Combat Carl

Combat Carl

Combat Carl is aG.I. Joe-type action figure toy line in theDisney/PixarToy Story franchise. One Combat Carl and pieces from several others were seen inToy Story. Several others appeared inToy Story of Terror! andToy Story 4.

Appearances[]

Toy Story[]

A Combat Carl was first seen whenAndy's toys watched in horror asSid blew one up with an M-80 in his backyard. Later, once in Sid's room,Woody spots a lava lamp with two Combat Carl heads and one doll head. Two of Sid'smutant toys also contain Combat Carl parts; Jingle Joe has a Combat Carl Head, while Rockmobile contains a Combat Carl torso. When Sid's toys show Sid that they are alive, two broken Combat Carls, both all covered in mud, rise up from the ground, awakened by the Frog. One is missing its arms and has a nail through its head, the other has a twisted body and is missing its head. The armless soldier is knocked over by a frantic Sid running back into his house. Once he gets up, he is accidentally knocked down again by Pterodactyl as the toys are celebrating. Woody commends the toys for coming up out of the ground and reprimanding a surprised Sid about improper toy-caring, andBuzz Lightyear offers the soldiers a salute.

Toy Story Treats[]

Combat Carl was seen again in the first part of the Green Army Man Chants video. He was in Andy's room, marching with Andy'sGreen Army Men.

Toy Story of Terror![]

Two Combat Carl figurines appeared in theToy Story half-hour special,Toy Story of Terror!: a 12-inch one referred to as Combat Carl, and a 4-inch one called Combat Carl Jr. Both are voiced byCarl Weathers, although Combat Carl Jr. has a higher pitch voice.

These particular figures have a radically different design from the Combat Carl in the first film, namely a more Duke-style look about him.

Combat Carl is the deuteragonist and Jr. is a supporting character.

The 12-inch figurine, called simply Combat Carl, speaks in the third person and had his right hand eaten byMr. Jones the iguana. Combat Carl and other toys were taken from their owner Billy when their owner stayed at theSleep Well motel, whosemanager dispatches his iguana to collect stray toys to sell on the Internet. He managed to escape at the cost of his hand, and hid in the motel for some time, living by the hope he would one day see Billy again.

That all changed whenBonnie's toys were captured. Soon after meeting Jessie and warning her of the danger of the place, Combat Carl is captured by Mr. Jones. Later, Combat Carl gives encouraging words toJessie, who was attempting to saveWoody, enabling her to overcome her claustrophobia and free Woody. But before they could free the others, Bonnie and hermother arrived at the manager's desk to check-out. Jessie then deviated from the plan to open the curtain obscuring the toys from view, but Mr. Jones attempted to stop her. However, the cowgirl toy is able to fight back, getting the iguana to regurgitateMr. Potato Head's left arm and Combat Carl's right hand, using the former to pull back the curtain, revealing the toys to Bonnie. After Bonnie collected her toys, Combat Carl and the others slipped away while everyone wasn't looking. As Combat Carl reattached his missing hand, he hopped onto the delivery truck in hopes of returning to Billy.

Combat Carl Jr.[]

A second figurine of 4 inches, called Combat Carl Jr. (or simply "Junior") was also among the toys captured by the manager. He was captured much earlier than Combat Carl. In an attempt to escape their prison, Combat Carl, as the smallest of the toys present, used a paper clip twisted into a hook to try to open the display case from the outside. Unfortunately, this did not work, and all their clips were used up in vain. Combat Carl Jr. tried to calm down Pocketeer when the latter started panicking. When all toys escaped the case, he left with the others on the shoulder of Combat Carl.

Combat Carl PSA[]

The DVD/Blu-Ray release ofToy Story of Terror! included a mock commercial featuring Combat Carl, made in 2D animation. Commissioned by the "National Cough Safety Council," it shows Combat Carl intervening in an emergency to teach two kids the importance of coughing properly, that is by covering the mouth with the shoulder.

Toy Story 4[]

Three tiny Combat Carl action figures appear inToy Story 4 after Woody reunites withBo Peep.

Toy Story 5[]

At least one Combat Carl action figure has been confirmed to appear inToy Story 5.

