An Anatomy of Star Wars Aliens: Part 4
Posted by The_Rancor,
I’m back again to take a scrutineering look at how some of our favourite aliens have been depicted in Lego. After parts one, two and three we’ve now reached the part that will bring us all the way from 2015 to 2020, rounding out over 20 years and dozens of sentient minifigure species along the way.
The last 5 years or so have seen huge prominence in Disney’s Star Wars, for better or worse, releasing the full Sequel Trilogy plus Rogue One and Solo: A Star Wars Story. We’ve also seen The Mandalorian, the completion of Rebels & The Clone Wars, Resistance, and Lego’s Freemaker Adventures - so there’s a huge variety of new worlds to draw aliens from!
Interestingly, in previous years almost all of the Lego minifigures had a clear species, human or otherwise, but 2015-2020 introduced a few more characters that don’t have detailed anatomical features to assess.
Unkar’s thug and brute from The Force Awakens are good examples where their species are humanoid in nature and may not be alien, because nothing identifiable is showing through their clothing. I’ll be excluding instances like these for the alien study, but will still include the explicit “unknown” species like Maz Kanata and The Fifth Brother.
2015
Despite the big release of The Force Awakens during 2015, we were only provided with two new alien species that year – the imposing Pau’an through Rebels and the more enigmatic Shozer through Episode VII.
The Shozers themselves are less immediately alien with light flesh skin, but have black widely spaced eyes and large flat noses (below). It’s a species that we see very little of on-screen but we have a minifigure of Resistance Ground Crew member Goss Toowers, who appears briefly in the Sequel Trilogy. As with many others, this group uses a printed head, focusing on the black eyes and nose above a mask. A specialised helmet was created for additional accuracy to Episode VII.
The ancient humanoid Pau’ans are most easily identified by their distinctive pale, lined skin as well as red markings around their face. Our Lego Pau’an isn’t Tion Medon from Episode III, but The Grand Inquisitor, a sinister Jedi hunter who features prominently in Rebels (above). This is probably one of the best uses of print to determine species on a regular minifigure head, despite also including 3 new moulds for a lightsaber, armour & helmet at the same time!
2016
This year followed up Episode VII with Rogue One and also the Lego Freemaker Adventures series, introducing a grand eight new species in a single year, which is the current record and unlikely to be beaten!
We start with an unidentified near-human species used for a minifigure from The Freemaker Adventures. Identified mainly for white tattoos across her face like Kiffar or Mirialans, Naare (below) searches for the Kyber Saber as an agent of the Sith. As the species is similar to us, a regular head and hair parts are used, with white tribal tattoos printed across her visage. The minifigure even has a happy or Sith double sided-head, but the red blade indicates her main allegiance.
Another unidentified species is distinguished by plated greyish skin and pale eyes, creating a zombie-like look. This is the group of the Fifth Brother Inquisitor (above), one of the many successors to the Grand Inquisitor in Rebels. The hulking warrior is mostly covered in armour - deeming necessary the creation of new shoulder pad and helmet pieces - so we can just see the regular head beneath, hinting at the skin and eyes with angry and pensive expressions.
The hairy ape-like appearance of Iakaru garnered the species an initial nickname of ‘Space Monkey’ (below). Our Lego minifigure from this group was the briefly seen Rebel Bistan from Rogue One. The Iakaru neck is wide and Bistan wears a suit with a neck ring, so a new bulky mould was created, including realistic skin tones and printed hairy details across the face, focusing on their brow tufts. I do feel moulded hair texture would’ve looked even better though.
Also introduced through Rogue One, the amphibious Drabatan species has grey, wrinkled skin, sunken eyes, no nose and a large mouth. Pao (whose real name is far longer!) was our minifigure (above), leading troops into battle on Scarif. As the species has a round head, a regular grey minifigure head was used, combined with a new piece for Pao’s hat. The best feature of the double-sided face is turning it to see the Drabatan’s gaping mouth shouting his war cry “Sa’kalla!”
After 17 years of the theme we finally saw our first Ugnaught in 2016, a species known for its short stature, thick jowls and porcine nature (below). We have two unnamed Ugnaught minifigures from 2016 and 2018, both hailing from Cloud City. Their jowls and mouths appeared to deem necessary a new mould to show their widening cheeks with simple hair & printed skin details on both versions completed with short legs. It’s a shame there’s no sign of Lego Kuiil yet though.
Another diminutive species introduced in Episode VII belonged to Maz Kanata, with wrinkled, orange skin and a slightly flattened head (above). The species is unidentified like Yoda’s, also lives to a great age, and is rare across the galaxy. Maz is rarely seen without her variable corrective goggles, and so a new dark orange mould was created, including skin wrinkles, lenses and printed eyes beneath them. Short legs match her general stature instead of regular ones.
Our penultimate group this year is the reptilian Teedo, identified too for their shorter height, but also green skin and elongated cranium (below). Our Lego Teedo is intended to represent the character that entraps BB-8 on Jakku. Another detailed head element captured the cranium in green, as well as an accurate representation of the breathing & filtration mask covering the face. Normal legs look too tall, but this does allow the ability to sit on a luggabeast.
The bulky Crolutes are our last 2016 species, an aquatic group like Mon Calamari, but with gelatinous light coloured skin that sags when out of water (above) as shown in our Lego minifigure, Jakku junk boss Unkar Plutt. The large frame necessitated a sandwich board mould to add padding to the torso, whilst the character’s large head and shoulders were captured in light flesh, even including a moulded cap. The nose is also unusually prominent here too!
2017
This year added more to Rogue One, added our last sets from the Freemaker Adventures and Rebels, then progressed to Episode VIII – though oddly only two new species were introduced with none coming from The Last Jedi.
The Chiss species have deep blue skin and red eyes like the Duros, but otherwise have a much more human-like appearance overall (below). Our Lego minifigure is fan-favourite (Grand) Admiral Thrawn (Mitth’raw’nuruodo), best known in canon as an Imperial mastermind attempting to quash rebellion. Due to the human-like features of the Chiss, a regular blue head and hair were used, with dual expressions for pensiveness, and for anger when Rebels escape.
The tall, white and hairy appearance of Gigorans loosely resembles our idea of a yeti, with only a face showing through the fur (above). The species appeared briefly in Rogue One and so our minifigure is Moroff, a mercenary aligned with Saw Gerrera’s Partisans. Much like Wookiees or Talz, another sandwich board was introduced to capture the fur texture and bulk, but in a striking white, including key equipment such as Moroff’s vocoder translater over his mouth.
2018
This year introduced Solo: A Star Wars Story and Resistance (TV) whilst adding more to Episode VIII. However even a year later, no new Lego species were introduced from the Last Jedi, leaving all four to originate from Solo.
Our first species are the Ardennians, which in my opinion better match the name ‘Space Monkey’ than Iakaru with simian-like features but blue skin and an unusual four arms (below). Our Lego character is Rio Durant, a mercenary pilot Han works with during Solo. His head is moulded in blue with fur texture, plus the capability to attach goggles to add personality. Then the Ardennian also had a new four armed torso, finished off with short legs to show his gait.
After appearing in the Clone Wars, the Pykes were also introduced this year. This species are most obviously identified for their insect-like hexagonal heads and comparatively small faces. Quay Tolsite, the pit boss of one of the mines of Kessel is our character in Lego (above). Unfortunately we can’t see many alien features as he wears protection from the toxic atmosphere of the mine, so a regular head was printed with his mask whilst a new piece depicted a hexagonal helmet & tubes.
Grindalids are unlike many of our more humanoid aliens as they are larger, worm-like creatures with two primary limbs and many smaller limbs (below). As Lady Proxima had perhaps less screen time, our character is her right hand man Moloch. He has been able to develop a humanoid gait so the Lego minifigure featured a long ‘robe’ element printed with some tentacles, whilst his long head and face were encased in an articulated helmet as a new mould.
The last ‘Solo’ species Hylobons, are slightly more humanoid but with large heads surrounded by a ‘mane’ of orange fur. We actually had two slightly different Lego minifigures of Hylobon Enforcers in 2018 (above), the main henchmen of crime lord Dryden Vos (who still doesn’t have a minifigure himself). Another custom head mould was created for this species with a focus on the orange fur, both grimacing and baring teeth. This meant they couldn’t have their armoured helmets though.
2019
Our final ‘full’ year of this anatomy brought the end to the episodic Skywalker Saga, plus other key events in the US such as the release of The Mandalorian and opening of Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland. We’d also reached the 20th anniversary of Lego Star Wars and so celebrations were abound.
We only saw two more new species this year in Lego though – Ovissians through the Rise of Skywalker and Gand, through our anniversary sets.
There’s no mistaking the alien features of Ovissians, with a large rounded head and mouth in green or orange skin, flanked by two large curved horns and two smaller mandible horns (below). Fresh from Episode IX, our Lego character is the Resistance sympathiser Boolio, who appears near the beginning. This could be a controversial pick but I think this is potentially one of Lego’s best custom printed head moulds so far, showing every feature at a scale that’s neither too large nor too small for the size of a minifigure.
