(or, a very small focus collection of my favorite Star Wars species)
There are many super-interesting, fantastically developed alien species in the Star Wars, out of any of which you could make up a wonderful collection. For some reason, however, I have always been particularly partial to the Gand. Only one member of this species appeared in the movies -- the bounty hunter Zuckuss, who appeared for a couple seconds in The Empire Strikes Back -- but once I read his backstory in Tales of the Bounty Hunters, I immediately became intrigued by the character and the Gand species. Was it their exotic insectoid biology? Their quirky third-person self-reference? Or their tradition of Force-sensitive Findsmen (imagine a sort of bounty hunter-cum-mystical shaman)? Probably all of the above!
Anyway, when I first started customizing and collecting in earnest in Fall 2001, Zuckuss and the Gand species loomed particularly large for me. There were only two figures of Zuckuss then -- the vintage “4-LOM” and the POTF2 Freeze Frame Zuckuss -- so I got to work and made some more, inventing my own characters when necessary (for example, I gave the bug-eyed bounty hunter from Empirea sweetheart). Since then I have amassed and created several other figures, dolls, and other artifacts pertaining to Zuckuss and other members of his species, and this Gandish Gallery is the result.
(And here I must acknowledge a huge debt of gratitude to Andy Marti, a/k/a Bear78. His Zuckuss focus collection -- which is way bigger, better, and more complete than mine -- was what inspired me to put this “gallery” of mine together to begin with.)
Here’s what’s in this photo (roughly left to right), with links to those of the customs that are posted on this website:
And now for a few more photos of items gained since the upper photo was taken. First, a few cards of various sorts:
Top left: Topps Finest trading card
Top right: Certificate of authenticity from the Gentle Giant bust
Bottom left: Stats card from Wizards of the Coast Star Wars Miniatures game
Bottom right: Sketch card by Lee Horner
A close-up of the Horner card just because I like it so much (much bigger than life, of course):
Also, a group photo some of the smaller Zuckuss figures in the collection (to wit, the DeAgostini lead figurine, the Wizards of the Coast miniature, and the Playskool Galactic Heroes figure, going from left to right):
... and several views of the fantastic Kotobukiya ArtFX Zuckuss statue, in all its unboxed glory. (Please pardon the inadvertent product placement for 4711 Original Eau de Cologne!)
