Dr. Claw

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**Dr. Claw** is the main antagonist of the *Inspector Gadget* franchise.

## Routine

Dr. Claw always intends to do what he can to achieve wealth or world domination, not to mention eliminating his arch nemesis Inspector Gadget. However, his plans tend to constantly backfire when his men get arrested, or by Gadget, Penny, or Brain interfering with his plans.

## Personality

Claw is arrogant, greedy, malicious, ruthless, callous, sinister, short-tempered, sadistic, and a major threat to all of Metro City. He is a psychotic criminal mastermind that will stop at nothing to destroy Inspector Gadget and take over the world. Most of his plots consist of terrorism and global attacks. Even though he is an evil mastermind, and a certainly menacing psychopath, he thinks Gadget's stupidity is an act to mock him and views him as his worst enemy, and has no idea that Penny and Brain do all the real work. As revealed in the first live-action film, he lost his left hand in a accident, giving him a mechanical claw. In Gadget and the Gadgetinis, it is shown that he has had his claw since he was a baby, so he probably lost his arm when he was young or he was born without his right arm.

He is usually at a computer terminal where he monitors his various schemes, often in a creepy old castle. Although he's aware of Gadget's idiocy, he believes the Inspector to be his greatest enemy, never realizing that it is actually Penny and Brain who foil his plots in each episode (although he or his M.A.D. agents have captured Penny and her computer book and he has jammed her watch and sometimes Brain a number of times). He is usually seen with his fat pet cat M.A.D. Cat, who reaps the benefits of his brief victories and bears the brunt of his defeats. Claw's catchphrase at the end of every episode is, "I'll get you next time, Gadget! NEXT TIME!!!".

In the 2015 CGI series, he isn't as malicious or as cruel or as evil as he used to be and seems almost as incompetent as Gadget, even though he still retains a certain evilness and cruelty that characterizes him. He is presumably either out of practice or losing his touch. Compared to his nephew Talon he is depicted as an old-fashioned villain who overlooks potential opportunities or engages in villainous plots for crazy or even comical reasons (such as time freezing the world leaders for his snowglobe collection) over more practical ones and tends to dismiss Talon when he points these out to him and rarely considers them and if he does they are not his top priority. He does retain his tendency to blame his henchmen (usually Talon for his plans failing and even torments them as a hobby, such as dropping an anvil on Talon's head which at first was simply going to be for his entertainment but later used as a punishment). Despite this treatment Talon seeks his uncle's approval and Dr. Claw is shown to be jealous when Talon idolizes one of Claw's MAD agents. However he tends to view Talon as inexperienced and dismisses his ideas. Also despite Penny being an agent-in-training who assists her uncle Gadget more openly, Dr. Claw dismisses her and at one point doesn't even remember who she is when Talon mentions her. He is also unaware of Talon's crush on Penny though he barely pays attention to his nephew's rivalry with Penny. In addition to his ongoing conflicts with HQ and Gadget, he also has a rival in Baron von Steeltoe another villain who is constantly one-upping him as a villain (even shouting Steeltoe's name when Steeltoe one-ups him in the same manner he does when Gadget foils his plans) though ironically HQ tends to focus on Dr. Claw and MAD generally ignoring Steeltoe's activities indicating they view him as the greater threat which Dr. Claw fails to notice. Additionally often Gadget and Penny end up inadvertently foiling his plans to show-up Steeltoe. However Dr. Claw does apparently begrudgingly admire his rival's work as a villain as Steeltoe is as old-fashioned as Dr. Claw is albeit more successful due to the lack of interference from HQ.

## Claw's face

Throughout the entire series, Claw is an unseen character, only just his arms and gloved hands are visible, leaving the viewer to guess as to his face and body, though a shadow of his body can be seen in "Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas" and "The Japanese Connection". Though his face is never shown, evidence suggests that he has the appearance of a mad scientist. Despite sitting down in an executive chair for most of the series, it is clear that he possesses an intimidating physical stature (as others are usually shown cowering when he stands).

There were only 5 instances where his face was visible:

* In the first live-action film (it was partially hidden in the sequel).
* In the SNES game where he is fought as the final boss, half of his face is seen.
* In the *Gadget and the Gadgetinis* episode "The Weather Machine," the viewers get to see a closeup of his face while he wakes up from his nap. This version of Claw has a muscular body and a square-shaped head. His face is usually hidden in shadow with only his glowing yellow eyes visible, but in "The Weather Machine," the outlines of his nose and mouth are visible.
* In the iPhone game *Inspector Gadget's M.A.D Dash* as an unlockable puzzle. It has the appearance of the face used for the action figure and video game.

## Trivia

* In the live-action film, Claw's real name is Sanford Scolex. However, in *Gadget and the Gadgetinis*, his real name is George Claw. In the CGI series, his name is Irving.
* One popular fan theory is that he might be the real Inspector Gadget.
* Frank Welker reprised his role as Claw in the Robot Chicken episode, Adoption's an Option. Cree Summer also returned as Penny.
* Dr. Claw's voice in the first season is known to have an echo effect, possibly to make him sound scarier.
* The inspiration for the character is likely to have come from the renowned James Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, as they both have a cat and their arms is all that we see of them.
* His Polish name is Dr Klauf AKA doktor Szpon and Dr Gang, and dubber is Jerzy Słonka.
* In the 2015 series, he's not as evil or as intelligent or as malicious as he used to be. He's either out of practice or losing his touch. However, he seems to have his evil intelligence and maliciousness back in season 3.
* Claw always escapes justice, but he gets captured in Inspector Gadget's Biggest Caper Ever and Gadget 2.0. He does manage to escape, however.