The Ballad of Snaggletooth; the most fascinating figure in the Kenner Star Wars Toy Line 

It's amazing that even after 40 years I'm still learning stuff about that damned cantina scene.

They will always be Walrus Man, Hammerhead and Snaggletooth to me :)

The Snaggletooth figure also gets a great little cameo in the E.T. film when Elliot is showing off his Starwars toys collection to his new otherworldly friend, much to his apparent amusement at the pop representation of alien life. One of my favourite scenes in the whole movie. :-)

Snaggz is my spirit animal from when I was a little kid. I begged for him, and gasped when I found him in my stocking... and I've brought him everywhere I've gone, since.

I loved Kenners original Snaggletooth and Greedo as a kid . I remember getting both together for a birthday and somehow, in my mind, they where best friends and a goofy, lovable but incompetent pair of small time thugs on Tattooine - a bit like Ernie and Bert or Stan and Ollie in their relationship.

The funny thing is in the lucasfilm "The unusual suspects photo" Zutton and Takeel names are swapped. In every other source the red hair character that appears for just a moment next to Han Solo is Takeel. Zutton actually has quite an interesting backstory that was added in later source books: "Zutton was a tortured artist who became a bounty hunter by chasing down Thalassian slavers. Like most Snivvians, was driven to live out the stories he created. He commonly spent his money from selling pieces of art on spice, and frequently visited the cantinas in Mos Eisley, such as Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina. His paintings captured his friends and associates, those who haunted cantinas such as those in Jabba's Palace, or possibly, his targets. As well as being an artist, he was also an author and created stories of some of the frequent patrons in Chalmun's Cantina. Zutton's work for Jabba the Hut was motivated by the need to support and look after his spice addicted brother Takeel. His bounty hunting skills were well developed, and he had built up a reputation in the Outer Rim as an efficient, decent hunter, whom even his targets and law enforcement could respect." To me, on a metatextual level, he represents what's so cool about Star wars to me, how how a background character barely in a frame of a movie that some time crunched special effects artist whipped up a mask for can inspire such a detailed and oddly gritty backstory. For that reason he's my favorite Star wars character (also because he's been around since the original Kenner line) It really makes me upset when people hyperfocus too much on what is and isn't Canon, Don't let a corporation (pre-mouse lucasfilm or Disney) decide the direction of a story for you, make up your own Star wars stuff it's just as real as anything else.

I had the small red one, he went through numerous adventures in my Death Star, thanks Mom!

The cantina scene from A New Hope never fails to deliver...it just keeps giving and giving, many decades later. Also: Han shot first! No Macklunkey 🤭🤭🤭👍 great video

The Holiday Special is the gift that keeps on giving...whether you want it to or not.

Just when I think I've learned absolutely everything about the figure line you show me I still have a lot to learn. Awesome! Snaggletooth was among my favorites as a kid. I had him team up with Hammerhead and Walrus Man and my Remco Frankenstein as a mercenary team called The Monster Crew. They added some much-needed assistance to my Rebel forces. I even built them a large ship out of cardboard and styrofoam. Best part of my childhood.

Over on THAT JUNKMAN's RU-vid channel, he used to yell "You bought a Holiday Special figure!" as an insult. He's a funny guy!

My love for Star Wars will never run out. Not as long as you can do a fifteen minute video on characters with one or two seconds of screentime. Keep it up, Scott!

I find it so strange that out of all the cantina aliens and their wacky outfits, Snaggletooth is the one that Lucasfilm wanted to be accurate...

My cousin and I used to use Snaggletooth as a makeshift Yoda before the original figure was released. That was his major claim to fame for me... before we had a Yoda figure, we used Snaggletooth!

I always knew Alf would someday go ballistic and grab a blaster.

I'm still waiting for a fig of my favorite cantina alien ever, Bea Arthur. That said great work detailing the saga of the Snaggletooths... Snaggleteeth? I don't know how to render that correctly

Oddly there was a Blue Snaggletooth in Empire Strikes Back on Cloud City. He is in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene but in August 1980 for Back-to-school, they sold an ESB folder that had him on it. There were 4 photos from the movie on it and one was of a tall Snivien in blue. You can find the folders on eBay.

Wow... never knew the full story behind Snaggletooth! Great video.

Love this video. Recommend you look at the images for the Takeel and Zutton Star Wars CCG cards for some added confusion. Takeel is presented as the red wearing one next to Han’s booth, Zutton has a blue shirt.

This was FANTASTIC. I finally just acquired Zutton in my TVC collection and was surprised it wasn't subtitled "Snaggletooth". I knew the innerwebs would not let me down and here I am, blown away. I still remember as a kid my neighbor getting Snaggetooth as a birthday gift and we just obsessed over who this character was, the backstory, etc. Welp... 40+ years later... still doing it. Ha!

