Music / Doctor Steel

Doctor Steel

"It all comes down to having fun. We spend our lives trapped, when all we really want to do is play. So, let the people play! Let us build an Utopian Playland."

— Dr. Steel

Creator.

Entertainer.

Visionary.

These were just a few words applicable to Dr. Phineas Waldolf Steel. Formerly in the toymaking industry, Dr. Steel became frustrated at the lack of vision and originality, rebelled against his ex-employers and burned the place down. He became a Mad Scientist who sought to Take Over the World, with conspiracy propaganda threaded intricately through music and toys for children worldwide. However, being a mad scientist, said toys are along the lines of Nightmare Fuel: Babies with buzzsaws, acid squirtguns, kewpie grenades, and it doesn't even begin to start there.

Most importantly, however, is the music. Dr. Steel defied all genre, having been described by Rue Morgue magazine as "Hip-Hop Industrial Opera."' Though his music only spans about three dozen songs across five CDs, and that most online stores only carry them in .mp3 rather than physical discs, Dr. Steel puts just as much love and care into each individual song as many artists do for entire discs. A very underground artist, he nonetheless made an appearance on the Jay Leno show and was even given a nod by MTV. He later started to put more effort into comical videos, which can still be seen on YouTube.

Sadly, in 2011 Dr. Steel entered an early (and apparently forced) retirement (although some claim he was actually kidnapped by aliens). However, his army marches on, taking his philosophy to the masses and building the Utopian Playland he envisioned.

His YouTube channel is here, and his MySpace is here. Listen, and then submit yourself to the movement he spawned, dedicated to taking over the world in his name!

Not to be confused with the other Dr. Steel. Or the other Dr. Steel. Or the other Dr. Steel. Or the other "Dr. Steel." Or "Dr. Steele."

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Tropes he displays:

Tropes A-C

• Acme Products: Dr. Steel seems to order some of his supplies from them; he can produce a large hammer or lit stick of dynamite at will...
• Also sprach Zarathustra: The motif is inserted into the song "Spaceboy."
• Ancient Astronauts: Dr. Steel believes in Zechariah Sitchin's theory that humanity was created by aliens that posed as gods to the ancient Sumerians.
• Ancient Conspiracy: Dr. Steel believes (whether in actuality or whether it's part of the crazy act is anyone's guess) that the world is controlled by a cabal of alien "Illuminati."
• Anti-Villain: Despite going criminally insane and burning down a toy factory in a rampaging fit of revenge, Dr. Steel is really a kind-hearted soul who only wants to make the world a better place. (For himself...)
  • On the other hand, he may well be the only person ever to be able to label his propaganda as "Propaganda" and have people totally eat it up, so whyever he's really doing it, he's doing it right.
  • His public service commercials (as seen on YouTube and other places) focus heavily upon the power of imagination and of improving your general life; very anti-villainous.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: "War, destruction, genocide, mini-malls."
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The song "Atomic Superstar," featuring the original Kaiju, Godzilla.
• Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: The Doctor's everyday apparel, when not in his labcoat. (See Man of Wealth and Taste below.)
• Badass Cape: Dr. Steel sometimes wears a black one... Made of PVC.
• Badass Longcoat: Dr. Steel almost always wears a long PVC labcoat.
  • On his stage show, he has Go-Go dancers dressed in PVC halters and miniskirts that match his labcoat.
• Bad Santa: In The Dr. Steel Christmas Special, Santa gives a little girl a Polly Pukes-A-Lot™ doll from World Domination Toys.
  • To be fair, it's what she wanted...
    • Of course, he didn't have to sit on it...

• Bank Robbery: One of the ways Dr. Steel financed his giant robot construction, according to his song: "Build the Robots."

