An Anatomy of Star Wars Aliens: Part 3
Posted by The_Rancor,
Continuing from Part 1 and Part 2, let’s delve deeper into the well-populated & diverse world of Star Wars alien minifigures. Last time we looked at Lego species introduced up until 2010, but after 12 years of the theme we still weren’t yet halfway through all the sentient creatures created as minifigures.
This time we’ll be looking at 2011-2014, a smaller time period where the franchise was somewhat quieter – the Clone Wars raged on, became interrupted by Disney’s Lucasfilm buyout and then we saw Rebels. 2012 was also the start of a planned annual Saga 3D re-release but we only saw Episode I. How will we see changes in how the aliens are depicted in this era? Let’s take a look.
“How does the definition of organically identifiable sentient species apply to Kowakian Monkey Lizards and Rancors?” I hear you cry. Well, they’re both more intelligent than a wild animal in Star Wars and classified as semi-sentient, but don’t worry I may take a look at these in another article.
From this point on, many species only appear as a single character, which makes me question why we haven’t seen more, particularly with dedicated moulds!
2011
This year introduced a generous five new species, all initially under the guise of the Clone Wars – the human-like Kiffar, horned Iktotchi, pale Palliduvan, tall-headed Cerean and enigmatic Kyuzo.
Starting with the familiar, the Kiffar outwardly very closely resemble us with human-like skin tones & heads (below). The key identifier, like Mirialans, is the tattooing on their faces to reflect clan affiliation. Our only Lego Kiffar is Jedi Master Quinlan Vos, whose original minifigure placed great emphasis on the yellow tattoo on his head mould. An additional version I don’t yet have from 2016 toned down the tattooing but added detail to the forehead and used a more convincing hair mould.
The Iktotchi are more obviously alien with large, forward facing horned heads and thick tan-toned skin. Like the Kiffar, this species is harder to come by in the Star Wars Universe and our only representation is a Jedi Master - in this case Saesee Tiin (above). Lego produced a dedicated printed rubbery mould to place on top of a minifigure head for the horns that was reused for a version in 2012. I think it strikes a great balance of keeping a minifigure head but showing the horns and skin tones on top.
Moving onto more species, the Palliduvans have a similar appearance to Rattataki, with bright white skin but an otherwise mostly human look (below). Our Lego Palliduvan is the wily bounty hunter Aurra Sing. This character used a white head and arms for the skin tone with some shadowy mascara-like printing to pick out the eyes. For her ponytail, Lego introduced a new element attached directly to the head stud that’s quite convincing.
The Cereans are most distinguishable in the Star Wars universe for their tall, conical craniums housing dual brains, but otherwise their appearance is more similar to humans. We’ve seen two versions of Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi (above) to represent this species – with the original introducing a rubbery head-topping piece that cleverly overlapped the minifigure’s forehead. A later version in 2018 took way the Clone Wars styling but otherwise kept much the same.
One more species was introduced in 2011 – Kyuzo, who often have blue or greenish skin and yellowy eyes (below). Some developed slightly different characteristics, but they usually wear breathing masks or eye protection, like the Kel Dor. Our Lego Kyuzo is bounty hunter Embo, whose eyes and mask were captured on a regular head print, plus a large disc-like hat. Constable Zuvio is also Kyuzo but it’s unlikely we’ll see him due to the editing of Episode VII.
2012
There were just two species introduced in 2012. One of these was the Klatooinians, a species that show up across the saga with an ‘orc-like’ appearance, greenish brown skin and an under bite (above). Our first minifigure was Kithaba, one of Jabba’s henchmen, but we had two ‘Mandalorian’ raiders added in 2019 (still on my ‘to-buy’ list!). The species have been captured well through head-prints alone – I particularly like their pronounced under bite.
The Lannik species are humanoids that are shorter in stature like Jawas, but have very wide fleshy ears and light skin tones (below). Perhaps the only named Lannik in canon, our Lego minifigure is Jedi Master Even Piell. Even for this single character, Lego introduced a rubbery printed head attachment to capture the delicate wide ears and ponytail. The printing lined up nicely to show Piell’s battle scars over his eye, whilst short legs finished the look.
