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I always rather liked the original Kenner Greedo action figure. He married up well with the 1978 Han Solo figure in that both had the bent arm so they could have their little blaster stand-off. With his amphibious face, his antenna and pursed lips alongside his garish green face and outfit the Greedo figure was something akin to a very stereotypical looking alien.

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Like all the other 1978 original vintage Cantina action figures there was something very tactile about the Kenner Greedo figure. They were all a great contrast of shape and colour and as such perfect for firing up a young child's imagination. This made them really good toys and they were good to hold too since they had texture. Greedo's body suit is ribbed, Hammerhead's body is veiny and Walrus Man's webbed feet have great indentations. They were not just action figures, but great toys which appealed strongly to the senses as well as to the imagination and this made them incredibly engaging. In these figures Kenner managed to create something stimulating and probably quite good for child development. This may well have been an accident, but it was a good one.

One of the impressive things about the movie character Greedo is that despite him being dead within five minutes of us first encountering him he remains one of the most memorable and iconic characters from A New Hope. Perhaps this is because this is almost the first time we've heard a human converse with an alien whilst they both speak two different languages (Obi-Wan's conversation with Chewie happens off screen and at this stage in the movie C-3PO is even having to translate what R2-D2 says for Luke. At what stage Luke learns to understand astromech droids is never clear, but he certainly doesn't need C-3PO to interpret for R2 by the time of The Empire Strikes Back.) The sale of the droids takes place in two languages but it's not that much of a two-way conversation and, in the scuffle between Luke and Ponda Baba, Dr Ezavan (a human) has to translate.

The conversation between Han and Greedo is direct and more intmiate, between two rivals who know each other fairly well and thus Greedo emerges as the first alien who is a rounded character and at the foreground of our attention. This makes him fairly fascinating. Greedo is an alien creature with a backstory, a language, a humanoid personality and he's an alien who occupies an equal status to the human characters especially when compared to the Sand People and Jawas who are represented as lower and peripheral lifeforms. Moreover, Han is as much a part of Greedo's world as Greedo is of Han's. Han understands Greedo effortlessly, and thus we are suddenly immersed in a trans-species multi-cultural setting rather than in an alien one. The diversity and possibilities of the Star Wars world suddenly become very intriguing.

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Although I have a few original Han Solo style blasters, the one pictured here is a repro as this is the Kenner Greedo figure that I use for display purposes. In the banner photo the Han Solo action figure has an original blaster and the Greedo figure carries a reproduction blaster.

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In terms of wear and tear the vintage Kenner Greedo action figure tends to fare quite well by comparison with its contemporaries. This probably has to do with the application of one shade of blue-green paint over a shade of green which meant for one thing that paint-loss is less conspicuous than it is on other early Star Wars action figures which had lots of stark colour contrast between layers of paint.

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All Star Wars action figures, vehicles, collectibles and Star Wars toys shown on this website are the 3.75 inch scale and from my own private Star Wars collection unless otherwise stated. Where possible original vintage accessories have been used but in some instances I have placed Kenner Star Wars figures with either reproduction weapons and accessories or for Hasbro figures close approximations have been used. This is mostly the case for modern Star Wars lightsabers where the correct item can be very difficult to identify on some ocassions. Vintage Star Wars action figures are shown with their original weapon or accessory when I have them. When a vintage Kenner action figure is shown with an accessory which is not original I have tried to point this out where possible.

All of the Star Wars action figures shown were purchased second hand, usually incomplete, and in bulk. They have been reunited with their original weapons and accessories where we could get hold of them.

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