Jabba the Hutt Piñata

Piñatas are a staple of many kids’ birthday parties here in the US. My son had an Optimus Prime-shaped piñata two or three years ago, and we just recently went to a Star Wars-themed party with a Darth Vader piñata. Traditionally, they would be filled with candy and suspended from the ceiling or a tree branch and each partygoer would take turns smacking it with a stick while blindfolded until it breaks apart and the candy falls out. That can take quite a while and can be a bit dangerous, especially with small kids, so now many piñatas just have strings on the bottom that you can pull, one of which will cause a trap door in the bottom to open. Not quite as much fun, but as a parent I can appreciate the advantages.

I got this from Etsy seller PaperMacheSculptures. They have a lot of different piñata designs available, although some are better than others, in my opinion. I like the Jabba sculpt, especially considering that it’s made of papier-mâché. It’s hollow, but it’s rock hard and not flimsy at all. And at 22″ wide by 15″ tall, it’s one of the larger Jabba’s in my collection — similar in size to the Illusive Concepts statue.

Before Repaint

As you can see, the paint was a bit on the rough side when I got it. It’s fine for a piñata that’s just going to get destroyed after a party, but since I wanted to display this in my collection, I decided to repaint it. The seller usually drills holes somewhere in the top of the piñata so it can be hung and also opens up a little trap door in the back so you can fill it with candy, but since I wasn’t going to be using this as an actual piñata I decided to just keep it intact.