Rebelscum just posted pictures of this set from the recent Disney VIP Event. They have sets of static figurines for most of their movies available in Disney Stores, so I guess it was just a matter of time until they did the same for Star Wars. This is the Return of the Jedi set, and I’m gratified to see that it’s all Jabba-related. 🙂 I’ll have to say, that these look exceptionally good — especially considering the price of $12.95 per set of six. I doubt the actual figures will be painted quite this nicely, though.
The Jabba is interesting, as it seems fairly clear that it’s a reworked version of either the Jabba Glob or Ultra Jabba figures from Hasbro. The body has been changed to make it smaller, but the head and arms look VERY similar to these previous figures. The only thing is that I don’t know what scale these actually are. I had assumed they would be smaller, but the similarities in the Jabba sculpt make me wonder if they aren’t the same size as the Hasbro figures (in which case they seem like even more of a bargain).
In any case, we’ll find out on May the 4th, which is when they are supposed to become available. The Empire Strikes Back set will also have Han in Carbonite and Boba Fett, so if you’re looking to get a little Jabba’s Palace display, that might also be a good pick-up.
I’ve posted multiple times about artist John Soukup’s line of wooden figures (see here and here) and I’m back with more. I like adding new characters to my Jabba’s palace display, and he’s made several versions of Jabba that are quite different as well. This Jabba has much larger, almost anime-style eyes, but I think he may be my favorite yet. Boba Fett was of course a natural addition to go with Han in Carbonite.
The last new figure, Amanaman, is different in that he was originally “carded.” John painted a card for him using an old Attack of the Clones-era cardback, but the bubble came off in shipping. I don’t really mind, though, since I probably prefer to be able to display him with my other figures.
I think it’s quite a nice version of the character.
Here are all of the figures I have. Click for a larger view. I normally have them displayed a bit differently than this, but this arrangement lets you see most of each figure. I’m considering asking John if he could make a throne for Jabba…
Rancor Monster Made From Paper Mache And Foam
I got this custom-made rancor on eBay for $3 — shockingly, nobody else bid on it ;). Supposedly it was presented by Billy Dee Williams to the winner of the first prize in the Illustration category at a collectors’ convention in Mexico, although I don’t have any more information than that. It’s about 10″ tall and is made from paper mache with pieces of foam sheet attached. It’s really quite well done considering that it’s completely made from scratch.
It was missing a few claws and one of the fingers broke off in the mail, so I fixed that with some new foam sheet and some hot glue. I think I’ll display him next to my Jabba the Hutt piñata, although there is a considerable size difference.
Jabba the Hutt Easter Basket
I apologize for the lack of updates recently, but here’s something I put together for Easter. I found some frog Easter baskets ($3 apiece at Target) that seemed like they would be easy to convert to Jabba. They’re made of thick felt and the facial features are also felt pieces glued to the surface. Basically, I removed and rearranged the felt pieces to make the frog into Jabba, although I did add a few pieces of my own felt for the eyes and orange stomach. The tail is a section of a second basket that I hot glued to the side. Pretty simple in the end, but I thought it came out okay.
When I first mentioned this plush back in July of last year, it had a rather different (and inferior) design. At the time, I said that it was supposed to come out that November. I believe that mine is one of the first of these to actually become available, which means it got delayed by around 6 months. It goes for around $30 is apparently made by Underground Toys.
It’s a very nice size for a plush — around 12″ wide. I’m pretty impressed with the design. They did a great job of getting his major features, including his fat rolls, chin, eyes and nose. He’s made of a very soft plush material that I quite like the feel of. Things like his nose and mouth are embroidered, and they’ve even embroidered his tattoo (although it’s a little hard to see and should really be red instead of green).
Here’s a short video to show you his voice. The lines seem to always play in the same order, and they all appear to be from the prequels. I recognize one or two from the added scene with Han Solo in A New Hope, but I’m not sure about all of them. I’m relatively sure none of them are from Return of the Jedi, however, which is disappointing. You press his tummy to get him to talk (of course the “I TALK” sticker and tag can be removed).
Aside from the choice of voices, I’m very happy with this. It’s high time we had a proper Jabba plush. I’ve harped on this before, but the pickings have been mighty slim when it comes to Jabba the Hutt plushes. In the 30+ years since the film, the only officially licensed plushes we’ve had were very small (the Star Wars Buddies Jabba and the Jabba the Hutt Scruffy), while we’ve had dozens of Yodas and Vaders. Strangely, there are two other Jabba plushes coming out later this year: one from Comic Images and an Angry Birds Jabba the Hutt Pig so I guess our long wait is finally over. 🙂
Jabba the Hutt Ceramic Whistle by WhimsyWhistles on Etsy
I got this handmade ceramic whistle necklace from the seller WhimsyWhistles on Etsy. It may not be the best sculpt in the world, but it’s cute and the fact that it’s also a whistle goes a long way with me.
