Lol, plastic army soldiers! That's crazy, I figured you had to have some great ideas. Gravel vacs could have had you set! Dang it! :/
I purposely set up a shop display for my 20+lb flathead cat using over 30 gallons of Barrel-O-Monkey plastic pieces in the W/D and set it up so the filter could be seen next to the 450gal instead of behind it. It attracted some attention. Would have been more interesting, though, if the flathead was a bit more active than his usual 'I'm a rock' imitation.