambezia), Hondo Ohnaka in the Star Wars franchise, and Bering in Brother Bear 2.
Biography[]
Army Men[]
Plastro makes his first appearance at the beginning of the game where he is referred to as the "Tyrannical Tan Commander". Despite being the main antagonist, he only appears in this one cutscene, and his role is very minor.
Army Men II[]
Plastro is first seen sending his troops through a mysterious portal. Eventually, Plastro decides to head through the portal himself. However, as soon as Plastro walks into it, one of his subordinates, Major Mylar, blows up the portal and seizes control of the Tan Republic.
Plastro reappears at the end of the game, observing Sarge from a distance and commenting on how he has something special for the next time they meet.
Army Men: Toys In Space[]
Plastro forges an alliance with the Space Aliens when they arrive on Earth to strengthen the Tans' military might. At the end of the game, after the Greens and Galactic Army crush the alien forces, Plastro is left with only a small number of troops and a tank under his command.
Army Men: Sarge's Heroes[]
General Plastro would return yet again as the main antagonist. Plastro established a base of operations called "Fort Plastro" in the Big World, and had the Tan Army kidnaps Vicki Grimm. To keep herself alive, Vicki apparently chooses to join Plastro. Plastro uses Vicki to lure Sergeant Hawk into a trap and capture him. However, Sarge eventually rescues the other members of Bravo Company, and Vicki betrays him. Plastro later confronted Sarge in a living room and the two fought. The fight ceased when Plastro was picked up by a dog, allowing Sarge to escape to the bathroom. Plastro tried to attack Sarge, but the Tan commander was grabbed the dog once again. With the portal destroyed, Plastro was left stuck in the Real World and eventually Plastrified due to spending too much time there.
Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2[]
In his absence, Field Marshal Tannenburg took control of the Tan Republic. Plastro was later saved and deplastrified by Bridgette Bleu, a spy from the Blue Nation. Plastro's first action was to recruit a contingent of Toy Robots as his elite troops. Plastro then launched an attack on the peace conference between the Greens and Tans where he captures Vicki Grimm.
Plastro then turns on his ally, the Blue Nation, and launches an attack on them. Plastro also plastered Sarge with Bridgette's help and captured Bravo Company. However, Sarge was deplastered by a helicopter carrying the serum, turning the tide against Plastro and the Tans. Eventually, Plastro's forces were defeated and the general was forced to surrender.
Portal Runner[]
Plastro makes two small appearances in this game. The first is when Bridgette Bleu sees Plastro through a magic compact mirror. In that scene, Plastro is seen locked in a jail cell and is heard boasting about how the green army can't keep him in there forever and then asking for a sandwich. The second is at the very end of Portal Runner where Bridgette Bleu is locked in a jail cell and it turns out to be the same cell as Plastro.
Army Men: Sarge's War[]
Plastro attended a peace treaty signing in Greentown. However, the ceremony was interrupted when Lord Malice and his faction of Tans activated the bomb they planted there, presumably killing him.
Personality[]
Plastro is a tyrannical and evil man who loves being the villain of the story, constantly bragging about how immoral he is and how people should never trust him because of his trait, even having one of his own men murdered one time for indirectly annoying him and consistently abusing them. He's capable of acting affable to those around him, complimenting Sarge for his bravery and complimenting his intelligence for getting rid of his men without him seeing it coming, plus considering Vicki a strong woman, but this doesn't stop him from attempting to kill them or do even worse if they obstruct his goals. He is capable of manipulating the people around him for his own gain, shown when he takes advantage of Bridgette's knowledge of the Big World to obtain super weapons for his goals, only to repay her by trying to destroy her home nation and risking her life at one point by strapping her to a firecracker.
He shows signs of perversion too with him telling Vicki that he wants to marry her and that it isn't a request, it's something she has to do, even though she clearly has no interest in him and his lust was strong enough that she was able to manipulate him into allowing her to live in exchange for being a double agent, being oblivious to the fact she was just using him until later on. He is extremely proud to be a Tan soldier and actively despises anyone who isn't a Tan soldier, desiring to take over the Plastic World so that he can kill all non Tan soldier and live in a world where only they exist and openly admitting that he hates all Green people.
Despite all this though, it's implied that Plastro has turned over a new leaf by the time of Sarge's War, being happy to sign a peace treaty to end the war and even looking proud to be taking pictures with Grimm, only for his demise to come when Malice detonates the bomb that he placed inside the statue at the ceremony, killing him and everyone else.
Trivia[]
- General Plastro's name is derived from Fidel Castro, the notorious dictator of Cuba from 1959 to 2008.