Spitting Jabba the Hutt Figure (and Two-Headed Announcer) by Hasbro

This was released around the time The Phantom Menace came out, and is based on the scene where Jabba bites the head off of a chuba and spits it at a gong to start the podrace. It’s the very definition of the term “mixed bag.” The sculpt is good. Not as good as Ultra Jabba if you want a Return of the Jedi Jabba, but a very good representation of the CGI model.

The paint is actually very impressive. They managed to use several different colors and blend them together nicely. (Compare this to the Power of the Force Jabba to see just how crappy that version really is.) It has “real feel skin” which is basically just rubber, but actually does feel pretty realistic.

But then they had to go and screw it up by including the “spitting” action feature. What the hell were they thinking? The feature itself isn’t bad, in and of itself. My son enjoyed using it. But when it totally ruins the appearance of the figure, you have to ask what the point is. You can also fill the figure with water and have him squirt it, which I guess gives him some novelty value, but this is a disappointing figure otherwise.

He came packaged with the two-headed announcer from the podrace, and interestingly the filmmakers changed the design of the announcer at the last minute, so the figure doesn’t look much like what we saw in the movie. (EDIT: I later obtained a number of original Hasbro design documents and sketches related to the production of this figure.)