Micro Machines R2-D2 Transforming Action Set (Jabba’s Palace)
For some reason they chose to make R2-D2 transform into Jabba’s palace. Inside, you have Jabba on his throne and tiny figures of Lando in disguise, a Gamorrean Guard, Jedi Luke, and the rancor (plus stickers of a number of others). There’s also a tiny version of Jabba’s sail barge.
Micro Machines Jabba the Hutt Transforming Action Set (Mos Eisley Spaceport)
This is one of the Micromachines Star Wars playsets. They are a line of toys from a few years ago that are in the shape of the heads of various characters. They open up to reveal a playset related to the character. In this case, it opens up into Mos Eisley spaceport. You might expect it to be Jabba’s Palace on Tatooine, but for whatever reason they decided to use R2-D2 for that. Since Jabba only appeared in Mos Eisley in the special editions of the movies, it’s a little bit of an odd choice.
The sculpt is excellent, as is the paint. It’s simple, but very well done. I’m not sure how they managed to out-do all of the action figure sculpts, but they did. It’s relatively large — maybe 6 inches wide and tall. It opens into three sections, with a variety of tiny figures (including a Jabba-within-a-Jabba and a Han Solo). I really enjoy these playsets. They’re well made.
Illusive Concepts Jabba the Hutt
This was put out by Illusive concepts in the mid 90s. It’s made of some sort of foam, so it’s soft to the touch. I’ve heard that some people have had issues with the foam deteriorating, but mine is fine. The sculpt isn’t bad, although there are noticeable mold lines in places. The main problem is the paint job. As with many Jabba pieces, it’s overly green (with some blue in it as well) and the detail work is pretty messy around the mouth and eyes. Some of the pieces I’ve seen have huge glops of clear gloss “saliva” around the mouth, but on mine it’s a bit more subtle.
Overall, it’s not terrible, but certainly not even close to something like the Sideshow Jabba, even if it is a big bigger. It just seems dated now that there are other, better options out there. I got mine very cheaply on ebay. I wouldn’t pay more than $50 or so (not including shipping), and that’s only if you are trying to get the full range of Jabba pieces like I am. If you just want a Jabba statue, go for the Sideshow piece or the Gentle Giant one.
Sideshow Life-Size Salacious Crumb
It can sometimes be difficult to know where to draw the line as a Jabba collector. While the number of Jabba items isn’t large compared to a character like Darth Vader, if you include his entire retinue the number expands dramatically. Right now I’m basically trying to get all of the Jabba items that I can, along with some of the items made for his crew. One character that is an obvious choice is Jabba’s pet Salacious Crumb, and this is without a doubt the ultimate Salacious Crumb collectible. It’s also one of my favorite pieces in general. Only 600 were made, making it one of the few Star Wars collectibles from Sideshow that is actually somewhat hard to find.
It’s supposed to be a 1:1 statue, although it may be a tad small. Nevertheless, it was sculpted by Tony McVey, who sculpted the original puppet. The sculpt is great, and has a lot of personality. It’s made of polystone and fiberglass, so it’s a statue and not a puppet, but that’s preferable to using materials that would deteriorate over time (as happened with the original puppet).
His tail is a separate piece that slots into the body, and it sticks out a fair amount from the body, making it difficult to fit him onto a normal shelf. For this reason, I just have the tail sort of lying around his body. I think it looks good that way. I have him displayed with a C-3PO head that I customized myself with a hot glue gun and wires from Radio Shack :).
Burger King Jabba the Hutt Water Squirter
This was a children’s meal premium at Burger King from 2005. You press the button in the back and he squirts water out of of his mouth. He’s larger than I had expected, and made of a very hard plastic. The face is actually pretty cute. I like how they did the eyes.
Here’s the full lineup of 31 (!) Star Wars items that BK had available then. It’s a combination of plastic “Super Deformed” characters like this (each with some sort of extra feature), plushes and some vehicles.
Finally, here’s a commercial from the time. I can’t decide if it’s great or terrible.
Gentle Giant Jabba the Hutt Statue
This is the Gentle Giant Jabba the Hutt statue. It’s quite large, although it’s dwarfed by the Sideshow Jabba. The sculpt on Jabba isn’t bad, but something about it does seem a little off compared to the Sideshow piece. Maybe it’s the paint (although they did get closer to the actual color). The other parts of the piece are great, as is the throne itself. Salacious Crumb actually comes with the Rebo Band statue (stay tuned for that) and the Bib Fortuna was a freebie that Gentle Giant offered if you bought both Jabba and the band.
