Bulk Case of Vintage Kenner Jabba the Hutt Figures

I’m not totally sure of the story behind this box, but I’ll give you my best guess. I’ve heard that boxes like this were used to ship the Jabba figures from the factory to another location where the Jabba the Hutt playset was assembled. But they made a lot of those playsets (it’s still relatively common even today) and they had quite a few of the playset parts left over after the Return of the Jedi line had wound down. I’ve heard stories of resellers in the mid-1980s who bought up dozens or even hundreds of individual pieces. Some of them allowed their customers to “build their own” playsets by mixing and matching pieces. So it may be that this was surplus stock purchased by a reseller back in the day when Kenner was trying to make a little money on their extra Jabba inventory. In any case, I’ve never seen a box like this for sale before, so I naturally snapped it up when it appeared on eBay.

According to the markings on the box, it would have originally held 24 pieces, but mine only has 14. (It’s also missing the entire top of the box, unfortunately.)

It’s marked with the vendor name “Kader,” which I assume refers to this company in Hong Kong (the baggies are all marked “Hong Kong” as well).

Each Jabba is in a plastic baggie, and would have been inserted in the playset box just like this. Unlike most other baggies that Star Wars figures came in, the baggies were never sealed. They’re open at one end. Why do I need 14 vintage Jabbas you ask? You sound like my wife…

How else could I make a synchronized swimming team of Jabbas? (As a side note, I’ve never noticed how much Jabba’s body looks like a spermatozoa…)

You can make a sarlacc pit entirely out of Jabbas.

You can spell out “JABBA!” entirely with Jabbas. (Look closely. It’s there!)

You can even make a psychedelic spiral design like this. I’m quite taken with this one. (Isn’t it interesting how they appear yellow in some shots and green in others? I guess it’s due to the different color backgrounds.) Part of me wants to track down 10 more Jabbas in baggies to complete the box, but even I’m not crazy enough to do that… Or am I?