Spitballing

So my friends, I could use some help.

I'm starting to work on a new writing project. This one's sort of an interplanetary trek type thingamajig (watch me throw around the technical terms). In doing the prep work, I'm trying to design a few aliens/alien races for my progaonists to bump into.

And that's where I'm running into trouble. I've got one design down (one of my protagonists) and the rest are...well...rip-offs from the Cantina scene, or I've apparently lifted them from Space Trawler (a great read, btw).

So, I turn to you, hat in hand and ask for some help. Got any ideas? They don't need to be fully formed, just the bare essential, a trait, a strange appearance, anything...I'd greatly appreciate it, and I assure you that you'll share in the profits.^* .

There's part of me that thinks this hitch might show I should move on to another idea, but I'm not going to. I've got a real good feeling about this one--not that it's the one that's gonna go anywhere, it's the one I might let someone read :)

So, any thoughts?


^* Not that there will ever be any.