• Big "SHUT UP!": STOP!
• Black Shirts: In a deliberate parody of fascist paramilitary organizations, Dr. Steel's Army of Toy Soldiers (his fan club base) wear black uniforms.
• Bragging Theme Tune: His song: "The Doctor Steel Show." A small bump of this song is played at the beginning of each episode of The Dr. Steel Show, and a slightly altered instrumental loop plays at the end of Episode 1.
• Brand X: Dr. Steel's Ronald McRaygun mentioned in his song: "The Dr. Steel Show."
• Bunnies for Cuteness: After visiting a music website whose anime inspired animation seemed to consist of "Tiny Little Bunnies Eating Hamburgers," Dr. Steel wrote a song about it.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Dr. Steel is apparently a member of the Mad Scientists Union (Local 42), also seems to be on an Evil Genius Committee (see Supervillain School, below).
• Call-Back: "Bohemian Grove" is a callback to the song "Conspiracy."
• Camp: everything he or his fans do is done consciously and conspicuously over the top.
• Chainsaw Good: Dr. Steel's most popular toy was the Buzzsaw Baby, a kewpie doll with rotating saw blades for hands.
• Character Blog: Dr. Steel keeps one on his MySpace page.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: All of Dr. Steel's robots have one.
• Children Are Innocent: Dr. Steel loves children, for this very reason.
• Christmas Special: The Dr. Steel Christmas Special and A Dr. Steel Christmas. Dr. Steel (and his loyal Toy Soldiers) also celebrate Steelmas, which coincidentally falls on the same day.
  • The Toy Soldiers also celebrate Toy Soldier Day every March 4th, or the nearest Saturday to it (usually by going to the nearest Disney theme park).
• Conspicuous Gloves: Dr. Steel is never seen without black PVC gloves, even when he's not working in the lab. (His gloves are even convertible: stylish to the wrist gloves for day wear, adding a lower arm length extension when he wears his labcoat.)
• Conspiracy Kitchen Sink: Chemtrails, fluoridation, alien illuminati...
• Conspiracy Theorist: Phineas himself, possibly. The manifesto on his official website explains that the human race is an experiment "cooked up in an alien easy bake oven" by the Alien Illumanati, who constantly manipulate our perception. But then again, he freely admits he's crazy...
• Cover Version: The Inspector Gadget theme song, Getting Directions (a quirky version of the Sesame Street theme song).
• Creating Life: Subverted in The Dr. Steel Show, Episode 2: Dr. Steel begins to excitedly scream: "It's working!" as his doll robot experiment begins to walk around — only to have it stop when he runs out of quarters. Played straight in the video for "Childhood (Don't) A-Go-Go," when he breathes on a doll and brings it to life.
• Credits Gag: Several in the credits of Episode 1 and 2 of The Dr. Steel Show and the Dr. Steel Christmas Special.

Cookie, mister?

• Creepy Doll / Creepy Cute: Dr. Steel makes several of these (the Buzzsaw Baby, Psycho Sally, Polly Pukes-A-Lot, the Rabies Babies line, etc.)
• Creepy Circus Music: Dr. Steel wrote some creepy themes for Heckles and Twitch's website, and some of his own songs have similar calliope music.
• Crowd Song: "Dr. Steel" is so catchy you may just start singing along in public places; especially good for picking up a chant of "Dr. Steel! Dr. Steel!"
• Crystal Skull: Sung about.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Dr. Steel wanted to sell his rather twisted toy designs, but the toy company he worked for couldn't see his vision. So he started his own toy company (after burning down theirs) and started building giant robots to take over the world with.

