Last year, Disney released a latex figure of Salacious Crumb that I was pretty impressed with. At $35, it wasn’t that expensive, plus it was nearly life sized and posable, so it could do double duty as a budget prop replica or even part of a Star Wars costume. I’ve had it displayed near my desk for more than a year and have gotten to like it pretty well. This year’s figure is Jabba himself, and while at $29.99 he’s $5 cheaper than Salacious was, I have a lot more trouble recommending him. Here they are together.
He’s made of the same kind of latex material filled with polyester fiber as the Salacious Crumb figure. He may look kind of small above, and of course he’s not remotely life sized, but he is actually fairly large at around 2 feet long from head to tail.
I’m not thrilled that they went with the prequel Jabba design, and making his tail stick out behind him like the POTF2 action figure just makes it seem awkward. He also appears to be bending backward to look at something above him, which contributes to the awkwardness of the pose. However, I must say that if you look at the figure from a reasonable distance, it looks pretty decent. It’s only when you pick it up and look at in detail when it starts to fall apart. There are apparently wires in his arms for posing, but it’s not really possible to do much with them, and even if you get it to hold a pose the latex folds unrealistically. There doesn’t appear to be a wire in the tail, so you have to have it sticking straight out behind him.
There’s a very prominent label on the bottom that’s actually part of the sculpt, detailing the copyright information, etc. Interestingly, he was made in Sri Lanka rather than China, which I expected.
Probably the most interesting thing about him is that he’s the only thing close to a 1/6 scale prequel Jabba that we have. As I was writing this, I was inspired to break out my old (repainted) Sideshow smuggler Han Solo for a little photo shoot. I’d say this Jabba might be a little on the small side, but it’s just about right. In fact, when paired with Han, his “looking up” pose makes sense.
I’ve posted about my vintage Jabba the Hutt and Gamorrean Guard sweat socks before, but until now they were the only Jabba-related socks I knew of (assuming you don’t count the Mick Jabba socks). So I was surprised to find out about these socks recently. They’re part of a new line of realistic and knitted designs that features lots of different Star Wars characters. The two Slave Leia designs are apparently women’s socks, while the other two are men’s, although the difference is really in the sizing.
The socks on the left above use artwork from the Chris Trevas Celebration IV print titled “His Vision Returns.” It’s a fantastic print and looks surprisingly good on the sock, but cropping just the Leia portion of it seems to be a questionable decision. First of all, it eliminates the whole point of the print, which is showing how Han reacts to Leia’s outfit as his vision returns after their escape from Jabba. And even if you want to just use it as a standalone image of Slave Leia, having her wear goggles doesn’t make a lot of sense (in the original painting they were escaping a dust storm that was shown in a deleted scene from Return of the Jedi). I’m not sure if the Han in Carbonite is a photo of the actual prop or a painting of some sort, but it looks pretty good.
The knitted designs are pixelated and remind me of 16-bit video game artwork (Leia in particular). The Jabba is a little strange, with his face at the top and some odd green strips at the bottom. I can’t figure out what they’re supposed to be. I had assumed that they were meant to represent Jabba’s body somehow, but I don’t really see it. I tried the sock on myself, but it seemed to get overly stretched out and look weird even though it’s supposedly my size. So I had my son model it. Even on him, Jabba’s face gets rather distorted (although that sort of works for Jabba). Jabba’s body is essentially shaped like an ankle sock, so I think they missed an opportunity to make the sock really resemble him.
Mosh, a member of the Rebelscum forums, posted about these figures a while back and kindly acquired them for me. According to him, they were purchased at a shop that sells a variety of “home ornaments” and has a shelf with some bootleg Star Wars figures. When he asked, he was told that they were created by the 86-year-old owner, who has been making molds for these kinds of figures since the original movies came out. However, I think you have to take that with a grain of salt. It might be that he was just reselling the figures and adding a good story to make them more attractive, or maybe he didn’t actually sculpt them but did have a hand in their creation (casting or painting, etc.). (See this thread for the whole range he offers. The inclusion of things like the Super Battle Droid seems a little odd.) I guess technically these aren’t bootlegs, since they aren’t copies of existing products. They’re just unlicensed figures.
In any case, I’ve never seen these particular models offered anywhere else, so of course I had to get a Jabba. It consists of three pieces. Jabba himself (who is made of a lead alloy), Salacious Crumb (also metal) and the throne (which is probably some kind of resin). The pieces aren’t connected to each other in any way.
The sculpt on Jabba is rough, to put it mildly, although by the standards of other Mexican bootlegs, the paint job isn’t really that bad.
Detail on Salacious Crumb is also on the soft side, but he’s teeny tiny — about 1cm tall. When you consider his size, the paint job is actually pretty darned good — the eyes in particular.
The thing that I like best about this set is that it’s an almost exact miniature copy of the vintage Kenner Jabba the Hutt playset. This is especially obvious if you look at the throne, which is like a shrunk-down version of the Kenner one. Only the Kenner version has the two panels on the top like this, and the other details match up perfectly as well.
I also got a Gamorrean Guard, and the paint on this one is really quite impressive (again, considering the diminutive size).
This is the kind of item I love to discover. It’s too bad he doesn’t have any other characters that are expressly from Jabba’s palace, although I wouldn’t mind getting a Boba Fett or the droids given the chance.
News: 2013 SDCC-Exclusive Black Series Boba Fett and Han in Carbonite Available Again After Months
With the 2014 SDCC-exclusive Jabba the Hutt figure becoming available pretty soon, it strikes me as slightly suspicious timing for the 2013 SDCC-exclusive Boba Fett and Han in Carbonite to suddenly be available again at a variety of retailers. After all, the Jabba has a space for the Han in Carbonite figure built right into the packaging. It seems that these are coming from Asia, leading some to speculate that they’re bootlegs, but it seems that they are the real deal — apparently just leftovers that were made for sale in Asia that have been shipped back to the US to capitalize on the pent-up demand here. (This explains the lack of an SDCC label on most/all of them, but the product itself is identical.)
It was only a matter of weeks ago that these were selling for $200 or more on eBay, but now you can get them for $70-$80 from a number of places. Some are shipping direct from Asia, so might have inflated shipping costs, but as of this writing BBTS has these in stock for $79.99. A little expensive compared to the original asking price of $44.99, but way better than what they had been going for. Unfortunately, I broke down and bought a recast of the Han in Carbonite figure not very long ago, so I’m a little annoyed by this in one sense (but not nearly as annoyed as the people who recently paid through the nose on eBay, I’m sure!). Still, I decided I would go ahead and get one of these so I’d have a legit Han in Carbonite. Plus, the Black Series Boba Fett figure is very good, and I plan to get a couple of the 6″-inch scale Jabbas anyway, so I can use more than one of each.
This really does make me think twice about possibly spending a lot on the SDCC Jabba, though.
Jabba the Hutt Sketch Card by Ryan Arasato
I like the coloring and sketchy style that Ryan Arasato used for this sketch card. The vertical lettering reminds me of Japanese or Chinese artwork.
Artist Spencer Brinkerhoff periodically does a sort of contest in his thread at the Rebelscum forums where he will post a message containing the word “GO!” and the first person to post a character name afterward will get a free sketch card of that character. He says it’s a way to practice his drawing skills, but it’s also a great way to drum up some interest — I’m sure he’s gotten a fair amount of business out of it, including a commission of Jabba the Hutt from me a while back.
Anyway, this time I decided to go with something a little more obscure: Beldorion the Hutt (even Spencer admitted he had to look up the name). Beldorion has basically only appeared in one place — the novel “Planet of Twilight” by Barbara Hambly. He’s the first and only Hutt Jedi, but he (spoiler) later turned to the dark side and was killed by Leia in a duel after she herself became a Jedi.
Now, I have not read the book, so what I know about the character comes from things I’ve read online. In fact I don’t really have a lot of interest in books set in the Star Wars universe. My interest in Star Wars is largely focused on the movies themselves (and the merchandise, of course), so the so-called “Expanded Universe” doesn’t have a lot of appeal. (That’s one reason why I’m not too upset that Disney has recently said that all of the Expanded Universe stuff is no longer considered canon and won’t necessarily have any effect on the new movies they’re making.)
Still, I was kind of drawn to this character, since the idea of a Hutt Jedi seems both ludicrous and strangely cool to me. I don’t really like the idea that all Hutts are evil gangsters — surely there must be some good individuals in any race. It’s also interesting to think about what a Hutt might look like if he were muscular rather than fat like Jabba, although Spencer went with a more Jabba-like version.
Chris Trevas is probably most well known to many for his prints from Celebration V (“His Vision Returns”) and VI (“The Hunter and His Prey”), both of which are stunning. (I tend to like original artwork more than prints, and I don’t really have any more wall space for large pieces like these prints, but otherwise I probably would have bought them.) But Chris has actually been doing Star Wars art for close to 20 years.
This piece is one of his earlier ones, and was used in Issue #3 of Star Wars Kids Magazine from 1997. (I previously wrote about issue #13, which had Jabba on the cover.)
Here’s the article it was used for. Chris did a series of illustrations for various alien species from Star Wars, and this was one of them. It’s a lot more impressive in person than you might think from the magazine, though, since the actual art piece is 8 x 5.5 inches, while the version in the magazine is only a couple of inches across. It’s done in acrylic and colored pencil.
I’m not sure if he created this with Jabba himself in mind or if it was intended just to be a generic hutt. The Rodian on the right certainly appears to be depicting Greedo, so it might be Jabba. [EDIT: Chris later got back to me to confirm that it is a generic Hutt.] Either way, it’s a very impressive piece and one I’m happy to have in my collection.
As a side note, I found it interesting that the article mentioned that hutts are like kangaroos and “stay in their mother’s pouch while they are growing.” I believe they later said that hutts were asexual and can’t really be considered male or female.
Plush Jabba the Hutt Dog Toy by Petco
I wrote about a Jabba the Hutt dog toy from Petco last year, but had little expectation that their line of Star Wars pet toys would continue to expand, much less that they would make another Jabba-themed item. But here it is. Interestingly, there’s basically nothing to distinguish this from a normal plush — nothing to make it obvious that it’s a dog toy rather than a children’s toy. You might think that it would be stronger in its construction than a child’s toy, to make up for the fact that a dog will probably be biting it and tossing it around, but if anything this seems a bit shoddier than the standard plush. I’m not sure how long it would last with an enthusiastic dog. Still, it’s cute so I can’t complain too much. It’s about 10″ tall and has a squeaker hidden inside.
Custom Version of Gentle Giant Slave Leia Statue (for Sideshow 1/6 Scale Jabba Display)
There has never been a high-end Slave Leia figure made in 1/6 scale (I’m not counting the Hasbro version, which is basically a Barbie doll, or the Kotobukiya version, which is a vinyl statue and also undersized for 1/6 scale). This is almost certainly because highly articulated figure bodies look terrible in skimpy outfits like this. Still, figure bodies are getting better all the time, and some even have rubber “skin” that hides their joints, so I expect that it’s only a matter of time before a good Slave Leia is made. But until then, a lot of people have been searching for alternatives. Gentle Giant’s Slave Leia statue is considered by many to be the best sculpture of Carrie Fisher as Slave Leia, and it’s in 1/6 scale, which means that it would theoretically fit in with Sideshow’s line of figures.
Unfortunately, she’s permanently attached to her base (above), so you can’t easily display her on the throne with the Sideshow Jabba figure. Some people have just plopped her there as is, but that doesn’t look too great in my opinion. Some brave souls have cut her away from the base using tools like dremels and the like, but I had never had the guts to try — especially since it’s a fairly expensive statue. I did finally find one on eBay that someone had already cut from the base, and while it had some minor damage, it wasn’t bad and the price was right, so I bought it. When it arrived, it had been damaged in transit and looked like this:
Her left hand was broken off, and unfortunately it had splintered rather than breaking cleanly. Three fingers and the thumb were also broken off (and one of the fingers was missing completely). Also, the cloth hanging from her waist was broken off. The seller was nice about it and gave me a partial refund, making the final price very reasonable, and this made the repairs I had to do a little more palatable. I started by super-gluing the cloth and arm/finger fragments back in place, but there were still obvious cracks, and of course there was the little matter of a missing finger as well.
So I used some epoxy putty to smooth over the cracks and sculpt a new finger.
I also sculpted a new section of cloth, because the piece I had was broken off on a straight edge, which looked very odd.
Here’s the hand after repainting. It’s not perfect, but I think it’s certainly acceptable — especially since it’s tucked around the back of the figure anyway. I just wanted to make sure it didn’t stand out too much. The hardest part was matching the paint color that Gentle Giant used for the skin — especially since I discovered that many of my paints had dried out since I used them last. I got somewhat close after some trial and error.
The color of the cloth turned out to be much easier to match.
This is what it looked like on the bottom, by the way. You can see how it has literally been scraped away from the base.
And here she is with my repainted Sideshow Jabba the Hutt figure.
And here’s the whole display. Of course it’s a little odd to have two Leias in the display, but let’s not quibble…
In the picture above, you can 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.)
I posted about the Black Series Jabba the Hutt a while ago, and now Entertainment Weekly (of all places) has posted the first shots of what is apparently the SDCC-exclusive version of the figure. It’s interesting, but also rather disappointing in several ways. The figure itself still looks great — even better than in the shots I posted before. The mouth seems more open in this shot, which makes me wonder if the head is made of a more flexible material that I had originally thought, or perhaps they changed the sculpt a bit.
As many suspected, the SDCC-exclusive version will come with Salacious Crumb (who looks… okay) and Jabba’s throne railing and hooka. That’s good as far as it goes, but I was really hoping for a full throne. What you get instead is packaging that can be used as a throne/archway. I’m not sure if the inner parts come out or if you’ll have to have him displayed in a box that’s folded open like in the photo below. I had speculated that they might be including Han in Carbonite with him, but apparently it will just have a space in the package where you can insert the figure, if you so desire. Like I said, kind of disappointing considering the markup most people will have to pay.
Mighty Jabba's Collection 