What’s all this then?
We are the Seventh Mountain Regiment, a band of folks interested in making Fun the top priority in our daily lives, and in the daily lives of others. Why sit back and do things you despise? Why waste your life in a job which doesn’t inspire you?
Don’t you want to pilot giant robots?
Don’t you want to bake cupckaes?
Do you want to take over the world?
Then the Seventh Mountain Regiment is for you!
The Seventh Mountain Regiment is based in the Rocky Mountains of New Mexico and Colorado, based around the Universities of New Mexico, and their expatriate enclaves along the Colorado Front Range. Her members are adept in propaganda distribution, skilled at engineering and computing, and committed to a High Altitude Utopian Playland.
Utopian Playland?
The Utopian Playland is the term used by Dr. Phineas Waldof Steel (emeritus) to describe the new world order he envisioned wherein everyone made Fun the Top Priority, and where the generic problems of the day-to-day world have become a bygone memory. Toys, whether they be giant robots, supercars, or even self-replicating robots were the focus; the creation of new playthings and the utilization thereof were the ultimate goals of this visionary world. And since the residents of this utopia would be constantly enjoying themselves and playing, ‘Utopian Playland‘ was the moniker chosen.
Listen to our inspiration describe how you can help him take over the world in this video:
(sadly, doctorsteel.com is no longer in operation, visit http://www.doctorsteelarchives.com/ instead)
Who is Dr. Steel?
Dr. Phineas Waldof Steel was our World Emperor, with an emphasis on ‘was’. He proclaimed himself World Emperor in 1999, dedicated to taking over the world, and remaking it into his Utopian Playland utilizing an Army of Toy Soldiers, and released a manifesto to the world. He also was a musician, videographer, animator, graphic artist, and social engineer; in the intervening three years, he self-published three full-length albums, selling them himself, then fabricated a set for his propaganda transmissions. He also envisioned a robotic-band to play the music he wrote while he toured, but ultimately had to rely on human musicians for his concerts. He built a small but vibrant fan community on Myspace and the Toy Soldiers eagerly spread his propaganda. In 2007, he took another step forward: He published his three albums online, released the “Building a Utopian Playland” DVD, and launched his official fanclub website. Over the next four years, his fans clamoured for more propaganda, more videos, and more music. The Toy Soldiers grew from a fanclub to a nacient social organization, building a virtual Utopian Playland on the website for Toy Soldiers Unite.
Through his vision of a Utopian Playland, he stressed having fun was the top priority. A mantra which was adapted from this philosophy was “If you’re not having fun, stop doing it.” But the life of a creator is never easy, and while he played a few private parties, he never got a chance to tour again, and he didn’t release a new album. Living up to his own ideals, when he found being World Emperor was no longer fun, he retired from the position in 2011. Deleting his websites, social media profiles, and ceasing to respond to email, he left the final message that he was not coming back to his former life, that he had quit being World Emperor.
What’s the Army of Toy Soldiers?
The Army of Toy Soldiers is the social organization which arose from the demise of the original fan club in 2012. Originally, they were the fans and street-team for Dr. Steel’s audiovisual propaganda. To that end, and keeping with the pseudo-military silliness, they create their own ‘uniforms’ which prominently displayed the madman badge and the Nutcracker-style ‘Toy Soldier” shoulder patches, and styled themselves “Toy Soldiers”.
They adopted faux-military titles, and originally congregated Myspace. Groups of soldiers formed local divisions, where they would get together and be social offline (called Invasions). The largest of these get-togethers culminated in the Disneyland Invasion in 2007, which was celebrated on “Toy Soldier Day”, being the 4th of March (with the pun being “March Forth”).
At the time of Doc’s retirement, the website had over 30,000 registered members from all over the globe. However, with Doc gone, the group needed a new raison d’être. They registered themselves as a UK social-benefit corporation (similar to a US tax-exempt entity) and have focused themselves on continuing to spread fun and happiness throughout the world. There are now over 3,000 people signed-up worldwide, still committed to the Utopian Playland.
Is This a Cult?
Cults, by definition, involve religion. While we have a charismatic figurehead (Dr. Steel), we have have no overt beliefs beyond having fun. We may have slight focus towards transhumanisim (the belief that the human condition can be transformed with widely-available technologies to greatly enhance our intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities), but that isn’t our end-all and be-all philosophy. But it sure would be cool, right?
We accept all creeds, nationalities, genders, and orientations. People can come and go as they please. We’ll never stop anyone from joining or leaving, and people can be as active or as inactive as they choose. We’re an organization of good, clean fun that just happens to be very connected to our military-esque parody motif.
How Do I Join?
Sign our Roster, join our Facebook Page, or pipe up in our Toy Soldiers Unite Forum thread.
