I got the first couple of these boxes, but they didn’t really do it for me as I’m not a hardcore Funko POP collector. But I can’t resist a Jabba’s Palace version! I wonder which figures will be included, and if there will be a chase figure. I also wonder about the T-shirt that is included, since previous boxes have had multiple versions.
Hot Toys originally came out with the Chubby line of nesting doll figures years ago, and I’ve posted in the past about the Leia set from 2008 that included Slave Leia and Leia as Boushh figures). Unbox Industries and TADO secured the rights to the series and put out their own versions more recently. Most of them are not very hard to find (you can get them on Amazon, for example) but I’ve had a terrible time tracking down the Jabba’s Palace set. I’ve been waiting for it since 2014, but it never seemed to show up anywhere. Finally, I got one from an eBay seller in the UK, and some cursory Googling leads me to believe that this might have only been released in the UK.
These nesting dolls are pretty similar to the Hot Toys versions, although their feet fit on with pegs. The Hot Toys versions originally didn’t attach to the figures at all, and later they added magnets. But I would say this more secure approach is preferable.
Bib Fortuna opens up and you can fit Salacious Crumb inside him if you want. Even though there appears to be a seam on Salacious, I couldn’t get him open and I felt like if I tried to pry it open I would end up screwing up the paint. Since there’s nothing inside him anyway, I just gave up.
Jabba also opens up, and he’s surprisingly large as well — maybe 5 inches long? You could put the other figures, minus their legs, inside him but I doubt I’ll be doing that. These are rather unusual figures to be sure, and I think their appeal is probably somewhat limited. My hunch is that they were discontinued before the Jabba set could see a proper release, so maybe it will end up being a rare one. In any case, I’m glad to have found it finally.
As a side note, who thought this would be a good logo for a product called “Chubby“?
One of the pleasant surprises about the Star Wars merchandise that accompanied the release of The Force Awakens in theaters was the reappearance of the Micro Machines line. I’ve always liked these, and have quite a few Jabba-related ones from the 90s. They released a number of Force Awakens-themed playsets, as well as a series of blind-bagged models. Most of them are ships, but there are also some “creatures” like Jabba here. The stores in my area only have Series 1 and 2, while Jabba comes from Series 4, so I picked him up on eBay.
If this sculpt looks familiar, it’s because it’s the same one Hasbro used for its Black Series Jabba figures (both the 6″ scale version and the 3 3/4″ scale version from the Jabba’s Rancor Pit set). Since they sculpted him digitally, it’s relatively trivial to resize the model for different purposes. Since this model is an excellent one, I can’t really complain.
Despite his small size, he is articulated at the waist, which was kind of a nice surprise. The paint job is actually fairly good as well.
3D Printed Jabba the Hutt Figure for Disney Infinity 3.0
I recently bought a 3D printer (a Dremel 3D Idea Builder), so I decided to start a feature on my YouTube channel that will cover 3D printing as it relates to Star Wars. Items that are directly related to Jabba will probably also be posted here, while more general projects will only be on the YouTube channel.
The first major project I undertook was printing this figure of Jabba from Disney Infinity 3.0. Even though Jabba does make an appearance in the game, and actually has a fairly large presence as a quest-giver, he will never be a player character and so won’t have a figure made for him. That’s why I was so excited to find this model over on Thingiverse. I couldn’t tell what it was at first, since the example model was so small and printed in translucent plastic, but it soon became obvious that it was from Disney Infinity 3.0 — probably extracted directly from the game, rather than created separately to resemble the character from the game.
When I printed out the model, though, it was very faceted and computerized looking. That’s kind of cool, but isn’t really what the character looks like in the game. So I decided to try and smooth out the facets using a program called MeshMixer. It turned out to be not terribly difficult, and I was left with a nice smooth model that I could print (you can download my version on Thingiverse as well).
I also printed the throne, which is available along with the first version above:
The model had the rings in the gargoyles’ mouths, but they didn’t print well and broke off very easily, so I replaced them with metal rings. Here it is painted.
I’m really quite happy with how this figure turned out. I have pretty much all of the Star Wars figures from Disney Infinity 3.0, since I really like them just as figures separate from the game, and now I can have a model of Jabba from the game as well. It’s pretty amazing to be able to hold something physical from a game like this.
Here’s the video I made about this figure:
Upcoming: SDCC 2016-Exclusive Jabba the Hutt and Slave Leia Itty Bittys Plushes from Hallmark
I just learned that this two-pack of Itty Bittys will be available as an SDCC 2016 exclusive. SDCC is apparently being held from July 21-24 this year, so it’ll be a little while until these are available, and I expect them to go for a pretty penny on the secondary market. I actually have a fair number of Itty Bittys despite them not having released any Jabba-related ones up until now, since I’ve gotten quite a few as gifts. I’ll definitely be picking these up.
