Croc Master (2015)
I’ve been a Croc Master fan since 1987, the year that some say the line went off the rails with Cobra’s preponderance of weird new characters. I’m not so hard on the year’s releases, and I find the colorful variety of villains a plus, along the lines of the great comic book rogues galleries from Batman, Spider-Man and the Flash. After all, if the heroes don’t have someone interesting to tangle with, things can get a little stale. Look back at the vaunted years of 1983 and 1984 and you’ll notice that Cobra has its share of strangeness, like a metal-masked arms dealer and an eypatch-wearing and robotic (or is it armored?) armed mercenary. Anyway, rant over. Like I said, I like Croc Master. I’ve enjoyed the other releases of the figure since it’s original release, from the underrated new sculpt era interpretation to the later modern offerings.
Alongside pack-mate Blowtorch, this is another missing figure from the Pursuit of Cobra days. As repaints go, it’s as effective as its partner. Putting Croc Master into the Python Patrol sub-team makes perfect sense, given his reptilian theme. It certainly is more logical than a Python Crimson Guard.
The 2011 version of the figure equipped the character with an impressive array of accessories, all repeated here. I enjoy the Adventure Team playset vibe that the various snakes, container and nets provide. There’s really a nice little set-up here for a self-contained story. It’s the sort of thing that Chap Mei’s Animal Planet series is doing very well over at Toys R Us. I can imagine a few 3 & 3/4 homages to the 70s GI Joe sets that might stir the imagination. Of course, the Collectors’ Club already attempted such a thing, but maybe a few more efforts like this could increase the play value for the next generation of Joe collectors.
Was I talking about Croc Master? Oh yeah, again I really like the alternate Python Patrol color scheme of red and grey. It matches well with the vintage vehicles, and really suits a character like this one.
I’ve always been partial to the Croc Master character. Of the crapfest that was the ’87 Cobras, he’s the best. This is an interesting take. I’d rather have seen him just in red without the attempt to make him Python Patrol. But, it’s not too obtrusive and still works.
I don’t know, this is so far out of left field, I’m really wondering why repaint Croc Master? I heard he and Blowtorch were both fan-requested, but it must’ve been a vocal minority at JoeCon or something. In a bar. Over a lot of beers.
The gator looks p*ssed, probably because someone spray-painted him red
A red croc!?
87 was one of my favorite years!! I love the original version but just like the new sculpt, this version feels a bit too stiff or something. He is just off somehow. IT also hurts that the ROC terra viper was the exact same fig.
Croc master is my mothers favorite character. She has a small collection of croc masters of her own.
Is that supposed to be a gator bite scar on his arm? That’s a pretty cool detail.
Great review on this figure. 1987 is one of my favorite years of G.I. Joe, specially because that was the year that I officially started collecting these toys. So of course I like so many of the characters that were released that year. I went nuts trying to collect as many as I possibly could. Sadly, I could not find so many of the 1986 figures at that time down here in the Miami Florida area. Specially after the original movie was shown on television, it just seemed like most of the 86 figures disappeared from the stores. The exceptions were the ones that came with vehicles, planes, etc. Anyway, I would prefer to have a Python Patrol o-ring repaint of the original 87 figure, since I don’t collect these new 25th anniversary style figures. But not with that red color, instead something like a swamp looking green that doesn’t have to look exactly like the 87 figures green color. I would pay whatever price for a custom like that, specially if it has all the accessories of this figure and the 87 figure’s breathing hose. I really like that revolver, so maybe slicing off the 87 figure’s gun holster, and then gluing the 2008 version’s holster in the 87 figure’s leg would work. And that would be the perfect Python Patrol Croc Master o-ring custom figure for me. As for that red crocodile, switch it for the 2008 or 2011 version and it’s just perfect. I can see this guy and Copperhead hanging out in the swamps riding on the Water Moccasin. I have been thinking for some years now that the Hasbro folks or the club folks, should make scaled down replicas of the 1970’s Adventure Team vehicles, and the ones from the 1960’s. And in the same yellow color for the Adventure Team vehicles, and the army green color for the 60’s vehicles. I know that they either have the machines that can do that, or they can pay some company that has those machines to do that job. And then after they have all the molds for all of the vehicle’s parts, that’s it. Start making the toys and that’s it. That would be awesome. And also retooling the G.I. Joe Extreme vehicles for the smaller figures, so they can sit two figures on some of the vehicles. That would be awesome too.