Tropes D-F

• Dare to Be Badass: Many of his PSA videos encourage the viewer to break past their own limitations to improve themselves and the world.
• Dark Is Evil: Somewhat averted (if you accept Dr. Steel as being evil rather than just twisted); Steel usually wears a white lab coat. He does however also have a Dastardly Whiplash-style black top hat and cape (see below).
• Dark Messiah: Dr. Steel wants to makeover this current Crapsack World into a Utopian Playland. By force of giant robots, if necessary.
• Dastardly Whiplash: one of Dr. Steel's steampunk outfits includes a black stovepipe top hat and black PVC cape (along with his ubiquitous goggles), reminiscent of 19th century villains.
• Dead Pet Sketch: In Episode 1 of The Dr. Steel Show, Dr. Steel announces that it's time to "Feed the Hamster" (a segment with its own musical intro). However he soon notices that the hamster has expired. After a brief moment of mourning (with accompanying sad violin music), he quips, "But it does mean that my experiment was a success!" before putting the body in a pneumatic tube and launching it off his island.
• Death Ray: "The Doctor Steel Show" lyrics
  Bali Hai may call you
  Hidden Isle of a death ray
  This is my secret island
  Go away, go away
• Demonic Dummy: Dr. Steel used to have a ventriloquist dummy as part of his stage show; on the DVD with commentary of his live performance he says regarding it, "As you may already know, ventriloquist dummys, all ventriloquist dummys, are inherently evil."
• Depraved Kids' Show Host: Inverted. Dr. Steel plays a kid's show host on his "Dr. Steel Show" films, who is outwardly someone you wouldn't want your kids anywhere near (a mad scientist with world domination plans and questionable scientific ethics who makes dangerous and/or gross toys), but in reality he is a Friend to All Children with a heart of gold.
• Diabolical Mastermind: Natch.
• Distracted by the Sexy: The Toy Soldiers has a Distraction Division, presumably to invoke this trope.
• Dressed All in Rubber: The Trope Namer.
• E = MC Hammer: In "Fibonacci Sequence"—literally, too, as he raps about it.
• Emperor Scientist: Dr. Steel's goal.
• Epigraph: A lot of Dr. Steel's songs start with quotes, either fictional or real. (See Radio Voice below.)
• Everybody Do the Endless Loop: On his website, Steel had a page where you could animate him doing loops of various dance moves (the monkey, the sprinkler, the cabbage patch, the robot, etc.) by pressing buttons underneath him.
  • This page was parodied in the fan-made video for "Lament for a Toy Factory."
• Everybody Hates Mathematics: Averted so very much. "Fibonacci Sequence" is catchy as all hell.
  • And it's one of his more popular songs.
• Evil Genius: Natch.
• Evil Is Bigger / Large and in Charge: Averted. Steel was rather short (around 5'4", by some accounts).
• Evil Is Hammy: Of course! If you're not having fun, what's the point?
• Evil Is Not a Toy, but it makes and sells them.
• Evil Knockoff: Although it probably wasn't, a lot of people perceived Dr. Horrible as an Evil Knockoff of Dr. Steel. (Although these days Dr. Steel gets more comparison to Dr. Venture... or Dr. Strange...).
• Evil Laugh: The Doc can be heard engaging in one near the end of his self-titled song, "Dr. Steel."
• Evil Plan: He's "a man with a plan and a mechanical band, who can't do a little cause he can't do enough!"
• Evil Tastes Good: Mind control cookies! And cupcakes! (Well, maybe not so much the cupcakes. Dr. Steel calls the batch he made in The Dr. Steel Show Episode 2, "disgusting".)
• Fake Band: Dr. Steel has a "mechanical (robot) band" - which never seems to work, so he uses real musicians on those rare times he does live performances.
• Fan Vid: Inverted in his music video for "Back and Forth", where he made a Video Full of Film Clips of his fans dancing and singing along to his music.
  • Several of his fans have made impressive FanVids (which Dr. Steel encourages), most notably:
    • Caleb Allen's masterful portrayal of "Lament for a Toy Factory".
    • Starkravenmad's Flash videos to "Back and Forth", "Fibonacci Sequence" and "Build the Robots", and, probably the best, "We Decide It".
• Fauxtivational Poster: Dr. Steel has done amusing riffs on the American Library Association's "READ" posters and the Got Milk? posters.
• Fire-Breathing Weapon: Gasoline-filled super soakers.
• Fist of Rage: Steel is often posed in his propaganda art making one (and it's part-and-parcel of his trademark salute), and does it as he's suiting up for "Experiment Time" in The Dr. Steel Show, Episode 2.
• Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: Parodied in The Dr. Steel Show, Episode 1, when Dr. Steel receives email from a fan.
• Free Prize at the Bottom: In one of his songs, Dr. Steel playfully subverts the familiar wording, "Toy Surprise Inside", changing it to "Toys Uprise Inside."
• Friend to All Children: See the aforementioned Children Are Innocent.

Tropes G-I

• Genre Mashup: Dr. Steel's music has been described as "Industrial Hip-Hop Opera."
• Giant Robots: Dr. Steel's back-up plan for world domination if the whole "domination through entertainment" idea doesn't pan out.
• Girl Scouts Are Evil: A segment of Dr. Steel's Army of Toy Soldiers are called "Toy Scouts". An all-female regiment, they occasionally assist Dr. Steel during stage performances - and distribute mind control cookies.
• Gloved Fist of Doom: Often.
• Goggles Do Nothing: They just look damned cool.
  • Well, given that in one of his videos he's seen welding, they probably do do something. But he wears them 100% of the time whether he's welding or not, so...
    • In his video interview, "Vision", he says that he wears the glasses of a blind man as a metaphor.
  • Since many Toy Soldiers are steampunks, a lot of them wear goggles as well.
• Government Conspiracy: See Ancient Conspiracy above.
• Growing Up Sucks: Dr. Steel's other primary motivation, besides revenge. Sung about in "Childhood (Don't) A-Go-Go."
• Hammerspace: Played for Laughs in this edition of Ask Dr. Steel.
• Hamster 65 As Himself: Credits at the end of Episode 2 of The Dr. Steel Show.
• Happy Dance: Dr. Steel jauntily dances at the end of Episode 1 of The Dr. Steel Show. There is also a section on his website where you can make him do several dance moves to some old-timey music. In Caleb Allen's Fan Vid of "Lament for a Toy Factory", the actor playing Dr. Steel breaks into these dance moves as the helicopter spotlight hits him - and the music from the website begins to play.
• Harmless Villain: Although having a villainous outer appearance, Dr. Steel's goals are really very positive and even kid-friendly. He just wants to make the world a better place (for himself). A running theme within his videos and songs (besides building giant robots/killer toys) is the virtue of independent thinking and imagination.

