Ree Yees can just join the plethora of PT characters that Lucas decided to **** on... I think Rodians are maybe the only ones who escaped unharmed. I was more annoyed with the extra eyes on Walrusmen.
I never owned Ree Yees as a kid... He was in my "I like GI Joe now" phase, and so he was very uninteresting in that regard. I did like him in ROTJ though, and how he was basically the overly loud guy at the party who drank too much and embarassed himself. I guarantee he wakes up with his pants all wet at Jabba's Palace, and all the rest laugh at him, or he's the guy known for ruining the bathrooms after a night of hard partying.
And that even carried over to EU where Grans were just kind of thuggish brutes.
The vintage figure was ok though. They got some of the outfit details done really well, and the poofy hands. His paint aps seemed pretty weak though, even at that time, and his weapon was goofy... Was it a gun or a musical instrument? Either way Ree Yees was drunk enough to put it in his mouth and check for everyone.
The POTF2 figure was a pretty neat update in regards to the sculpt, but as noted above he was a bear to find and overpriced was the only way most people ultimately got him (through the old fan club store thing). I liked him well enough though and he holds his own visually on my display shelf. He could handle an upgrade for sure though. I'd only imagine a new figure of him would wind up flooring me and show how badly done the POTF2 one may actually be. To me he looks good but he's one of those guys that a new one could probably shock the hell out of people. Pote Snitkin would make that list too I think.
Anyway, yeah, he's due for upgrading I suppose.
Gran fo life, yo.