Yak Face Mini-Bust by Gentle Giant

As you may know, the character of Yak Face made an appearance on Jabba’s sail barge, but was another one of those “blink and you’ll miss him” types of characters that Star Wars is famous for. Kenner made a vintage figure of the character, but it came right at the tail end of their action figure line and it ended up never being released in the US. This made it relatively rare and valuable. The rarity of the vintage figure has caused several other Yak Face collectibles to be released as limited editions, such as the rare Kubrick chase figure or this mini-bust.

It was released in 2009 as a PGM (Premier Guild Member) exclusive, so you could only get one if you were a member of Gentle Giant’s club, which involved paying yearly fees and wasn’t something that I was that interested in at the time. I was only just starting my Jabba obsession then, and I figured I would wait and get one of these when I found a good deal. Unfortunately, that time never came. Being a PGM exclusive and limited to only 800 pieces seems to have kept prices high on the secondary market. I finally decided I had waited long enough and bought one on eBay, but I ended up paying several times the original price. 😦

I’m pretty pleased with it, though. The sculpt and paint are good, and the “real” hair that they have applied really works better than I had expected. It’s also a bit taller than most other Gentle Giant busts. This was Gentle Giant’s holiday bust for 2009, which means that it comes with some parts that you can switch out to make it a Christmas version. The normal version of the bust has him leaning on the top of a weapon (vibro-axe?) but you can swap this out for a candy cane. He also has a set of antler that attach to his head via magnets. It’s pretty cute, but I don’t think I’ll be going to the trouble to dig out these parts each Christmas. (They also made a version of the bust with the Christmas parts permanently attached that was only given to friends of clients of Gentle Giant.)

This is the last of the Jabba’s Palace-related mini-busts from Gentle Giant that I needed in my collection, with the exception of Boba Fett, which is unfortunately even more expensive than this one. I hope to get one eventually, since I have space for it in my display, as you can see below. Still, I don’t like spending large amounts on these busts. Of course, I got all of my other busts for well under retail, so I guess it evens out in a way.