I love how one of the special edition cantina aliens just looks like a boring puppet in the movie, but the toy has REMOVABLE PANTS!

I can comment on so many things, but the importance of this review is that great voice to start with.

Now, watch: Somewhere, soon, We're going to see BOTH a blue and red version of Snaggletooth, being relevant minor characters in The Mandalorian Saga. Favreau and Filoni are known for doing cool things like that. Thanks for the nostalgia trip, and new info.

Who the F' gives thumbs down to these amazing videos!? 😒 keep'em coming Scott! 😎👌🔥🔥🔥🔥

Thank you for solving the mystery of “what the hell was Elliot referring to” in E.T. (Greedo and Lando Calrissian year...but hammerhead?). For 40 years I was just as confused as E.T. Himself.

Holy macaroni! More information than I ever wanted to know about one of my favorite action figs as a kid. LOL

I always learn such cool pop culture stuff, on this channel. Thanks for breaking all of that down!

Next, you'll be telling me that's not actually the Death Star Droid that my dad bought for me back in '79. 😉

Excellent detective work, especially on the belt buckle design! I remember a kid in my grandparents' neighborhood who had the tall blue Snaggletooth figure, and I was always asking him where he'd gotten it. (This was 1980 or '81, I believe.) He couldn't remember and didn't think it was particularly interesting, even when I showed him my short red Snaggletooth figure for purposes of comparison.

5:33 Back when Hasbro did obscure novelty figures for fun

That was FING AWESOME. GREAT video dude. Keep going. You, and Retro. man… you guys… you guys are doing something really special….

Loved this video!! Just discovered your channel and hoping to find more content like this when I look through your library of videos! I love Star Wars, and I looooove these little explorations into weird obscure quirky pop-culture mysteries like this (Star Wars or otherwise). So cool!!

Another amazing video, Scott! Hey question; was there ever a toy line that you had the chance to work on, passed on it, then it became mega successful afterwards? If so, can you do a video about it please? I'd love to hear about it!

Another amazing video and story! When are you putting out a book?!?

Great video! I never thought a deep dive on the Snaggletooth character would be so interesting.

Spector this is #sledgemaster. Wonderful show and history of the characters. You all at home have a good day and god bless

I got one of those fan-made dvds of the holiday special, and they put on some production shots on the disk, and for some reason there was a whole file dedicated just to snaggletooth.

A new Sears catalog arriving was a good day. 🤙3:32 You pulled off the word but it was touch and go for a second. Fun to hear/watch in real time. Or my real time.😂

I used to call Walrus man Bollock face as he looked to me, especially in the movie, like he had a pair of bollocks on his chin 😂

Great video Scott. Here is a fun fact addendum; in the star wars universe either Zuttmore's red flight suit was popular, mass-produced, off-the-rack fare, or she eventually donated it to the galactic salvation army as it shows up in Return of the Jedi being worn by an Ugnaught on board Jabba's sail barge. You should do a video about the Windak RAF pressure suits and their long history with the original trilogy.

Since I don't have a Holiday Special display shelf...this Zutmore figure stays in the Chalmuns Cantina display...you made more sense than my video..cheers

Wow...😮...this was quite an extensive breakdown most definitely indeed...💯✔ Glad to have this throughly cleared up...👌🏼

In the ideal toy world (& not the company) somebody with your passion & drive did the Star Wars version of Matty Collector He-Man. Complete with fan votes & using one shot wonder characters. Now that I think about it, I wonder if this concept could work- like HasLab for figures (maybe in 3 packs etc). Thanks for another great video sir!

Blue Snaggletooth was never released back in the days in France but the action figure photo was on the French card back from 1979 to 1982! it is also funny that the main photo art of on the blister card comes from the 1978 Holiday special shooting set. So many stories for this Cantina back ground character.

That belt buckle logo is really interesting, I always come away from your videos having all kinds of facts to drop into conversations that weren’t about that subject !

I remember seeing the Cantina pack at Sears in San Rafael back in 78. Wished I'd picked it up ever since.

Thanks for finally clearing that all up! And come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen a figure of the head-on-a-stick guy from that first shot... =)

Didn’t know anything about this classic alien character... interesting design and background.. lol Ron Cob designs are pretty cool..

This is the kind of class I like taking! Thanks for the excellent expose.... Edit: Remember when Richard Pryor tended bar at the Star Bar!?

Whoa. I always thought they couldn't get the original costumes for the holiday special since all aliens look cheap and even the main characters do. Now you tell me they created a new snagletooth? Great stuff!

