Jabba-Themed Artwork By My Kids!
My kids certainly know what I like! My 4-year-old daughter did the drawing above, and I thought she did a great job including not only Jabba, but also Leia, Salacious Crumb and the throne. She drew it on a paper towel for some reason, which made it difficult to scan. I had to do a lot of cleanup work to get rid of the bumps in the surface of the towel. The one below was done by both my son and daughter together. Sniff!
With Halloween fast approaching, I thought I would do a quick video review of the only commercially available Jabba the Hutt costume — the inflatable Jabba costume from Rubies. (I got mine 6 years ago — you’d think someone would have come up with a new one by now, but no such luck. Well, technically there is one, but…)
Jabba the Hutt Drawing by Kyle Hickman
I recently got this drawing from the artist Kyle Hickman. It measures 4 x 6 and is done in markers on thick card. There’s just something about the style and use of color that I really like. I’ve got this one in a frame on my desk at the moment. Kyle has a Facebook page and an Etsy shop if you’re interested in seeing more.
“Jabba’s Palace Roll Call #1 – Mosep Binneed” Now on YouTube
I’m starting a new series of videos on YouTube where I look at some of the characters that inhabited Jabba’s palace and the merchandise that’s been made for them. The first character I’m tackling is Mosep Binneed.
This set is a Walmart exclusive, and is just starting to appear in stores now. I’ve been keeping tabs on my local Walmarts, and I think these just appeared in my area this morning. It retails for $29.97, which is on the high side for these, but when you consider that you get three figures (and that one of them is huge), it doesn’t seem too terrible. Funko released a Jabba the Hutt POP! figure way back in 2012, but the Jabba in this set is much bigger (see the video at the end of this post for some comparisons).
The box is quite large, especially compared to most POP! boxes, and if the condition of the other boxes at my store is any indication, getting a completely mint one might be a little challenging if you don’t go early when there are a lot to choose from. When I asked about the set at some local stores, I was told they were each getting 14 to 16 of these, which is a fair amount. But I don’t think they will be restocked when they sell out, so if you want one of these, I’d start looking now. I imagine it will eventually show up on Walmart.com, but so far there is no sign of it. Remember that most Walmarts seem to stock these near the front of the store where they have trading cards and collectibles, rather than the toy section.
They included a cardboard throne with the set, which really helps with the presentation. It’s not attached to the box in any way, so it’s easy to use it as an accessory. The Slave Leia is very similar to the one that they released in 2012, but in a sitting position, although the hair is also a different shade of brown and her braid is shorter. She can be a little top-heavy thanks to her tiny body and gigantic noggin. Jabba himself is of course quite impressive at this size, and they even managed to include his arm tattoo, which was a detail that they didn’t include in the previous version. Overall, I do like this version better.
Salacious Crumb is a completely new character in the POP! line, and is extremely cute on his little pillow. In some ways, he may be the star of this set. Just look at this little guy!
Here’s my complete Jabba’s Palace display as of this moment. I’m hoping they will continue to add more characters.
Finally, here is a YouTube review I did of the set, including comparisons with the previously released figures.
I wouldn’t have thought when I first posted about Petco’s line of Star Wars products two years ago that they would be doing well enough to come out with even more merchandise at this point, but here we are. In the past, I’ve posted about their very nice Jabba the Hutt dog toy (with lots of squeakers!) as well as a Jabba the Hutt dog toy that could easily pass as a plush toy for kids. But the item above is more of a chew toy that you might use to play tug-of-war with your dog. It’s cute, although not my favorite of Petco’s offerings. They have a whole line of different characters in this style — even a wampa!
While I was browsing the Petco site, I couldn’t help but pick up two Han in Carbonite toys. The first one below is for cats and has material inside that makes a crinkly noise.
The mouse doesn’t come out, even though it looks like it might.
Lookit that face!
The other one is for dogs and is more of a traditional rubber squeaky dog toy.
Review of POTF2 Jabba the Hutt & Han Solo Now on YouTube!
I just added a review of the Power of the Force 2 Jabba & Han Solo set to my YouTube channel, so check it out if you’re interested.
Life Size Jabba the Hutt Inflatable Figure by Morbid Enterprises (with YouTube Review!)
Even after I heard that this product was coming out, it took me a long time to finally get a picture of it. It never occurred to me that two companies would be releasing inflatable Jabba the Hutt decorations this year, so when I saw the decoration I mentioned in a recent post, I figured it was the Morbid Enterprises version. Not so. That version is manufactured by Gemmy Industries, and I apologize for any confusion I may have caused. I hope to get one of the Gemmy versions to review separately.
I’ve been seeing more and more of this style of air-blown inflatable lawn decorations in recent years. I’ve never had one myself, but then again I don’t really do much in the way of decorating for the holidays. There’s a surprising number of them available in every conceivable style, including Star Wars characters. These kinds of things tend to focus on characters like Vader, Yoda and the droids, though, so I was happy to see that they were making a Jabba. And when you think about it, it makes sense since this is about the only way to make an affordable life-size Jabba the Hutt.
