Vintage Kenner Ugnaught

It's always difficult to choose a favourite among lots of favourites! I've been a fan of Vintage Kenner Star Wars ever since I got my first 4 figures in the eighties. I mostly played with Vintage Star Wars, Masters of the Universe and toy cyclists in my childhood. Though I totally loved Masters of the Universe (I still do), Star Wars ultimately triumphed and at the end of the eighties I looked for every item that carried the name 'Star Wars'.

When I played with the vintage toys my favourite figures were Han Solo Trench Coat, Lando Calrissian General Pilot, Biker Scout, Bossk and Boba Fett. Since just a few playsets were released in Belgium, I started to construct playsets out of carton for my figures. I created Jabba's Palace, a Freezing Chamber, Endor playground and even Cloud City.

Many years have gone by and I must admit that throughout the years my perspective on the figures changed. When I was a kid I really wanted my figures to be soldiers or guards. I almost never used figures like 'Imperial Dignitary' (Sim Aloo), the Power Droid or Max Rebo. All they  did was stand or sit somewhere. I didn't really understand why Kenner made these characters and while other figures (such as the Rebel Fleet Trooper) were never made. While some choices still sound a bit weird weird to me, I have come to understand that Kenner was really courageous to create figures as the 'Death Star Droid' or Anakin Skywalker. My favourite Vintage figure is one of these figures that couldn't didn't fight in the movies.

The Ugnaught has become my favourite Vintage figure during the last couple of years. He's visually very interesting. It's a small(er) porcine alien, with a grey jumpsuit, white/grey hair and two tusks. He comes with two unique accessoires: a white toolcase and with an apron. So he's one of the few Vintage figures that came with two accessoires instead of one. His white toolcase certainly is a strange accessoire for a figure, but it appears in the movie!

What's also interesting about the Ugnaught is the variation of colors of the apron. Basically you have a purple and blue colored apron, but I've seen many variations of colors between the two main variations. The Ugnaught I owned as a kid had a purple apron, but I've come to understand that the one with the blue one is the more common variation.

The Ugnaught was released in 1981 in the second large wave of TESB figures (along with Dengar, Lobot etcetera). I guess Hasbro made him because he's one of the few alien characters in TESB. And there was no limit on the amount of Ugnaughts you could have, just like you could buy more than one Jawa. I doubt if many kids had more than one Ugnaught though. He also came with the cardboard Cloud City playset of Sears and was also released at Sears Canada on that weird looking black card (http://theswca.com/index.php?action=disp_item&item_id=42007). The Ugnaught on the Sears card is extremely rare and there might just be only a couple of them still attached to their cards.

I try to collect Vintage Ugnaughts whenever I get the chance, preferably complete with toolcase and apron. I have an Ugnaught on TESB, RotJ and TriLogo card. My Ugnaught tribe will probably continue to grow :)