Despite Jabba’s slightly odd look, I love the statue overall and in terms of price and size I actually prefer it to the Sideshow piece. If you’re not a big-time collector of 1/6 scale figures (or a big-time Jabba fan), this is probably the piece I would recommend if you want a “Jabba on throne” statue.
They released a Slave Leia accessory set that comes with Leia, some new arms and a chain, and the top of his water pipe, and I expect that to arrive soon. I’ll post about it when it does.
Joetoy Super Deformed Jabba the Hutt
I got these figures on ebay recently. They were apparently originally bought from joetoy.com (now defunct). They are basically plaster statues and appear to be unlicensed. They made a whole line of these, but the Jabba is my favorite. He’s about 9 inches long and quite large in his other dimensions as well. With him are Oola (who is not green for some reason), Salacious Crumb (looking like a dog of some sort), and Han in Carbonite. They also made a Slave Leia that I don’t have.
Applause Jabba the Hutt and Han Solo Figure
This is a plastic figure from Applause that shows the deleted scene from Star Wars: A New Hope where Han talks to Jabba at Mos Eisley spaceport. The scene was originally shot back when Jabba was going to be a human, and it really doesn’t work well to just paste a CGI Jabba on top of the actor who was originally playing the part. I really hate this scene. I dislike the CGI Jabbas (especially this one) and I think it’s ridiculous to show Jabba for a short scene in ANH and then never again until Return of the Jedi. You lose all of the surprise value from first seeing him in Jedi. And we’re really supposed to believe that Han can step on Jabba’s tail and get away with it? Give me a break.
But I digress. The sculpts on this piece aren’t bad at all, but the paint is pretty basic — especially on Jabba. He’s cast in the green color and the only other color used is the tan that they’ve just slopped on. Wait, I take that back. They also used a few black strips for the eyes, but overall it’s pretty underwhelming. I actually thought I might have gotten an unfinished piece when I first saw it. At least it was cheap.
Sideshow Jabba the Hutt and Throne (Repaint)
As a Jabba the Hutt collector, the color of Jabba is something that I think a fair amount about (yes, it’s lots of fun at my house). The reason is that even though the Jabba the Hutt we saw on screen in Return of the Jedi seemed to be predominantly orange, lots of toys and statues have portrayed him as green. I even went so far as to write a series of articles on this issue, if you want to know more (see part 1 here).
Anyway, while the Sideshow Jabba the Hutt figure is a fantastic sculpt, I’ve always felt that they ended up giving him too green a paint job, so I wanted to repaint the figure to match what I saw on screen. Below you can see an untouched figure (it’s a separate figure — not the same one that I repainted above — but you get the point).
Here he is in my full setup, including all of the related figures and “environment” pieces from Sideshow, and a few Hasbro figures to fill the gaps. (The gonk droid was scratch-built for me by someone and may not entirely fit in, but I like it so much that I keep it here. :)) Click the picture for a larger view.
Sideshow Jabba the Hutt and Throne (Original)
A lot of people probably thought that we’d never see a Jabba in 1/6 scale, and I have to give a lot of credit to Sideshow Collectibles for pulling it off. The sculpt on this Jabba is impeccable. Seriously, it’s the best one I’ve seen, period. The paint on the other hand isn’t quite as good. It’s technically well done (with the exception of the eyes, which don’t look much like the the movie Jabba’s) but I think the color scheme is much too green. In Return of the Jedi, Jabba’s primary color was really orange, with green accents. But most Jabba merchandise seems to make him tan and green, or sometimes entirely green. (I repainted Jabba and use that version with my display.)
In the picture below, you can see the stock Sideshow Jabba and throne. These were sold separately for about $120 and $200 respectively. You can also see all of the other parts of the Sideshow Jabba throne room setup. From left to right, roughly: the Bubo Creature Pack, Leia as Boushh Figure, Han Solo in Carbonite, Boba Fett Figure, Gartogg the Gamorrean Guard Figure, Hasbro Jawa and C-3PO figures, custom Gentle Giant Slave Leia statue, Bib Fortuna Figure, Salacious Crumb Creature Pack, scratch-built Gonk Droid, regular Gamorrean Guard figure, Jabba’s Palace Archway Environment, Jedi Luke Figure, and Hasbro Drink-Serving R2-D2 figure. (Items that aren’t linked are ones that I haven’t written about for the site yet.)
This is a very impressive setup that is only rivaled by the Attakus Jabba setup in terms of size. However, that’s also part of the problem. It’s difficult to find a place to display it properly.
Mighty Jabba's Collection 