Upcoming: New Details about SDCC-Exclusive Black Series Jabba the Hutt Figure
I posted about the Black Series Jabba the Hutt a while ago, and now Entertainment Weekly (of all places) has posted the first shots of what is apparently the SDCC-exclusive version of the figure. It’s interesting, but also rather disappointing in several ways. The figure itself still looks great — even better than in the shots I posted before. The mouth seems more open in this shot, which makes me wonder if the head is made of a more flexible material that I had originally thought, or perhaps they changed the sculpt a bit.
As many suspected, the SDCC-exclusive version will come with Salacious Crumb (who looks… okay) and Jabba’s throne railing and hooka. That’s good as far as it goes, but I was really hoping for a full throne. What you get instead is packaging that can be used as a throne/archway. I’m not sure if the inner parts come out or if you’ll have to have him displayed in a box that’s folded open like in the photo below. I had speculated that they might be including Han in Carbonite with him, but apparently it will just have a space in the package where you can insert the figure, if you so desire. Like I said, kind of disappointing considering the markup most people will have to pay.
Mighty Jabba's Collection 
If you check out the box pic, it does appear that the flaps fold under/back so you really don’t need to remove him from the box to display the diorama. I think they are just shown open that way for demonstration purposes – the top one should fold all the way back, the bottom one should fold under, and looking at the “latch” part I assume it will connect with the flap on the other side in the same place it connects when the box is closed and the flaps are the other way (essentially hiding the box).
That said, I agree. This thing is going to be like $300+ from scalpers, and at that price, might as well just buy the superior Sideshow version. I’m particularly wary of it because I don’t have the SDCC exclusive Boba, just the retail version (hard enough to get!) and the slot for Han in Carbonite would just sit there and mock me – and there is no way in heck I am spending $200+ just to get him. And if they do a retail version of him without any of the accessories, I’m totally uninterested. What’s the point of Jabba without at least that stuff?
Hasbro is so short sighted with these exclusives. SDCC is no longer what it once was, there are more folks there to scalp than actually attend the convention. The irritating part is Hasbro doesn’t even see that money, it goes in scalpers pockets – it just seems an absurd thing at this point because it just upsets the majority of fans and only the scalpers make money. So sad it’s being done to what should be one of my major display pieces.
Good points. I was really hoping that he would come with a full throne, which might help make up for the cost we’ll have to pay. Still, I will of course be getting one of the exclusive versions and one of the regular.
I don’t generally condone bootlegs, but you can get recasts of just the Han in Carbonite on eBay. When you consider that it’s no longer available from Hasbro (which means that paying $200+ does not actually benefit them at all), I’m not sure it’s such a bad thing to buy one of those to fill the spot in your collection.
Thanks for the tip! I actually was wondering how easy something like that would be to boot as I wrote the above. Hmmm…will definitely have to check that out. I too usually prefer official, but geesh, that kind of dough just to get an accessory is nutty. Thanks!
http://www.jedibusiness.com/photoGallery.aspx?eventId=5&p=171 other jabba related things