Week 16: Hammerhead

Hammerhead....When I was a kid, this was probably my favorite of the cantina aliens because we knew nothing about him.  He was shown for a split second or two in the cantina scenes and the design of this alien was just too cool.  I remember too that when I played with my toys he was always a good guy to me.  In fact, when I decided to collect Star Wars again back in August 2001, my first purchase was an eBay auction for a loose Hammerhead figure.  I also won a loose Lando Calrissian figure from the same seller.  Also, his name is Hammerhead.....there is no Momaw Nadon here!

 I really like the picture used for the image used on the card and the card back itself.  However, what I really dislike about this carded figure is the way his head has to be turned to fit inside the bubble.  In my opinion it just doesn’t display very well, but what else where they to do?

Pictures from www.12back.com

Anyway,  Hammerhead continues the debut of the 20/21 back cards.  He was produced on subsequent card back up to the Power of the Force line however he was never released on the POTF card back.  However, proofs of this card back do exist and are very rare:

Here are the known card back releases according to Kellerman's book:

 SW 20-Back E w/Fett offer

SW 20-Back G w/Fett offer and “offer extended until 3/31/80” sticker

SW 21-Back A

SW 21-Back B

ESB 21-Back G w/ “secret figure” offer

ESB 31-Back B

ESB 41-Back A w/Survival Kit offer

ESB 45-Back A w/Display Arena offer

ESB 47-Back A w/4-LOM offer

ROTJ 48-Back D w/Nein Nunb offer

ROTJ 77-Back A

As you can see, there are not too many releases of this figure.  I did manage to find some pictures of foreign releases, but again the number is somewhat limited.  (all moc images from:  www.toysrgus.com ; www.12back.com ; www.brianstoys.com )

Italian Harbert Hammerhead:

Palitoy (UK) 20 back Hammerhead w/German distribution sticker:

Palitoy (UK) 20 Back Hammerhead (back of card)  Found this on EBay...the back is really cool featuring the Palitoy cardboard death star play set:

Palitoy (UK) ROTJ Hammerhead:

Clipper (Netherlands) ESB Hammerhead:

Of course this is a pretty simple straight forward figure so you can guess there isn’t much in the loose variation department, BUT there are a few minor variations and they have to do with the position of the figure's eyes.

Pictured below are the Hammerhead eye variants that I own:

 The Hammerhead on the left has eyes that are pointing to the figures left.  This is the most common Hammerhead and is found very easily.  The other Hammerhead pictured has eyes pointing up and down and both to the figure's right more or less.  This variant is a little harder to find.  Take a look at the close-up pic below to see the difference.  Also these have the same coo info.

 Below is yet another pic I found on the web showing the eye variations of Hammerhead.  The eyes pointing to any direction other than the figure's left is somewhat rare.  Most all Hammerheads seem to have the eyes pointing to the figure's left.

The only other Hammerhead variant I am aware of is the Tri-Logo without coo and is described as having Olive/brown body, blue/green torso similar to the description of the Tri Greedo.  I did not find a picture of this figure and maybe someone will be able to share some info in our forums.  Also, there may well be a Taiwan coo hammerhead as well, but I don’t know this for a fact.  Any info shared in the forums would be greatly appreciated so please sign up and share!

Hammerhead prices:  Again, a common figure and can be found loose complete easily for under $10 and probably under $5 if you do some shopping.  Eye variations may cost more if the seller is aware of it.

MOC prices of course vary, but this figure can be found on 20 and 21 back fairly easily and doesn’t seem to command the prices other first 21 figures do. I just did a number of complete auction searches on EBay and a 21 back recently sold for only $160 with a ROTJ carded version selling for as little as $30 and a ESB card selling for $60ish.

Next time, we will move on to the next cantina figure and his infamous blue cousin and the story behind it:  Snaggletooth.

 Thanks for reading!