Takeel O’Neal went on to a solid career endorsing a wide array of intergalactic products. 😁

There is documentary from about 10 years ago where the presenter interviews his older relatives (?grandparents) who were extras in Star Wars. One of the roles they played were the two "snaggletooths".

Great video! Thank you! Funny thing is, "Blue Snaggletooth" showed up a few times in the "Clone Wars" CGI cartoon, which was done as a tribute to that old Sears mistake. And what all this tells me is: we still need Zutmore, Takeel, and Blue Snaggletooth in The Vintage Collection. Get cracking, Hasbro!

The blue snaggletooth shows up in The Clone Wars (when Obi Wan is in disguise as the bounty hunter after faking his death)

I always liked that little bat faced guy in that scene :)

Ty love videos what about more MOTU Videos like why Mattel took License from Super7 or why the Origins pegs didn’t made them compatible with Classic figures for playability.

Another great video. I noticed in most of your videos you make one deliberate mistake (in this one at 14:30 you talk about obviously female actor as a male) Do we get a prize if we notice them all? Do people even notice any of them? So many questions... : ) Thanks for great videos!

Dave Filoni used the tall, blue design in one of his shows. I don't remember if it was Clone Wars or Rebels.

According to one toy catalog I had, he was supposed to be the "I have the death sentence on twelve systems" guy.

You can see why they'd make him the same size as the other figures if they could as you need completely different moulds for the shorter version. For efficiency and cost reduction, you want the torsos to be fairly identical so you can just add a few bits like different heads or paint etc to save money.

Shortly after Hasbro revealed the TVC Zutton figure, Patrick from Hasbro confirmed that they will eventually make a new Snaggletooth/Zutmore on the classic Kenner card.

You have some mix-ups on your research on this video. Some of the images you say are from the Holiday Special are actually behind the scenes photos from the 2012 Volkswagon Super Bowl commercial. The "snaggletooth bird" logo never appeared on the costume. That was added by Tom Spina that worked on the costumes and masks for the commercial. THEN Hasbro also picked it up for the modern figures... AND now it's canon on the costume because Blue Snaggletooth appeared in the Clone Wars animated series with it.

WOW! I did not know that. Very interesting.

Thank you for clearing that all up!

:Those cat-monkey' faced aliens in the left front row @8:57.... if I'm not mistaken, Marvel comics used the likeness of one of those aliens to depict Jabba in its original comics adaptation of the 1977 film (because they had no other design to go by since at the time the scene where Jabba waits for Han outside the Millenium Falcon was deleted and unfinished). So weird :D

What's the name of the alien at the 11 minute mark and was a figure made? Thanks so much for this series Scott. It's allowing me to build several key scenes dioramas with the correct characters.

Awesome Content and great to hear such things about A new hope

Hey good morning young Spector. Great show on zutton and snaggltooth

Thank you for making this video. I've wondered about this issue for a very long time. I still don't understand who at lucasfilm told Kenner that this character was a little person in the first place. Next you should do a video on the Death Star Droid. The figure that kenner says is the Death Star Droid is not he's the Droid from the Jawa sandcrawler. The real death star Droid may be the same Droid type but he's black. When Hasbro came out with the 12-inch version of the Death Star Droid they made him the correct color.

Hasbro should take the next step and make a three pack of the Snaggletooth family. 🤓

The belt buckle signature logo was awesome... maybe Snaggletooth is the name of the species LOL

It’s such a convoluted path that a character was based off the onset costume from the movie, then Kenner filled in the blanks because of the little source material available, then Lucasfilm turned this figure into a new character completely, then the figure had to be revised after it wasn’t close enough to the Lucasfilm interpretation. So if I follow correctly, OG Snaggletooth was normal size because the original actor was normal sized, but once the Holiday Special filmed with a smaller person in the costume, they requested it to be shrunk down. Two changes for accuracy with the size and color, but then one change for less accuracy by taking away his boots

I got the Sand People Boba Fett and Snaggle Tooth set for Christmas one year. Man I really loved Star Wars toys. Never got a Tie Fighter or Xwing like I wanted. One day year ago at Dollar General I saw a little Xwing and a little Tie Fighter matchbox type toys. Little but they are now hanging from monofilament fighting in my kitchen. Also got the Millennium Falcon but the scale is off.

Ron Cobb died here in Australia last September. I found it surprising it wasn't mentioned on many Star Wars sites.

There were several characters in the reshoot scenes that were existing Rick Baker masks he had laying around, such as the "devil man" and the werewolf creature with glowing eyes.

Is there a list of Kenner toy designers somewhere? I've always wondered who designed the Death Star playset, the Millenium Falcom, X-Wing, etc. Do other Kenner Star Wars toys have hidden designer signatures, like the snaggletooth belt buckle?

