My Personal Top 10 Highest Priority Figures (CJ’s Bucket List)

This is not a list of my most wanted figures. Not at all, really. It's more the answer to the question, if they only made 10 more figures, which ones should they be. These are important figures that are not good enough. Figures that are either critical characters, or notable outlier pieces to particular displays or subsets. I started spitballing this idea as a larger list about 5 years ago in the forums here. Since that time, very few things have been crossed off. Like two things. Counting Yakface, which has not even been released yet.

Note: I did not intentionally limit this to OT characters, it just happens to sort out that way. There was one PT character that almost made the cut.

Thus, in no particular order, here are the first 10 figures that I believe Hasbro needs to make before this is all done.


The Emperor is pretty important to the plot of the OT. Even though he doesn’t physically appear on screen until the third film, the audience is introduced to him early in ANH. His prominence ramps up significantly through Empire, but he remains largely unseen. When he finally appears amidst the full pomp and circumstance appropriate for one of his rank, the audience sees a feeble old man. Is this the great evil that intimidates even Darth Vader? He’s scary like a ghost, not a monster. He is death. Destroyer of Worlds.

So why has Hasbro had so much trouble satisfying fans on this one? I personally blame Revenge of the Sith. For some reason, Lucas thought it necessary to explain why the Emperor would look so much older in Return of the Jedi than in Revenge of the Sith, so moderately old Chancellor Palpatine got his face deformed with Sith lightning. Or something. Apparently Lucas forgot that ROTJ takes place more than 20 years later, so natural aging would have been a perfectly cromulent explanation as well. Look how much a president ages in 8 years. This guy ran the whole Galaxy for 20 years, while also dabbling in dark magic. Looking decrepit would be expected.

Forget what I said about these being in no particular order. This figure is number one with a bullet. It needs to be made. It needs to be able to sit in a fancy chair (included or not). And it needs to be based on ROTJ only. Some of the body tooling from previous attempts might be reusable, but for the head, they need to find a sculptor ho has never seen Revenge of the Sith, and lock him in a room with only ROTJ source material. This figure should never have to appear on a fan's choice poll. That's embarrassing.


Uncle Owen doesn’t appear alive on screen for very long. He yells at Luke, buys some droids, yells at Luke again, and then tells his wife he’s going to yell at Luke later. The next time we see him, he’s a burnt corpse. To be clear, the “Burnt Owen and Beru action figure” joke isn’t funny at all. It’s stupid and disrespectful. Then, why does Owen matter? Because Owen is the difference between Luke Skywalker and his father. Anakin was raised by his mommy, then a bunch of weird celibate religious zealots who constantly told him how special he was. Then he turned evil and murdered children as soon as he didn’t get what he wanted. Luke lived a life of disappointment with an Uncle who kept him safe, but also taught him the value of work. When given the choice between the right path and the easy path, Luke chose right.

Back in the heyday of the Power of the Force line, we got lots of neat figures that had been overlooked in the vintage Kenner run. Even Owen found his way here, though it was an absurdly pre-posed monstrosity in a 3-pack. But we were happy to have it. It was Uncle Owen, afterall. But as figure technology improved, nearly everyone else got a second (third, fourth,..) shot, but this was all we had for Owen. Then, when high-quality figures were being cranked out at an outstanding rate, Hasbro packed that same Owen figure in the Lars Homestead pack. Everyone sighed and shook their heads in disappointment.

In their infinite wisdom, Hasbro made a Comic Pack that featured Darth Maul and Uncle Owen. The comic story was set somewhere between ROTS and ANH, so the Owen represents neither PT Owen or OT Owen. The tooling could probably be repurposed with some careful painting and a new head to make everyone’s favorite grouchy uncle. And I do not mean Grouchy Uncle Otto. Or Uncle Lewis from Christmas Vacation. Though someone should make a figure of him too.