Physical description[]

In the original era, Carl was a typical caucasian white military man wearing casual army attire of camouflage clothing, a matching helmet, and brownish green boots and a belt.

SinceToy Story of Terror, Carl's design has heavily changed. He is depicted as a muscular dark African-American man wearing a black zip-up safety vest holding grenades and some ammo, camouflage pants, and a belt with a holster on his left leg carrying a combat knife and wears black boots.

Like his basis of many stereotypical army men action figures, Carl features poseable legs, limbs, arms, etc. and has ball-jointed wrists.

Gallery[]

Combat Carl with theGreen Army Men

Combat Carl withJessie

Combat Carl Jr.

Abandoned short concept

Trivia[]

• The mock commercial featuring Combat Carl heavily implies he has own cartoon show series in-verse.
• Despite being the same character, the Combat Carl in the first movie and associated media, had a Caucasian character design and resembled just like a typical clean shaven military man, whereas sinceToy Story of Terror, he is depicted as being an African American with a mustache.
  • It can be presumed that the one from the latter may be from a reboot version of his own franchise.
  • Its also possible that the Combat Carl in the first movie was part of the Combat Carl toyline, but wasn't meant to be a figure of Combat Carl himself.
• Buzz Lightyear himself was inspiredJohn Lasseter's old G.I. Joe action figure with the ball-jointed wrists, articulation etc.
• In the classic era, Combat Carl was silent, but had his first speaking role as ofToy Story of Terror.
• In the DVD commentary forToy Story,John Lasseter mentions that he had actually wanted to use aG.I. Joe in the film, but Hasbro was upset that they were going to have Sid blow it up, and wouldn't let them use it.
• The logo of the Combat Carl toy line has several cues to the G.I. Joe logo, like the presence of a slanted star and three horizontal lines, as well as a similar boxy typeface.
• The Combat Carls inToy Story are, in fact, the same (albeit recolored and blown up) models as some of the Green Army Men. This is mentioned in theToy Story commentary.
• There was originally going to be another Combat Carl with a broken arm accompanying the two others in Sid's backyard; however, he (and many other toys) never made it past the storyboards.^{[citation needed]}
• Combat Carl was originally to appear inToy Story 3 (probably to help Woody rescue Buzz, Jessie, Rex, Mr. andMrs. Potato Head,Slinky Dog,Hamm,Bullseye,Barbie, and theAliens fromLots-o'-Huggin' Bear) before his part was rewritten for theChatter Telephone.
• In aToy Story comic book, Slinky says Rocky Gibraltar got into a fight with a Combat Carl.
• InToy Story of Terror!, Combat Carl's missing hand and the culprit who devoured it may be a reference to portraying actorCarl Weathers' role as Chubbs Peterson in Happy Gilmore, where he lost his right hand to an alligator; whereas in the special, his right hand was eaten by Mr. Jones, in the 1987 movie "Predator", Dillon, played by Weathers, lost half an arm to the titular alien antagonist.
• The animation in the Combat Carl PSA appears to be a parody of '80s PSAs involving characters, particularly the G.I. Joe ones. The layout of the end title card is nearly identical, with the "National Child Safety Council" of the originals being jokingly replaced by the "National Cough Safety Council".
• The Combat Carls inToy Story of Terror! andToy Story 4 are voiced by Carl Weathers, and one of them is losing half an arm. This is a reference to the 1987 filmPredator, which starred Weathers, where his character lost half an arm by the titular alien antagonist.
• Originally,Buzz Lightyear of Star Command was going to feature parody shorts that would have focused on otherToy Story characters, with Combat Carl being one of them.
• The Combat Carls inToy Story 4 was Carl Weathers' final film role before his death in 2024.
  • Due to this,Ernie Hudson is slated to replace Carl Weathers as Combat Carl inToy Story 5.
  • Ernie Hudson previously starred withBo Peep voice actressAnnie Potts in the Ghostbusters film series.

This page uses content from thePixar Wiki. The list of authors can be seen in the page revision history (). As with Disney Wiki, the text of the Pixar Wiki is available under the CC-BY-SA license.

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