Hello, Nurse!

• Homemade Sweater from Hell: Dr. Steel gets one in the Dr. Steel Christmas Special.
• Hospital Hottie: Dr. Steel has "Nurses" (members of his Army of Toy Soldiers that dress in sexy nurse uniforms) attend him - both on stage and other public appearances and in several of his videos.
• "I Am" Song: His self-titled song, "Dr. Steel".
• I Am the Band: Dr. Steel writes all his songs, and plays all the instruments in studio. He'd play live gigs solo, too - except for the fact that his robot band keeps malfunctioning and he has to fall back on a back-up band of live musicians.
• The Igor: Dr. Steel's robot servants are all hunchbacks.
• Improvised Weapon: Gasoline-filled Super Soakers.
• Incessant Music Madness: In the music video for "Back and Forth", there's a little kid at the beginning playing an annoying plastic trumpet, while his brother covers his ears. At the end of the video the brother suddenly gets in his face and shouts, "STOP!"
• Incredibly Obvious Bomb: One of Dr. Steel's presents in "The Dr. Steel Christmas Special". Complete with loud ticking, bundled sticks of TNT, a nest of wires and a huge clock.
• I Reject Your Reality: He's crazy. And a big believer in visualization and subjective reality. He calls himself a "Doctor of Reality Engineering."
• Island Base: Shown in the episodes of The Dr. Steel Show. Where his secret laboratory is located.
• It's All About Me: "See, I'm gonna make the world a better place - for me." - "Build the Robots" lyrics.
• "I Want" Song: Dr. Steel has at least two: "Greedy", about wanting to find success in the recording business, and "Singularity", about his desire for technological integration. But it could be argued several others also qualify.

Tropes K-N

• Kids Rock: "Smokey's Theme".
• Lab Pet: Dr. Steel has a lab hamster in "The Dr. Steel Show" episodes 1 and 2. The one in episode 1 dies, giving him a moment of grief (but only a moment...), and prompting him to get a new one for the second episode. While he's shown as being fond of them as pets, he's apparently not too attached to them (either that or he's not very good at naming pets); the second one seen has the imaginative name "Hamster 65".
• Large Ham: Doctor Steel goes through a lot of scenery; Consciously Played for Laughs.
• Laughably Evil.
• Laughing Mad: Steel can be heard engaging in a mad laugh near the end of his self-titled song, "Dr. Steel."
• Laugh Track: Used as a gag at the beginning of The Dr. Steel Show, episode 1. Dr. Steel enters his lab at the beginning of the show to wild applause, which he reacts humbly to... then reaches over and turns a dial which turns off the applause track.
• Living Toys: In the music video for Childhood (Don't) A-Go-Go, Dr. Steel breathes on a creepy toy and brings it to life; it subsequently brings all the other creepy toys to life.
• Lotus Position: Dr. Steel assumes this position (complete with saffron robes) in his video, "The Singularity".
• Ludd Was Right: Dr. Steel's idea of a perfect world is where everything un-fun is done with automatons. He has already attempted the creation of a robot band, but things went horribly wrong.
  • He did however manage to finally get them working in his video for "Childhood (Don't) A-Go-Go". At least in miniature...
  • He also believed that machines would eventually take over the world.
• Mad Artist: Undeniably a gifted artist, Steel screams "I'm the greatest creator this world's ever seen!" ... while blowing up a toy factory.
• Mad Bomber: Dr. Steel sings about laughing maniacally while setting off explosives.
• Mad Doctor: Not sure what he's a doctor of, but he is attended by sexy nurses.
• The Mad Hatter: "I am crazy. And it's a great load off my mind."
• Mad Mathematician: FOR SCIENCE!
• Mad Scientist: Duhurrrrrrr.
• Mad Scientist Laboratory: In the music section of his site. Looks rather charming, too.
• The Man Behind the Curtain: in his PSA, "Reality Engineering."
• Manchild: Dr. Steel is preoccupied with the trappings of childhood, obsessed with toys and longing openly for the carefree days of youth. His personality is often goofy and playful, but then his toys are often dangerous, creepy and makeshift, and his personality can quickly swing to one that is angry, vindictive and violent.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: When not dressed in his labcoat, Dr. Steel usually dresses in an Aristocratic neo-Victorian Steampunk style, complete with Top Hat. (He even has his own personal clothier!)
• Mass Hypnosis: Dr. Steel uses mind control cookies and subliminal messages. And a particularly mesmerizing "hidden" Positive Affirmation track on a few of his CDs.
• McDonald's: In one song, Dr. Steel sings that he has a "Ronald McRaygun".
• Mechanical Evolution: Dr. Steel believed that machines would eventually get so sophisticated that they would develop sentience. And we would screw up the world so much that only they would be fit to continue to survive in it.
• Merchandise-Driven: Dr. Steel owned his own toy company, World Domination Toys, and sings about his listeners buying his toys. (Also pimps one on one of his videos.)
  "You can think for yourselves / Or you can buy all my toys..."
  • A bit of a subversion, as there are no toys you can actually buy there. (At least not yet!)
• Milking the Giant Cow: "Damn thee, spam - DAMN THEE!"
• Minsky Pickup: In the beginning of his song, "The Dr. Steel Show."
• Mockumentary: Dr. Steel's "propaganda" film, Building a Utopian Playland is shot as a documentary.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: No one's sure what he's a doctor of, exactly (he's said he's a Doctor of "Reality Engineering"); he's hellbent on taking over the world using an army of robotic toys and brainwashed "toy soldiers" so that he can make the world a better place (for him).
• Motionless Chin: The hamster in The Dr. Steel Show, Episode 2. ("God, you're weird.")
• Mr. Fanservice: Dr. Steel seems to invoke this sort of response in a great number of women. Especially when he takes his shirt off.
• Multiple Demographic Appeal: Older people, younger people, boys, girls, all around are hailing Dr. Steel as their new lord and king.
• Musical Episode: The Dr. Steel Show, Episode 3.
• My Little Panzer: His line of freakish toys, which would give Irwin Mainway a run for his money.
• New Tech Is Not Cheap: In the song "Build the Robots", Dr. Steel laments about building a high-tech giant robot army:
  I need assembly lines
  A crew and much more time.
  The money's all mine
  And my funds are getting thin.
  I'm gonna have to rob a bank again.
  'Cause I'm spending every dime and
  I'm spending all my time to
  Build the robots.
• No Animals Were Harmed: At the end of the credit crawl of The Dr. Steel Show, Episode 1.
• No-Hit Wonder: Dr. Steel has a large and growing fanbase, though he's only released five albums (three of those via digital download) and never charted.
• Nonuniform Uniform: While Dr. Steel did give the Toy Soldiers a general guideline for uniforms, he also encouraged incorporating individual expression into them, resulting in a myriad of interpretations on the theme.
• Now, Buy the Merchandise: Dr. Steel's homage to the Home Shopping Network in The Dr. Steel Show, Episode 1. (Dr. Steel is a toymaker, so what do you expect?) Also sung about in his song, Back and Forth: "You can think for yourselves / Or you can buy all my toys ... Consume and gobble it up..."

