One Simple Mistake Turned This Background Character into One of the Rarest Figures in Kenner’s Star Wars Line

One of the things that helped set Star Wars apart from its big screen sci-fi peers was the almost overwhelming assortment of droids, aliens, and creatures that filled nearly every frame of the movie. Star Wars helped popularize the concept of cinematic science fiction universes where the human race was just one of many spacefaring species, and no scene better epitomizes this than Mos Eisley Cantina. This wretched hive of scum and villainy was a tour de force for Star Wars’ creature and make-up effects team, and beyond introducing us to Han Solo and Chewbacca, birthed some of the most memorable background characters in the galaxy. 

When Kenner was looking to expand its wildly popular Star Wars toyline for Christmas of 1978, the natural choice was to dip into this well of background characters. There was just one problem: whereas Lucasfilm could provide reams of reference images for the likes of Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and even the Jawas, they didn’t have such comprehensive records of the denizens of Mos Eisley. Kenner had to improvise a little, and in the process, gave birth to a Star Wars collecting legend that is still the subject of homage and tribute almost fifty years later.

How Kenner Accidentally Created The Rarest Star Wars Action Figure 

Kenner chose four Mos Eisley Cantina characters to include in the Star Wars line. Greedo and Ponda Baba were natural choices, with having memorable scenes and interactions with major characters. For Kenner, Ponda Baba is referred to as “Walrusman,” as it predates Lucasfilm settling on a canon, in-universe name for the character. Two backgrounders were pulled basically at random to fill out the cantina: “Hammerhead” (later Momaw Nadon) and “Snaggletooth.” 

For Hammerhead and Snaggetooth, Kenner based their figures off of a single, black and white photograph of each. Some sources also specify that both photos were only taken from the waist up. All four would first be made available to eager young fans in a Sears exclusive boxset, the “Cantina Adventure Set.” The Cantina Adventure Set was a simple cardboard backdrop of the streets of Mos Eisley, a precursor to the more elaborate plastic “Creature Cantina Action Playset” that would follow. 

Kenner took liberties with all four cantina aliens: Greedo’s outfit is similar to what he wears on screen, but lacks a vest (likely a cost-saving measure). Walrusman has an orange one-piece and blue arms and legs, along with flipper feet. Hammerhead wears only a blue one-piece. Snaggletooth has a blue spacesuit and silver boots. None of the costumes were right. So the fact that Snaggletooth’s costume was red on-screen shouldn’t have been a big deal … except that Snaggletooth was only supposed to be about three and a half feet tall, and the figure was the same height as all the others. 

What Everyone Gets Wrong About Kenner’s Snaggletooth 

Kenner was later given updated reference material, and corrected the Snaggletooth figure, resculpting it with new, stubby legs, as well as bare, furry hands and feet. By the time Snaggletooth was made available on a single card and outside the Cantina Adventure set, he was the resculpted, “screen accurate” version. Even later production runs of the Cantina Adventure set contain the red version, meaning that the Blue Snaggletooth variant was only available for a very brief time. But Snaggletooth was never going to be screen accurate, because the character never appears in Star Wars at all. 

Two of Snaggletooth’s species, Zutton and Takeel, appear in the Mos Eisley sequence (Takeel is most visible, seen to Han Solo’s left in one shot). Neither look like Kenner’s Snaggletooth: both are average height, and wear pants with tunics. Kenner’s figure is of a different character altogether, taken from a different piece of source material: The Star Wars Holiday Special. 

The special’s cantina sequence features several reused or redesigned aliens from the original film, including the mask from Zutton and Takeel, now worn by a little person performer dressed in a red costume resembling the Kenner action figure. A still of this alien, referred to alternately as “Zutton” or “Zutmore” was the actual basis for the “corrected” Snaggletooth figure. Kenner never made a cantina-accurate Snaggletooth, and in fact, this figure is technically the only figure they ever produced based on the Star Wars Holiday Special. 

The Lasting Legacy of Kenner’s Blue Snaggletooth Blunder 

After Kenner transitioned to the “corrected” Snaggletooth sculpt, virtually no trace of the original figure remained. About four thousand were estimated to have made it to market, and the only evidence of them was either seeing one in person or finding a photo from Sears’ 1978 wishbook. Imagine being one of the four thousand-odd kids to own it. Your friends all have “Snaggletooth,” but theirs looks nothing like yours. If you went to check the “collect them all” cross-sell on your other Star Wars figures, you’d see the Snaggletooth they had. Until these kids grew up and compared notes with others Star Wars collectors, it was a hazily-remembered mystery, like an advertised-but-never-delivered Boba Fett with a firing rocket.

As the Star Wars collecting community developed, “Blue Snaggletooth” became a Kenner Star Wars legend like Yakface or the vinyl-caped Jawa. Numerous toy companies have homaged the figure through the years, including Hasbro. The first was in 2004, when Hasbro retooled their 2001 (fully screen-accurate) Zutmore with a blue suit and silver boots, releasing him in their K-Mart exclusive “Cantina Screen Scene” line. 

The most elaborate tribute was Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Vintage Collection Blue Snaggletooth. The figure was included in a full recreation of the “Cantina Adventure Set,” alongside repainted, Kenner-accurate versions of Greedo, Momaw Nadon, and Ponda Baba. For their Blue Snaggletooth, Hasbro repainted its Zutton figure in blue with silver boots and released it on a cardback that (like the Kenner figure) depicts Zutmore – only recolored in blue. The image of Hasbro’s carded Blue Snaggletooth is perhaps the best encapsulation of this figure’s convoluted, fascinating history. Released only last year, its positive reception from the fan community is also a reminder of the lasting fame of Kenner’s biggest mistake. 

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