Jabba the Hutt Concept Maquette Replica by Regal Robot

During the making of Return of the Jedi, Phil Tippet created a maquette to present to George Lucas to get his final approval for the Jabba character. This concept maquette was the first incarnation of the character as we know him, so as a Jabba fan and collector, it was a sort of “holy grail” piece for me.

But as I posted back in 2011, the original piece was listed in a Profiles in History auction with an estimated price of $30,000 to $50,000, so this is a very high-ticket item. It apparently didn’t sell then, but I believe it did sell a while later (possibly for less than the original asking price, but still way more that I could hope to afford). I mused at the time that it would be great if someplace would make a collectible based on the piece, and it appears that the folks at Regal Robot heard my prayers, because that’s exactly what they’ve done.

This piece was apparently created by 3D modeling it from scratch, but with full access to the original piece, and from what I can tell it looks quite accurate. They’ve decided to recreate it as it originally would have looked, rather than the piece as it is today, since it’s pretty beat up at this point, with missing paint and some chips, etc.

I think they did a great job on the paint. One thing that surprised me is that he actually has stripes on his tail! They’re a bit harder to make out on the original piece, but they are there.

I’m very happy to finally be able to add this piece to my collection. As of this writing, it’s still available on Regal Robot’s website for $349, but it’s limited to just 250 pieces so I don’t expect that to last long.

I also made a YouTube video showing off the piece, which you can see below.