As creature designers can certainly attest, an alien being in the Star Wars universe has to be pretty unique to distinguish himself/herself/itself from the vast sea of strangeness that abounds in locales like the Mos Eisley Cantina, Jabba's Palace, or the streets of Coruscant. In the same way, collectibles bearing the likeness of a Star Wars alien have to be pretty extraordinary, or notorious, to outshine the lime-lighting heroes and villains of the saga. As the Star Wars universe seems inclined to champion the neglected, the ignored, and the underestimated, the saga has generously granted a small, motley crew of aliens the "grail collectible" status that's usually reserved for the Luke Skywalkers, R2-D2s, Obi-Wans, and Darth Vaders.
The following list draws out some of the more noteworthy collectible submissions made by the aliens of Star Wars, all of which have beat out droids, starships, villains and heroes to assume their rightful place among the hobby's pièces de résistance. The list is notably skewed toward the classic trilogy, since time has allowed many of the earliest items to root themselves firmly into the mythos of collector lore (thanks to Steve Sansweet for providing several of the items for this story).
From Kenner's 1985 Power of the Force line, the obscure Sail Barge denizen was only available in a few countries outside the U.S., since domestic distributors held the figure back for a planned mail-in offer that never materialized.