The insectoid Gand are identified by their large compound eyes like a fly, as well as brownish skin, mandibles and respirators to breathe off their home planet (above). Bounty hunter fanatics had to wait 19 years to complete the crew from Episode V, but they finally could with the introduction of Zuckuss. A robe piece covered the character’s legs but a slightly large custom head mould was introduced in tan with eye and respirator prints, lining up with a torso print for the mandibles very well too.
In case you were wondering, because I had plenty of Millennium Falcons (Boolio) and Slave Is (Zuckuss) before 2019, I don’t yet have either species myself. So I’ve filled in the gaps with a quick bit of Photoshopping to avoid drawing a blank and match my other photos. Kudos to you if you didn’t notice straight away!
2020
Having already seen what constitutes the January and Summer waves in 2020, many readers will have noticed there are no new alien species yet this year. Considering every other year of the theme has had at least one new species introduced (if you separate the 2003/2004 releases) that could be a big loss. However, we still have another UCS/MBS slot in the Autumn and I have a sneaking suspicion we may yet see a new alien before the year is out.
It seems a shame that the Final Season of the Clone Wars hasn’t yet yielded any new species in 2020, with a focus on Ahsoka and the 501st. It seemed an ideal opportunity for us to see Skakoans (Wat Tambor), Harch (Admiral Trench), Toong, or even a Pyke without a mask & helmet – but it’s likely Lego’s focus for new moulds has been on completing the Knights of Ren.
A stats wrap up… and what next?
After over 20 years of Lego Star Wars, here’s a stats breakdown of some of the key sentient alien minifigure features so far –
- 66 sentient species in total (an appropriate number for Star Wars)
- 30 species have always used regular minifigure heads, even if added to by other moulds – so still almost 50%
- Only 13 species have never used a dedicated mould created originally for them - biological, clothing or anything else
- 72 moulds have been created to show biological/anatomical features of species, 30 of which are entire head moulds and 16 of which are sandwich boards adding features across the head and torso. That’s an average of over 1 biological mould per species
- 19 moulds have also been created for alien clothing, cyborg parts and other apparel not directly related to their biological anatomy, so we’re getting close to 100 moulds for Star Wars aliens in total now
- Perhaps surprisingly, only one mould introduced for a Star Wars alien has been reused outside of its species – Pao’s hat – which was reused for Rebolt the Corellian hound handler in Solo and Trudgen, one of the Knights of Ren.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this look at our alien species - is there anything you’d like to see next on Star Wars characters & more? There are already the non-sentient or semi-sentient aliens I haven’t covered, plus perhaps a discussion on more species we’re still missing, but I’m open to ideas and I’ll see what I can do!
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19 comments on this article
I have very much enjoyed this series! Seeing the species all lined up like this and seeing the different ways in which they were realised (prints, head moulds, etc) was very interesting. Very nice photos too, and you had me fooled on the last one.
I'd definitely like to see both the non-sentient/semi-sentient species (maybe including the times standard animals have appeared in Star Wars sets), and the missing species. We've had articles about sets and vehicles that are sorely missing, why not the aliens?
Excellent series of articles, thank you! Quarren would be my pick for a species that needs to be introduced.
What, no mention of E.T., the lone cameo species?
@PurpleDave said:
"What, no mention of E.T., the lone cameo species?"
Don’t worry, the Asogli (I think that’s their species name) may yet appear - keep tuned in!
Nien Nunb has got to be coming out soon, right? Now that we have Zuckuss he has to be next. Maybe in the next updated Falcon?
Thanks for this list and series.
Rumors are that the October UCS set may be a Mos Eisley cantina similar to Assault on Hoth and Betrayal at Cloud City. That does provide some options for new species.
Thank you for all the time you put into writing these! The amount of research needed for this must have been tremendous.
Gonna miss these articles. They were some of my favorites.
@HandPositions:
Oof. Another round of people whinging about how it should have been multiple small sets, so they could skip the parts they already own? 2020, the gift that keeps on sticking it to you...
But now that you got me thinking of it, what _would_ they put in a UCS-style Mos Eisley? The Cantina and docking bay were really the only interiors we ever saw, unless you count the doorway where the droids hide. Otherwise, it's just a bunch of exterior shots of nondescript tan buildings, and no hint of what lies behind their doors.
@Snazzy_Bricks:
They were producing new heads for every character, even going to far as to make separate heads for Han Solo and Indiana Jones (who kinda look like twins for some reason). And every CMF prior to the DC Superheroes Aquaman, as far as I can tell, has had an original print. Somewhere along the way, someone must have realized how ridiculous it was getting when there are a few instances where the only difference between the heads used for Licensed Character A and Licensed Character B is that one is a mirror image of the other (e.g. left eyebrow slightly raised vs right eyebrow slightly raised). And suddenly they stopped flooding the market with an ever-expanding range of heads with pointlessly negligible differences.