Tropes O-R

• Obfuscating Insanity: "Hello, my name is Dr. Phineas Waldolf Steel and I'm crazy. At least that's what they tell me. It's a real load off of my mind too. I mean you can get away with pretty much anything if you're bonkers. It really relieves a lot of pressure and responsibility for me."
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Dr. Steel's PhD is never elaborated on (according to him, he is a "doctor of reality engineering"), but he's "displayed" skills in engineering, mathematics, biology, medicine, chemicals...
• Ominous Opera Cape: Steel has a PVC one, but is rarely seen wearing it.
• Our Lawyers Advised This Trope: Parodied. At the beginning of the Propaganda DVD, an FBI warning screen pops up... but the words are not what you were expecting.
• Passing the Torch: In his final letter to the Toy Soldiers, Dr. Steel claimed that he was forced to give up being Dr. Steel, and everything that went with that name. But in one last act of defiance, he handed ownership of his fan club, Toy Soldiers Unite, to his fans, that they could continue on.
• Percussive Maintenance: In The Dr. Steel Show, Episode 3, Dr. Steel's last resort in silencing a broken videophone is to take a giant sledgehammer to it.
• Pineal Weirdness: Dr. Steel's PSA, "Imagination."
• Pointy-Haired Boss: The "bankers in charge" in "Lament for a Toy Factory."
• Polka Dork: Averted. Dr. Steel played the accordion and was pretty damn cool.
• Power Born of Madness: "I am crazy, and I will become World Emperor." "You can get away with pretty much anything if you're bonkers."
• Powers That Be: Dr. Steel refers to them as the "Alien Illuminati", and at times as "The System." He believes that government, media, religion et. al. are all being controlled by an unseen cabal, which in turn are controlling us.
• Precursors: Some of Steel's music and videos, most notably his song "Planet X Marks the Spot", deal with the Ancient Astronauts theories of Zechariah Sitchin.
• Present Peeking: In "The Dr. Steel Christmas Special", Doctor Steel gets impatient and decides to open some of his presents early.
  "My Christmas tree is simply overflowing with kind gifts. Thank you ever so much. I certainly cannot wait until Christmas. And so... [Record Scratch] I won't!"
• Propaganda Machine: Actually more Voice of the Resistance against the modern government/media propaganda machines (and supposed alien influences). Dr. Steel is a master of using propaganda and propagandic art to spread his Utopian Playland message, which his fans/followers (known as Toy Soldiers) happily disseminate.
  • All that said, I defy you to find another revolutionary and/or government who can (as noted below) actually put the word "Propaganda" on all his propaganda and get away with it.
• Public Domain Artifact: "Curse of the Crystal Skull".
• Public Service Announcement: Dr. Steel has made several of these and posted them on YouTube. He also has mock PSAs within his films The Dr. Steel Show, Episodes 1 and 2.
• Puppet Shows: His live performances featured one, which included both hand and stick puppets.
• Putting on the Reich: Subverted: the "Toy Soldier" uniforms satirically mimic and playfully deconstruct the uniforms of fascist paramilitary groups.
• Pyromaniac: Dr. Steel destroys the toy factory that fired him with bombs and gasoline-filled Super Soakers.
• Radio Voice: The aforementioned epigraphs all have radio voices. (They are mostly sampled from old Public Service Announcements such as "Duck and Cover".)

