I recently bought Funko Pop! vinyl and 3 3/4-inch versions of obscure The Force Awakens character Sidon Ithano, and it got me thinking about why I collect what I collect. I don’t really collect Funko Pop or the 3 3/4 scale Star Wars figures, but I wanted these because of the character. Why did I buy these things? I’m not a hoarder of toys who needs to buy something every day, and my collecting is usually focused on a certain scale or figure line, so why did this character inspire me to buy these two items?
Obscure background characters having merchandise is nothing new in Star Wars collecting. One of the things I appreciate about George Lucas is he would have his creature department create these elaborate designs for Cantina Patrons, Jabba’s Goons, Podracers, and Jedi that appear for fractions of seconds at a time on screen. The team at Disney Star Wars seems to be continuing the tradition in The Force Awakens with the denizens of Maz Kanata’s castle. The vast variety of life forms in these scenes make the world feel massive and more real to me somehow.
As a kid, Kenner provided figures of many of these weird aliens and I loved them. I think that’s how I became interested in these background guys as a kid. Without the ability to re-watch the movies a thousand times, all I really had were the figures, and the designs of different guys like Bossk, ReeYees, Dengar, Weequays Gamorreans, and 4-Lom appealed to me. I don’t collect all the figures anymore, so I wondered how I became attached to Sidon Ithano. To figure it out I decided to retrace my steps.
Step 1
I first saw Ithano in one of the original TFA promotional materials — the Vanity Fair “The Force Awakens” article with pictures by Annie Liebovitz. There was a nice spread showing off many of the Kanata Castle creatures. Sidon’s gloss red mask popped out in a group of mostly earth tone-colored characters. He was mysterious and by far the coolest-looking guy in the group.
Step 2
I next spotted him in a clip from the Comic-Con 2015 reel that focused on all of the practical effects in the film. This showed Ithano actually speaking some sort of cool robotic language, and there was a bit of a recognition factor for me. I remember thinking, “Hey, there’s that red guy”! At this point, I didn’t know the name! Plus, there was a great close up on that cool helmet. If you look closely, you can see his eyes through the main slits in the mask.
Step 3
I first found out one of the character’s names at NYCC when Del Rey announced their book titled, The Crimson Corsair and the Lost Treasure of Count Dooku. All we knew was that it was a pirate story and the assumption was that the guy we now know as Sidon Ithano was the Crimson Corsair.
Later cover art confirmed that the Crimson Corsair was indeed our guy in the red helmet. That was intriguing to me because I love pirate stories and pirates crossed with Star Wars sounds like a lot of fun. The title of the story had a great pulpy feel to it as well, and it doesn’t hurt that it referenced one of my favorite Star Wars characters, Christopher Lee’s Count Dooku.
Step 4
Next time I saw Sidon was actually on the big screen in the actual film TFA. His part is pretty minimal — he’s a ship captain in Maz Kanata’s castle, and Maz refers the fleeing Finn to Ithano for work and transport to the outer rim. He’s shown chatting with Finn through an interpreter, leaving the castle with Finn and his crew member and loading his ship with equipment.
Nothing special, but I didn’t really expect anything fantastic from the guy, so it’s not like I was let down. His ship was pretty cool, though.
Step 5
The biggest information dump on Sidon, where I finally learned the name, was in Pablo Hidalgo’s fantastic The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary.
I picked this up the day after seeing TFA for the first time because I just wanted to be back in that world. The visual dictionary also has a great photo of the character that shows off the costume detail nicely. The dictionary lists his species as the as yet unseen Delphidian species. I love all the nicknames; Crimson Corsair, Red Raider and Blood Buccaneer. Such fun.The Art of The Force Awakens shows some really nice concept art for the character as well.
Step 6
Eventually, between multiple viewings of TFA, I finally read Landry Q. Walkers short story “The Crimson Corsair and the Lost Treasure of Count Dooku.” It’s been collected recently with five other short stories and released as Tales from a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Aliens, but I read it as an ebook months ago.
The story is a fun little action-adventure piece that features multiple pirate gangs racing against time and the elements to obtain a treasure lost since the days of the Clone Wars. It casts Sidon Ithano as a bit of an enigmatic figure who prevails against long odds in dangerous situations. Perfect. The story is written in super small little action set-piece chunks and had the Star Wars feeling of fun that I feel is missing from a lot of Expanded Universe material. It definitely added to the appeal of the character for me.
Step 7
You can see a bit more of Sidon in some of the TFA Blu-ray features, including a shot of him removing his mask. The character seems to have glossy black skin underneath that mask.
Step 8
As small a thing as it might be, I did grab the Sidon Ithano TFA trading card on the free Topps Trading card app.
I also saw that Ithano and his first mate Quiggold were announced as a 3 3/4-inch two-pack. I didn’t collect that scale of figure, but the first time I saw it on the pegs it was in my hands and it took a while before I decided to put it back. Then I saw the Funko Pop figure at Toys R Us and that almost made it home with me. Both aborted purchases gnawed at the back of my brain, and I eventually caved and bought both the next time I saw them on the shelves.
So going over the steps I’ve taken, I think a lot of what lead to this Sidon Ithano collection I’m starting is just how focused I am on Star Wars news. I pretty much looked at whatever was officially released, and you would have to look at it all in order to be exposed to this minor character in as many different ways as I have been. After exposure, there is the design itself. It’s clearly appealing at first glance. He’s got that Boba Fett-style cool factor for me that I can’t quite put my finger on. There are other TFA designs I found immediately appealing (Grummgar, Bazine, that weird Protocol Droid), but I haven’t focused on, so I think the interesting backstory as a SPACE PIRATE contributed to the appeal. The two figures of Sidon Ithano I bought are both nice representations and were pretty easy and inexpensive to obtain, so availability of merchandise is helping.
So I think I have figured it out for Sidon Ithano’s appeal to me. It has to do with frequent exposure due to Star Wars fanaticism, appealing design, fun backstory tidbits, and actual product availability/quality. Are there any minor characters out there that have appealed to you so much that you have created obscure character focused collections? Let me know in the comments!
