5 Questions: Toy Soldiers (1991)

Once again I found myself watching an action movie. And once again I found myself asking questions about the action movie I was watching.

This time it was the 1991 film Toy Soldiers…

1. Would anyone have been upset if they just made Toy Soldiers as an Iron Eagle sequel?

There really isn’t any huge differences between Louis Gossett Jr’s character of Dean Parker in Toy Soldiers and his character in the Iron Eagle franchise, Chappy Sinclair. This would have been a perfect third chapter in the Iron Eagle saga, where Chappy walks away from the Air Force to become Dean Sinclair at the Regis School. At this point in his life Chappy would realize he is able to get through to young people, maybe even some of the less than perfect kids at this particular boarding school that is affectionately known by some of the students as The Rejects School. Then some of Chappy’s old pilot buddies could could have coaxed Chappy to fly again in their air show as part of the plot of the newly re titled Aces: Iron Eagle IV and the series could have ended there without any Iron Eagle fans having to sit through the actual Iron Eagle IV.

2. Why do the other kids call Shawn Phelan’s character in the movie Yogurt? 

Phelan’s character is actually named Derek, which sounds nothing like yogurt, doesn’t rhyme with yogurt and it doesn’t even begin with the same letter as yogurt. He is on the techy geek side, but I’ve never known yogurt to be associated with geeks. Perhaps he reminded them of the famous Mel Brooks character in Spaceballs.

3. Was the location of all the smoke alarms common knowledge among the student body? 

Billy Tepper (Sean Astin) and his friends come up with a pretty intricate and time sensitive plan to allow Billy to smuggle some intel to the feds trying to diffuse the hostage situation the students of The Regis School find themselves in. I suppose one of Billy’s crew may have been on the Regis School Safety Council (Yogurt’s roommate totally seems like a safety geek), but it seemed odd that they were well aware of a smoke alarm that was located on the stairway to the roof especially when their secret meeting place was in the basement.

4. Was George Perez channeling his inner Mario Lopez while playing the character of Ricardo Montoya?

If not the wardrobe department was definitely utilizing their A.C. Slater starter kit.

Bonus Wardrobe Question: Isn’t ironic that the Joey (Wil Wheaton) who wears t-shirts with Bob Marley and peace symbols on them through out the film is the same kid who grabs a machine gun and declares war on the terrorists? One love Joey. ONE LOVE!

5. Which is your favorite version of Toy Soldiers? 

There’s the 1991 version that this edition of 5 Questions has focused on starring Louis Gossett Jr, Sean Astin, Andrew Divoff, Wil Wheaton and Denholm Elliott.

There’s also a 1985 movie called Toy Soldiers starring Tim Robbins, Larry Poindexter, Cleavon Little, Tracy Scoggins and the Mayor of Detroit.

Last but not least, there’s the song “Toy Soldiers” by Martika…