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Yep... I've recently started and played through most of The Sly Collection - the trio of Sly Cooper games that have been remastered into a PS3 format.. probably to celebrate the upcoming release of Sly 4: Thieves in Time in March.

When playing these games, I have to admit... I LOVE how creative the villains' designs and backstories are. It's almost like the writers of the Sly games took the best elements of the Batman, James Bond and Tintin villains, and mixed them together.: And made them animals. It also allows us to see WHY the villains turned to crime, and in many cases, we end up feeling sorry for the villains.. making them much more three-dimensional than many other villains I've seen... at times, they can seem to even rival the DISNEY villains in terms of coolness, personalities, motives and backstories.

The group of villains that I like the most are the notorious Klaww Gang, a group of criminals who are the main villains in Sly 2: Band of Thieves. Their goal is to take the parts of Clockwerk (the main villain in Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus - the first game) and use them for their own criminal needs.
I didn't include Constable Neyla in this picture because she sometimes isn't considered an official member... and along with that... one action she commited late in the game makes my blood BOIL!!

But, okay, let's talk about the villains from left to right:
Rajan: The main villain in chapters 2 and 3 of Sly 2 - 'A Starry Eyed Encounter' and 'The Predator Awakes' consecutively - set in India. Rajan grew up poor on the streets of Calcutta. He started his life of crime by selling illegal spices on the black market. As he grew older, his business expanded and he eventually earned a seat in the prestigious Klaww Gang due to his skills, creating the spices for the Klaww Gang's schemes. He is in posession of the Clockwerk Wings (used to decorate his prestigious Ancestral Palace in India in light of his star-studded party) and the Clockwerk Heart (used to increase productivity of spice, and to use electric attacks in the boss fight between him and Murray. He also has a strange obsession with Indian watermelons.. This was used by Bentley to steal his spice plans, by luring Rajan to them, making him fall asleep, and then pickpocketing the plans from him. Not too special, but his obsession with watermelons, being able to knock him unconsious and THROW him at his own electric fence in the boss fight is pretty funny.... Also, after he served his sentence in jail, he went on to become a rug salesman.

Dimitri: The main villain in chapter 1 of Sly 2 - 'The Black Chateau'. My personal favourite of the Klaww Gang members - Dimitri used to be a budding art student, who used a strange style he called 'kinetic aesthetic' - which consisted of him merely swinging back and forth from a rope tied around his waist and painting the canvas when he swung by. It was rejected by the artist community, and to get his revenge on those with 'bad taste' he started forging masterpieces of art. Joining the Klaww Gang, Dimitri set up a nightclub in Paris, drawing in patrons from all around the city - using Rajan's spices on the food fed to the patrons for the Klaww Gang's schemes. Dimitri also modified the Clockwerk Tail Feathers for use in a counterfeiting scheme - the tail feathers would never tire out due to their strong alloy, and could create an endless supply of forged money. I love the way he uses strange slang that no one else can understand, and the way he says his suit is 'greasy sweet.' I also loved the way he moved in the boss fight between him and Sly - triggered by Sly saying, after Dimitri used some confusing slang - "I have no idea what you're saying. And your suit sucks!" Another thing I love about Dimitri is that he becomes a member of the Cooper gang in the 3rd game, Honour Among Thieves, a similar reformation that the Panda King, a villain from the first game, underwent.

