Cavalcade of Awesome

On Tuesday I discussed the 31st anniversary of the Star Wars Holiday Special. At the end of the article I promised to look at merchandise having to do with the Holiday Special. Well, that article is now going to be posted in a few weeks on Monkey Goggles instead of being posted here. However, I think I can give you a quick preview of that article right now.

In the upcoming Monkey Goggles article I’ll mostly talk about vintage Star Wars items that have a connection to the Holiday Special. In today’s article, I’ll take a look at a couple modern Star Wars items that have a definite, if not obvious, connection to the Holiday Special. Remember, Lucas hates it, and will not advertise the fact that certain toys have a connection to the special.

So let’s take a look at a few modern Star Wars toys that have their roots in the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special.

Lucasfilm may not want you to remember it, and many people don’t actually remember it, but Boba Fett, one of the most popular Star Wars characters, debuted in a cartoon segment featured in the Star Wars Holiday Special. That cartoon is considered the only good thing about the Holiday Special by the overwhelming majority of Star Wars fans.
Last year, during the Holiday Special’s 30th anniversary, several versions of an “animated” Boba Fett were released to celebrate Boba Fett’s 30 year anniversary (and also quietly celebrate the Holiday Special’s anniversary). Hasbro released an “Animated Debut: Boba Fett” figure (on the far left) which depicted the bounty hunter in the color scheme from the TV special. It even included the forked staff he uses in the cartoon.  No mention of the Holiday Special is on the front of the packaging, but there is a small mention on the cardback about Boba’s debut on the special.
Gentle Giant released a maquette statue (in the middle) also depicting Boba in the cartoon color scheme. The maquette is in a cool, “about to collect a bounty” pose including a dramatically flapping Wookie pelt as if Boba is standing in front of a giant fan.
Finally, Kubrick released a six pack of mini-Boba Fett figures, one of which was in the animated color scheme and they all came packaged in miniature versions of the vintage Star Wars figure cards (on the far right).  Those mini-figs are sooooo cute.

These are the different Snaggletooth figures.  A Snaggletooth alien, or Snivvian, can be seen in all of the Star Wars movies as well as the Star Wars Holiday Special.  The figure on the left is the 2001 Hasbro Zutton figure (also known as Zutmore). It was specifically identified on the packaging as being from the Holiday Special, even coming with a drink glass to denote that he was in the cantina with Bea Arthur (why no Bea Arthur figs?).  The vintage “Snaggletooth” figure seen in the middle is supposed to be Takeel, Zutton’s brother, from the A New Hope cantina scene.  However, both figures are modeled on the same Holiday Special character, the vintage fig being mistakenly so.  The original Snaggletooth developed by Kenner is on the far right.  Kenner received a photo for Snaggletooth from Lucasfilm.  The photo was the Snaggletooth from the Star Wars Holiday Special, but it was in black/white and only a headshot.  With no other visual references, Kenner filled in the blanks and created the tall, blue costumed Snaggletooth you see on the right.  When Lucasfilm noticed the error, they sent a color picture of the Holiday Special Snaggletooth (see pic on the cardback) and Kenner corrected it and the middle Snaggletooth was created.  The Snaggletooth, Takeel, from the A New Hope cantina is short, like Zutton/Zutmore, but he is in a blue suit and can be seen in the booth next to Han and Chewie.  The Star Wars.com Databank has a good entry explaining this figure’s history.  So, several mistakes by Kenner caused a character from the Holiday Special to be released as a figure from the movies.  And fans voted to have the same character re-done by Hasbro in 2001.  This entire situation still causes confusion amongst Star Wars fans.

These are just a few of the more modern figures that have a connection to the Star Wars Holiday Special.  When the Monkey Goggles article is posted, I’ll let you know and you can see a bunch of vintage memorabilia that was released to promote the Holiday Special.

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This entry was posted on November 19, 2009 at 4:15 pm and is filed under Boba Fett, holiday, pop culture, Star Wars, TV shows with tags Boba Fett, holiday, pop culture, Star Wars, TV shows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.