Repainted (Faux Bronze) Jabba the Hutt Bubble Bath Bottle
I had an extra Jabba bubble bath bottle, so I decided to repaint it. The sculpt reminded me of a smiling Buddha statue or other idol, so I tried to make it look like a bronze statue instead of going with a realistic look. I think it came out rather well. I permanently attached the head to the body, and also sanded everything a bit to help the paint stick to the slick plastic.
Upcoming: Jabba the Hutt Fitted Baseball Cap by New Era
This is part of a surprisingly large line of fitted baseball caps being sold in Japan by the company New Era. They are currently selling the 7 1/2 size caps and will make the others sizes available in January, although I’m not sure if they will be available outside of Japan or when. They’re pricey at over $70, but I will definitely have to get this one. One funny thing to note is that in Japanese the words “Hutt” and “Hat” sound the same, making this a particularly appropriate product. 😉
UPDATE: The Jabba cap has essentially been canceled, but I did manage to get one of the few they made. There’s more info here.
Japanese Jabba the Hutt Keychain by Touma
This keychain is part of a larger series of Star Wars keychains made by a Japanese designer named Touma. It’s sort of sandwiched in a block of clear acrylic. I’m not sure how well the acrylic would stand up to actual use — I get the feeling that it would get scratched up pretty easily.
Jabba the Hutt Christmas Ornament by Kurt S. Adler
When I first saw this I thought it was an older piece, but it turns out that the copyright notice reads “2006.” At around 4 inches tall, it’s rather large and heavy to actually be used as an ornament, but it’s not a bad little statue. It’s just too bad that they didn’t use a paint job that accentuated the detail a bit better. You can barely see his mouth.
Jabba’s Gift by Tim Proctor
This is a commissioned piece of art by Tim Proctor. Not including the mats, it’s about 15 x 20 and was done in a combination of acrylic paint, colored pencil, and marker. As you can probably tell, it’s depicting the moment when Luke (as a hologram) tells Jabba that he has a “gift” for him — C-3PO and R2-D2. For some reason, C-3PO is a bit taken aback by this news…
Click the image for a larger view.
Custom Jabba the Hutt Mighty Mugg
I liked Hasbro’s Mighty Muggs. They were cute and relatively affordable at $10-$11, especially when you consider that the base price for a Star Wars action figure is now hovering around $8. I have all of the Star Wars ones and was upset to hear that they probably won’t be making any more. There are a lot of Muggs that I’d like to see from Star Wars, but Jabba is of course right at the top of my list, so I decided to make one myself. There’s a whole community of customizers out there, and some talented people who design them as well. Matching the “Mugg” style can be tricky, so I decided to use a design made by Rockslide on the Mighty Muggs forum. I’d like to make some more of these — especially Bib Fortuna — if I can come up with a good design.
Here are some more pictures, including some “in process” ones.
I used a Plo Koon Mighty Mugg as the base, because he has the “skirt” instead of separate legs like most figures. I added some screws to serve as a sort of armature for the clay I was going to use for his tail.
Then I sculpted the tail out of Fimo modeling clay and baked it. Unfortunately, his head melted a tiny bit in the oven, making it a little misshapen. But then again, Jabba’s real head was misshapen as well.
Link: Big Fat Yellow Frog (Unproduced Jabba Bean Bag)
I found this interesting article the other day. It’s written by someone who attempted to get a Jabba the Hutt bean bag produced around the time of the Phantom Menace. (It never made it beyond the final prototype stage, unfortunately. Or perhaps it’s fortunate, since I don’t know where I would put one…) Anyway, it’s a fun look into how things can often get lost in translation (sometimes literally) when going from the designers in the US to the Chinese factories. I don’t want to spoil the surprise so I won’t show the picture of first Jabba bean bag prototype here, but you have to see it. I also love the concept art.
There was also a Jabba bean bag chair prototype made in 1995, as this page from the Tomart Toy Guide attests.
Upcoming: Jabba the Hutt Connoisseur Series Autographs
I’m not a collector of autographs in general, but I decided I had to get in on this piece. Wattographs, which is a site that specializes in Star Wars autographs, has what is called its “Connoisseur Series” of autographs. Basically, they get a bunch of cast members from Star Wars to sign a photo, but the unique thing about it is that they choose a theme (one of the most popular ones was “ewoks” and was signed by 27 or 28 people who played ewoks). The people tend to be on the obscure side — mostly behind-the-scenes and behind-the-mask types of people — but that’s kind of the appeal. Instead of just purchasing the autographed photo outright, you pay an initial fee (of $79 in this case) for the photo and the first two signers, and then you pay a bit each month as they add signatures. It will take several months to complete.
With this Jabba piece, they’re going to be having a number of people who were involved in creating and performing Jabba for Return of the Jedi, including John Coppinger (Jabba sculptor and author of the Creating Jabba the Hutt article I just linked to). They’ve got 9 or 10 signers lined up now, and will probably be adding at least a couple more. This will not be an inexpensive piece, although each signature is not particularly expensive. I’m expecting it to top $300 by the end. Still, I think this kind of opportunity won’t be coming along any time soon, if ever. They are apparently close to selling out of the photos for this piece and in any case will only be selling them through the end of November, so if you’re interested I suggest you get in on it now.
(UPDATE: The 16 x 20 version sold out just hours after I posted this. The 11 x 14 is still available as of this writing, but probably won’t be around for long.)
(UPDATE 2: This has now completely sold out. They just announced that everyone who ordered the CS series will also be receiving a small piece of the skin from the actual puppet used in Return of the Jedi! I’m pretty excited about that.)
Link: Creating Jabba the Hutt
There’s an excellent article on themakeup-box.com by John Coppinger about how he helped create the actual Jabba the Hutt filming puppet. I just love the behind-the-scenes pictures and info.
Star Wars Math: Jabba’s Game Galaxy
I was given this game a while ago by someone who knew I liked Star Wars. As it came out around the release of The Phantom Menace, it’s fairly old now, which means that it can be a little challenging to find a computer that can run it properly. On the Mac especially, you have to have a computer that supports either OS 9 or Classic. After checking out all of the computers in my house I did finally find one that could play it, although in Classic mode on the Mac it has some lengthy pauses in places for no apparent reason.
It’s aimed at children 6 to 9 years old, and the math portions of the game aren’t great. Some of the games are better than others, but in general you just have to do some simple addition or subtraction. Most kids will probably find it too easy. You play games with characters like Watto, Sebulba, and of course Jabba. Jabba’s game was my favorite, and not just because it features a bizarre CGI Jabba. You play a game similar to checkers with him, and it’s the only game that really seems to involve any skill or strategy. Anyway, I can’t really recommend this game, especially at this point in time, when there are much better options available.
EDIT: 7 years later, IÂ made an fairly in-depth review of this game on YouTube.
Mighty Jabba's Collection 
