My 30 favorite Star Wars Characters
I saw a post by Samurai Frog on his blog "Electronic Cerebrectomy" where he listed his 30 favorite Star Wars characters. You can see his list here:
posted by Ben Balistreri @ 1:12 AM
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Hi! I'm currently a storyboard artist and character designer at Disney TV working on Wander Over Yonder! I just finished a 6 year run as a story artist at DreamWorks were I boarded on How To Train Your Dragon among other movies. I'm an Emmy Award winner for my character designs on "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends". I've worked as a storyboard artist and character designer at Nickelodeon on Danny Phantom, and a character designer at Disney TV for too many projects to list. I've been nominated for 7 Annie Awards and have recently self published my first graphic novel: "Seaweed, and the Cure for Mildew." All work is is a copyright of me unless it's for some studio I'm working for.
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97 Comments:
wow just awesome man
Nice!
And unexpected, especially after Darth Vader clocked in.
A certain Admiral could've moved up a couple of places though :D
Ben you can have a whole flash series based on these characters! I'm sure LAS would be interested in seein em animated into a show.
way to go! Your chars have so much fun in em!
way to go! Very inspiring.
DAMN! love it them all! And the frame... I feel like I'm 8 years old again...
Excellent stuff. Great to see these done up all purty in your style, Ben.
HA! these are amazing!
What the crap! I want a poster of THIS! I wanna watch this show! Trading cards! Something. These are amazing man!
Ben,you seriously just made my day. These are wicked cool. I agree with what Gulazar said, we totally need to see these guys in action!
These are priceless.
Fantastic blog!!
Just saw these posted on SuperPunch blog - I totally dig each one of these custom cards!!!! So you probably worked with Jackson on your last gig at PDI. We were painting over the weekend out in Marin.
I cant pick a favorite out of these they are all soo hillarious and amazing... Once again man you are my hero!
Good lord, Ben. These are all amazing, but the Jabba, Yoda, and Bossk are mind blowing. You've made my day.
Bonus points for the packaging motif!
Wow. Worth a second (and third and fourth) look.
Awesome work :-D
So cool! Love them all!
Beautiful work! I just want a mosaic of this to hang up now. It's impossible to pick a favorite, but I am loving on that little Max Rebo!
All are great. Love Darth and Wampa.
Wow! These are fantastic! Can't even attempt to pick a favorite, they're all so wonderful.
I'd pay good money for one of those Jawa action figures.
The name of the #15 imperial spy is "Garindan" ;)
so good LOVE it!
Such wonderful and lively designs!
Pretty Awesome Ben! You should really find out what it would take to put these up in postcard form or playing cards would be great!
either way, Fantastic!
WOW!! These are sweat designs sir! Well done. Love your picks!
You're INSANELY talented!
Beauties,
MAC
Veeeeeery impressive.
My personal favorite is IG-88
Gladly, you don't like JarJar and Ewoks ;)
Nice stuff again
Love 'em all!!! ^__^
You've got so much style...congrats!
Outstanding Benny!
These are fabulous. The style is cohesive, and yet each character is unique. I'm really impressed.
Wow... so cool and so much FUN! Thanks for posting these. Now you got me thinking about my own fave 30. Hmmm???
Love your Jabba! So pushed! I just forwarded your blog to the recruiter and director of the new CG Star Wars series at Lucasfilm Animation.
Igual de bueno que siempre!! :-)
good work!
fanfriggingtastic my friend.ad
Um, these are awesome and all, but where's Yaddle!?!
damn. these are awesome!
Ben these are just amazing! I really dig the designs, your choice of characters and the action figure packaging theme. Especially like that Hammerhead was number one. He was one of my favorite action figures when I was growing up because I would rotate his head 180 degrees and pretend he was the alien from Alien! Thanks for bringing back all my action figure memories!
Amazing job, man!!
More than fantasticmundo! I think Walrus man's name was Ponda Boba or something. Can't believe Jar Jar didn't make it ;)
Just lends to the movies how fantastic the characters of the originals were designed too.
Epic!! Great list and illustrations, thanks for sharing.
Wow, these are wonderful!
this was worth to wait
Very impressive. You should do more or these.
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Momaw Nadon has always been my fav, too :D
I love it! The force was with you ... definately.
so beautiful in so many different ways!! awsome man!
but...?....did yoda really wear a snake scarf? hmmm....will have to watch the series again, haha!
If these drawings aren't released in original sizes or made available as posters - I will hurt someone .... on Planet Endor
So friggin wicked.
