Walrus Man - SW - Basic

For me, Walrus Man was right up there with Hammerhead as one of my favorite Star Wars figures from the late 70s. Like the other cantina aliens, I didn’t pay much attention to the screen inaccuracy of his appearance or costume. He looked pretty darn cool, came with a gun, and looked like a menacing character in the toy line. It didn’t seem there were any other options for Walrus Man than to be a “bad” guy. My friends and I called him “Butt Face,” and it’s obvious why that was such a natural nickname to give him. Throughout the years, I discovered different paint operations on the Walrus Man action figures. (To this day I obsess about paint operation differences.) His mouth different in varying shades of beige, and his head and hands are found in varying shades of that odd bluish-green color. I found his flippers interesting charming and for years believed that the Walrus Man was screen accurate. Sadly all of us were deceived by this great Kenner figure. Hasbro could have almost perfected this figure had they colored his arms in orange, added orange to the tops of his legs (if you look carefully you can see part of his tunic is sculpted into the hips) and painted his pants brown or tan. He still would have flippers, but at least they’re black and could double as boots. Walrus Man was featured as a cameo in a Season 5 episode of THE CLONE WARS in 2013. Unfortunately, Hasbro didn’t take this nod seriously and never produced a modern version of the classic vintage Kenner figure, complete with errors. Oh well, at least they made some great modern action figures of Ponda Baba. The Hasbro figures are significant, but none of them can shake the charm of 1979’s Walrus Man.

Hasbro's Most Definitive Modern Counterpart: 2011's TVC Ponda Baba (Walrus Man) (VC70) figure.