Upcoming: CZ-3 Life-Sized Bust from Regal Robot
Tom over at Regal Robot recently told me about their latest project: a life-sized bust of CZ-3, a droid that was briefly seen in both A New Hope and (in a way) in Return of the Jedi. The bust is being made from a scan of the original prop and is being manufactured by Regal Robot in the US.
You may recall that we saw CZ-3 in the scene in A New Hope where Luke is selling his speeder.
But the first glimpse we had of this style of droid was actually in the jawas’ sandcrawler earlier in the film. You could barely see him in the shadows, apparently this droid is known as CZ-1.
And the same exact droid costume (I believe!) was used as a “dead” droid in the torture chamber of Jabba’s Palace, but that one is known as CZ-4.
In any case, as far as I’m concerned this bust has ties to Jabba’s Palace. There are going to be two versions available: a Numbered Edition that’s limited to 50 pieces for $1499, and a Signature Edition that’s limited to just 15 pieces for $1799. (That one comes with an additional oil stain and heavier weathering, as well as Mr. Muir’s signature.) If you’re interested, they will be going on sale on July 13th at noon EST.
At first blush these prices seem high to someone like me who bought life-size busts from Sideshow 10+ years ago. But not only has the economy changed since then, these are being made in very small quantities, and in the US as well. I won’t be buying one of these myself, partially because of the price, but also because I just don’t have the room for any more life-sized busts. I’ve sold most of the ones I did buy back in the day. But if I was collecting them, I would think long and hard about picking one up. It’s this kind of weird background character that I love about Star Wars, and it looks like they’re really going to do him justice.
More Viewer Submissions!
Here are a couple of submissions that didn’t make it in time for the video I posted last week. First up is this great pencil drawing of Jabba on his throne by Patrick. Nice that he included Yarna, too!
I also have this very cute drawing of “Jabba the wut?” and Boba Fett by Aaron.
Thanks for sending these in!
3D Printed Baby Jabba Figure (STL from Zsculptors)
A few months ago, I posted about the Jabba’s Palace models that I got from Zsculptors.com, and printed and painted myself. At that point I noticed that they also had a baby Jabba model that looked very interesting, and while I bought it right away, I didn’t get around to actually printing and painting it until just recently. I really like the concept: Jabba as a baby in a baby buggy modeled after the sail barge. He even has a baby bottle that looks like his hookah pipe!
I printed most of the pieces (the ones in red) on my resin-based printer because it seemed like thin, delicate pieces like the sails and railing would work better that way. I used a traditional FDM printer for the buggy and stand, since they were not very detailed and would have been too big for the resin printer anyway.
I just painted it with some cheap acrylic paints, but I think it came out pretty well overall. Getting baby Jabba’s eyes to look right was challenging.
It seems like the Jabba model was heavily influenced by Saby Manyhei’s “Baby Jabba” artwork, although that didn’t include the baby buggy part. I’d also like to see a 3D model based on Leonardo Viti’s Baby Jabba artwork, but the closest I’ve seen is this one on Cults3d, which doesn’t quite do it for me.
I also made a YouTube video about this project, which you can see below.
Check out my viewers’ Jabba-related creations!
I posted a YouTube video about 10 days ago showing some of the Jabba-related things that I have made throughout the ears, and asking for my viewers to submit their own as a kind of quarantine project. And I’ll have to say, the response was fantastic! Here is the video where I show off the artwork and other things that people sent in.
Jabbawookiee Urban Toy by RYCA
When you’ve been collecting Jabba merchandise for as long as I have, you start to think you’ve seen it all. And then something like this comes along. It’s so wonderfully bizarre that I just had to get one. Obviously, it’s based on “Jabberwocky,” which was originally the name of a poem in Lewis Carrol’s “Through the Looking Glass,” and was later made into a film by Terry Gilliam.
But I never would have thought to combine Jabba and Chewbacca in this way. According to the artist who created it (RYCA/aka Ryan Callanan), it was loosely based on the vintage Jabba the Hutt figure, which you can clearly see if you look at the two side by side. It’s a bit bigger than the vintage figure and made of solid resin, so it’s quite hefty.
This was part of a limited edition of 20, but as of right now you can still get them on RYCA’s website if you are interested (just be aware that they are not cheap).
RYCA has done lots of very interesting urban toys/sculptures that you can see on his Instagram page, including an earlier figure based on the vintage Jabba figure that turns Jabba into a boxer. Since I didn’t know about these at the time they were released, I’m really hoping he may release another color variant of these!
Reader Submission: Yak Face Drawing by Corey from Australia
I thought I would post this drawing of Yak Face that Corey, a teenage reader from Australia, did for me. I think he did a great job!
