Rango Tel Rango Tel was a particularly dim - witted Human male who hailed from the Outer Rim planet Sernpidal . Growing up as a street ruffian , an instance of pure and utter luck led him to believe that it was his life ' s calling to become a bounty hunter . Defeating a drunkard in an unruly bar brawl , Tel ended up collecting a bounty he never pursued and winning the allegiance of the Pa ' lowick smuggler Aneesa Dym . With Dym at his side , Tel set out into the galaxy in the starship " Dusty Duck " and was quickly swindled into wearing an inappropriate vac - exposure suit that he believed was Mandalorian armor , consequently earning the derisive nickname " Tank Head . " Calling upon a contact from his youth , the racketeer Orin Nyell , Tel was given his first bounty : the Fluggrian Kam Nale , whose family threatened Nyell ' s smuggling operations on Ploo IV . Eager to make a name for himself in the bounty hunting trade , Tel set off with Dym to track down Nale , eventually locating him on Tatooine . The Fluggrian had involved himself with the local podracing circuit in Mos Espa , leading Tel to corner him in an alley shortly before the commencement of the Boonta Eve Classic . Having placed too much faith in the protective abilities of his vac - exposure suit , Tel was gunned down by Nale , bringing an abrupt halt to the short - lived Sernpidal native ' s career . Biography . Early life . Born and raised on the Outer Rim world of Sernpidal , the Human male Rango Tel lived his young life as a disenfranchised street ruffian in the planet ' s slums . During his youth , Tel was involved with the local racketeer Orin Nyell , and did a few odd jobs for him . After several years , as a young man , he was drawn into a cantina brawl where he inadvertently incapacitated a patron with a bounty on their head for the murder of Pa ' lowick smuggler Neeamesh Dym . Though Tel had initially been unaware of the bounty , he ultimately decided to claim it and began to believe that it was his destiny to enter the bounty hunter profession . The client was Neeamesh Dym ' s daughter , Aneesa , but unfortunately for Tel she had already spent all of her savings pursuing the killer across the galaxy . As an alternative to payment , Aneesa Dym offered Tel both her father ' s freighter , the " Dusty Duck " , and her services as the ship ' s pilot as he embarked on his new career as a ruthless bounty hunter . Tel accepted , eager to pursue his career away from Sernpidal — as the partnership commenced , Dym became smitten with her new Human companion . Bounty hunter . When it came to inspiration for Tel ' s new image as a bounty hunter to be feared in the criminal underworld , he drew from the iconography of the Mandalorians , specifically the Basilisk war droid - riding warriors who had served Mandalore the Indomitable against the Galactic Republic , rather than the pacifist New Mandalorians who had recently ascended to power on Mandalore following the Great Clan Wars . Hoping to secure his own set of Mandalorian armor , Tel traveled to Feriae Junction , and came across a junk dealer of ill - repute and sought to purchase equipment for his new endeavor . Based on the direct request for Mandalorian armor , the junk dealer doubted Tel ' s intelligence . Passing off a vac - exposure suit as the genuine article , the dealer gleaned a handsome sum from Tel , and Tel , due to his ungainly appearance , earned the nickname " Tank Head . " He did not realize that the nickname was meant to be insulting . Eager to begin work , Tel called upon his old contact , Orin Nyell , and hoped to gain patronage in his bounty hunting career . Nyell , who was either sympathetic to Tel or humoring him for his own amusement , gave " Tank Head " a mark : Kam Nale , a Fluggrian whose father , Borzu had competed with Nyell on the spinward world of Ploo IV , specifically around the racketeer ' s water smuggling operation . Borzu had recently been assassinated by the Glymphid Aldar Beedo , and Nyell feared that Kam would take over his late father ' s business . Tel , eager to impress , accepted the job . The hunt for Kam Nale . With Aneesa Dym in tow , Tel began tracking Nale . As Nale had no desire to follow in his father ' s footsteps and enter into illegality , he used a series of aliases to elude capture and death , evading Tel for months . Although Tel eventually learned that Nale had no ill intent toward his employer , he persisted , locating Nale — or " Elan Mak , " the pseudonym that Nale was operating under — on the Outer Rim world of Tatooine in 32 BBY . " Mak " was to participate in the Boonta Eve Classic podrace , and it was there that Tel hoped to corner and kill Nale . Leaving Dym behind to oversee repairs to the " Dusty Duck " , Tel set off into the city of Mos Espa in search of his mark . During his search , Tel wandered into the Poodoo Lounge and attended