Bith

Bith are one of Star Wars’ most recognisable alien species despite having almost no narrative role in the films. Their large, smooth, dome-shaped skulls, black eyes, and small features make them immediately distinctive, but what makes them genuinely memorable is what they’re doing in their most famous appearance: playing jazz in a Tatooine bar while a Jedi, a smuggler, and a farm boy negotiate the charter that changes the galaxy. The Modal Nodes — the Bith band in the Mos Eisley Cantina — gave Star Wars one of its most iconic pieces of music and one of its most enduring alien species, and the Black Series has finally given them the figures they deserved.

Bith in Star Wars

Bith are native to Clak’dor VII, a world whose ecosystem was catastrophically damaged by biological warfare long before the events of the films. The species evacuated its remaining population to sealed cities and developed a culture that placed enormous emphasis on intellectual and artistic pursuits — science, mathematics, music. The musical aptitude that Bith musicians display in the cantina isn’t incidental: it’s the species’ most culturally developed capacity, and the Modal Nodes are among the galaxy’s most respected musicians in their genre.

In terms of physical characteristics, Bith have large craniums housing enlarged brains capable of remarkable processing speed and memory. Their senses of hearing and smell are significantly more acute than most humanoid species, which both explains their aptitude for music and makes the galaxy’s noisier environments somewhat demanding. They’re not a warrior species and don’t have significant military or political presence in the films, which is why their Black Series representation is built entirely around their cantina appearance.

The Mos Eisley Cantina’s in-universe name for the Bith band’s genre is Jizz — an upbeat, jazz-influenced style of galactic popular music that exists in the expanded universe as a full genre with its own tradition and practitioners. The Modal Nodes are among its most accomplished performers, and Figrin D’an’s reputation as a lead player extends well beyond Mos Eisley in the expanded fiction.

The Cantina Band and Star Wars Music

The Cantina Band theme — composed by John Williams and performed diegetically within the film by the Modal Nodes — is the piece of Star Wars music most recognisable to people who have never seen A New Hope. It’s been covered, parodied, and referenced so extensively across popular culture since 1977 that it exists independently of the film, but its function within the cantina sequence is precise: it establishes that the cantina is a place where normal rules are suspended, where the galaxy’s edges meet, where something completely alien to Tatooine’s dusty ordinaries is possible.

The music does something unusual for a film score. It’s not background. It’s not mood-setting in the conventional sense. It’s specifically diegetic — the band is in the room, playing for the clientele, and the audience is hearing what the characters hear. That choice makes the cantina feel populated and lived-in rather than merely designed. The Bith musicians are the reason the cantina is a place rather than just a set.

Williams constructed the piece with deliberate otherworldliness — unusual for his Star Wars work, which tends toward the epic and the sweeping. The Cantina Band is jaunty, rhythmically irregular, and harmonically strange in ways that communicate alien culture more efficiently than any amount of production design. You know where you are the moment it starts.

Figrin D’an

Figrin D’an is the Modal Nodes’ lead musician and its most prominent member — the Kloo horn player whose name has been canonically established since the original Expanded Universe gave the cantina’s background aliens their biographies. The Galaxy Collection ANH release from 2023 is his first dedicated Black Series figure, and it captures the specific Bith design with the Kloo horn that is his instrument.

As a 6-inch figure, the Bith design presents an interesting challenge that the ANH wave handles well — the large skull, the small features, the specific alien proportions that made the original cantina puppet design so distinctive. At this scale the design is accurate without the compromise that smaller formats require, and Figrin D’an reads immediately as a Bith musician rather than a generic alien.

Nalan Cheel

Nalan Cheel is the Modal Nodes’ bandfill player — a different instrument, a different position in the band’s sound, and the second dedicated Bith figure in the line. His Deluxe release format reflects the additional accessories his instrument requires, and it makes him the more display-specific of the two figures: a dedicated musician figure with the specific instrument configuration that distinguishes him from Figrin D’an.

The Deluxe status is a Hasbro Pulse exclusive, which is the primary sourcing consideration. At secondary market prices he can command a premium, but for collectors building the Mos Eisley Cantina display to its fullest, Nalan Cheel is the figure that completes the band’s representation in the line.

The Bith in the Black Series Collection

The two Bith figures arrived together as part of the 2023 ANH Galaxy Collection wave — the production decision to cover the cantina band specifically, rather than more action-oriented ANH characters, is a meaningful statement about the line’s ambitions for the Original Trilogy display. It acknowledges that the Mos Eisley Cantina’s identity isn’t built by its dramatic incidents alone — it’s built by its atmosphere, and the Bith musicians are the most significant contributors to that atmosphere.

For collectors building the Mos Eisley display, both figures are essential: Figrin D’an provides the mainline accessibility, Nalan Cheel provides the Deluxe variety, and together they give the cantina a band rather than a single representative musician. The Mos Eisley scene covers the full cantina display context.

All Bith Zabrak Figures in the Black Series

Check off the figures you own with the Black Series Checklist.

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Part of Star Wars The Black Series | Species Index. Related: Mos Eisley | Cantina Confrontation | Species Index.