Thanks for this fantastic series! I love seeing all the alien moulds in Lego Star Wars so this has been a treat to read. Hopefully we get more than one new alien in the UCS! :)
@Snazzy_Bricks said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @Snazzy_Bricks :
They were producing new heads for every character, even going to far as to make separate heads for Han Solo and Indiana Jones (who kinda look like twins for some reason). And every CMF prior to the DC Superheroes Aquaman, as far as I can tell, has had an original print. Somewhere along the way, someone must have realized how ridiculous it was getting when there are a few instances where the only difference between the heads used for Licensed Character A and Licensed Character B is that one is a mirror image of the other (e.g. left eyebrow slightly raised vs right eyebrow slightly raised). And suddenly they stopped flooding the market with an ever-expanding range of heads with pointlessly negligible differences."
Yes, but if they're going to continue to make minifigs of pilots such as Wedge, Janson, and Dak, then it would make sense to print a new head better representing each of them and reuse that head instead of the same print for every. rebel. pilot."
Why not go back to this good 'ol standby for Biggs and other pilots? :P https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=3626bp03T=C
@PurpleDave said:
" @HandPositions :
But now that you got me thinking of it, what _would_ they put in a UCS-style Mos Eisley?"
The Dowager Queen, that ship that's stuck right into the ground.
Too bad we’re unlikely to see more Inquisitor figures.
@Snazzy_Bricks:
Policy and/or convention probably holds that they use existing heads for minor human characters. Since licensed themes have fleshie minifigs, this further limits their available pool of options. Once they picked _a_ generic male head, that became the only option unless they need something with facial hair, or glasses, or they wanted to burn a slot on calling up a different print. As a collector, though, if you don't mind having modified sets and minifigs, you've always got the option of buying a variety of generic male/female heads and swapping some parts to give your pilots a little more variety.
"But I shouldn't _have_ to!"
Yeah, but clearly it won't just happen on its own.
@Rob42:
See, but that's the problem. The Death Star, Hoth, and Bespin all have plenty of interior locations, and action features that can be incorporated into their sets. Mos Eisley you've got the Cantina as the only functional interior. You can do the docking bay, but it _really_ needs the Falcon, and that gives you three options. You can make just the docking bay by itself if you want to make it to scale with the UCS Falcon sets (and then it's just a display for a more expensive set). You can make just the docking bay with the Falcon included if you make it more to scale with the typical minifig-based Falcon sets, but you're probably giving up the ability to include much of anything else. You can include the docking bay and Falcon alongside other features, if you make them tiny like the Slave I that's included in the Bespin set. Or you could just go all-out on the Cantina and skip everything else, which wouldn't be a bad thing from an AFOL's perspective, but a set that's just a giant bar might not play well with parents. Or you could do a small cantina, maybe a small docking bay, and then just some facades to line a street scene. Unless you're really going to go all-out on stuff to fill out that scene, like a Ronto, or some landspeeders that they've never modeled before, it's just going to feel like you're paying through the nose for a patch of dirt.
I want an Admiral Trench
What an amazing set of articles. It’s a bummer we’re going to have to wait until 2025 for the 5th one to come out!
Despite 2016 setting the record, it seems like these last 5 years have been really light on new aliens. I suppose that is understandable given how many aliens had produced prior to 2015. These new ones all seem to be one off characters with a few exceptions, most notably ugnaughts.
I think as a result of many of these aliens only appearing briefly or being inconsequential, I’ve actually had little desire in collecting most of them. Others like the inquisitors are very hard to get, and it is a shame that they no longer produce Rebels sets, it seems like only the original trilogy (and to a lesser extent the prequels) are worthy of new sets long after they have left the theaters (or tv). I suppose this means we need to collect Mandalorian sets while we can as they’ll never be produced again once the series ends.
Despite owning 32 unique species, I only have 3 of these aliens, an ugnaught, Maz, and the pyke. Although it seems like these are a lot of shows in the works so I’m hoping that they will start introducing lots of new aliens.
Great series, most enjoyable, especially as I have all the alien minifigures referenced in the articles apart from 3 (early Grievous, with and without cape and the first Watto). Would be hard pressed to choose a favourite as there really are some amazing figures, eg the newer wookiees, Pong Krell, Ahsokas etc but as for what's missing, first choice, Ponda Baba without a doubt. Still say she's a zabrak btw .....