Jabba the Hutt Rubber Collection Strap (and Pencil Case) by B-S-S
One thing that I wanted to pick up while I was in Japan was this strap. I had seen an eBay listing for it earlier, but the asking price was $20, which seemed quite high for a simple rubber strap. It turned out that these were blind-boxed (I should’ve known, really) and sold for 600 yen apiece, or around $5. It’s made of nice thick rubber, but 600 yen is a little on the high side. On the other hand, it comes with three different connectors — a carabiner, a metal ball chain and a thin loop. I would recommend choosing one and removing the others, depending on how you want to use it, but it’s nice to have options.
There are 10 characters in the series, so collecting them all or finding a particular character can be a challenge — the original eBay asking price was starting to look a bit more reasonable. I bought all four of the boxes available at the only store that carried them, but ended up getting a Stormtrooper, Boba Fett, Yoda and a Wicket the Ewok, but no Jabba. Here’s Boba:
Luckily, Osaka’s Den-Den Town electronics district has the solution for exactly this kind of problem. There are stores that specialize in selling items that were originally available only in blind-boxes or gashapon capsules.
I recommend Super Position, as they had the best selection, including two Jabba straps for about 750 yen apiece, which isn’t too bad of a markup considering that you can get exactly the character you want. They had several other characters and Jabba was by far the cheapest, indicating that he’s probably not the most popular character…
That said, I did spy a vintage Kenner Jabba in this display case there, along with the Applause Jabba statue in the far right.
The artwork used for these straps has also been used for a variety of other items, including tote bags and pencil cases. I found online listings for at least half a dozen different variations. Since they aren’t totally Jabba-centered, I didn’t try to collect them all, but I have a bit of a weakness for pencil cases so I did pick this one up:
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