ENLIST TODAY!!

• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Dr. Steel has turned his fanbase, which largely consists of Steampunks, Rivetheads, Goths, nerds, geeks and other assorted "misfits", into an army (the Army of Toy Soldiers).
• Rated G for Gangsta: Subverted. Dr. Steel is a rare example of a rapper who rarely ever swears, or even engages in innuendo.
  • Technically, he has used the words "hell" (in "Marionette") and "bastards" (in "Lament for a Toy Factory"), but he is far less vulgar than most rappers (if he can even be called one).
    • "Ode to Revenge" contains one instance of "shit" and "Childhood (Don't) A Go-Go" has "cracker jack-ass," although the latter is rather difficult to make out without a lyrics sheet.
• Ray Gun: Lyrics from "The Dr. Steel Show": "What fun, I've built a Ronald McRaygun!"
• Real Men Wear Pink: A pair of fuzzy bunny slippers are a part of Dr. Steel's lounging wardrobe. (He's also been photographed with a teddy bear.)
• Record Needle Scratch: In The Dr. Steel Christmas Special.
  "My christmas tree is simply overflowing with kind gifts. Thank you, ever so much. I simply cannot wait until Christmas. And so... <skrrrrtt!> I won't!"
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Inverted: The Toy Soldier color scheme, until around 2011, was black with red (and yellow) accents. Somewhat justified, as they are a parody of evil organizations. (Since the Doctor's retirement, use of red has been diminished.)
• Reluctant Retiree: Hinted in the "Dear John" Letter he sent to one of the Commanders of the Toy Soldiers.
• Renaissance Man: Dr. Steel is a musician, toymaker, roboticist, graphic artist, Internet personality - and has some great dance moves.
• Restart the World: Steel seems to advocate the anarchist version of this trope in "Ode to Revenge".
  This is the only way
  To build a better day
  So let me hear you say
  Let’s burn it all down.
• Revenge: One of Dr. Steel's prime motivations.
• Robot Master: Creating an army of giant robots, and having a robot band. And a lot of robot toys.
• Robot War: Dr. Steel self describes himself as "The man with a plan and a mechanical band", has a song called "Build the Robots", and has a giant robot army as one of his backup plans for world domination if the whole musical brainwashing idea doesn't pan out.
• Rushmore Refacement: In The Dr. Steel Show Episode 2, a team of Toy Soldiers call Dr. Steel from the top of Mount Rushmore, informing him of their plans to alter Lincoln's head to look like Dr. Steel. It doesn't quite go according to plan...