You just have to take it out of the box and plug it in, and it will inflate automatically in about 2 minutes. This kind of decoration has to have a fan going at all times or it will quickly deflate. In terms of its size, it’s really very impressive. It’s hard to convey this without seeing it in person. My kids kept wanting to hug him.
The design is a little goofy if you look at it closely, but it’s not bad. And from a distance on your lawn or maybe at a party I think it’s just fine. They got his major features, including his tattoo. I do kind of wish they had used a different color scheme, though. This is basically the same color scheme as the Rubies Jabba the Hutt costume, which is based on the Clone Wars Jabba design. The brownish color doesn’t translate all that well for a Return of the Jedi Jabba.
There’s nothing Halloween-specific about the design, so it could do double-duty at a Star Wars-themed party, or even become a Christmas decoration with the right accessories (Santa hat and scarf, anyone?). I’ve seen prices for this up to $180 from some places, but the retail price is apparently $120, and I got mine for $99 from yardinflatables.com. (I have no affiliation with them whatsoever, but I got my order fast and they were the cheapest I could find.) Check out the YouTube video below for a quick review of this piece.
Original Jabba the Hutt Maquette by Phil Tippett Up for Auction
I posted about this maquette back in 2011. It’s the original maquette that Phil Tippett created to show George Lucas to get his approval on the Jabba design. This is apparently a casting of the original sculpture that Tippett did, but the original and the mold have both been destroyed, making this the only surviving version of the piece. It would also be the very first incarnation of Jabba as we know him.
This statue had appeared in a Profiles in History auction at the end of 2010, and at the time, the estimated selling price was between $30,000 and $50,000. As far as I know it didn’t sell. Now Profiles is selling it again with a starting price of $12,000, and they even have it up on eBay. It’s not a normal eBay auction, however. It’s part of a live auction event, which I guess means that your bid on eBay would be used as a proxy bid during the live auction. It also means you have to pay a buyer’s premium of 28% on top of whatever the final price is. It’s definitely way out of my price range, but it would be an amazing addition to the collection of a well-heeled Star Wars collector. As of this writing, there is around 8 days left in the auction. If someone reading this ends up buying it, I’d love to interview you about it.
Galactic Connexions Trading Discs by Topps (Jabba the Hutt and Friends)
The Jabba discs are all distinct variations, if you look closely.
These “Galactic Connexions” discs just appeared on Force Friday, and are exclusive to Walmart stores (and Walmart.com). Walmart apparently gave out some introductory packs on Force Friday, although I didn’t get one. Basically, they’re hexagonal plastic discs similar in size and feel to poker chips. They’ve got a nice weight and thickness to them. You can collect them, or also play a game with them a bit like dominos (or Sky Stones if you’re a Skylanders player). I did buy a couple of packs to see what they were like, but didn’t get any Jabbas — I had to resort to eBay to get the ones you see here.
The included instructions say there are 75 characters to collect, but the Topps website says there are 86. Either way, that’s a lot, and it includes characters from the original trilogy, the prequels and The Force Awakens. There is apparently a starter pack that includes 14 discs and a play mat that retails for $9.98, but the only ones I’ve ever seen in stores are the booster packs of 5 discs for $3.98. The thing about these is that there is an astronomical number of variations available for each character. Check out the key below. If I understand it correctly, every character is available in 9 basic variations, which are combinations of disc color and sticker type (regular, foil, or patterned foil). Plus there are at least 4 possible “ultra rare” disc colors for each character, which also have one of the three sticker types on them (so 12 more variations). The “battle damaged” “Slave 1” “Imperial Red” and “Solid Gold” variations are only available for certain characters, so if we’re just thinking about Jabba they wouldn’t apply. With 7 different disc colors and 3 possible sticker types, I think that’s 21 possible variations for Jabba alone (although math is not my strong suit…) They say there are “hundreds of combinations,” but my rough estimate is that a totally complete set (all 86 characters in all variations) would be around 2000 discs. Crazy!
Since these are blind bagged, just collecting all of the variations on a single character would be totally impossible without eBay, and nearly impossible even with it. I don’t plan to try. I think frankly Topps has overreached with this product. If there were only one disc for each character, or if there were only a handful of variations for Jabba, I might have tried to get a complete set, or at least get all the Jabba versions. But it would cost me hundreds just to collect the Jabba variations.
The details are a bit unclear even in the rules on the Topps website, but the “solid gold” Slave Leia disc is apparently actually made of solid gold and is a prize in a contest they’re running (although it seems that they don’t actually include the discs in the packages — rather you get a white disc that can be redeemed for the gold one. But they also mention some kind of room makeover prize in the rules, so frankly I’m confused by the whole thing.
Here are scans of the Game Rules & Checklist included with my booster packs (click to enlarge).
Mighty Jabba's Collection 