Amerigo Vanzetti, unlike the vast majority of modern Smalls, is enormously proud of his industrial heritage. While many would find being called by their pre-liberation superhero names an insult, Vanzetti often proudly introduces himself as, "Formerly Captain America."

Vanzetti worked as a janitor for the Dept. of Maintenance and War during a series of conflicts with a coalition of unsavory 1:6 scale figures in the mid-to-late 1970s, commonly known as The Joe Wars. The Springfire Chronicle called these campaigns, "the ugliest pock on the face of toy space history," and many, many toys were broken on both sides of the conflict.

After the massacre of The Battle of Second Pawtucket on the asteroid Ignoble 17, Vanzetti volunteered for the newly formed Civilian Cleanup Team (CCT) and was fired into space three days later. After the war, like so many toys, Vanzetti wandered for many years, feeling as if he would no longer fit in back home after his experiences on the battlefield. He eventually signed on with the crew of T19 as an indentured servant, a lengthy independent contract entered into by one of the ship's former Stowage Chiefs.