News: An Inside Look At Hasbro’s Walmart-Exclusive Jabba
I bought two of the new Walmart-exclusive Jabba sets so I would have one to repaint and otherwise modify, and while I was examining my spare one, I realized that it was possible to take his lower body off like a big sock. I believe it’s made of silicone, so you can do this without damaging it at all (and in fact I think they assembled them in the factory in much the same way). You can see the part that goes down into the tail, which makes it mildly posable. I’m considering filling the body with something to make Jabba’s head sit a bit higher.
“Jabba’s Palace Grill” Print by Tom Hodges (Celebration V)
This was one of several prints that the artist Tom Hodges gave away a certain times during Celebration V. (Tom did this set of sketch cards for me a few months ago.) These were companion pieces to his main print, which he was selling at the convention. Entitled the “Star Wars Universe Dream Park,” it’s a map of a Star Wars-themed amusement park.
This particular print is for “Jabba’s Palace Grill” — a restaurant in the park, and is 11″x17″ in size. Salacious Crumb is featured very prominently (which is somewhat unusual), but you can also see part of Jabba’s body in the background. It’s printed on paper that’s quite thin — more of a poster than an art print — but you can’t complain too much about something that was free. You just have to be careful not to damage it.
Hasbro 1/6 Scale Han Solo in Carbonite Block
Generally speaking, I am not a fan of Hasbro’s old line of 12″ figures. However, some of them are actually pretty good — especially if you don’t mind modifying them a little bit. This Han in Carbonite Block was part of a Target-exlusive two-pack sold in the late 90s. Han himself is essentially a Ken doll and isn’t really worth messing with. But the carbonite block is not bad at all, and until Sideshow released their 1/6 scale Han in Carbonite, this was the only game in town if you wanted a 1/6-scale version of Jabba’s favorite decoration.
If you look at comparison pictures of the Sideshow version and the Hasbro version (see here and here), you can tell that the Hasbro one is quite a bit bigger. I think the Hasbro one is probably oversized, but my first thought upon seeing the Sideshow version was that it was too small. Of course there are a lot more differences than just the size. The Sideshow one is mostly a graphite color, while the Hasbro one is more silver, with a touch of blue. And of course the Sideshow one is made of heavy (and fragile) polystone, while the Hasbro one is hollow and made of plastic.
If money is no object, I would recommend the Sideshow version, if only because it comes with a section of the wall from Jabba’s palace, which looks cool and also solves the problem of how to display it. But the Hasbro version is really quite good, and looks good in a display of much more expensive figures. It would look especially good with a more subtle paint job.
Kotobukiya Slave Leia Vinyl Statue (Modified)
Seeing Leia in her metal bikini certainly struck a chord for a large number of young men watching Return of the Jedi, and I know that there are also quite a few women who see her eventual triumph against Jabba as empowering. In short, she appeals to a lot of people for different reasons, which is probably why there have been so many collectibles based on her in this outfit. There’s enough stuff out there to start a focus collection just for her. I’m not quite prepared to do that — I mostly buy Leia items as accessories for Jabba. And in fact, that’s how I ended up with this piece. I originally bought it to go with my 1/6 scale Sideshow Jabba.
Put out by the Japanese company Kotobukiya (which has released a fairly large collection of vinyl Star Wars statues), this figure is technically 1/7 scale, so she’s even more petite than she should be in comparison with 1/6 scale figures. Still, I think she looks reasonably good on the Sideshow throne.
She’s designed to fit on her base, which is modeled after a section of Jabba’s throne, so she requires a little modification to work anywhere else. (Click here to see how she looked before the modification.) In my case, I removed her vinyl skirt and replaced it with the cloth one from the Hasbro Slave Leia figure (still need to do an entry about that one, but here’s a picture — she’s pretty horrible).
However, as you can see, the Kotobukiya Leia has been sculpted in a stylized, anime-like style that doesn’t really match anything that Sideshow makes. This difference eventually led me to turn her back into a standalone piece. The vinyl skirt hid the fact that she is essentially floating above the base, and without it she looked quite strange when I put her back on the base. So I gave her an extra pillow from the Sideshow throne to sit on, and I think it looks pretty good.
News: Walmart-Exclusive Jabba’s Throne Set Now Available Online
Walmart.com has finally listed the hard-to-find Jabba’s Throne set, and it’s even available at the original price of $34.97, rather then the adjusted price that most stores have been using ($38.88). Now’s the time to get one of these if you haven’t been able to find it.
EDIT: If you can believe it, it’s now sold out online. It lasted for less than half a day. I guess the old slug still has some fans (either that or people were buying them to scalp on eBay).
Vintage Jabba the Hutt-Themed Erasers by Butterfly Originals
These erasers from 1983 were made by Butterfly Originals and distributed by Spindex. They’re fairly large — Bib Fortuna and the Gamorrean Guard are about 2.5″ tall. I like how each card has different art that is appropriate to the character. I’m not sure how good they would be as actual erasers, but they’re certainly interesting. I have Jabba the Hutt, Bib Fortuna, Max Rebo, a Gamorrean Guard, plus an R2-D2 eraser with Jabba and Salacious Crumb on the card.
According to the packages, these were originally scented, but I’m pretty sure any scent they once had is now long gone. I wonder what scent they used… In any case, here is a shot of some loose ones (I don’t have a loose R2):
Mortar Jabba Sculpture
This unusual little piece is a statue made from mortar. It was created by Mark over at Mortarheads.com. He usually makes 2D sculptures of the heads of Star Wars characters, and I’ve asked him to make me a Jabba head. I’ll post when it’s finished, although it may be several months.
Grape-Hutts Mini Cereal Box (Celebration V)
For the recent Celebration V convention, a number of fans came together and decided to make 16 Star Wars-themed cereal boxes to give away at the various collector panels (seminars about different aspects of Star Wars collecting). Here is a partial list of the boxes. I couldn’t find a complete one with pictures.
This box of “Jabba’s Grape-Hutts” was one of the boxes given away. The art for this particular box was by Jeff Correll. I believe they made about 400 of each design, and the only way to get one (aside from ebay) is to have gone to the convention or know someone who went. Luckily, Schropt over on the Sideshow Freaks forum was able to pick one of these up for me. Thanks! 🙂 It’s the size of a single-serving cereal box, and actually has real cereal inside (although they all just have Cheerios inside, and not actually any of the fanciful cereals shown on the boxes).
“This breakfast cereal is my kind of scum!”
Link: “Jabba Mania: Collecting the Hutt” posted on LA Weekly
Gendy Alimurung over at the LA Weekly has posted an interview with me about my collection.
Big Jabba T-Shirt (Notorious B.I.G. Parody)
I won this on eBay for $1. It’s a parody of the Notorious B.I.G. song “Big Poppa,” which has the chorus “I love it when you call me big Poppa.” (Here is the wikipedia entry, and here’s an iTunes link for the song — it does use some explicit language.) There’s something about the image of Jabba with a mic, a big gold chain, and a baseball hat that just works. 🙂
Mighty Jabba's Collection 
