The Rock Bottom Gang.

The Rock Bottom Gang. (Vintage Ree-Yees, Vintage Amanaman, Vintage Squid Head)

The Rock Bottom Gang. (Vintage Ree-Yees, Vintage Amanaman, Vintage Squid Head)

Essentially a man-sized leech featuring flaccid skin and absurdly-long atrophied arms, the Amanaman creature from Return of the Jedi is a double dog dare in the grotesque. Did I mention his knobby staff decorated with the skulls of his hapless victims? Yeah, well there’s that too. As you can see the vintage action figure in Amanaman’s name adds a nice touch, finishing the weirdness off with a devilish grin.

If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time you already know that the Ree-Yees and Squid Head action figures are perennial favorites. As far as the vintage line of Star Wars toys goes, these two beauties came along at the high-water mark period. Demand was still peaking for Star Wars goodies at this point in 1983 and Kenner clearly sought to keep their end of the bargain, designing toys that offered greater detail and newer features than their predecessors.

But sadly nothing good lasts forever. The Kenner line of Star Wars action figures would be dead (or at least relegated to the 59-cent bin) within 18 months.

Buying Notes for Vintage Amanaman

Check out the current vintage Amanaman listings here.

Hunting down the vintage Amanaman is pretty straight forward affair. It’s just a figure and a staff, and one can predict with almost 100% certainty that any existing example that turns up on eBay will be in virtually mint condition. It’s true. Neither the figure itself or his staff were actually played with by anyone, ever. The downside is of course that as a member of the ‘Last 17′ crowd, he can be a bit pricey. Be patient. With a little luck and some determination you should be able to snag one for about 50 bucks.

Now there is one twist: Amanaman was originally packaged with a coin by Kenner. If that’s important to you it may add another $25 your total to make it happen. My advice would be to start with just the figure and add the coin later. If you’re unfamiliar with the Power of the Force coins try buying a more common and inexpensive one first. If you find it’s something to your liking then loop back around and get the coin for ol’ Amanaman.

Check out the current vintage Amanaman listings here.

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Squid Head.

Squid Head. (Vintage Squid Head)

Squid Head. (Vintage Squid Head)

The Squid Head action figure arrived in the later days of the vintage Star Wars action figure line and in my opinion hit a high-water mark for Kenner. A generously detailed sculpt, not one but two over-the-top capes, all finished off with an armored girdle thingy and a righteous blaster. Did I mention the stylie white boots! Pretty much a star achiever from start to finish. Unfortunately the original card sports a weird illustration (or touched up photo) of Squid Head and leaves a little to be desired. But hey in this life we can’t have everything. Or can we?

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Scum/Villainy

Scum/Villainy. (Vintage Blue Snaggletooth, Vintage Squid Head)

Scum/Villainy. (Vintage Blue Snaggletooth, Vintage Squid Head)

You need some dirty work done on Tatooine? You call these guys.

The Blue Snaggletooth and Squid Head figures both live pretty large in the vintage Star Wars collection. First, the blue Snaggletooth has reached legendary status among collectors due to his scarce numbers. In case you don’t know it already, this figure was only sold as part of the briefly available Cantina Adventure playset. So unlike the red, short-stature Snaggletooth that sold throughout all three early Star Wars films, the blue Snaggletooth is an extremely limited affair. These days this figure typically fetches north of $100 for a loose example in good condition, making him easily among the top 2 or 3 most sought-after Star Wars action figures. Is he all that? From a collectibility standpoint — yes, definitely. From a cool-figure standpoint, well it’s not all that different than the red Snaggletooth. Just taller. Oh, and where the red Snaggletooth has those rad beast feet, the blue version has silver moonboots. Yeah, a little nerdy I’d say. Anyway, if you want to spend that kind of dough, take care to see that it is truly in great shape before you buy. The Blue Snaggletooth is notorious for worn paint on boots and hands.

The vintage Squid Head figure on the other hand is far from rare. What he lacks in that department he makes up in an awesome detailed sculpt and accessories that are over-the-top sweetness. A great way to throw around five bucks on eBay.

Buying Notes for the Vintage Blue Snaggletooth

Check out the current listings for the vintage Blue Snaggletooth here.

The Blue Snaggletooth is a highly-coveted vintage Kenner figure and therefore fetches higher prices. Depending on the condition, you can expect to pay between $70 and $140. That’s a fair amount of ka-ching so by all means pay close attention to what you’re getting into.

Some things to watch for:

The Blue Snaggletooth boots came painted silver. Not uncommon to see heavy wear in this area as (I’m guessing here) that silver paint didn’t have much staying power. So look closely at that.

He should also have a black Han Solo type blaster.

Check out the current listings for the vintage Blue Snaggletooth here.

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