Zutton (Snaggletooth) - POTJ - Basic

Zutton is a Snivvian artist who turned bounty hunter by chasing down Thalassian slavers. He was given the nickname "Snaggletooth" at the Mos Eisley cantina, because of his pronounced fangs. His exceptional bounty hunter skills have caught the attention of crimelord Jabba the Hutt, who has put his services on retainer.

Snaggletooth. Takeel. Zutton. Rachalt Hyst. Zutmore. You may or may not have heard these names before, but one thing is for sure. There is more confusion regarding who the 1979 Kenner Snaggletooth figure(s) is(are) than probably any other character in the Star Wars saga. You know the Blue Snaggletooth story all too well. Kenner didn’t have all the right reference materials to see what “Snaggletooth” actually looked like. It was a black and white photo still and it was cut off at the bottom. As a result, Kenner had to estimate the rest of the action figure. As time went on, they made a revision in a red suit and made him shorter and removed the siver boots. They also painted him red. Most of us affectionately refer to this figure as Snaggletooth (Red). But who is that figure really meant to represent? According to the original Kenner figure, it’s a character from The Star Wars Holiday Special and not A New Hope. But although the Kenner action figure borrows some of the details from the costume of that character from The Star Wars Holiday Special, many other parts of him seem to resemble the Snivvian in the red shirt clearly seen in Chalmun’s cantina. As you can see, the lines become quite clouded and what should be seemingly crystal clear is actually quite murky. Now that Hasbro has attempted to update the Kenner figure with 2001’s Power Of The Jedi Zutton (Snaggletooth) figure, should everything be finally resolved? Sadly, the answer to that question is a resounding no. In fact, it may even be more confusing now.

The 2001 Power Of The Jedi figure is meant to be Zutmore, as only seen in The Star Wars Holiday Special. It’s quite possible (and likely) that this was the same character Kenner was trying to design in 1979, not immediately realizing that they were looking at a still of The Star Wars Holiday Special cantina patron and not a character from A New Hope. But what makes this so confusing is that the head sculpt of the Kenner figure looks so much like the Snivvian wearing the red shirt in Chalmun’s cantina whose name is Takeel. Is 1979’s Snaggletooth an anachronistic hybrid of these two characters? These aren’t easy questions to answer unequivocally. And it appears that the more they're discussed, the more confused we become. Let us delve deeper into this. So we know that the 2001 Power Of The Jedi figure is now Zutmore. We know the Snivvian wearing the red shirt is Takeel. But who are these other names? Zutton is actually the Snivvian wearing the blue shirt in Chalmun’s cantina. As a result, he is no longer an Expanded Universe character he was thought to be, although the Blue Snaggletooth figure from 1979 isn’t close to being screen accurate. Then we come across another name: Rachalt Hyst. However, this is the same exact character as Zutmore. The name Rachalt Hyst came from the Star Wars Customizable Card Game set. Lucasfilm Ltd. took control and returned Rachalt Hyst to his original name Zutmore as it appeared on the script of The Star Wars Holiday Special. Oh, and Snaggletooth is just a nickname for the Snivvian species. We haven’t even talked about the figure yet, but that should give you an indication of the confusion surrounding the identity of these characters.

So clearly, Zutton (Snaggletooth) should really be named Zutmore (Snaggletooth). That’s number one. You’ll need to quickly get over his name issues because the action figure looks fantastic and it’s the first action figure ever to be based solely on a character from The Star Wars Holiday Special exclusively. The action figure is designed very well. Zutton (Snaggletooth) comes with eight points of articulation. The nicest addition here are the hinge-jointed legs which allow the figure to “sit at a bar stool” or any other similar activity. He comes with a clear bar glass (which itself has a very nice sculpt), cannon and blaster pistol that can be placed in a holster on his ankle when not in use. The cannon is a nice feature also, even though it wasn’t seen in any Star Wars source to date. It hangs on his right shoulder and he can hold it in battle quite convincingly. Clearly, there are a great amount of things to appreciate here. There is also a running change on the figure. You may or may not be aware of this, but there are actually two versions of Zutton (Snaggletooth). We honestly aren’t positive which version came first, but it’s easy to explain which one looks better. His skin tone and hair color can be found in two different shades: (1) a version with a bright flesh tone and light gray hair and (2) a version with a jaundiced skin tone and yellowing gray hair. Version 2 seems to be harder to locate by comparison. Zutton (Snaggletooth) is a wonderful homage to the classic Snaggletooth action figure. It gives us for the first time a completely accurate version of the character that appeared on the 1979 vintage Kenner card back: Zutmore. A must-have for fans of niche and novel action figures.