I was also pleasantly surprised to see Slave Leia as part of the set, which would seem to contradict the idea that the character is being retired from merchandising.
Here’s a video I made about some of the do-it-yourself ceramics that people made in the 1980s, and a closer look at my two Jabba ceramic figures (this one and this one, as well as the mold for them).
Rancor, Jedi Luke and Slave Oola Funko POP! Set (Previews Exclusive) (With YouTube Unboxing/Review!)
I posted about the Walmart-exclusive Jabba’s Palace set of Funko POP! figures a few months ago. That set included a large Jabba figure, a sitting Slave Leia figure and a Salacious Crumb figure. This one seems to be intended as a companion set to that one, and is a Previews Exclusive (so it’s available through online toy stores, comic shops, and the like. It includes a large Rancor figure, a Jedi Luke figure (with bone) and an Oola figure and retails for around $40.
As you can see, the heads on my Luke and Oola figures are kind of wonky, and I didn’t have much luck correcting this. I may try some more drastic like putting something inside the head to correct the angle later.
The rancor is very large and heavy. He’s smaller than Jabba (which really doesn’t make sense) but he’s a lot heavier because he’s not hollow.
The bobblehead looks a little weird from the side. I also noticed that they didn’t paint the earring. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be painted, but it would definitely look nicer with a little gold paint on there.
Similarly, the shackle would look better with a metallic color rather than this glossy black, in my opinion. The rest of the paint is well done though.
This Luke is distinct from the previously released version (which you can see here). That one had a black glove on his right hand and wasn’t wearing the vest. And of course it didn’t have the bone from the rancor pit that we have on this one.
Oola is well sculpted, but the wonkiness of her head is a little off-putting. She’s also way too top-heavy to stand on her own. Below you can see a shot of all of my Jabba-related Funko POP! figures.
I also made a fairly in-depth video review of the set, which you can see below.
Now on YouTube: Clone Wars Jabba’s Palace Battle Pack Review
Here’s a video review I recently did of Hasbro’s Clone Wars Jabba’s Palace Battle Pack from 2009.
Bradley Time came out with a number of Star Wars-themed timepieces in the 80s, including digital and analog Jabba the Hutt wristwatches for kids and some full-size clocks like these. But they also came up with a variety of designs that never made it into production, like this one.
This would’ve been a clear acrylic slab with a clock embedded in it and a plastic Jabba figure on the front. There’s a stamp at the bottom left that reads:
Original Artwork
Property of
Bradley Time Division
Elgin International Industries, Inc.
And there is a number on the bottom right (“8/16 – 2”) that I believe represents the date when it was created by the artist. The 8/16 means August 16 (1982) while the “2” is probably the number of this particular item, since other concept artwork has other numbers there instead of the “2”. On the back of the artwork is a stamp showing that it was received by Bradley Time on August 23, 1982. I wonder if this means that the artist in question was working as a freelancer outside the company. I’d be interested to know who made this artwork, if anyone knows.
The artwork itself is on vellum, which is sort of like thick tracing paper, and it has a piece of plain paper attached to the back. It might have been white once, but it’s quite yellow now. Below you can see the reverse of the vellum sheet. The coloring from the clock face has rubbed off on the paper underneath, showing that they colored some parts on the reverse, presumably to help make the design nice and clean.
There are some other Jabba-related concept designs on the SWCA site, including a similar Jabba clock, a digital Jabba clock, and two that are in the same style as this one: a sail barge design and a Rebo Band design. But I had never seen this design before, so I was quite happy to pick it up. It’s a bit of a shame that none of these Jabba-themed clocks ever got the green light.
Here is the piece framed. It’s on 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper, but the arrangement of the elements on the page meant that I was able to just use an off-the-shelf 11″ x 14″ frame and a precut mat with an 8″ x 10″ opening and it looks great.
As I explained in my “Jabba’s Palace Roll Call” video about Mosep Bineed, Jabba the Hutt’s first appearance (if you can call it that) was actually in the Marvel Comics version of Star Wars. Since this was long before Return of the Jedi came out, they had no idea what Jabba the Hutt actually was supposed to be like, so they ended up basing his design on that of a cantina alien. It was later decided that the character in the comics was actually Jabba’s accountant Mosep Bineed, who sometimes used Jabba’s name (although that isn’t very convincing, especially since everyone would be able to tell right away that he isn’t a hutt).
The figure on the left is Hasbro’s version of Mosep Bineed, who looks a bit different from what we saw in the comics. The one of the right is a custom version of the figure meant to represent how he looked in the comics. It was kindly sent in to the site by one of my readers. (Thanks!) The main changes are the color of the outfit and boots, but he also removed the topknot and shortened his whiskers. I think it came out well. The paint on the outfit and boots in particular is quite smoothly applied. I’m happy to add him to the many other Jabbas in my collection!
Mighty Jabba's Collection 