2013
In 2013 we were spoilt for choice with no less than seven new species introduced – Tholothian, Vurk, Besalisk, Umbaran, Nikto, Ortolan, and Gran.
Tholothians have the most distinctive features of a scaly cranium and fleshy tendrils that drape down somewhat like hair (above), so perhaps unsurprisingly Lego created another head attachment to show these. Our Lego Tholothian is Jedi Master Stass Allie, who also has hints of the bluish colours adorning the species’ faces. Although she looks similar, Master Adi Gallia seems a particularly obvious omission so far here.
The Vurk are a reptilian race with greenish grey skin but a very prominent bony crest running from their nose over the back of their heads which grows over time (below). Most will recognise Coleman Trebor from his ill-fated pounce on Separatist leadership on Geonosis. I think a head attachment would’ve sufficed, but Lego introduced a full new head mould in an accurate colour to capture the crest, printed eyes and head shape.
The imposing Besalisk species are one of our four-armed sentients in Star Wars, also known for their bony head crest and wattle around their chin. More may know Dexter Jettster than our minifigure Pong Krell (above), famous for the assault on Umbara arc in the Clone Wars. Lego introduced an intricate two-armed sandwich board mould here to place on top of a regular torso – with attention to detail on all the identifiable features and a great height!
The ‘Shadow People’ or Umbarans themselves are a technologically advanced, human-like race with slightly purple pale skin (below). Our only minifigure was one of our few unnamed aliens as an Umbaran Soldier with a light purple colour for a regular head. In battle the soldiers used helmets filled with gas to heighten reflexes & aggression, so Lego used a common space helmet to depict this, though the ‘real’ helmet is more oval shaped and emits a green glow.
A species often in the background throughout the saga are Nikto. There are a few subspecies, but the ones we see most often have brownish scaly bodies with head horns and spikes (above). This is another group with an unnamed minifigure of a Nikto Guard. All the head detail is depicted in a head print unlike many of our other head moulds and a helmet was not included, but it is quite effective. I’d like to see Jedi Master Ima-Gun Di as a named Nikto though.
Another alien species introduced this year were the eye-catching short blue Ortolans, that have massive fatty ears and short trunks (below). We don’t see them very much in Star Wars so the most obvious candidate for the minifigure was Jabba’s musician Max Rebo. He introduced one of my most favourite rubbery head moulds capturing all the details in perfect Lego proportion even with some bumpy spots – finished off perfectly with short legs.
Our final species introduced in 2013 was the distinctive Gran. This group has more unusual features with three eyestalks, small antennae and jagged-edged ears (above). Our Lego minifigure is another member of Jabba’s posse as the fairly obscure character Ree-Yees rather than say, Aks Moe from the prequels. By now a trend had begun for detailed printed head moulds and this is no exception, with particular emphasis on the three eyestalks and ears.
2014
The last year of this part introduced a mixed bag of species – Lasat from Rebels, Ithorian from Yoda Chronicles and the Bith from A New Hope.
The ill-fated Lasat are almost brought to extinction in the reign of the Empire, but they’re known for their tall, athletic builds, prehensile feet, plus large eyes, ears and purple fur (below). Our minifigure is Garazeb Orrelios, one of the crew of The Ghost, though Fallen Order fans would likely want to see Jaro Tapal too. A slightly large head mould captures key features, albeit with an uncharacteristic grimace. It’s a shame the legs aren’t dual moulded or printed purple though.
Ithorians have often appeared throughout the saga ever since seeing them in A New Hope, but it took this long to see a minifigure (above). The species are easily identified by their curved ‘hammerheads’ and eyestalks, with twin mouths. In an unusual decision, our only minifigure is an Ithorian Jedi Master (Noga-ta) from the non-canon Yoda Chronicles, but it did introduce another successive custom head mould capturing the hammerhead shape very accurately at Lego scale.
Our last species in this segment are the Bith, known the world over as members of the Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes, the cantina band at Mos Eisley (above). They’re known for their distinctive domed heads with black eyes and small skin flaps on their cheeks. Our minifigure is accordingly a Bith Musician, repeated to make 3 band members. This must’ve been the golden age for custom head moulds as yet another focused on the domed head with facial print detail!