Luke is kind of a big deal. While an argument can certainly be made that Darth Vader is the central character of the Original Trilogy, Luke is pretty much the central character of any of the three films on their own. Luke is the one who blows up the Death Star, learns magic, and saves his friends. He’s the one who goes through the Hero’s Journey. He’s the one all the little boys of the era wanted to be- assuming they were not cool enough to be Han and not psychologically disturbed enough to be Vader. Luke is an icon, and this is his most iconic look.

Once again, I should not have to include this figure on a list like this. There was a time when “Farmboy Luke” was something of a joke in the collector community because of how often Hasbro trotted out a new one. Sometimes he had a floppy hat and poncho, sometimes he had wind-swept hair. Sometimes he had a fluffy white bathrobe. But they never quite got him right. Is there enough tooling out there to cobble a “definitive” Luke together? Maybe, but really this is a figure that Hasbro should invest in. I can settle for a less-than-perfect Mosep. This is Luke Flipping Skywalker. Get it right.


For the first film and a half of the Star Wars Trilogy, nobody is cooler than Han Solo. Then we meet Lando. Lando makes Han Solo look like Lewis Skolnick. Han Solo has a nice ship? Lando owns a fancy city. Han Solo wears a vest? Lando wears a cape. Sure, Lando is kind of a jerk. He basically sells out not only Han, but Leia, the Wookiee, and a certain guy named Luke Skywalker just to save his own business. Even so, he’s a good guy.

Lando’s action figure history is not stellar. While he had 3 vintage figures, his modern representations have never been great sellers. When VOTC Lando came out, it was a good figure for its time, swivel-elbows and all, but it sold dreadfully. That may have made Hasbro reluctant to wade into the Lando waters again. Smuggler Lando (a retool) held us over until the Vintage Collection gave us two outstanding figures: ROTJ General Lando and Sandstorm/Jabba’s Palace Lando. Did they do any better at retail? Honestly the unevenness of distribution in that line makes it hard to say. The important thing is that Hasbro might not be scared of Lando anymore. It’s time to fix the original look once and for all. Then move on to the Donald Glover version.

Piett’s most notable achievement is survival. He’s the only Imperial Officer in the OT to make it to a second film. While his colleagues drop like flies, he not only manages to not tick off Lord Vader, but he even gets promoted. I bet Vader even hung out with Piett after work. Were it not for an errant A-Wing, he might have even survived the Battle of Endor and probably would have shown up again at the head of the First Order (Snoke is Piett?). Still, among all the Imperial Officers that could be updated or made, Piett stands as the most glaring omission.

Hasbro has taken lots of shots at Imperial Officers. Some have even been pretty good. It was great to get Piett in the POTF era (on his own card!), but that figure’s gigantism and lack of articulation are embarrassing by today’s standards. There’s no reason why Hasbro can’t take it’s existing Imperial Officer tooling, make a few upgrades, craft a new head and get this guy out there. Personally I don’t care which rank badge they use. Asking collectors to buy two Pietts with a tiny tooling difference is silly, so just pick one and go with it. Even if it’s the “incorrect” ROTJ version. I never understood all that jazz.


Shortly after Princess Leia ran off with her new teddy bear, she shows up in a new dress with matching hairstyle. For decades fans have wondered why she bothered changing and how she happened to have an appropriate dress packed for a military operation. Fortunately, the Forces of Destiny cartoon (or as my daughter calls it “Girl Star Wars”) filled in that blank. Sort of. The dress was a gift from her new Ewok friends. If she didn’t immediately change into it, it would be rude. Now, why did the Ewoks have a dress her size? Did they kill and eat its previous owner? Did they steal it from a cross-dressing Stormtrooper? These questions will probably never be answered. Anyway, after changing back into her action clothes for the battle, Leia again donned this dress for the legendary Ewok Village after-party.

There are at least 3 Leias that really need to be updated, but I chose this one because it’s probably the one that needs it most. The POTF version, a nice variety piece when we got it, is a monstrosity. Not that it’s a bad likeness, it’s just huge. The scale adjustments of the early 2000’s make this figure look awful, especially the more recent Ewoks, which only come up to its knees. While this isn’t the most exciting or iconic Leia, it’s one that has been desperately under-served, and really ruins my Endor Celebration diorama. As does the absence of “Clapping Lando,” but that’s an article for another time.

