ID for a weird little guy?

Howdy! This is Leopold, my unidentified plush mammal-lizard thing. I tried to ID him about two years ago ago, a few months after I bought him off eBay. Neither myself nor the seller knows what he is or where he’s from, and all reverse image searches fail to turn up anything close.

He had a tush tag, but it’s been clipped off. The remnants feel silky and are of a white and brown fabric. He’s about 10 inches tall and is stuffed with polyfill and plastic beans. His scales are a white leather-like material, possibly vinyl or something like Naugahyde.

I'm operating off of the assumption that he's at least pre-2000s, though I can't be 100% sure. He has the look and feel of something done with industrial-grade equipment, so I'm also assuming he wasn't someone's weird one-off homemade plush.

If you have any idea what my little buddy might be or who made him, please let me know! The mystery of his existence has haunted and captivated me ever since I got him.