As a child, Croc Master was one of my favorite figures. In my universe he was as strong as the Hulk! When the 25th anniversary version came out I was pleased with Hasbro’s treatment of the character, but I wanted one with huge muscles, so I started collecting various bare arms from multiple figure lines to try them out with Croc Master. I also tried varying paint techniques. My weathering techniques changed from figure to figure and over time as I learned more about painting. This thread is a compilation of all the Croc Master work I’ve done.
First let’s look at a factory Croc Master compared to one with only some paint detailing. This shows how much more the figure can pop with a few paint aps.
Next, is a simple parts swap that makes a big difference in how strong the figure looks. I swapped his skinny little factory hands for some bulkier hands from the 25th Bazooka figure.
Factory original/Original with paint aps/Painted with Bazooka hands
My next step was to try the Copperhead upper arms on the figure. I also used Bazooka hands on it. This is an interesting sculpt because from the front the original Croc Master arms look more muscular, but from the side the Copperhead arms look stronger.
I also tried to sculpt bigger biceps on another Copperhead upper arms set. As you can see, that failed miserably. The forearms are from a 25th comic pack IG Destro
I tried a set of DC Crisis Hawkman arms. They made him look like a big gorilla. I also tried out the vintage head to see how it would look on a 25th body.
These are XO Wolverine Sabretooth arms. They look really good on this figure!
Once the Retaliation figures hit with the big Roadblock arms I wanted to try them as well. They look good, but in the end they’re not as massive as I would have liked.
Here are the original upper arms, Retaliation Roadblock arms, and the Copperhead upper arms in comparison. You can see that although the Roadblock arms feature a lot more detail, they don’t really look much stronger than the other 2.
One of my favorite sets of arms for this project was from the DTC Major Barrage. My only complaint is the cut at the bottom of the bicep to allow the arm to bend.
During the process of trying to create the perfect Croc Master I made a kit bash of the old Super Hero Showdown Thor upper arms and the Marvel Universe Thor lower arms. Originally I sent these to Hunter Artworks for casting, but they were gonna be too difficult to mass produce so I sent them Slayer Design Studios and they were available in the store for a while. These are the original prototypes from Hunter Artworks. Unfortunately one of the arms has a crack where the pin is in the arm.
Finally, we come to the end-all, be-all of my over-done Croc Master project. These are the arms from an Avengers Battle Hammer Thor.
Here are all of them lined up!
I wanted to be able to set them up sided by side and look at works and what doesn't. I did the same thing with my massive Han Solo project a few years back.