Tropes S-T

• Sanity Has Advantages: Inverted. "I mean you can get away with pretty much anything if you're bonkers."
• Saving Christmas: Dr. Steel takes over Christmas (and kills half of Santa's elves) in A Dr. Steel Christmas.
• Scannable Man: Dr. Steel has a bar code tattoo on the back of his neck.
• Scout-Out: The Toy Scouts in the Army of Toy Soldiers.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In July 2011 it was announced that Dr. Steel had decided to retire. His fan club, however, continues on, having become more of a creative community in recent years anyway.
  • Averted, as it was apparently a forced retirement.
• Self-Titled Album: His albums Dr. Steel, Dr. Steel II: Eclectic Boogaloo, The Dr. Steel Collection and the Dr. Steel Read-A-Long. (Also extends to his video series, The Dr. Steel Show.)
• Serious Business: The old lady on the phone in The Dr. Steel Show, Episode 1 thinks she is calling about Beanie Babies, not buzzsaw babies. She is obsessed with Beanie Babies and has every last one of them except "Little Puddin, the blue and white sea lion", and needs her collection to be complete so she can finally sleep at night.
• Shout-Out: Numerous.
  • His song The Dr. Steel Show mentions and contains the tune of Bali Ha'i, referencing his secret island base.
    • It also contains part of the tune of H.R. Pufnstuf (which also takes place on a mystical island), plus a quote from the theme song "Can't do a little 'cuz he can't do enough".
  • Spaceboy samples Also Sprach Zarathustra.
    • Spaceboy itself is a shout out to Spaceman Spiff
  • The end of his song, Lullabye-bye, contains the beginning of the Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This.
  • The opening lines of his song, Ode to Revenge, are a very twisted version of Nat King Cole's Nature Boy.
  • The song "Land of the Lost", itself an Homage to the Sid and Marty Krofft show, Land of the Lost (1974), has a literal shout out, with a sample of Rita Moreno's "HEY YOU GUYS!" from The Electric Company (1971).
  • In his video, "Reality Engineering", he's shown working controls as a green curtain is pulled aside, a shout-out to The Wizard of Oz.
  • Atomic Superstar is about Godzilla
  • Donkey Town is about Pleasure Island from Pinocchio.
    • And the chorus contains a sample of people chanting "Gooble Gobble! Gooble Gobble! One of Us! One of Us!"
  • Slapped By Moe is an ode to The Three Stooges
    • As well as containing references to Calvin and Hobbes.
  • The title of Are We Having Fun Yet - a song about the surreal nature of modern life when all we want to do is have fun - is Zippy the Pinhead's Catchphrase.
• The Singularity: Song title, word for word. The song deals more with transhumanism (merging humanity with AI and nanotech) and other possible consequences of the Singularity than with the Singularity itself, though.
  • Steel has also been interviewed by a transhumanist institute and authored a paper on the subject.
• Sinister Shades: He has yet to be seen without his thick black-lensed goggle-glasses. (In his music video for "Back and Forth", they reflect nonexistent flames.)
• SkeleBot 9000: Dr. Steel's robots are built this way, very lanky and skeletal with oversized, cheshire-grinning heads.
• Skyward Scream: Used in The Dr. Steel Show, Episode 1. As Dr. Steel checks his email, he becomes frustrated that his inbox is full of spam, and cries to the heavens (with accompanying jarring chord), "Damn thee, spam! DAMN THEEEEEE!"
• Stage Names: Steel's real name, Rion Vernon, was only revealed years after Steel's retirement.
• Start of Darkness: Lament for a Toy Factory.
• Station Ident: Many "station bugs" for stations such as CNN, NBC and VH-1 appear in Dr. Steel's propaganda film, Building a Utopian Playland, giving it the illusion that it is a genuine documentary.
• Steampunk: While not overtly, several artistic stylings are reminiscent of this, and he dresses that way when not in his labcoat.
• Stock Sound Effects: During the "hidden" subliminal message track on a couple of his albums, in the background there's the pop and hiss of an old vinyl record.
• Stop Motion: His toys in his "Childhood (Don't) A-Go Go" video and The Dr. Steel Show Episode 2.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: How The Dr. Steel Show Episode 3 manages to turn into a music video. After getting several calls from his Toy Soldiers and being unable to respond, he attempts to fix the problem by telling the first caller to "Listeeen to me." Amused, the caller starts singing the first few bars of Back and Forth, prompting Dr. Steel to start singing the song himself. Almost immediately afterwards, the rest of the callers (as well as some new ones) start joining in despite it being conceivable that they can't contact each other.
• Strange Salute: In several of his propaganda posters, Dr. Steel is shown saluting with his fist over his heart, looking up and (usually) to his right (toward a better future?). This has become the de facto salute of the Toy Soldiers.
• Subliminal Seduction: Dr. Steel uses subliminal messages and images in a lot of his videos.
  • More like subliminally seductive....
  • The multimedia displays during his stage shows also contained such messages.
• Subverted Kids' Show: His video series, The Dr. Steel Show is largely this. Also his song, "Smokey's Theme". His live performances include puppet shows, some of which are extremely subverted. (One of his recurring gags was he would be interrupted by a Lamb Chop-esque puppet, who was so annoyingly cute that he would eventually pull a revolver out and shoot it.)
• Sufficiently Humanoid Robots- Dr. Steel's robot band. Which malfunction on his Propaganda DVD, but finally work in his video for "Childhood (Don't) A-Go-Go". At least in miniature...
• Supervillain: Obviously...
• Supervillain School: in the web video, Reunion, Dr. Steel calls up fellow mad scientist Agamemnon Tiberius Vacuum and invites him to the 10th annual Mad Scientist's reunion - implying that they may have attended some Mad Scientist school together in the past.
• Synchro-Vox: Hamster 65's mouth in The Dr. Steel Show Episode 2 is animated this way.
• Take Over the World: Dr. Steel's overall goal, to become World Emperor.
• Taking Over Christmas: Dr. Steel does this in A Dr. Steel Christmas.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: In his PSA, Reality Engineering, After ranting about how we are being manipulated by the government and media, Dr. Steel says people might dismiss him as a conspiracy nut, a madman. To that he says, "Oh, I'm mad. Very mad. Very very mad."
• Theremin: Several of Dr. Steel's songs encorporate the theremin (or at least samples of theremins).
• They Called Me Mad!: Dr. Steel originally worked quite happily at a toy plant, until his more...radical toy ideas. They said no.
• Titled After the Song: The Dr. Steel Show.
• Too Many Belts: The doctor has a three-belted cummerbund-like leather garment that he wears atop his waistcoat, in his Steampunk attire.
• Tripod Terror: The album cover for People of Earth shows an attack by giant tripod robots reminiscent of The War of the Worlds - only in the foreground it shows Dr. Steel controlling them. (A similar tripod is seen in the background of the album art for The Dr. Steel Read-A-Long.)
• Turned Against Their Masters: Dr. Steel foresaw a future where robotic life would eventually take over the world.
• Tv Never Lies: Steel believed we were all being intentionally manipulated by the media, especially by television. In his song "Back and Forth", he throws in this gem of irony:
  "TV is the loving eye of education."