Next time…
We’ve now covered 16 years and 48 species of Lego Star Wars. Our last time period will cover 2015-today, ushering in a whole new ‘Disney era’ of species through movies, games, TV…and I daresay fragmentation of the fan base.
Are you still feeling that we’re missing key characters from these species? Do you feel like highly detailed head moulds bring great accuracy to our favourite characters or would you prefer more regular heads or attachments? Let me know in the comments.
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25 comments on this article
These articles are a gold-mine! Thanks for taking the time, Rancor (and can I just use this opportunity to say sorry about the Falcon...)
One side-effect of them though is generating a great desire to watch all seven series of The Clone Wars, AGAIN.
...and this time the other side-effect is a deep sense of injustice at the lack of a Dex's Diner. THEY ALREADY HAVE THE MOULD
...Of course, the 'ears' of Ortolans like Max Rebo are actually 'arm-like appendages', and he plays the keyboard with his feet.
It's really too bad that we haven't seen Gran, Ithorians or Bith more often. Three staple alien species, and they've only been in one set each.
Max Rebo is one of my favourite SW Minifigures of all time. Sadly according to current Disney canon, Ortolans no longer have arms.
https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-mysteries-getting-to-the-bottom-of-max-rebo
Your articles are fantastic and takes me on a trip down memory lane! Some great aliens and head moulds seen here and I can’t wait for part 4!
justiceforDexter!!!!!
I don’t really like the Garazeb Orellios minifig, I think they could have improved it. These articles are really cool!
I still love seeing good head moods, rather than just attachments. Waiting for a Nien Nunb, and hoping for a mold rather than a print, and really, really really want an Abednedo.
@Geodude77 said:
"I don’t really like the Garazeb Orellios minifig, I think they could have improved it. These articles are really cool! "
I do think it fails to do the character justice, but I’m not sure how to improve. Give him those curvy satyr legs that popped up in the collectible minifigs maybe, but Zeb is in an odd position where a regular minifig is too small but a bigfig would be too large
@bananaworld said:
"
These articles are a gold-mine! Thanks for taking the time, Rancor (and can I just use this opportunity to say sorry about the Falcon...)
One side-effect of them though is generating a great desire to watch all seven series of The Clone Wars, AGAIN.
...and this time the other side-effect is a deep sense of injustice at the lack of a Dex's Diner. THEY ALREADY HAVE THE MOULD"
No, they'd need to make a new mould. Dexter's attire doesn't resemble Pong Krell's in the slightest. Given that Episode 2 was.... not popular, I'd say it'll be a few year still. I do really want a set of it though.
Great article again! It makes me sad they have all these incredible moulds like the Lasat and Ithorian and the Tholothian hair - perfect for Adi Gallia - but only used them in one set!
Max Rebo's Got a Gig!
I thought the Tholothian headpiece was a headdress, not actually part of their anatomy? The Episode I Visual Dictionary I have referred to it as a 'Tholoth headdress' when talking about Adi Gallia... was the book mistaken, or was this another retcon? :o
I wonder if the LEGO designers have played Jedi Fallen Order to see if they deem necessary to make sets based on totally inacurate moments.
Thanks for the feedback - hope these pieces are always interesting to read!
@pekingduckman although I said the short legs were perfect on Max Rebo, I was focused on the accurate height of the character at the time rather than the actual anatomy, but the Lego minifigure is very much based on a deprecated 2 arms/2 legs version. Your linked article probably wasn’t published early enough for TLG to consider changing anything back in 2013. Or they thought having a torso with no legs would look too weird!
@BionicleJedi the Tholothians do wear a kind of tiara over their heads, somewhat like the headgear Togrutas sometimes wear. But the scaly head and tendrils are anatomy - https://www.starwars.com/databank/tholothian
@The_Rancor said:
" @BionicleJedi the Tholothians do wear a kind of tiara over their heads, somewhat like the headgear Togrutas sometimes wear. But the scaly head and tendrils are anatomy - https://www.starwars.com/databank/tholothian "
The book seemed to point to the tendrils as part of the headdress. Then again, it also was from the same era as the novel Cloak of Deception that mistakenly identified Gallia as a human, so I suppose the details of her species maybe simply hadn't been solidified in canon as far back as 1999.
