Averaging just below a metre in height, draped in dark cloaks that obscure their faces and muttering unintelligible menaces, the Jawas are the hoodies of Tatooine. Yet, unlike their Dagenham counterparts, they possess a distinct charm beneath all the vandalistic argy bargy. They are, after all, the perfect introduction, after the terrors of Vader, to the Star Wars rogues' gallery - mischievous but never evil.

"It's impossible to dislike them," says director Robert Rodriguez, who mentioned the Jawas third only to Darth Vader and R2-D2 when Empire asked for his favourite character recently. "You know, they're just little guys chasing a buck. You've got to root for them. When the stormtroopers take them out and Ben and Luke find them outside their sandcrawler is an upsetting moment for me."

Expanded for comedy effect in 1997's A New Hope redux, the Jawas you best know - the warrior division - are in fact the public face (well, yellow glowing eyes) of the species, the scavenging arm of a race which lives in fortresses deep in the desert to protect themselves from Tusken Raiders.

And let's face it, they're an energetic bunch, responsible, apparently, for finding Jabba The Hutt's rancor, as well as drawing the attention of Luke Skywalker and Uncle Owen to a certain R2-D2 and C-3P0... "I mean," says Rodriguez, "where would we be without them?" MARK DINNING