The build-a-figure concept ruled action figure collecting in the 2000s and 2010s, serving as an innovative (and sometimes downright devious) way to talk collectors into buying figures they don’t really want. In 2002, Hasbro came up with a novel variation on the build-a-figure theme for their Star Wars Saga Collection: a build-a-bar, enabling fans to assemble a playset replica of the Mos Eisley Cantina’s bar. Spread across six action figures released in two waves of three, the “build-a-bar” collection is still fondly remembered by collectors decades later, even after last year’s massive Mos Eisley Cantina playset rendered it obsolete. The “build-a-bar” was the first and last time Hasbro offered a playset or environment as a buildable item, and came at a time when the Star Warsline was at its most robust, full of vehicles, playsets, and large accessories to help collectors world-build. The 2000s are considered to be the Golden Age of Star Warscollecting by many fans, and unique releases like the build-a-bar are a major part of the reason why.
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Of the six characters released in the build-a-bar waves, five were upgrades of previous releases. The sixth figure was the only one all-new to the line, finally gave collectors one of the strangest, most elaborate creatures in the cantina: Kitik Keed’kak, the massive praying mantis-esque alien seen looming in the background of some wide shots. Although the Mos Eisley cantina bar has seen a major upgrade, the series remains popular with diorama-builders for its ability to stand in for bars from other films and television series. For that reason, lots like this one at Heritage are always popular, as they give collectors a chance to build the bar straight away without having to spend years piecing one together on the secondary market. The lot is an unusual one, as it includes multiples of Kitik Keed’kak and lacks several of the other figures, but this may be of advantage to a world-building inclined Star Warsfan: Kitik Keed’kak has only been reissued once since this 2003 figure, making her the most desirable and unique figure from the build-a-bar series to begin with.
Why the Mos Eisley Cantina Defines Star WarsAction FigureCollecting
All the way back to 1979, the Mos Eisley Cantina has, for many collectors and fans, come to represent what makes collecting Star Warsaction figures special. When Kenner released its inaugural four cantina aliens (Greedo, Hammerhead, Snaggletooth, and Walrusman), it set their Star Warsfigures apart as a line like no other. This was the first time a toyline gave kids characters from the deep background of a film or series; prior to it, kids would be lucky to assemble the main characters – as with Mego’s Star Trekline, which notoriously lacked for a Chekov or Sulu. Collectors of 3.75” Star Warslike to call it the “world-building scale,” its breadth and depth enabling them to comprehensively recreate virtually any scene from across the original films. The most passionate fans of that world-building scale are vocal about how intrinsic characters like cantina denizens or Jabba the Hutt’s entourage are to the line. No other property, save perhaps for Marvel and DC Comics, has toys of its “blind-and-you’ll-miss-it” background characters.
When Kenner revived the Star Warsline as Power of the Force IIin 1995, catering to this new and growing “collector” demographic, they made sure to expand the roster of cantina aliens. Three of the four Kenner cantina aliens (Greedo, Hammerhead, Walrusman) were updated, and some dozen more were added to the line, including bartender Wuher and Walrusman’s partner-in-crime Doctor Evazan. “Walrusman” and “Hammerhead” also gained the proper, canon designations of “Ponda Baba” and “Momaw Nadon” respectively. Around the same time, both also gained full backstories in the delightfully insane Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantinaanthology. Momaw Nadon became a pacifist gardener exiled from his people for fighting back against the Empire, and Ponda Baba became less interesting than he was in the movie. Greedo received an upgraded figure in the later Power of the Jedi rebrand, lauded by collectors at the time as one of the best, most screen-accurate Star Warssculpts ever produced.
The Power of the JediGreedo was rereleased almost directly for the build-a-bar Greedo, while the other four reissue figures (Momaw Nadon, Doctor Evazan, Ponda Baba, and Wuher) were modified from their Power of the Forcesculpts. As Power of the Forcefigures sported only five points of articulation, they were given the crucial addition of bending knees, enabling them to interact meaningfully with the bar and its included stools. Kitik Keed’kak can just sort of … stand near the bar, which is itself screen accurate for the alien. Evazan and Wuher were also given a strong “paint wash” (a thin, watered-down coat of paint designed to bring out detail), to the detriment of their sculpts and screen-accuracy.
Why Collectors Love the Build-a-Bar (Even If There Are Better Versions of Almost Every Figure in It)
In the decade after the “build-a-bar,” Hasbro’s Star Warslines embraced the Mos Eisley Cantina theme more than any other point before or since. The Saga Collection, 30th Anniversary Collection, and Legacy Collection spawned dozens of new cantina characters, and for many collectors, all of those figures congregated around the build-a-bar. Along with the new characters produced in the past two decades, there have also been improved versions of five of the six build-a-bar characters. Most recently, Wuher and Greedo received upgrades as pack-in figures for the epic Haslab Mos Eisley Cantina, and a new mass retail Momaw Nadon was issued in support of the cantina. Kitik Keed’kak is the sole figure with real utility, as a new version has not been made (though the 2002 mold was reissued in 2006), and is unlikely to bemade – this is the major downside to collecting the cantina. While some of the “major” (relatively speaking) cantina denizens receive periodic updates, many more are unlikely to ever be revisited.
Modern Star Warsaction figure collectors tend to lack nostalgia for old releases: when a figure is “upgraded,” the old one loses value almost immediately, if not strictly for reasons of space. It is a line that is always thinking about what’s next – or to borrow a phrase, “to the horizon.” One of the sole exceptions is an item like the build-a-bar that, even if the figures become outdated, offers collectors something unique. For some, it means a cost and space-effective means to build out a Mos Eisley Cantina display without investing in the Haslab. For others, it lets them imagine a new space for their aliens, spies, and smugglers to congregate, recalling the otherreason Star Wars’s unique commitment to world-building resonates with collectors. Before they were collectors, they were kids, and for those kids, picking up “Hammerhead” or “Snaggletooth” came without the baggage of Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader. These were characters who could be whoever, and whatever, you wanted them to be. The build-a-bar line is the synthesis of the imagination, innovation, and expansiveness that keeps us kids-turned-collectors coming back to Star Warsaction figures.
Who’s your favorite denizen of the Mos Eisley Cantina? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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