Height: 6 7/16 inches
Articulation: Swivel/
hinge ankles, boot swivels, double hinged knees, swivel thighs, ball
jointed drop down hips, ball jointed waist, mid-torso hinge, butterfly
pecs, swivel/hinge shoulders, bicep swivels, double hinged elbows,
swivel/hinge wrists, balljointed neck, and a ball jointed head.
Length: 12 inches
Articulation: Bendable tail, balljointed tail base, balljointed hips, swivel/hinge feet, balljointed upper torso, balljointed head, and hinged jaw.
Accessories: Leash and 2 crocodile companions.
Non-Scalper Price: $42 dollars
* While most of the earliest figures in the Classified Series had a unique feel apart from A Real American Hero, lately Hasbro seems to be staying more true to the vintage toyline designs. I'm OK with that some of the time but I do like to see some evolutions of the character designs, especially for characters with a more realistic vibe. There's no way someone like Dusty, Bazooka, Iceberg, or Grunt should be using gear from the 1980s. Croc Master works fine, though. He's a weird guy and he probably just wears what he wants. An alligator skin shirt? Sure. He's got bracers, too, one metal and one made of crocodile hide. He's also still rocking that awesome gator eye belt buckle. He's a muscular guy and Hasbro's Joe team did a great job with him. I love the sculpted Cobra emblem, too. It's a fantastic detail.
* Croc Master's name is unknown and his face is unknown, too. Every version of Croc Master has been pretty similar except for the Valor Vs. Venom version from 2005, which actually made him green and showed off the upper half of his face. Here, though, he's sporting a skin tight black hood and a silver breathing mask, presumably for helping him to take in oxygen while lurking underwater. The red eyes are really creepy on him, especially in this larger scale.
* I like the articulation model on the Classified Series and Croc Master is a joy to mess around with. He has a fantastic range of motion in his plentiful joints (including butterfly shoulders and those hinged hip joints that drop down for a bit of extra motion) and he feels quite durable. He also comes with a nice assortment of stuff to pose him with, so you'll have plenty of fun accessories for your display.
* The small oxygen tank and tube are a separate piece that can detach from Croc Master's mask and back. Presumably it allows him to just chill underwater for short periods or provides a needed supply of oxygen when he has to go underwater when wrestling crocs or gators. This is something that I do wish had been updated a bit as surely a modern piece of equipment would vary from what Croc Master used in 1987.
* Croc Master's new weapon is a meat hook. That's what I'm calling it, anyways. What else could it be? I'm guessing he uses this for feeding Fiona and his other animals but he could also potentially use it as a really nasty melee weapon.
* The vintage Croc Master has a sculpted pistol of some sort on his left hip but it wasn't until the 2008 25th Anniversary version that Croc Master's sidearm was an actual removable accessory. The Classified Series version has upgraded Croc Master with a rather modern looking revolver. It's a sleek weapon that surely packs a punch. The handle even looks like a reptile skin pattern.
* Croc Master also has a cool knife on his right ankle, just like the vintage toy. It's removable, though, and looks like a custom job. Not many people have knives with gator skin on the handles.
* Croc Master's revolver fits snugly into the removable holster on his left hip. While it has a mottled leather pattern, it is a very light brown.
* The sheathe for his knife is on his right shin. It's a separate piece but not easily removable. You'd have to pop his foot off to remove it from him. It also has reptile skin detail on the straps.
* Fiona is huge, too. At a foot long she definitely presents a huge threat to the Joe team. Look at her wrestling Croc Master! She's a powerful beast for sure.
* The headsculpt is good and makes Fiona look really creepy. I find alligators and crocodiles quite creepy, so Hasbro did a great job as I get a bit of the same sense of dread from this toy as I do from the real animals. The beads yellow eyes, the long snout, and the textures of her skin are fantastically detailed.
* The hinged jaw is obviously a big selling point, too. Yikes! The teeth are really sharp and pointy and the inside of the mouth has some detail. I wonder if one of the sculptors from Hasbro stuck their head inside the mouth of a real crocodile to get all of the details right?
* The underbelly of Fiona is really nicely scaled and much smoother than her back.
* Animal toys are sometimes to articulate properly it seems but I think Hasbro did an admirable job with Fiona. You've got lots of balljoints all down the body, the hinged jaw, balljointed hips, swivel/hinge feet, and a bendable tail. While no one expects most crocodiles to be able to do karate or anything, Fiona definitely can take some great poses and is really fun to play around with.
* Fiona comes with a spiked collar attached to a leash, something the vintage figure also had. Now Croc Master can take her on long walks by the beach or use her to intimidate Cobra Commander's enemies. You just pop off her head, place the collar over the neck, and pop the head back on.
* Fiona also comes with two little crocodiles. One looks like a standard baby croc while the other is a rare albino crocodile. How cute! That's a really fun little extra, isn't it?
* My only issue with the figure is there is a clear seam on Fiona's stomach. It looks less like the belly of the figure is detaching and more like the belly wasn't attached quite evenly. I didn't notice it for a bit but it's definitely there.
These are the first figures of Croc Master and Fiona that I've reviewed. For more G.I. Joe Classified Series reviews check out the following:
Zartan
Dang - now that's an awesome deluxe set. I have some extra crocs to set up when he arrives.
ReplyDeleteYou're going to have a while crocodile team for him, huh?
DeleteI couldn't help myself from imagining Croc Master saying, "Of course!" in a British accent.
ReplyDeleteHe definitely has a Bane-like vibe that I never really noticed until reviewing this figure. Of course, the vintage Croc Master predates Bane by about 6 years, so Bane is the one fading Croc Master's style.
DeleteYou think the body mold will be adapted for Big Boa if they ever get around to making him? I had both of the vintage figures and I could never bring myself to pair Croc or Boa with anyone else but each other because they looked like a pro wrestling tag team that could give The Road Warriors, The Powers Of Pain, and Demolition a run for their money.
DeleteI'm sure he'll share some parts with others. Big Boa would make sense, especially with the arms, though I could see Big Boa using parts from Roadblock to make him even larger. And, yea, there are definitely a few really out there Cobras from this era. Croc, Boa, and Raptor look like some sort of villainous stable with Crystal Ball as the manager.
DeleteAmazing figure! He's always been one of my favorite Joe figs since I first got him back in 1987!
ReplyDeleteI had Croc Master but I can't say he was ever one of my favorites. He was weird, sure, but he seemed a little less useful. Kind of like Big Boa and Raptor. To me, those guys were just odd and under armed. I really liked the Valor Vs Venom Croc Master. He seemed a bit more dangerous, well armed, and like a more frightening adversary with the genetic modification it seems he underwent.
DeleteThey sure did. Construction-wise, Hasbro's stuff is top notch right now. This is a really impressive set.
ReplyDeleteThat revolver looks like a Chiappas Rhino. An actual real world gun. Interesting how some figures get futuristic sci-fi gear and some get ordinary gear. But maybe a laser gun gets messed up from swamp water or something.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the Rhino, I think you're spot on. That looks just like it!
DeleteI think early on Hasbro was really trying to give things a more futuristic spin and tie things in with the video game. They also seemed to be basing designs off of NERF weapons early and using the term blasters, so maybe there was some apprehension about how the line would be received?
It's been at least a year or more since any figure other than a repaint/ repack has had a more futuristic weapon, so I think they've largely moved away from the intentionally futuristic weapons, though it's nice to see them when it makes sense.