But that's interesting to know! Thanks for clarifying ^^
Ima-Gunn Di...when you discover Star Wars writers have a morbid sense of humor.
Would have been nice to get an updated Zeb for the later seasons of Rebels, not to mention the Jedi Lasat from Fallen Order.
The Lasats design bears more than a passing resemblance to the early concept drawings of chewbacca.
^ I believe the team on Rebels dug out the early Chewie concepts specifically to inspire the Lasat which was a cool integration of unused ideas. They even reused the Ralph McQuarrie Boba Fett concept in white for some of the Mandos that appear in Rebels too.
People have mentioned it in the comments already but one thing I find interesting about the Max Rebo figure is that it's technically inaccurate.
Long story short, in the original concept art and puppet making Max was designed as a creature with legs but no arms that sat on a cushion and played a keyboard with his feet. However, because of how the puppeteers manned him in the film he ended up seeming like a creature standing in the middle of a piano and playing it with his arms.
Most pre-Disney material ran with Max's species being your standard humanoid with two arms and two legs, but after Disney bought Star Wars they decanonized a bunch of stuff including just about every appearance of the species. They went back to the concept art and recanonized the two legged no armed version of the character.
Great article, but also a shocker for me. The first 2 parts I was only missing a few aliens from each, this time I only have two of the aliens, Ki Adi Mundi and Kithaba. I was shocked because I thought I had a descent sized collection from these years, but it turns out that is because this is the time period when they were producing Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit sets which I own all of. For Star Wars, I only have 6 sets from these years, but that includes my favorite set 7965.
That said, I do love the custom head molds and wish that I had many more of these aliens. However, I do feel like at this point all the major aliens from the movies had already been covered. This era worked to fill in some of the gaps from Tatooine and the rest is from the Clone Wars. I suppose that is probably because Lego had used the previous decade to cover the newly released prequel trilogy and of course the original trilogy. This time period was dedicated solely to cartoons, which I never saw any of until recently on Disney+. I just feel like cartoons, as good as they are, just don’t carry the same weight as live action, so these minifigures seem less important to me, although I would love to have The Ghost.
Yay! When can we expect Part 4?
I've never been crazy about the Ki-Adi Mundi head with the very obvious ridge running down the front. I'd have rather seen the lengthened minifigure head like that seen in the first LEGO Star Wars game; you can see a similar style used for the Mad Scientist in Monster Fighters or CMF, I believe. I think it looks a lot more 'LEGO'-esque to me that way, and the ridge really isn't that obvious as the LEGO version makes it appear. I'm certainly glad he's appeared in brick form.
Adi Gallia is an oversight and a character who still deserves to be produced, as one of the only humanoid Jedi Council members who hasn't been produced in LEGO form that wouldn't require a new mold. We could also use Billaba, but Gallia had more appearances.... I also wouldn't mind seeing a new version of Piell, Koth or Tii without CW stylings.
Would love another shot at Rebo and Ree-Yees personally as well.
@JVM:
The Mad Scientist you're thinking of was from the S14 CMF wave that was entirely monster-based. But he's not the only minifig with a head extension. Egghead from The LEGO Batman Movie got a smooth, egg-shaped dome that's probably a better alternative if you want to sub in a different design.
There are at least three other similar designs that only really count as head extensions when you consider that "bald" minifigs just have bare heads with exposed studs. These are the Picard hairdo from the old man from S10, Shakespeare's hairdo from TLM Wave 1, and the Sushi Chef's bandanna from TLNM. Technically I guess the two Frankenstein's Monster head extensions would count, since the monster was cobbled together from human body parts.
@Slithus_Venom said:
"Yay! When can we expect Part 4?"
I’m working on it when I can, hopefully in the next couple of weeks or so when I get chance to get some more good pics too.
I also plan on doing an article to look at the species TLG haven’t produced and how likely it is we’ll see them.