Editor's Note: 100% agreement on the need for this figure. Maybe this list isn't terrible after all


Do you know how many lines Bib Fortuna has in Return of the Jedi? A lot. He has a lot of lines. More than Darth Vader. Probably. He’s also super creepy and serves a pretty important role in Jabba’s Palace administration. He’s in charge of answering the door and waking Jabba up.

Ol’ Bib has had three action figures over the decades. The 2006 Saga version was pretty good, but even by the standards of those days, it was under-articulated. Maybe there are some parts there that could be reused. I don’t know. I’m not an architect. Either way, an updated Bib Fortuna would make a nice addition to the Vintage Collection. A very inaccurate soft-goods trench coat would be a nice nod to the vintage figure, but probably should not be included. Despite what the Vintage Zealots might say. I assume they’re demanding that. Those guys are crazy.

The Cantina Band was made up of 6 identical aliens wearing identical clothes. Just like the Beatles. John Williams is a master of cinematic scores, but he sometimes get criticized for being a little too symphonic. Anyone issuing that criticism apparently fell asleep during the Cantina sequence, where Williams created something that sounded both alien and familiar. It stands out from the rest of the score, yet still retains the timeless style that ties it all together. Anyway, the Cantina Band played that music. Which is to say they rocked back and forth and the music was added later to match the rhythm of their rocking.

Hasbro ha gotten a lot of mileage out of their first attempt at the Cantina Band Member, but it is seriously dated at this point. I’m not saying I’d buy six of this guy if they released him, but some people definitely would. Especially if all the instruments were included. It would just be nice to be able to upgrade the old one and modernize the Cantina a bit.


Wuher doesn’t play a huge part in the story, but he’s not completely inconsequential. His biggest contributions are getting upset about droids coming into the bar (for some reason), yelling about blasters, ratting out Obi-Wan to the Sandtroopers, and accepting Han’s standard dead goon removal fee. If Lucas had a bigger budget, I’m sure the bartender would have been some crazy multi-armed alien, like Tom Cruise in Cocktail. Instead we got a guy who just looks... like a bartender. He’s basically Moe Syzlac in a filthy bathrobe.

His action figure prospects are kind of stuck between the fact that he’s sort of important to any Cantina display and the fact that he’s super boring- from a design point of view. But this could also be an opportunity, since Hasbro has built a nice little tooling library of robed bodies. There might be something they can reuse for good old Wuher. Otherwise we’re stuck with a serviceable, but very outdated sculpt in the centers of our Cantinas. Speaking of the centers of our cantinas, the drink dispenser would obviously never fit on a vintage card, but there's got to be a way to figure that one out, no?

Editor's Note: Wuher hated droids because his family was murdered by Separatist droids during the Clone Wars. Makes more sense than hating sand.


The Max Rebo band delighted both audiences and the disgusting goons in Jabba’s Palace with their mellow, otherworldly tunes. Then the Special Edition happened, and the charming Muppet trio was converted to a big, loud, obnoxious ensemble of cartoon characters. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. The denizens still seemed to enjoy it.

OK, so it is definitely cheating to use one spot on 3 figures, but I think these really need to be done as a set. Replacing just Droopy McCool would just make things worse. Hasbro has fleshed out the band a bit since the POTF days with a couple of drummers and whatever Rappertunie is supposed to be, but the three core members are not good. They’re chunky, oversized, under-articulated, and in at least one case, based on really bad late 90's cgi. I don’t have strong feelings on the Puppet Sy Snoodles vs. cartoon Sy Snoodles debate, but I think the more toned-down version would be a better choice. I'll leave it to Hasbro's discretion whether they want to go with a Kenner-style diaper-wearing Max Rebo, or if they want to try and approximate the originally intended anatomy of the character. I'm sure people will be upset either way. Also, microphones!

Awww yeah. Clapping Lando. Make it happen, baby.

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