Though it wasn’t called out as one of the more egregious changes at the time, George Lucas’ decision to insert a mostly CG band doing a new musical number into Return of the Jedi: Special Edition remains a baffling call. The original puppetered Max Rebo band was just fine! Sure, some smart fans who knew that their song “Lapti Nek” was originally written like a fitness song (seriously; look it up) objected to how ’80s it seemed. But replacing the lead singer, Sy Snootles, in her strangely weird puppet form, with a new CG model with pouty lips, duetting with a cartoonish thing named Joh Yowza on a song literally called “Jedi Rocks”…isn’t better.
Work It out!
Eagle-eyed audience members can still spot the puppet Sy in the background of some other Jabba’s palace scenes, so that version of the species remains canon. But when it comes to toys, fans of 1983 Sy haven’t had a new one since the ’80s. It’s possible that if George Lucas were in charge, we still might not — he had a penchant for erasing things he didn’t like from the story, like the Holiday Special. This year, though, we got our first Star Wars Holiday Special figure, and now we’re getting a super-sized version of the 1983 Sy Snootles from Gentle Giant. She’s a foot tall, as measured from the bottom of her birdlike feet to the top of the feather in her head.
The original Rebo Band figures came only in a three-pack, but with the upsized 12-inchers running $80 apiece, that probably seemed like a lot upfront. For consistency and wallet-pacing, Gentle Giant promises that Max Rebo and Droopy McCool will come later as single-carded figures. As with others in the line, they come in resealable blisters with vintage-style card art. To keep supplies ample for everyone who wants one, there’s a limit of two Sy Snootles figures per account.
Take a look from every angle in the official images below:
