“Rescue From Jabba’s Palace” (World of Reading Level 2)
This book came out recently, and is one of those simply written books that beginning readers can tackle on their own. It’s full of cartoon-style artwork that appears to have been created just for this book, which is great. So often these things reuse existing photos or artwork, but they really did a good job here.
It’s written in short and simple sentences, as these things tend to be. It’s the artwork that really sells it.
It’s only around $4, so I’d definitely recommend it for any Star Wars fans with beginning readers at their house.
This unlicensed pin showed up on eBay and Etsy recently. I assume it’s unlicensed, anyway, because of the subject matter and because there is no Disney or Lucasfilm copyright. It’s made of black metal and is rather large — almost two inches tall. It’s dated 2015.
Jabba the Hutt Train (From Star Wars Express Glow-In-The-Dark Train Collection by Hawthorne Village)
Hawthorne Village is part of the Bradford Exchange, which specializes in only the finest collectibles featuring themes like eagles, NASCAR, and John Wayne. But they also have a number of popular culture properties like Star Wars, which they sell under the “Hawthorne Village” moniker. I’ve covered some of their “Galactic Village” collection in the past, as they released a Jabba’s Palace and Sail Barge. The quality can be a little iffy in some cases, but I do like them.
Like the Galactic Village collection, the Star Wars Express Collection is a subscription-based collection. The idea is that you sign up and they send you one item from the collection (in this case, one train car) every month or two. They literally say “about one every month or two” on the product page — you’d think they could nail that down a bit more. I’ve always disliked this approach, since it’s seems designed to get people to buy things they don’t actually want, or to hide the total cost of the collection. I generally have no interest in getting the entire collections of these things, so I just wait and buy them on eBay when they eventually show up (usually for less than the subscription price). These trains are normally $75 + $9.99 shipping if you buy them direct, but I got mine for a lot less.
The artwork on the train is not bad at all, even if it is based on standard shots from the movie that have been reworked a bit. The train itself seems pretty flimsy and plasticky, however.
Stay away, kids!
Lest you be tempted to give it to a child to play with, there is this sticker on the bottom reading, “THIS IS A FINE COLLECTIBLE. NOT INTENDED FOR USE BY CHILDREN.” Admittedly, it doesn’t seem like it would survive very long if used as a toy.
Inside you can see the luxurious white plastic seats. I had completely forgotten about the “glow-in-the-dark” aspect of this train, so I was very surprised to see it glowing pretty brightly when I left it in a darkened room. It’s a cool, if rather bizarre, feature.
Overall, this is a bit of a head-scratcher. People who are big fans of toy trains and Star Wars might love it, but I kind of get the same feeling from it as I did from the Star Wars vans that Kenner made back in the day — like they’re just shoehorning Star Wars someplace where it doesn’t really belong.
6 months ago this figure dipped briefly to $15.64 on Amazon, but this is the cheapest I’ve seen it. While I love this figure, these steep price cuts are a clear indicator that it was way too expensive and lackluster (no accessories, boring packaging).
Walmart.com: Star Wars The Black Series Jabba the Hutt Figure
Disney released its latex Salacious Crumb figure for Star Wars Weekends 2013, and I loved it. It was fairly well made, as these kinds of figures go, but its biggest attraction was that it was close to life size. It’s too small if you want to be a stickler for scale, but you could totally use it as a prop for a costume, and it looks great just sitting there on its little pillow. The next release was Jabba himself for Star Wars Weekends 2014, but I’m not nearly as fond of that one. It was based on the CGI model of Jabba rather than puppet, and of course it couldn’t be anywhere near life size, so part of me wondered what the point of making it at all was. I guess the latex “skin” is sort of evocative of Jabba, but as toys go it’s not great.
For Star Wars Weekends 2015, they’ve continued the Jabba’s Palace theme with a latex Rancor Monster. If you’ve ever seen the large foam/rubber dragons, dinosaurs and sharks that Toys R Us has, this will give you a similar feeling.
I think he’s got a sort of wire endoskeleton that helps him keep his shape, but there’s not really much you can do in terms of posing. The sculpt is not bad at all, although the hands seem too small.
He’s got a face that only a mother (or his keeper) could love, though. It’s homely even for a Rancor.
In terms of size, he’s very similar to the Hasbro “Jabba’s Rancor” figure (which was recently repackaged in the “Jabba’s Rancor Pit” set for Toys R Us). And the comparison of the two below makes it pretty obvious which I would choose if I could only have one. I can’t seem to track down the exact retail price for the Disney version, but it’s around $35, so it is cheaper than the Hasbro figure — especially since that one has been going for above retail on the secondary market. But that’s really the only advantage, even if you want something for a younger kid. I think the Hasbro figure would be the better choice in just about every situation, unless you want something soft. But for fans of the Rancor monster it’s definitely a cool item.
I wonder if they’re going to continue with the Jabba’s Palace theme next year. Max Rebo could certainly work in this style of figure, or maybe even a Gamorrean Guard.
Custom Vintage Jabba the Hutt/Vinylmation Figure
Speaking of Vinylmation figures, I recently won this very unique custom on eBay. It was created using the head of a 9″ Vinylmation figure combined with the vintage Kenner Jabba the Hutt figure. On the front, the artist painted Jabba’s head so that’s more or less the same size as the original figure.
On the back is a painting of Jabba’s Palace.
Interestingly, Mickey’s nose forms a nice chin for Jabba. It’s a bit of an odd piece, but I like it.
Disney’s Vinylmation vinyl figures have apparently been quite successful. Even if you just look at the Star Wars series, they have released an impressive number of figures, now including two Jabba figures. The first was a “jumbo” 12-inch version released during Star Wars Weekends 2013. I complained at the time that making Jabba a jumbo figure seemed a little odd. While you do expect Jabba to be bigger than a normal humanoid, he positively towered over all the other figures in the range. In 2014 they released a jumbo Rancor Monster, which was a bit better choice for the larger format, while also making a set of sorts with the jumbo Jabba.
But now I’m happy to say that in Series 5 they have released Jabba in the standard 3″ size, allowing him to fit in with a display of the other figures. As you can see below, there are some differences in the designs.
The “feet” on the jumbo version are painted to look like the front of Jabba’s throne, which I thought was a nice touch. On the smaller figure, it’s just an extension of his stomach. Also, the “ears” have difference designs. The jumbo version has the archway above his throne and some shuttered windows. The smaller version just has a vaguely sandy looking design. I guess maybe it’s supposed to be the horizon on Tatooine? I wonder if there are any more Jabba’s palace characters on the horizon.
Link: Tested Makes a Wearable Rancor Monster Costume
This is just an incredible job. Apparently the entire build took about 3 weeks. There’s a camera in the nose that allows the guy wearing it to see. I’ve been wanting someone to try a version of Jabba in a similar way.
Jabba the Hutt Pass Case (IC Card Holder) by Run’a
This is one of the more unique items I picked up while in Japan. It’s a plastic case designed to hold an IC card — those cards with a chip on them that you can just hold next to a reader to scan. It’s got nice, high-quality photos on both sides: Jabba’s face on one side, and the most common shot of him on his throne (along with Slave Leia et al) on the other.
Since the IC card doesn’t need to pass through the reader or anything, you don’t have to be able to see it or take it out at all. You just leave it in the case, touch it to the reader, and go. As you can see below, the card is kept in the case by the ball chain. I would think most people would attach it to their bag.
I imagine this is primarily intended for use with bus or train travel passes, but there might be other uses as well. Run’a made a total of 10 different designs, all of which can be seen here.
Japanese Jabba the Hutt Stationery Items (With Bonus Star Wars Japanese-English Dictionaries!)
Japan makes some of the best stationery items on the planet. I wrote about a series of Star Wars-themed notebooks a while back, but while I was in Japan last month I took the time to find out what else was available. I found a number of these in stores like Toys R Us, but had to order the ones explicitly featuring Jabba from Amazon Japan. There were a number of different character designs available for most of these, but of course I chose the Jabba-related ones.
First we have a folder and small spiral-bound notebook from Sun-Star Stationery featuring the droids and a scene from Jabba’s Palace. The notebook feels extremely high quality, with very thick and sturdy cardboard used for the covers. It’s lined inside, with a spot for the date separated by rebel and imperial symbols at the top.
The folder is made of very thin but high-quality plastic, with a mirrored finish on the inside. It’s a cool look.
I also picked up folders featuring Jabba the Hutt and Boba Fett, also from Sun-Star. These aren’t quite as nice as the one above, since they feature simple artwork and no mirror finish on the inside, but they’re still cool.
I’m not a huge fan of the artwork that they chose for Jabba. While details of the face seem based more on the Return of the Jedi version, the pose is obviously based on the CGI design from Episode One, where Jabba is biting the head off of a chuba. For whatever reason they’ve removed it and just have Jabba holding his empty hand up to his mouth. A little odd. They also used this artwork for two other items: a memo pad and a notebook.
The notebook is a somewhat plain affair with a manilla cover and “STAR WARS” branding on the inside.
The memo pad is a bit more interesting. It has a clear plastic cover with the Jabba design on it, and white paper underneath.
More interesting still is the design inside.
You get four unique designs. I think the art design on these is a little questionable — they look kind of traced. But still, it’s very cool to get something like this. They made a whole set of these for various characters.
Next up are these spiral notebooks with 3D character covers. These don’t feel quite as high in quality as the previous notebook, and the plastic covers seem a little on the flimsy side.
However, they do have one interesting feature inside, and that’s what made me buy them. Each design has a different set of characters with speech bubbles, allowing you to write messages as if they’re being spoken. It’s a neat idea.
Finally, there’s this pixel art style notebook from Runa. The cover features pixelated versions of all kinds of Star Wars characters, including Jabba and the Rancor.
Inside, it’s graph paper, which initially surprised me, but it actually makes a lot of sense given the theme. It would even allow you to design your own pixelated characters. There are characters printed on the corners of each page, although just the ones shown here.
BONUS! Star Wars-Branded Japanese-English/English-Japanese Dictionaries by Gakken!
These aren’t really related to Jabba, but when I stumbled upon them in a bookstore, I just had to buy them. As I’ve mentioned before, I am a Japanese translator, so I use dictionaries every day. Nowadays I only use computerized dictionaries, since you can just copy and paste the word you want to look up, and then search dozens of dictionaries simultaneously. So the truth is that I would never actually use these. But I did use dictionaries like this back when I was still a student, and indeed these are intended for students in junior high or high school. In any case, I just couldn’t resist picking up something that combined my interests so perfectly. Like most dictionaries in Japan, these come with cardboard sleeves.
When removed, you can see that each dictionary has a unique design depending on the character you chose — Darth Vader or Stormtrooper. (As far as I can tell these are the only designs available — no Jabba, alas!) The covers are made of a nice feeling embossed plastic. The contents of the two versions are identical, and for the most part they’re just standard dictionaries, but do have one unique feature: a section called “Lord Vader’s English Phrases.”
It gives a few typical phrases that Vader uses in the film and explains them. It’s not terribly useful (especially for an English speaker) but still it’s nice that they tried to add a little unique content.
Mighty Jabba's Collection 