The Story Of One Of The Most Notorious Peg Warmers In The Line’s History

The 3.75" line has been populated with its fair share of peg warmers during its long and storied history, but only one has had its name become a pejorative. It's a Munson, Zune, Pinto, Edsel, New Coke and Windows ME. It's Yarna D'al' Gargan. It was released in July of 2008, and my local Walmart still had the figure on clearance after The Legacy Collection had ended its run (both phases!) and gave way to the Vintage Collection as the main line in 2010. But how did it happen?



From my observation, Yarna was a product of fan campaigning, but it was in the days before petition web sites made such efforts easily quantifiable. It was also in the days before comment sections were popularized so that the readers could directly and visibly rebut the premises of fan site articles. In those days, fans sites were how the community communicated with Hasbro by proxy, so they had a disproportionate microphone.

While he was not alone, I recall one person in particular leading the Yarna campaign. It was Adam May who wrote for Galactic Hunter at the time. Sadly, Adam passed away in 2017. This is nothing against him. Adam holds a revered place in the history of the hobby, and I remain a fan of his work to this day. But he pushed hard to have a Yarna figure made when many of us were screaming behind our keyboards with no way to be heard that it was a bad idea. It seems that Hasbro listened to the only voices they could hear, and put the figure on the board. I need to stress that Adam was not alone in this campaign, but I associate him with the tip of the spear.

It's why I'm always terrified of having my personal wants clouding my judgement when promoting ideas for the Vintage Collection here on Bantha Skull, and I am very thankful for our highly engaged community who will call me out if I'm off base. It's also why we urge people to speak for themselves and only themselves when they interact with Hasbro at public conventions, or on social media. "Everyone wants" comments are not necessary. If it's true that "everyone wants" something, it will become loud and clear with the frequency of the request.



At no point do I want to give the impression that I didn’t want a Yarna figure. I'm happy that one was made, but figures need to follow a priority order. In 2008 there were much higher Jabba's Palace priorities over the quadruple sextuple mammaried dancer. Many iconic O96 Jabba's Palace characters were locked in POTF2 status, and more compelling "never before made" Jabba's characters were...well...not yet made. Here is a list of all the secondary Jabba's Palace characters that followed Yarna:

Giran
Malakili
Nikto Gunner (Nysad)
Gamorrean Guard
Wooof
Weequay (Skiff Master)
Weequay
Vizam
Brock Starsher
Ree-Yees
Yak Face
Klaatu
Vedain

I would argue that, with the possible exception of Malakili, they are all higher priority than Yarna, yet they came after. There's still a host of unmade Jabba's characters that I think are higher priority as well, but if that 2008 Yarna were not made, I think it would be better received today.



Yarna was originally slated to be in the final wave of the 30th Anniversary Collection. "Final waves" tend to be produced in smaller numbers because retailers start curtailing their orders to make way for the new product line. If Yarna were in a final wave, it probably wouldn't have been such a problematic seller, but fate, in the form of LucasArts, intervened. The Force Unleashed video game was announced, and Hasbro rushed to get out figures in time for its release. This bumped the Yarna wave out of the 30th Anniversary Collection. Instead, it became the launch wave of The Legacy Collection, and the problem of retailers over-ordering launch waves isn't a phenomenon unique to 2018. Stores ordered a glut of that wave, and most of the other figures sold off leaving a growing stock pile of globulous dancers in pancake makeup.

In a painful final twist, The Force Unleashed was delayed, so the reason for delaying the Yarna wave was ultimately unnecessary.

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I need to stress that the entirety of this article is based on my memories from thirteen years ago, so if you feel I got something wrong, by all means call it out.

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