Okay CONTEXT, I love researching old games (Utopian Scholastic is one of my favourite user interface aesthetics and it's a graphics designer high I've chased after since the Eyewitness games released) and as I've jumped from 2000s game to 90s game etc, I've made some amusing findings.
Rick Arlen's character model in Nancy Drew's Stay Tuned For Danger was apparently a pre-made asset. This is not a diss or an insult--pre-made assets get a bad rep because of asset flip scams and shovelware. As a game dev, it's pretty normal to use some pre-made assets for your project if it works and you remix it enough that it becomes your own thing. That's literally what they're there for. BUT a downside you have to consider is that if you have permission to use it, others can as well, and their use of the same asset can give that asset a different context than from your use of it, and players familiar with both games may make connections to it. Kinda the, "This isn't a deerstalker hat anymore. It's a Sherlock Holmes hat," effect.
As I mentioned in the OP, Rick Arlen appears in a game called Cookie's Bustle. I found out about this because there's been a huge issue with this game being turned into lost media on purpose. A copyright troll is trying to get rid of all traces of this game, including internet archives. It's awful, and I hope Cookie gets her chance at gracing the internet with her wholesome presence again, as it looks like the copyright troll went too far and has now invoked the Streisand Effect in full force. I've never seen so much sudden fanart for a 1999 game in 2023 ever to this extent.
SO it turns out that Rick Arlen's dazzling career didn't end with Nancy Drew. He also made an appearance in...
You know the "Eggman Makes an Announcement on Twitter" YouTube meme? That uses a clip from Sonic Adventure 2? Rick Arlen's 3D model appears in it:
It gets even funnier when you find out that Rick Arlen's voice actor voiced Sonic in Sonic Adventure.
Doesn't end there though. Rick also makes an appearance in a video about the AVCEN jetpod:
This wasn't discovered by me, this was discovered by this-story-of-dreams in another post.
And this just. Keeps happening.
Rick Arlen in an early web stock image:
This was found by the creator(s) of the Nancy Drew Iceberg, which includes more examples of Rick Arlen's appearances in various media (located at the deepest level of the iceberg), which you can read about directly in that post's links. Please be aware of any Not Safe For Work content warnings used in the iceberg's entries.