The Grails:  Sears Cantina Adventure Set Blue Snaggletooth

This series explores vintage Kenner "holy grail" figures which could be made into modern Vintage Collection replicas by Hasbro.

Sears was once a thing, and not the depressing space you now walk through on the way to Cinnabon. They were such big deal that they scored some vintage Kenner exclusives. One of them was the legendary Sears Cantina Adventure Set. The set included four figures, which would later be released as 20-backs: Snaggletooth, Hammerhead, Greedo and Walrus Man. The set was available via the "Wishbook" for both the 1978 and 1979 holiday seasons. The 1978 release contained what could be considered Kenner's "rough draft" for a Snaggletooth figure, the legendary and rare "Blue Snaggletooth." Kenner had been playing catch up with the Star Wars line from the second the contract was signed, so it's no surprise that the initial rushed Snaggletooth contained many errors.

According to lore, Kenner based the initial figure on a black and white upper body photo of Zutmore from The Holiday Special. Kenner made incorrect assumptions about the color of the jumpsuit, the height, and the silver moonboot footwear. When LFL informed Kenner of their litany of cosmetic errors, a "corrected" figure was produced for the eventual 20-back release. It corrected the jumpsuit color to burgundy (still wrong), it overcorrected the height from tall to halfling (still wrong) and corrected the moonboots to bare wolfman-like feet (way wrong). Zutmore is in fact wearing a red jumpsuit, is short, but not diminutive, and appears to be wearing some smart dress shoes. Judge for yourself HERE. You can see an example of the corrected-not-corrected figure on Brian's Toys HERE. That is the figure you likely remember, and it's the one that saw widespread production. A few of the incorrect "blue Snaggletooth" figures leaked out courtesy of the aforementioned Sears Cantina Adventure Set. And if your best friend brought that figure to show and tell in the 1st grade, it likely brought you to the brink of nervous exhaustion trying to prove its existence to your father.

Loose vintage Star Wars figures rarely command a big premium. Millions of them were made. 3.75" is the most successful action figure platform in history, and 2nd place isn't even in the same hemisphere. In general, loose samples are not scarce. Exceptions do exist when production is limited for one reason or another, and such is the case with this "erroneous" Blue Snaggletooth. Above average loose samples will fetch $400+. High grade loose samples easily stretch into four digits.

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This is a legitimately tough one for me. Vintage Kenner figures were never really more than vague approximations of their on-screen counterparts. The other 20-back Cantina aliens are comically inaccurate. Walrus Man and Hammerhead's costumes bear zero resemblance to what the characters were wearing on-screen. Zero. Greedo draws a little closer, but still misses the mark. So the fact that the on-screen "Snaggleteeth" (Takeel and Zutton), were wearing costumes that in no way match Kenner's figure is not telling in and of itself. However there is zero doubt that Kenner was targeting the Holiday Special Zutmore with their release. The card, the jumpsuit (complete with the black shoulder stripes), and the character's distinctive belt buckle all tell you that this wasn't a case of artistic license due to a lack of reference. Kenner was trying to zero in on Zutmore. So should that oddity be maintained as a wink to this vintage gaff?



Normally I would say yes, but Hasbro has already done this, and for the time, they did it really well. They released a very accurate Zutmore figure in the POTJ line (bearing the incorrect "Zutton" name) in 2001. Then Hasbro released a very accurate homage to the Sears Blue Snaggletooth in the 2004 OTC line via the K-Mart exclusive Cantina "Screen Scene." The name "Zutton" was still used inaccurately, but more on that later. I see no reason Hasbro should dip their pen into that "winkwell" a second time. Oh sure, CJ makes bad puns in the comment section all the time and you upvote him like he just solved cold fusion. I make a bad pun and you throw rotten vegetables at the screen (I assume).

I envision this "grail" collection as a carded collection. Few other than Mr. Stevie have opened their HasLab Yak Face. So I say go for an accurate carded "Blue Snaggletooth" this time. There are two Snivians in the Cantina during Episode IV. One is Takeel, who can be seen clearly on-screen several times and has been immortalized in the Vintage Collection via the Villain Special Action Figure Set (under the name "Snagglethooth"). The other is Zutton (see Rogues' Gallery photo above). I don't know if there is any evidence of Zutton actually appearing on-screen, nor do I think there is any evidence of what his actual wardrobe color was. Nevertheless, fans seem to have retconned Zutton into the "Blue Snaggletooth." I say let's lean into that. This would be nothing more than a retool of the Takeel head to replicate Zutton's bald patches and repainting the tunic to blue (and perhaps the pants to a lower contrasting color like gray).

Update: After input from Binary Sunset and CJ in the comments, I re-watched the cantina scene. Zutton is seated at the table with Debnoli. You can tell from the bald patches in the hair, and he is wearing the same dark red tunic as Takeel. CJ, this was information that was useful LAST WEEK!

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I know this entry strayed into "TL;DR" territory six paragraphs ago. Ironically, the only section I can keep brief is the one you won't read. The release platform for this one writes itself. Include the proposed carded Blue Snaggeltooth in a modern Cantina Adventure Set and take my money.

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