Disney Star Wars Weekends 2015 Latex Rancor Monster Figure

Disney released its latex Salacious Crumb figure for Star Wars Weekends 2013, and I loved it. It was fairly well made, as these kinds of figures go, but its biggest attraction was that it was close to life size. It’s too small if you want to be a stickler for scale, but you could totally use it as a prop for a costume, and it looks great just sitting there on its little pillow. The next release was Jabba himself for Star Wars Weekends 2014, but I’m not nearly as fond of that one. It was based on the CGI model of Jabba rather than puppet, and of course it couldn’t be anywhere near life size, so part of me wondered what the point of making it at all was. I guess the latex “skin” is sort of evocative of Jabba, but as toys go it’s not great.

For Star Wars Weekends 2015, they’ve continued the Jabba’s Palace theme with a latex Rancor Monster. If you’ve ever seen the large foam/rubber dragons, dinosaurs and sharks that Toys R Us has, this will give you a similar feeling.

I think he’s got a sort of wire endoskeleton that helps him keep his shape, but there’s not really much you can do in terms of posing. The sculpt is not bad at all, although the hands seem too small.

He’s got a face that only a mother (or his keeper) could love, though. It’s homely even for a Rancor.

In terms of size, he’s very similar to the Hasbro “Jabba’s Rancor” figure (which was recently repackaged in the “Jabba’s Rancor Pit” set for Toys R Us). And the comparison of the two below makes it pretty obvious which I would choose if I could only have one. I can’t seem to track down the exact retail price for the Disney version, but it’s around $35, so it is cheaper than the Hasbro figure — especially since that one has been going for above retail on the secondary market. But that’s really the only advantage, even if you want something for a younger kid. I think the Hasbro figure would be the better choice in just about every situation, unless you want something soft. But for fans of the Rancor monster it’s definitely a cool item.

I wonder if they’re going to continue with the Jabba’s Palace theme next year. Max Rebo could certainly work in this style of figure, or maybe even a Gamorrean Guard.