Jabba the Hutt Model Kit by Knight Models

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the Spanish company Knight Models just recently released a Jabba the Hutt model kit, and I’m happy to say that I just received the one that I ordered from a company in the UK. I imagine there will be places to get it in the US later on, but of course I had to have it as soon as possible. 🙂 I plan to paint this up, but for now I’ll post a mini-review of the unassembled kit.

It comes in a nice metal box like you might get fancy cookies in. Inside, the parts are protected with some thick foam. It does give it a bit of a high-end feel, which is good when you consider that this cost me a bit over £100 including shipping (or over $150).

Inside you see the main parts of the kit, which consist of Jabba, Leia, the throne, and four baggies with miscellaneous parts (including parts of the throne railing and hooka pipe, the throne gargoyle heads and rings, pillows, Salacious Crumb, and so on). There is also a booklet called a “Pinture Guide” (Picture Guide) that shows you in very general terms how you might paint up the kit (the text is in Spanish). Finally there is a card that has your model’s edition number on one side (I got #40 of 500) and a bit of text about Jabba on the other (again in Spanish).

Here are Jabba and Leia (minus one of her arms, which is a separate piece) placed temporarily on the throne. The throne is about 7″ wide by 3.5″ deep. With Jabba on the throne, he’s about 3.5″ tall. It’s not a bad size.

The level of detail is good, but my first impression was that I was a bit disappointed that Jabba and the throne aren’t made of metal. The throne is clearly resin, as are the pieces of the throne railing and hooka. I think Jabba is resin as well, although of a different type and color. For this price, I expected metal. That said, it doesn’t make that much of a difference once it’s assembled and painted, except that the model will be lighter than if it were made of metal.

Leia and most of the smaller pieces are metal. So far the only real complaint I have about the kit is that the gargoyle heads seem rather “off.” They have overbites instead of underbites and (this is the biggie) they have two eyes when they should only have one big eye. Also, they’ve made the throne so that the gargoyles go all the way around it, but all of my other models, statues and toys just have four in the front and two on the sides. I may leave some of them off when I assemble it.

I’m looking forward to putting this kit together, although it may take a while as I’m rather busy with work and our new baby. I think it’ll be an impressive piece when it’s finished.

(EDIT: Here’s the finished model.)