Tropes U-Z

• Utopia Justifies the Means: Played perfectly straight—Dr. Steel wants to deconstruct all of society to create a Utopian Playland.
• Villainous Lament: "Lament for a Toy Factory".
• Villain Protagonist: He's a criminally insane mad scientist bent on world domination. What's not to love?
• Villain Song: Quite a few of them. As a supervillain musician, you know.
• Villain with Good Publicity: A rare IRL example!
  • His publicity is so good that his propaganda can be directly labeled "Propaganda" and we don't even give a slap because he's that awesome.
• Vocal Dissonance: In The Dr. Steel Show Episode 1, Dr. Steel gets an email from a fan. The voiceover as he reads the childlike letter sounds like a three year old boy. But if you read the screen closely at the bottom of the letter, it says, "Billy Ramos, 34 years old."
• Waistcoat of Style: When not in his labcoat, Dr. Steel often wears a cool leather waistcoat that buckles in the front.
• We Interrupt This Program: Dr. Steels song, "Greedy", starts out with a news bulletin about three escaped prisoners of an insane asylum (one of them, we gather, is Dr. Steel).
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: See Utopia Justifies the Means, above.
• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: He makes them himself, of course!
• Writers Cannot Do Math: Averted, apparently Dr. Steel's math is quite good.
• Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: "Damn Thee Spam, DAMN THEE!"
• You Look Like You've Seen a Ghost: In Episode 1 of The Dr. Steel Show, Dr. Steel sees a ghostly vision of a magical transforming toy ("Winky") hovering about his lab, but it disappears into an air duct before he can get a Polaroid snapshot of it. Slightly inverted as he was more awed by it than scared.
  • As the credits roll, he apparently sees it again, but this time only he sees it, and his nurses look at him like he's crazy.
• Villain Has a Point: He wants to control the world with giant robots. But only so we can all be released from our drudgery and fear to play and have fun in life.
• Weapons of Their Trade: Before becoming a Mad Scientist bent on taking over the world, Doctor Steel was a toy manufacturer. In "Lament for a Toy Factory", Dr Steel tells how he was fired and turned his toys into an army to take revenge against his employers. And now his army of toy soldiers continue to march...
• We Need a Distraction: In "The Dr. Steel Show" Episode 2, the Toy Soldiers deploy a "distraction division" of girls washing cars in bikinis so that their activities will go unnoticed.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Dr. Steel's whole concept for "The Dr. Steel Show" was that of a kid's show that was just a little bit... warped. He also had a song, supposedly for a proposed kid's show, called "Smokey the Kid-Loving Trout" (graphic for this song on his website showed a stinking hobo-like anthropomorphic trout, complete with stogie, walking with children).
• Wicked Toymaker: Not necessarily wicked, per se, but Dr. Steel is most definitely a creator of twisted toys. "Buzzsaw Babies", "Rabies Babies", "Polly Pukes-A-Lot", and gasoline-filled Super Soakers, just to name a few.
• The Wonka: Dr. Steel was president of his own toy company, World Domination Toys.
• "X" Marks the Spot: The song title Planet X Marks The Spot is reference to this concept.
• Zeerust: Almost all of Dr. Steel's artwork is sci-fi through Victorian or Diesel-era tinted goggles.

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