Croc Master:

ARAH Croc Master
Star Wars- helmet hose from X-Wing Pilot helmet
Whip: Indiana Jones- Indiana Jones

Fiona & Milky:

Dollar Tree Alligators, in two different sizes
Snack hand: Indiana Jones- Belloq

This is the first part of the "Brackish Water Patrol" mini-set, featuring Copperhead and Croc Master.

Design & Colors:

Croc Master and Copperhead are two characters destined to have worked together. Croc Master has to have an alligator, Fiona, and Copperhead has to have a speedboat of some kind. The trick was to find a speedboat long enough for an alligator or two to lounge on it.

Cheap Dollar Tree alligators and a Big Lots speedboat make the set possible.

This is a fusion project, of sorts. It takes some elements from the Classified Series figures (adding gloves to Croc Master, shortening his mask to the jawline, and adding the albino alligator) and the strange colors sets used by the MASK toyline on its single pack repaints (like Bruce Sato in winter colors for the Rescue Mission set or Sly Rax with a burgundy jacket in Pit Stop Catapult set).

To make the Classified Series + strange Mask repaints idea work, it needed the right color set. The palette of light blue, pebble, and dark blue reflects colors that might be seen in a brackish water environment. They also work well on both figures and the boat simultaneously. Additionally, they had to make the figures look different enough from their original versions to justify making.

Sculpting & Modifying:

Croc Master:

The ARAH Croc Master head is among the worst ever sculpted in the ARAH line. The eyes were placed below the eye socket area, lowered to be in line with the nostrils. It's atrocious, and not intentionally. Just bad work by Hasbro many years ago.

After considering rotating in a substitute head, I resculpted the eyes and put them where they should have been to begin with. Keeping with the ARAH parts for both figures helps sell them as "repaints".

About Fiona:

The ARAH Croc Master did include an alligator. It was too small to read as threatening, plus it was sculpted to look sort of adorable. So, it couldn't be carried forward for this project. Two entirely different alligator toys step in to fill the void.

The first is Fiona, Croc Master's main alligator.

As Fiona is a giant static prop piece to display on the speedboat, she needed to look like she was making contact with it using her feet, instead of "planking". The legs were cut off, then repositioned to reach down to the boat surface.

Fiona's head came with stubby little tooth nubs. Those were replaced with more accurate ones, using paperclip snippets set into epoxy gums. The previously hollow mouth also has a tongue, too.

Yes, Fiona plays with her food. That's Belloq's hand sticking out of her mouth.

While Milky's teeth are "antique white", a dirty yellow-white, Fiona's aren't. They started off that color, but I shifted them to white- especially the ones around the human hands in Fiona's mouth. That allows for the flesh color of the hand to contrast better against the teeth.

About Milky:

The second alligator is Fiona's baby boy. Classified Croc Master included Fiona, plus two small baby alligators. One of the baby alligators was an albino, giving me an excuse to paint a white alligator with blue eyes. "Milky" seemed like a good name.

Where's the other baby alligator? Didn't he survive to get as big as Milky? It would appear he did not.