I had a short, red Snaggletooth, it was part of the Cantina set with Greedo, Walrus Man and Hammerhead. At some point they stopped putting figures in the playsets and ships forcing us to buy them separately, that sucked.

Thanks for the video. When Kenner received the first photo from the set (just the head I guess), and misinterpreted it creating the blue one, then changed the figure when told "it's short and red", what was the character depicted in that first photo? Because like you said, the situation allows for different interpretations, but afaik, Zutmore is a doppelganger. An entertaining doppelganger that some can follow, but still a doppelganger. Like you said, we have the same situation of walrusman and hammerhead: if lucasfilm produces a movie with a hammerhead with a blue dress to match the figure, and Kenner produces a second hammerhead with a blue dress but with smaller head to match the new movie etc, we end up with 35 doppelgangers. And thanks to you we know that - because of that belt - Lucasfilm was the one to copy Kenner. In the movie and in the photos sent to Kenner to produce the blue and then red figure there were just Zutton and Takeel. Kenner was trying to reproduce one - or when in confusion - both of these two into one figure. Personally that's what I'm going to stick to, and I'd like to understand whom they were trying to reproduce. If the only visible difference between the brothers in the photos from the set is that Zutton is partially bald, I would say Kenner was trying to reproduce Takeel (a drug-addict mercenary, pretty cool).

so as someone collecting all star wars named characters funko pops should i get both the blue and red? or just the red ?

That was fascinating. Thanks a lot!

Wow, and i thought i knew the story!

I had the taller blue-suited Snaggletooth figure that came with Hammerhead, Greedo, and Walrus Man and some kind of cantina playset.

I own the blue snaggletooth. I remember my brother and I geting the cantina set as children. I think I was 3 years old.

He's not the little guy who walks up to the bar in the cantina? I always thought that was him, although I know the image on the box is from the Holiday Special. That Junkman posited a theory that the second wave of Star Wars figures were all tied to the Holiday Special. because all but the three droids were in the holiday special, but Death Star Droid was obviously a retooled C-3PO, and R5-D4 was obviously a retooled R2-D2, leaving Power Droid the only other unique figure to replace Itchy, Nala, and Lumpy, which they didn't want to produce after it flopped.

I remember my Snaggletooth action figure. He had tentacles from his upper lip. Got him the same day as Ree Yees. I had allowance money and the main characters were gone at KB.

The Snivvian on the original card back is called Zutmore.

I had that blue Snaggletooth when I was a kid and I still kick myself for losing it

While I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan, I can see why it was so hugely popular (I've seen most of the movies, except for the last few newer ones). I just find it odd that out of all of the alien races, all of the movies mainly focus on humans. I think it'd be more entertaining if they made a movie w/ the lead being an "alien" and explore his/her journey as a Jedi. Learning more about his/her species, abilities, customs, & society would be more captivating, than the "political drama" that seems to fill a number of the films (namely the prequels). Someone like Ahsoka Tano would've been a great choice, especially given her connection to the Skywalkers.

Blue Snaggletooth does appear in Rebels, though (or is it Clone Wars? One of the two), so I guess he's been retro-actively, (or retconned) into canon. Man, we need Hasbro to come out w/a HasLab Mos Eisley Cantina Playset.

The cantina characters I never understood are the ones that are in what are clearly meant to be astronaut suits.

I'm new to the collection so I'm learning the business of star wars collecting

So in reality Zutmor is the first official Star Wars Holiday Special figure....

Haha! I just connected the dots. The Target villians set was right all along, there are two Sand People in that package, the Tuskan Raider and Boba Fett! Even though they didn't say it, it's pretty obvious that after getting out of the Sarlacc, Boba went to live with the Sand People as evident from the rags, the rifle and the gaderffii stick.

Somebody with a RU-vid channel (was it Junk Man?) stated these figures were actually meant to be from the Holiday Special. But they cancelled the Wookies, and replaced them with 'droids, when they realized how bad the special was.

at 9 minutes and 19 seconds of this video are some characters we never got as figures in the 80s, the two Ladies with boof hairdoes, there's a female red mandalorian facing the other way, there's a short reptillian, maybe a Bossk species? and a little person human. and a Spaceman in a Spacesuit.

at 2 minutes and 50 seconds of this video is a picture of drawings of characters . is that the model for the cantina scene characters? i don't remember most of those, i'd have to look again, maybe Snaggletooth was supposed to be the creature that asks the bartender for a glass of milk? at the beginning of the scene?

Cool video

Well, my head hurts...

Pretty cool

Huhhuhhuh.... There are some videos called TD-9993 here on RU-vid; stop motion with Star Wars figures. The Snaggletooth plays a huge rôle in the Smoking PSA and it's pretty hilarious. 😂😂😂