Gragra was the swokes swokes street vendor from whom the Gungan Jar Jar stole a gorg.

Read that sentence again.  I SAID READ IT AGAIN!

Yep, its a totally legit and accurate summary of this pivotal moment in galactic history.  It brings together Jar Jar, Sebulba, Anakin, Qui-Gon, and even maybe, possibly Quinlan Vos.

Now, that alone would mean that Gragra deserved an action figure.  But her direct interaction with Jar Jar as well as the important and inescapable fact that she had lines of dialogue, would mean that she is required, by international law, to be an action figure.  In 1999, when I first started collecting as an adult, and for the years that followed, I didn’t just want a Gragra action figure, I knew it would eventually happen.  See, kids, times were different back then.  Not only did people actually shake hands, go to restaurants, and have jobs, they also expected that every single character that popped into George Lucas’s mind would eventually become an action figure.  Strange times, indeed.  Google it, I swear it’s all true.

Amazingly, Gragra was made into a different toy long before her debut in the Hasbro line in 2006.  Yes, believe it or not,  Gragra was Ed McMahon to Jar Jar’s Johnny Carson when they were part of a motorized Pez dispenser offered in ubiquitous Episode I packaging that adorned just about every product that was made on the planet in 1999.  Seriously, this was a real thing.  It was so bizarre, that it was featured on Starwars.com.  Here’s a must-watch YouTube video of the thing in action:

Brilliant!  Notice Gragra swings away with her butcher knife as Jar Jar steals the Pez with his tongue.  Hilarious!

The point of this is that, back in 1999, before I became a hardcore anti-bootleg activist, I happily bought this thing in the store so that I could remove the Gragra piece and use it as a stand-in for a real action figure.  Yes, did I leave that part out?  It was pretty much in scale with 3.75” (#FightFroTVC, #Save375, #BackTVC).  I believe she could be removed from the base to which she was attached via a screw.  There might have been more to it, but I don’t think it was too difficult.  It was around this time that my brief (and failed) attempts at customizing figures had left my groin scarred and deformed, but I had no qualms tearing apart a Pez dispenser.  So that Gragra stayed in my collection, on display, until Hasbro finally got off their collective rear ends and gave us a proper action figure with TSC 052.

In fact, here is a picture I dug up from our forums showing part of my collection as it existed in late 2005, just before the Saga Collection (and this figure) debuted.  This was also around the last time I had my full collection on display, before I downsized my apartment and had to pack most of it up for storage.  Now I have a house, but for life reasons, I still have not managed to properly display it all.  Anyway, if you look closely, almost dead center, there’s a small TPM Tatooine shelf, and right there, in pixelated glory (I guess I didn’t take hi-rez pictures in 2006), you can pick out the Pez Gragra:

Circa 2005.  Notice the unopened ROTS figures at the right.

Oh yeah, I have a figure to review. It’s no TVC figure, but it’s decent enough for this deep backgrounder.  It has a very good sculpt, with a lot of detail, particularly in the head, which is excellent.  The face sculpt is sufficiently screen accurate, and is extra hideous, just like the character.  But amazingly, she has an articulated jaw!  Gotta love that.  She’s got ball-jointed shoulders, along with swivel elbows, wrists, and waist.  There’s no lower body articulation, but that’s okay, I guess.  It doesn’t help the figure, but it doesn’t really hurt it, either.

Gragra also comes with two accessories.  There’s her butcher knife, which I only just realized is not actually in the film, at least not in her hand.  I can only assume she has a butcher knife as a prop in some behind the scenes photography, or perhaps it can be spotted on her table somewhere on screen.  It almost seems that it was inspired by the Pez dispenser toy.  Also, she comes with a bushel of gorgs.  She can either hold it herself, or you could hook it on a horizontal string to simulate her vendor stand.

I had opted to have Gragra serve as Jabba’s Sail Barge chef in our Khetanna gallery.  It’s a nice figure, with a cool sculpt and good accessories.  It’s not the most exciting character, nor is it a groundbreaking figure, but it’s amazing that we have it at all.  6/10.  (Bonus point for the articulated jaw.)