| Teebo (Sneering) Torso & Left Leg Unpainted Hardcopies | |
| Everybody knows that Teebo is not only the coolest of all Ewoks, he's the greatest Star Wars figure every created!
Okay, so I'm exaggerating a bit; Teebo sucks. But that doesn't mean that this prototype of the figure isn't interesting. I call it the "sneering Teebo," in hopes that the name will catch on like "Rocketfett" or "63rd Coin" and make the piece trendier. Anyway, the title owes its existence to the fact that the figure really is sneering. Unlike the production version of Teebo, which has a tightly closed mouth, this hardcopy is snarling, its teeth clearly visible between the tiny Ewok lips.
Here's a close-up of the heads of the hardcopy and production figure. You can clearly see the sneer-- scary.
This last image shows the prototype as it would look under the rubber dead-pig headdress that was packaged with the production figure. The open mouth really gives the entire figure a very different character. Obviously, the figure was changed prior to production and the sneering mouth was eliminated in favor of a closed, even slightly smiling, pair of lips. It's hard to speculate as to why the change was made, but my guess is that Lucasfilm asked Kenner to change it. LFL is said to have been quite concerned with how the Ewoks were presented in toy form, and they forced Kenner to make many modifications to the facial expressions of their Ewok plush toys. It may have been that they didn't want the cuddly characters to appear too vicious. |
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| Description by: | Ron Salvatore |
| Photo: | Ron Salvatore |
| From the collection of: | Ron Salvatore |
| Country: | United States |
| Film: | Return of the Jedi |
| Licensee: | Kenner |
| Year: | 1983 |
| Category: | Prototypes / Action Figure Related |