#17 Walrus Man's name is Ponda Baba.
#15 Imperial Spy's name is Garindan.
#14 Tuscan Raiders are actually Tusken Raiders.
#12 Snaggletooth's name is Zutton.
Loved the artwork though!!
omg this is so fun! great job, ben!
Thanks everyone for all these great comments!
Jason, I fixed the spelling mistake on the Tusken Raider. Ugh! Some nerd I turned out to be!
As far as the "actual" names of some of those other characters I was aware of them but chose to go with their much simpler and cooler sounding names from my youth. I mean "Zutton" sounds pretty lame compared to "Snaggletooth". "Momaw Nadon" is OK I guess, but I still like calling him "Hammerhead". "Ponda Baba" will never be as awesome as "Walrus man", at least in my opinion.
Shannon- If I put Yaddle on the list the pure glory that she emanated would have blinded out all the other characters. She's just too awesome.
Awesome! I'm impressed. Any chance that you can do a San Hill? I'd love to see your take on him. Thanks and keep up the amazing work.
I really enjoyed this, being a big Star Wars fan, but I hate the nicknames that were given to characters you put on the list. I mean, if they really are your favorite characters, you should know their real names.
Walrus Man = Ponda Baba
Imperial Spy = Garindan
Snaggletooth = Zutton
Hammerhead = Momaw Nadon
Hey Gamard,
Yah, I know their "real" names but I'm old enough to remember when they came out as action figures in the late 70's the packages used what you call "nicknames". Back then we didn't have expanded universe stories or the internet so the names on the Kenner packages were all we had. Since it's my favorite list I chose to use the names that had the most meaning to me. Geez, I sound like a grumpy old man. :) But seriously..."Zutton"? "Snaggletooth is way cooler sounding!
Hands down, Jabba the Hutt was my favorite. I totally wish you would make these into a series, and continue on from #31 up. Great stuff!
Awesome! What else can I say? Jawa design is so cool!
I love it! The force was with you ... definately.
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61 comments?!
geez lol
well deserved
these are slick-I laughed at the jawa
throwin your blog up on my blog roll ASAP
cheers!
joe
incredible! i did my own versions of 3 characters...but THIRTY!?!? great drawings, as always!
i like how that wampa is eatin' a chicken leg
Love your designs!
Ahahahah!! Great thanks for this funny moment! Should be great to watch them in a animated movie
HOLY CRAP DUDE! These are all amazing!!!
These characters are great!!! I want to make your biker scout in 3D!!
So cool! Love them all!
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Espectaculares... I can´t barely choose one LOL
fantastic!
(i luv Chewbacca)
yea...brilliant :)
Wow! This is a really great post! Bossk and Walrus Man are my favorites!
Ben, you are a genius. I love your bevy of marvelous and funny creatures. They look like they were conceived by the FX wizards for the Transformer movie series. Others are hysterical escapees from the Star Wars trilogy. You have just about covered every character except Princess Leah and Luke Skywalker. These creatures have a zippy fun look that brings a belly laugh when viewed from their pseudo 35 mm film artistic niche . How could you not laugh at these funny parodies of the real thing? The hulking Terminator movies took robotics to a new height; now, Ben takes off the gloves and makes robotics the fun thing we can all enjoy, young, or old, rich, or poor. This is where pure imagination meets the road. Imagination is the main key in illustrating and cartooning. I really like the wacky style that you present on your website. I can only hope to be as talented someday and master cartooning the way you did.
Wow. Just amazing designs!
Too awesome!
Excellents designes! You are a great artist!
nice! Any new books at comic con this year?
-George
A friend of mine just emailed me link of your Blog and I must thank him for this. You have a great Blog here.
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wonderful
Hilarious stuff man.
WOW!!! These are amazing!!!!
I'm glad we see eye to eye on the fact that Hammerhead rocks the Star Wars universe. Fantastic character designs all around. Your Ackbar and R2 are among my favorites. Pretty amazing!
Holy crap I'm so happy I saw these.
These are awesome! I like Admiral Ackbar as I had the action figure back in the day : )
Amazing! Super rad!
Hahahahah these are amazing....cool
very nice and awesome pictures .. keep up the good work
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qwesome man....wickedly cool
nice animated cartoons.
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Epic list! Bossk at number 2 is a great choice, but Tusken Raider at 14? He's clearly top 6!
All is forgiven, though, with the addition of the Imperial Spy.
Great stuff!
Look very nice!
Check up our flash cartoons too!
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