Arpeggio: The leader of the Klaww Gang, and the first main villain in chapter 8 of Sly 2 - 'Anatomy For Disaster'. My second favourite member of the Klaww Gang, Arpeggio is probably the most tragic as well.. Arpeggio started his life at a high-class boarding school, and succeeded in all of his classes. Unfortunately, physically, he couldn't catch up with his other classmates, and was unable to fly. I actually identify quite a bit with Arpeggio - I actually opted out of PE to get some extra time to do school work AND to avoid the bullies, and when I was young, I felt the point of school was to help my BRAIN grow, not my body . Yeah, I was pretty silly back then, but the free sessions helped me greatly with my school-life and catch up with any outstanding work. Anyway, back to Arpeggio... He was furious at his feeble body, and his studies for a cure led him to the works of the Italian Renaissance masters, whose notes and machinery designs served as a starting point. Already, this was really cool when I heard this... It reminded me an awful lot of Assassin's Creed 2. The designs of his blimp and his travelling cage are pretty cool, and for some reason, the blimp level reminded me an awful lot of the Diamond-O-Matic from Wallace and Gromitroject Zoo - and going through the level was just as challenging. Arpeggio knew that bringing together the Clockwerk parts would not be as difficult as creating a large amount of hatred. The Clockwerk Frame needed hatred in order to be fueled to immortality. Arpeggio concluded that spice consumption made one angry, and they could then be hypnotized into a state of hatred. The negative energies would bring forth Clockwerk's immortality, which Arpeggio desired more than anything. Keeping the Clockwerk Brain for himself, each individual member of the gang contributed a significant factor to Arpeggio's plot. Dimitri was the owner of a night club in Paris, which he used to widely distribute spices in his food and drink. The spices were grown by Rajan in India. The Contessa used her hypnotist expertise to be used on Arpeggio's blimp, which would transmit flashing lights to hypnotize those in Paris that had consumed the spices. Jean Bison managed to collect the energies of the Northern Lights to use as waves in this mesmerizing process. Ultimately, Arpeggio would use his blimp to create a hypnotic light show to hypnotize the citizens of Paris into extreme hatred and would then harness this energy to power Clockwerk.
Despite their contributions, the Klaww Gang was unaware of Arpeggio's intent to become immortal. Arpeggio used the Klaww Gang to orchestrate a break in at the museum and steal the parts. Each member was given some of Clockwerk's pieces, which they used in their own trivial schemes. Arpeggio held onto the Clockwerk Brain. He then prepared for the next portion of his plan alongside Neyla, whom the rest of the Klaww Gang saw as a mere police officer; she had gone undercover within Interpol as a constable and partner to Carmelita Fox. Behind-the-scenes, Arpeggio and Neyla devised a way to get the other parts back from the rest of the gang. Jean Bison sold every part to Arpeggio and had them transported to his blimp, which was en route to pick up the large battery containing the Northern Lights. Sly and his allies escaped imprisonment, defeated Bison, and went to stow away on Arpeggio's blimp. The blimp was on its way to Paris, where Arpeggio's plans would come together, though the Cooper Gang was unaware of this. Arpeggio's plan was to fuse with Clockwerk to become a new, immortal being as the Paris light show caused immense hatred among the city's population. Sly described Arpeggio's forced hatred on the Paris citizens as "outlandishly cruel," but Arpeggio was unconcerned with all but his success and eternal life. He then told Neyla to keep Sly covered as he approached Clockwerk but at that instant, she betrayed him. Using her whip, Neyla knocked over Arpeggio's birdcage, leaving him helpless on the floor. She then leaped in front of him, and kneeled down to her former master, taunting him. Neyla had been manipulating Arpeggio all along to get Clockwerk for herself. And to make it even worse, Neyla, after merging with Clockwerk, KILLS Arpeggio by crushing him! I feel so sorry for him, and I'm surprised that he wasn't a boss fight.. With all of his machinery, I could imagine some cool boss fight opportunities! Also, if he was arrested and made to reform, I could bet that he would create a way to fly...

Jean Bison: The main villain in chapter 6 and 7 of Sly 2 - 'He Who Tames The Iron Horse' and 'Menace In The North - Eh?' - Jean Bison is my third favourite member of the Klaww Gang. He owned the Clockwerk Lungs, Clockwerk Stomach and the Clockwerk Talons. He used the Lungs and Stomach to power his Iron Horses (trains ) and the Clockwerk Talons to chop down trees faster than anyone else. A prospector during the Gold Rush of 1852, Jean Bison, who was looking to strike it rich, took one too many chances and ended buried and frozen alive during a freak avalanche. A modern day Rip Van Winkle - or Ash in Army of Darkness. However, in the present day, thanks to global warming, he thawed out, leaving him out of touch with present day society. He dreamed of "taming" the Wild North by leveling the forests and placing dams on every river. Serving as the shipping baron for the Klaww Gang allowed him to carry out his one-man war against nature. Using his train system that spans throughout the Canadian plains, Jean Bison's abilities are of utmost importance to the Klaww Gang. I love his Canadian accent, and his funny voice - but I have to admit.. the Lumberjack Games were INCREDIBLY annoying.. I also found it funny fighting him playing as Bentley while using a walkie-talkie to ask Sly to bring forth saws and fire. In Chapter 6, you actually fight Constable Neyla, and in chapter 7, Jean Bison escapes to his second camp, and uses his giant attractor to collect the light energy of the Aurora Borealis into his Northern Light Battery for Arpeggio's blimp. After serving his debt to society, Jean Bison somehow turned over a new leaf and went to work for the EPA, and froze yet again on a mission to save baby penguins.