the Pre - Boonta Concert featuring podracer Boles Roor in the hopes that " Elan Mak " would show . After hunting for several days , Tel arrived at the Boonta Eve Classic early , in the hopes of finally achieving something for the first time in his life . Tel was able to corner Nale in a back alley , hoping to kill the elusive Fluggrian and claim his second bounty . Tel placed his faith in his faux - Mandalorian armor , believing that it would protect him against any retaliation in the inevitable quick - draw duel between him and Kame Nale . However , Nale was too fast , his heavy blaster pistol making short work of Tel and his substandard equipment . Tel was killed before his career had even begun , and Nale walked away unscathed , continuing to podrace under the " Elan Mak " alias . Dym never learned of Tel ' s fate , as she was murdered shortly after by the Sith Lord Darth Maul in an unrelated incident . Tel ' s attempted hit on Nale did have its repercussions , however – the Fluggrian , more cautious after the attack , returned to Ploo IV and took up his father ' s mantle as Nyell had feared . Personality and traits . Rango Tel stood 1 . 7 meters tall and had fair skin . He grew up in a harsh environment , living as a street ruffian on Sernpidal who was prone to violence . Tel originally had no desire to become a bounty hunter , and it was sheer happenstance that caused him to decide upon his career . He also lacked prior knowledge going into the bounty hunter trade , and was of the belief that Mandalorian armor was easy to come by . Tel ' s ignorance led him to pay a copious amount of credits for a suit that was clearly not of Mandalorian make . Not only clueless , he was additionally overconfident , in that he thought himself capable of murdering Kam Nale . That overconfidence , however , proved to be his fatal weakness . Particularly dim - witted , Tel did not realize that the nickname " Tank Head " was an insulting one , and could not pick up when the racketeer Orin Nyell was toying with him . Although he lacked the requisite skill to succeed as a bounty hunter , Tel did enjoy a streak of luck , not only being able to call on a contact from his youth in Nyell to give rise to his prospective bounty hunting career , but also in chancing upon his first quarry in a drunken brawl , without even realizing what he was doing . Tel also understood , to a degree , the importance of image in the bounty hunting trade , drawing upon the imposing and intimidating elements of the defunct Mandalorian warrior culture , without having the proper understanding of how to execute such an image . Relationship with Aneesa Dym . During his brief bounty hunting career , Tel worked alongside the pilot Aneesa Dym . When her father was fatally stabbed by a dissatisfied customer , Aneesa Dym relentlessly hunted the murderer , although she also placed a bounty on his head . The bounty was claimed by Tel , and as a result , Dym fell in love with the Sernpidal citizen . Together they pursued Tel ' s one and only bounty , Kam Nale , in the " Dusty Duck " , with Dym providing her services as a pilot of her late father ' s ship . Their relationship persisted until 32 BBY , when both perished on the same day in unrelated killings . Behind the scenes . Rango Tel first appeared in George Lucas ' s 1999 film as an unnamed background extra seen briefly during the film ' s introduction to the city of Mos Espa . He was played by an uncredited actor . Tel was later one of the first characters to have his backstory elaborated on through the " What ' s The Story ? " feature on the website StarWars . com . An entry on Tel in the site ' s official Databank was written by Aaron Sinner , who originally named the character " Ip Numeth . " The organizers of the competition instead chose " Rango Tel , " a name contributed by the contestant " Captain Daultay Dofine , " and additionally created the nickname " Tank Head . " Sinner chose Sernpidal as Tel ' s homeworld due to having located it on a map of the " Star Wars " galaxy and found it " sufficiently backwater . " After watching Tel ' s lone scene in " The Phantom Menace " , Sinner was reminded of Mandalorian armor , and he used the armor as the basis of the entire article . He felt that the story which he crafted necessitated the dim - witted character ' s death . " Star Wars " author Abel G . Peña has named Tel ' s Databank entry as the most hilarious and endearing of any " What ' s The Story ? " character . In a later " What ' s The Story ? " round , Tel ' s biography was tied into Aneesa Dym ' s with Greg Mitchell ' s " Dusty Duck " entry in the Databank . Tel has since been given an entry in 2008 ' s " The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia " and mentioned in the 2009 publication " " . In 2013 , Mitchell revisited the character in his article " The Not - So Magnificent Seven . "