Jabba the Nugg & Chunk Solo Custom Toys by Simian Cheese
Joe from Simian Cheese makes custom toys inspired by vintage toys and pop culture. Someone tipped me off that he was considering making something inspired by Jabba, and when I got in touch with him, he kindly offered to send one as a donation to my collection. In case you can’t tell, Jabba the Nugg is Jabba reimagined as a chicken nugget. The same is also true of Han in Carbonite, although he’s more of a cartoony version similar to the McNuggets that were featured in McDonalds commercials in the 80s.
You can see the packaging above, although I’m not totally sure this is what you would receive when and if Joe decides to sell these. I like the combination of Jabba’s tattoo symbol with the McDonalds logo.
The figures themselves appear to be cast in hard resin. Jabba seems like he might just be cast in this color, but Han appears to be painted. I first thought that the Jabba sculpt was based on the Jabba Glob or Ultra Jabba figure (both of which use essentially the same sculpt). But it’s actually based on the figure from Disney’s ROTJ Figurine Playset that originally came out in 2014 and has been repackaged a few times since. That makes a lot of sense, since if I had thought about it, it would have been obvious that the scale is wrong for it to have been based on a direct casting of a regular action figure.
Joe has reworked the back of the figure completely, even adding a little Jabba derrière. Yes, you are looking at the butt of Jabba the Hutt in the form of a chicken nugget.
I assume that Han has been sculpted from scratch. These are extremely silly toys and I love them. Some might say that with all that’s going on the world today we should not be focusing on frivolous things like this, but I think this is when we need them the most. If you’re interested getting one of these, thing about going to Joe’s website or Instagram and letting him know.
More Vintage Hand-Painted Ceramic Jabba Figures
I’ve posted about these vintage “paint your own pottery” ceramic figures a number of times since I found my first one about 10 years ago. I found another (considerably more disturbing) one not long after that, and even managed to track down one of the original molds that they were made from. I even 3D scanned one of the figures, allowing me to turn it into a 3D-printed piggy bank, Christmas lights, and some giant Jabba sculptures. But it took me a while to find any more of these figures.
I actually found the one above in 2016, but I can’t seem to find any record of having posted about it on my website or instagram, so I went ahead and took some new photos of it. Unlike the two earlier ones I had, it looks like this one has been painted rather than glazed, so it doesn’t have the hard shiny coating on it. It’s also got a crack in it and is missing the Christmas lights that were probably originally installed (you can still see remnants of them on his tail). The most distinctive characteristic is probably the glass googly eyes that they used. I’ll have to give them points for creativity, since they painted them red on the back to match Jabba’s eye color.
On the bottom, it reads “To Rich From Mom.” I’m not sure if the mother was the one who decorated it, but that seems likely.
Below you can see the one I got just recently, which is similar in a number of ways to the one above.
This one was also just painted and not glazed and fired, but I would say this one has had the most care put into its decoration. They actually did quite a good job, even if it does look a little like he’s wearing lipstick.
On the bottom it says “Bradley April 1985” and “Love Mom.” So again, I’m guessing that the mother was the one who decorated this for her son, which is pretty sweet. It’s also nice to have a conclusive date for one of these.
Below you can seen all 4 of my ceramic figures, as well as a 3D printed version. I’m finally starting to put together a little collection of these guys, and it only took 10 years!
Link: Custom Bib Fortuna Life-Size Bust by Regal Robot (Based on Ralph McQuarrie Concept Artwork)
Tom Spina from Regal Robot just told me about a custom project that they worked on recently that might be of interest to Jabba fans. There were a number of different concepts created for the character of Bib Fortuna before they settled on the one we know and love, including the one below by Ralph McQuarrie. To tell you the truth, I don’t think I had ever even seen this drawing before, but it does remind me of a lot of the alien species we saw on the sail barge in particular. It’s kind of interesting how his collar kind of evokes the head tentacles we got in the final design.
Anyway, someone apparently liked the concept drawing well enough to commission a life-size bust of it, which is pretty awesome. Regal Robot is in the unique position of being able to make custom pieces of artwork and furniture that are actually officially licensed by Lucasfilm, which I find fascinating. From what Tom has told me, Lucasfilm is in fact involved in the process and will provide feedback and so forth about the direction to take. I’m sure it’s not cheap, but it would be a very cool experience for a diehard Star Wars collector (not that I know any of those…)
They apparently had an artist work up some more drawings based on the original sketch, showing how he might look from different angles and with some other accessories.
Then they sculpted and painted the piece and cast it in a translucent flesh-toned resin (which really helps improve the sense of realism).
Finally, it was painted and finishing touches like the flocked hat and pedestal were added.
Below you can see it in the client’s home, next to a bust of Chewbacca. Very impressive stuff.
Check out the Custom Busts and Statues page on Regal Robot’s site for more information about this project and others.
Mighty Jabba's Collection 