Contessa: The main villain of chapters 4 and 5 - 'Jailbreak' and 'The Tangled Web'. Again, she wasn't too special, but I did like her role in the game, and her creepy hideouts in Prague. While in Criminal Psychology, she fell in love and married a wealthy aristocrat. Nevertheless, only a few weeks after the ceremony, her beloved died of poisoning. Using her knowledge of criminal thinking and her newly inherited estate, she opened a rehabilitation clinic for criminals. The Contessa supposedly used hypnosis to cure criminals of their illegal urges, and gained a prominent position within Interpol. After Neyla betrays the Cooper Gang and Carmelita, the Contessa locks them up in her rehabilitation centre. Later on, Murray is held hostage by the Contessa who is working on controlling Murray's mind with her hypnosis. He discovered her to be a secret member of the Klaww Gang, hypnotizing criminals to learn the location of their loot. She was also using illegal spice to help with the hypnosis and contributed hypnosis light wave generators to Arpeggio's blimp.
After failing to hypnotize Murray, the Contessa fled from her clinic and escaped to her castle estate, where she held possession of the Clockwerk Eyes and had Carmelita bound to an Iron Tech 250 in her re-education tower, where she tortured her and attempted to brainwash her with the Eyes.
Whilst the gang headed there to get the Eyes back, a war broke out between the Contessa and Constable Neyla, in which both had their own respective armies at their disposal. The Contessa's immediate plan, and one Sly and his friends would not allow, was to brainwash Carmelita with a Mind Shuffler into becoming her personal slave, so that she would take the fall at Interpol. However, Sly, Bentley, and Murray stopped her plans and Sly defeated her in combat.
Apparently, the Contessa knew all about Sly's family line, and even taunted him into fighting. Even after losing once and playing the innocent routine, she still declared herself mentally superior to Sly's gang. However, after fighting and defeating her for a second time, it is clear that Sly, Murray, and Bentley are a much tougher match. The Contessa is then arrested and stripped of her title. After she reforms, she begins selling real estate, using her hypnotic know-how to make people buy her houses. Old habits die hard....

I actually planned on some fan OCs who I think could make members of the Klaww Gang, and could use some parts of Clockwerk that were not used in the second game.
The first time I've drawn these characters, so I'm sorry for any flaws in the drawing.

Description
Yep... I've recently started and played through most of The Sly Collection - the trio of Sly Cooper games that have been remastered into a PS3 format.. probably to celebrate the upcoming release of Sly 4: Thieves in Time in March.

When playing these games, I have to admit... I LOVE how creative the villains' designs and backstories are. It's almost like the writers of the Sly games took the best elements of the Batman, James Bond and Tintin villains, and mixed them together.: And made them animals. It also allows us to see WHY the villains turned to crime, and in many cases, we end up feeling sorry for the villains.. making them much more three-dimensional than many other villains I've seen... at times, they can seem to even rival the DISNEY villains in terms of coolness, personalities, motives and backstories.

The group of villains that I like the most are the notorious Klaww Gang, a group of criminals who are the main villains in Sly 2: Band of Thieves. Their goal is to take the parts of Clockwerk (the main villain in Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus - the first game) and use them for their own criminal needs.
I didn't include Constable Neyla in this picture because she sometimes isn't considered an official member... and along with that... one action she commited late in the game makes my blood BOIL!!

But, okay, let's talk about the villains from left to right:
Rajan: The main villain in chapters 2 and 3 of Sly 2 - 'A Starry Eyed Encounter' and 'The Predator Awakes' consecutively - set in India. Rajan grew up poor on the streets of Calcutta. He started his life of crime by selling illegal spices on the black market. As he grew older, his business expanded and he eventually earned a seat in the prestigious Klaww Gang due to his skills, creating the spices for the Klaww Gang's schemes. He is in posession of the Clockwerk Wings (used to decorate his prestigious Ancestral Palace in India in light of his star-studded party) and the Clockwerk Heart (used to increase productivity of spice, and to use electric attacks in the boss fight between him and Murray. He also has a strange obsession with Indian watermelons.. This was used by Bentley to steal his spice plans, by luring Rajan to them, making him fall asleep, and then pickpocketing the plans from him. Not too special, but his obsession with watermelons, being able to knock him unconsious and THROW him at his own electric fence in the boss fight is pretty funny.... Also, after he served his sentence in jail, he went on to become a rug salesman.