It’s roughly an inch long. You blow into his tail to use the whistle, and the air comes out a hole in the bottom. I made a short video so you can hear what it sounds like.
Hallmark makes these kinds of cups for a variety of properties, including Star Wars, but in the past I had only seen ones with some relatively ordinary artwork on them (and no Jabba). But this new series features original stylized artwork reminiscent of Hasbro’s old Mighty Muggs.
This particular cup has a pretty cool rendition of Jabba, Han in Carbonite and Boba Fett, while some of the others have other major Star Wars characters (see here for the whole lineup — it’s nice to see that they’re all original trilogy characters). I haven’t seen these in stores yet. They should cost around $0.99 apiece but I had to pay a bit of a premium to get them on eBay. They’re somewhere in between disposable cups and proper plastic cups. The plastic is certainly thick enough to stand up to washing and reuse, but they’re still a bit on the flimsy side.
I’ve been wondering for a long time if they were going to come out with a plush of the Jabba the Hutt pig from Angry Birds Star Wars II. They have a fairly large range of characters available already, so it didn’t seem out of the question. Today, eagle-eyed reader Cad Bane pointed me to a post on SirStevesGuide with the photo above. I think it would look better if taken from a higher angle, but it looks pretty good to me! It seems to be based on the new version of the character, which is not surprising.
The thing about these Angry Birds plushes is that (at least in the past) they have come in a rather bewildering array of sizes: everything from tiny keychain versions to gargantuan 16″ versions the size of beach balls. I don’t know if this one will be coming in multiples sizes as well, but if so I may have to “collect them all.” 😀
Happy White Day! (with Belated Valentine’s Day Items)
White Day is a holiday that was made up by Japanese retailers as a companion to Valentine’s Day. In Japan, it is generally the females who give gifts to the males (often handmade chocolates and the like). On White Day, which comes one month after Valentine’s, the men give a gift in return. Often it’s something white like marshmallows or white chocolate, or even lingerie. Why am I telling you all this? Because I didn’t get a chance to post on Valentine’s Day, and I also found some cool stuff on clearance. 😀
The first of these is the book you see above — “A Very Vader Valentine’s Day” by Scholastic. It features a lot of great art by Katie Cook, and includes not only a bunch of Star Wars Valentines, but also some jokes and other activities.
The Jabba-themed card is adorable, although it took me a second to understand the pun. Maybe it’s because around our house this is something that might be said literally. 😀 “Hey kids! Stop playing games with my hutt!” There’s 36 removable cards, and I think each design is used twice, so that’s 18 unique Valentines. Pretty good value, and most of them are cute and funny.
There’s also this short description of Jabba and Salacious Crumb:
I got this book at 50% off at Barnes & Noble, although I ended up getting two because I liked it so much. I also found this set of Hallmark LEGO Star Wars Valentines at Target:
This is definitely feels cheaper, but then again the retail price was less than half of the book. It comes with 32 Valentines, but only 4 unique designs + a teacher card.
The main reason I got it was that it also came with a sheet of stickers that had Jabba and several other related characters on it. They’re roughly postage stamp size.
This is a “prototype” for the Galactic Heroes or Jedi Force Jabba the Hutt (both figures use the same mold). I have no details about it, which is why I put “prototype” in quotes. But I’m assuming it was probably created in connection with the Jedi Force figure, since that’s the more recent of the two. As you can see, it’s unpainted. But more importantly, it also uses a different color plastic than the production figures.
Instead of the olive green color of the production figures, the body and head on this are a light brown. The arms are more green, but still not the same as the production figure.
Above you can see the Galactic Heroes version, the prototype, and the Jedi Force version. As I’ve said before, I’ve heard of Chinese factory workers running off a bunch of figures in crazy colors for the express purpose of selling them as prototypes on ebay, so it’s difficult to know whether any particular piece was actually used in the production process, even if it did come out of the factory molds. However, I’ve been watching ebay for years and this is the first prototype for this figure I’ve ever seen (in fact, Jabba prototypes in general are incredibly rare for some reason). So it doesn’t seem too likely that someone has a warehouse full of these that they’re going to unload on ebay. Either way, the fact that it’s in a different color plastic makes it a lot more attractive to me, since it looks cool and different, and you can at least be sure that it’s not just a production piece with the paint removed.
Mighty Jabba's Collection 