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In the Original Trilogy of Star Wars films Chewbacca seems to spend half his life either being a prisoner or pretending to be a prisoner. Firstly, he has the binders put on him on the Death Star in A New Hope, then he is a prisoner on Bespin and kept in a cell when the heroes are betrayed by Lando Calrissian. Next, in The Return of the Jedi, he is delivered as a prisoner in chains to Jabba the Hutt by Princess Leia Organa in disguise as the bounty hunter Boushh and we again find him in a prison cell when Han Solo is freed from the carbonite.

There seems to be a theme developing here and it is further extended in the first series of the Star Wars Rebels cartoon when we find Ezra Bridger and his companions rescuing captured Wookiees from the spices mines of Kessell where they had been transported by the Empire to work the mines. The expectation from The Revenge of the Sith however is that the Empire are pretty meticulous about killing Wookiees off rather than imprisoning them, as the Imperial troopers take particular care after the battle on Kashyyyk that all the Wookiees are dead. This might explain the Imperial Officer's surprise in A New Hope when he asks Han and Luke disguised as Stormtroopers, 'where are you taking this thing?'. He is obviously surprised to see a Wookiee in captivity. It seems like the Wookiees are singled out for an especial level of contempt and persecution by the Empire perhaps because of the special relationship which Yoda and the Jedi had with them.

The Star Wars movie which explores the theme of Wookiees as prisoners the most is undoubtedly the newly released Solo: A Star Wars Story. In this Star Wars spin off our expectations of a total Wookiee genocide from The Revenge of the Sith are undermined as we see both the Empire and the slavers of Kessell quite happy to keep some Wookiee's alive as slaves and prisoners. In The Return of the Jedi the monster in the pit had been the Rancor, and then the Sarlaac. Jabba the Hutt decrees that Han Solo and his companions are to be thrown to the Sarlaac monster, just as in Solo: A Star Wars Story Han is to be thrown into a pit to be eaten by a monster for the entertainment of onlookers above (in a highly reminiscent way to Jabba's courtiers watching the Rancor monster attack Luke Skywalker in the pit below).

The theme is turned on it's head however when the monster in the pit turns out to be Han's future lifelong friend and co-pilot, the Wookiee Chewbacca. Han as it turns out already speaks a little of one of the Wookiee dialects and turns this to his advantage to liberate both himself and Chewbacca from the pit. It is now this, and also Chewbacca's liberating his fellow Wookiee's from enslavement on Kessell, which sets the scene and the context for all the times in Star Wars Episodes IV through to VI when Chewbacca is put in to cuffs or shackles as a deception to gain entry to free another prisoner as a sort of Trojan horse. With the context of their first meeting now established, Chewbacca's allowing himself to be cuffed as a prisoner on the first Death Star and also delivered into captivity at Jabba's Palace underscores all the more the loyalty and trust that he places in Han and his Rebel friends. To some extent this also underscores the faith that Chewbacca's friends place in his ability to free himself from captivity as he had done on Kessell.

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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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