Dimitri: The main villain in chapter 1 of Sly 2 - 'The Black Chateau'. My personal favourite of the Klaww Gang members - Dimitri used to be a budding art student, who used a strange style he called 'kinetic aesthetic' - which consisted of him merely swinging back and forth from a rope tied around his waist and painting the canvas when he swung by. It was rejected by the artist community, and to get his revenge on those with 'bad taste' he started forging masterpieces of art. Joining the Klaww Gang, Dimitri set up a nightclub in Paris, drawing in patrons from all around the city - using Rajan's spices on the food fed to the patrons for the Klaww Gang's schemes. Dimitri also modified the Clockwerk Tail Feathers for use in a counterfeiting scheme - the tail feathers would never tire out due to their strong alloy, and could create an endless supply of forged money. I love the way he uses strange slang that no one else can understand, and the way he says his suit is 'greasy sweet.' I also loved the way he moved in the boss fight between him and Sly - triggered by Sly saying, after Dimitri used some confusing slang - "I have no idea what you're saying. And your suit sucks!" Another thing I love about Dimitri is that he becomes a member of the Cooper gang in the 3rd game, Honour Among Thieves, a similar reformation that the Panda King, a villain from the first game, underwent.

Arpeggio: The leader of the Klaww Gang, and the first main villain in chapter 8 of Sly 2 - 'Anatomy For Disaster'. My second favourite member of the Klaww Gang, Arpeggio is probably the most tragic as well.. Arpeggio started his life at a high-class boarding school, and succeeded in all of his classes. Unfortunately, physically, he couldn't catch up with his other classmates, and was unable to fly. I actually identify quite a bit with Arpeggio - I actually opted out of PE to get some extra time to do school work AND to avoid the bullies, and when I was young, I felt the point of school was to help my BRAIN grow, not my body . Yeah, I was pretty silly back then, but the free sessions helped me greatly with my school-life and catch up with any outstanding work. Anyway, back to Arpeggio... He was furious at his feeble body, and his studies for a cure led him to the works of the Italian Renaissance masters, whose notes and machinery designs served as a starting point. Already, this was really cool when I heard this... It reminded me an awful lot of Assassin's Creed 2. The designs of his blimp and his travelling cage are pretty cool, and for some reason, the blimp level reminded me an awful lot of the Diamond-O-Matic from Wallace and Gromitroject Zoo - and going through the level was just as challenging. Arpeggio knew that bringing together the Clockwerk parts would not be as difficult as creating a large amount of hatred. The Clockwerk Frame needed hatred in order to be fueled to immortality. Arpeggio concluded that spice consumption made one angry, and they could then be hypnotized into a state of hatred. The negative energies would bring forth Clockwerk's immortality, which Arpeggio desired more than anything. Keeping the Clockwerk Brain for himself, each individual member of the gang contributed a significant factor to Arpeggio's plot. Dimitri was the owner of a night club in Paris, which he used to widely distribute spices in his food and drink. The spices were grown by Rajan in India. The Contessa used her hypnotist expertise to be used on Arpeggio's blimp, which would transmit flashing lights to hypnotize those in Paris that had consumed the spices. Jean Bison managed to collect the energies of the Northern Lights to use as waves in this mesmerizing process. Ultimately, Arpeggio would use his blimp to create a hypnotic light show to hypnotize the citizens of Paris into extreme hatred and would then harness this energy to power Clockwerk.
Despite their contributions, the Klaww Gang was unaware of Arpeggio's intent to become immortal. Arpeggio used the Klaww Gang to orchestrate a break in at the museum and steal the parts. Each member was given some of Clockwerk's pieces, which they used in their own trivial schemes. Arpeggio held onto the Clockwerk Brain. He then prepared for the next portion of his plan alongside Neyla, whom the rest of the Klaww Gang saw as a mere police officer; she had gone undercover within Interpol as a constable and partner to Carmelita Fox. Behind-the-scenes, Arpeggio and Neyla devised a way to get the other parts back from the rest of the gang. Jean Bison sold every part to Arpeggio and had them transported to his blimp, which was en route to pick up the large battery containing the Northern Lights. Sly and his allies escaped imprisonment, defeated Bison, and went to stow away on Arpeggio's blimp. The blimp was on its way to Paris, where Arpeggio's plans would come together, though the Cooper Gang was unaware of this. Arpeggio's plan was to fuse with Clockwerk to become a new, immortal being as the Paris light show caused immense hatred among the city's population. Sly described Arpeggio's forced hatred on the Paris citizens as "outlandishly cruel," but Arpeggio was unconcerned with all but his success and eternal life. He then told Neyla to keep Sly covered as he approached Clockwerk but at that instant, she betrayed him. Using her whip, Neyla knocked over Arpeggio's birdcage, leaving him helpless on the floor. She then leaped in front of him, and kneeled down to her former master, taunting him. Neyla had been manipulating Arpeggio all along to get Clockwerk for herself. And to make it even worse, Neyla, after merging with Clockwerk, KILLS Arpeggio by crushing him! I feel so sorry for him, and I'm surprised that he wasn't a boss fight.. With all of his machinery, I could imagine some cool boss fight opportunities! Also, if he was arrested and made to reform, I could bet that he would create a way to fly...

