Trader Sam

Trader Sam is a character from the Jungle Cruise attraction, known as the "Head Salesman of the Jungle".

Background
Trader Sam appears at the very end of the Jungle Cruise attraction, holding a shrunken head aloft in his hand. A "Head Salesman", the Skipper comments that he's offering a special deal: "Two of his heads for one of yours". During the 80s and 90s, the Trader Sam figure wore a colorful tribal mask, though this was removed in 2005 during the refresh of the attraction.

Designs differ significantly between the Disneyland original and the incarnation featured in other versions. Because of these differences, this second version's introduction at Magic Kingdom was eventually scripted as being given the name "Chief (Name)" to allow for Skippers to use whatever they wanted. However, with the sense of humor the attraction encourages in its skippers, they began calling him "Chief Namee". At some point in the late-2000s, scripts were changed at the Magic Kingdom's Jungle Cruise to maintain consistency with Disneyland and the character was again referred to as Trader Sam. When the Trader Sam's bar opened, the second version was again called Namee in pictures and described as being Trader Sam's cousin. Despite this, Magic Kingdom's Cruise script still uses the Trader Sam name for the character.

The character was further expanded on with the opening of the Trader Sam's tiki bars at the Disneyland Hotel and Disney's Polynesian Village Resort. The bar serving as his secondary business aside, it reveals Sam as having a long, possibly immortal, life helping numerous characters from Disney's history of adventure attractions and films. Some of his associates include members of the Adventurers Club, Indiana Jones, Captain Jack Sparrow, Ned Land, the Swiss Family Robinson, and more.