Jean Bison: The main villain in chapter 6 and 7 of Sly 2 - 'He Who Tames The Iron Horse' and 'Menace In The North - Eh?' - Jean Bison is my third favourite member of the Klaww Gang. He owned the Clockwerk Lungs, Clockwerk Stomach and the Clockwerk Talons. He used the Lungs and Stomach to power his Iron Horses (trains ) and the Clockwerk Talons to chop down trees faster than anyone else. A prospector during the Gold Rush of 1852, Jean Bison, who was looking to strike it rich, took one too many chances and ended buried and frozen alive during a freak avalanche. A modern day Rip Van Winkle - or Ash in Army of Darkness. However, in the present day, thanks to global warming, he thawed out, leaving him out of touch with present day society. He dreamed of "taming" the Wild North by leveling the forests and placing dams on every river. Serving as the shipping baron for the Klaww Gang allowed him to carry out his one-man war against nature. Using his train system that spans throughout the Canadian plains, Jean Bison's abilities are of utmost importance to the Klaww Gang. I love his Canadian accent, and his funny voice - but I have to admit.. the Lumberjack Games were INCREDIBLY annoying.. I also found it funny fighting him playing as Bentley while using a walkie-talkie to ask Sly to bring forth saws and fire. In Chapter 6, you actually fight Constable Neyla, and in chapter 7, Jean Bison escapes to his second camp, and uses his giant attractor to collect the light energy of the Aurora Borealis into his Northern Light Battery for Arpeggio's blimp. After serving his debt to society, Jean Bison somehow turned over a new leaf and went to work for the EPA, and froze yet again on a mission to save baby penguins.

Contessa: The main villain of chapters 4 and 5 - 'Jailbreak' and 'The Tangled Web'. Again, she wasn't too special, but I did like her role in the game, and her creepy hideouts in Prague. While in Criminal Psychology, she fell in love and married a wealthy aristocrat. Nevertheless, only a few weeks after the ceremony, her beloved died of poisoning. Using her knowledge of criminal thinking and her newly inherited estate, she opened a rehabilitation clinic for criminals. The Contessa supposedly used hypnosis to cure criminals of their illegal urges, and gained a prominent position within Interpol. After Neyla betrays the Cooper Gang and Carmelita, the Contessa locks them up in her rehabilitation centre. Later on, Murray is held hostage by the Contessa who is working on controlling Murray's mind with her hypnosis. He discovered her to be a secret member of the Klaww Gang, hypnotizing criminals to learn the location of their loot. She was also using illegal spice to help with the hypnosis and contributed hypnosis light wave generators to Arpeggio's blimp.
After failing to hypnotize Murray, the Contessa fled from her clinic and escaped to her castle estate, where she held possession of the Clockwerk Eyes and had Carmelita bound to an Iron Tech 250 in her re-education tower, where she tortured her and attempted to brainwash her with the Eyes.
Whilst the gang headed there to get the Eyes back, a war broke out between the Contessa and Constable Neyla, in which both had their own respective armies at their disposal. The Contessa's immediate plan, and one Sly and his friends would not allow, was to brainwash Carmelita with a Mind Shuffler into becoming her personal slave, so that she would take the fall at Interpol. However, Sly, Bentley, and Murray stopped her plans and Sly defeated her in combat.
Apparently, the Contessa knew all about Sly's family line, and even taunted him into fighting. Even after losing once and playing the innocent routine, she still declared herself mentally superior to Sly's gang. However, after fighting and defeating her for a second time, it is clear that Sly, Murray, and Bentley are a much tougher match. The Contessa is then arrested and stripped of her title. After she reforms, she begins selling real estate, using her hypnotic know-how to make people buy her houses. Old habits die hard....

I actually planned on some fan OCs who I think could make members of the Klaww Gang, and could use some parts of Clockwerk that were not used in the second game.
The first time I've drawn these characters, so I'm sorry for any flaws in the drawing.