Watercolor Painting of Vintage Kenner Jabba the Hutt Action Playset Box by Alastair Eales
I posted about the watercolor painting Alastair Eales did for me of the vintage Jabba the Hutt toy a while back. I liked it a lot, so when I saw that he was also doing watercolor versions of vintage Star Wars figures’ cardbacks, I decided I just had to have him do one of the vintage Jabba the Hutt Action Playset’s box. I had him do it roughly the same size as the actual box, so the painting itself is about 13.5″ by 8″. He did a fantastic job, with lots of detail for Jabba in particular. You may notice that the Jabba here looks more green than the one in his other piece, and this is because the photo on the actual box shows a more greenish Jabba. Check out his website here.
“Uaahhh” (Vintage Rancor Monster Ad from Dutch Magazine)
This ad was in a series of ads for vintage Star Wars figures that had interesting onomatopoetic titles like “Uaahhh.” I’ve been wanting to get the Jabba the Hutt version for some time, but they don’t crop up all that often. I do have one Dutch ad in a different style, however.
I literally only know one word of Dutch (“bloemon” — “flowers” — and that’s because of a “Friends” episode) but if Google Translate hasn’t steered me wrong, the ad seems to be encouraging the reader to fill out a contest form to win one of 50 rancor toys that they were giving away. On the entry blank, you had to select which figure the rancor had in its claws on the toy’s package (the choices are Chewbacca, Gamorrean Guard or Nien Nunb). Considering that they have him holding the Gamorrean in the picture above as well, I wouldn’t think it would be all that difficult to figure out. You were also asked to finish a sentence about how much you loved Star Wars (or something to that effect).
“Exalted One” Ornament by RebelScumPrincess
I had intended to post about this in a bit more timely manner, but things got away from me. But since we are currently snowed in at our house, I have a little extra time.
I have a number of Jabba Christmas tree ornaments (like the Hallmark one I posted about earlier this year), and even some similar felt ornaments that my sister made for me three years ago. Those will of course always be my favorites, but I liked this one as well, with its use of paint in addition to the felt to add a little more detail. It’s available from the RebelScumPrincess Etsy store.
Here it is in its natural environment:
The artist Michael Leavitt had an exhibition entitled “Empire Peaks” at the Jonathan Levine Gallery not long ago. It consisted of sculptures combining historical and political figures with Star Wars characters. Some of the choices included Abraham Lincoln as Han Solo, Gandhi as Yoda, and Einstein as R2-D2. Of course, Kim Jong-Il as Jabba the Hutt caught my eye.
These are apparently a mixture of hand-carved cedar and other mixed media, and are fairly large. On the whole they seem quite well done, even though it’s possible to argue about the character choices made, or whether it’s even a good idea to mix some of these historical figures with make-believe characters from a galaxy far, far away. But it’s certainly thought-provoking, which I think is something that art should be.
You can inquire at the gallery by email about prices and availability of the individual pieces. I won’t say the price they quoted me for this piece, but it was in the 5 figures. Needless to say, I’ll be passing.
My apologies for the lack of updates recently. I’ve been sick and quite busy with work, in addition to trying to prepare for the holidays, and it hasn’t left a lot of work for my hobby.
Hasbro recently released an Amazon.com-exclusive series of 6 Legacy Collection figures, each of which included a build-a-droid part that allows you to construct the droid TC-70. The figures themselves aren’t bad — they’re mostly “army builder” type figures that you might want multiples of. It is interesting that they made this exclusive set have build-a-droid parts, though, since I thought that the build-a-figure concept was mostly intended to get people to buy figures in a wave that they might otherwise be lukewarm about getting. However, it seems that these can only be bought in a 6-pack. The pack supposedly retails for $59.99, but I bought it when it briefly went down to $14.99, which is quite a steal for 7 figures even if none of them are show-stoppers. (As an aside, I noticed a LOT of these hitting ebay just after the price drop.)
TC_70 comes in 6 pieces (one for each figure in the pack, obviously). It fits together pretty easily and stays together well. Just to refresh your memory, TC-70 was Jabba’s protocol droid in the animated Clone Wars movie and TV series. They made an animated-style figure of her (yes, she’s a “female”) in the “Jabba’s Palace Battle Pack” with the Clone Wars Jabba the Hutt figure, but there’s never been a realistic version made before (not too surprising, as there was never a real life version of this character on screen). Here are both versions.
This isn’t the first Jabba-related build-a-droid figure. They also made BG-J38 (Jabba’s Dejarik and Hologames Droid).
“Jabba the Hutt & Slave Leia” Print by Greg Horn
I haven’t been an active reader of comic books for many years (since high school, really) so I wasn’t familiar with Greg Horn, but he is apparently well known for his comic book covers featuring very realistic depictions of scantily clad women. This print goes along with that same theme. Leia is very realistically portrayed, but of course does not remotely look like Carrie Fisher. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be anyone in particular, although I do get a bit of an Angelina Jolie vibe.
Of course, one look at her tattoos and the comically distraught faces of Salacious Crumb and the Gamorrean will tell you that this isn’t intended as a serious piece.
I’m not sure if Greg did this piece for a certain show or what, but it is apparently limited to 500 pieces. It’s 13″ x 19″ in size.
“Winnie the Hutt” Print by Kenny Durkin
This Winnie the Pooh/Jabba the Hutt mashup is by Kenny Durkin and is just about perfect. Interestingly enough, I recall my son and I having a discussion a couple of years ago about which Winnie the Pooh characters would fit as Jabba’s Palace characters. I don’t remember most of the choices we made, but Kanga was of course Slave Leia…
This is available as a print from RedBubble.com in a number of sizes and types (mine is 11.3″ x 8″ which seems to be a nice size, and the “lustre” finish looks really good). You can also get it in a variety of other forms, including T-shirts and iPhone cases.
Epic Force Boba Fett Figure by Hasbro
The Epic Force line was a line of large non-poseable figures (plastic statues, really) that Hasbro released in 1997. Size-wise, they’re pretty close to the new Black Series of 6″ figures, although a little smaller. Comparing this figure to the 6″ Black Series Boba Fett shows how far figures have come since then. Despite being a fully articulated figure, the Black Series version is much more detailed in its sculpt and paint work. Still, I suppose it’s not entirely fair to make that kind of comparison, so I’ll confine my observations to this version.
If you couldn’t tell by the pose, the red gauntlets are another giveaway that this is based on the Return of the Jedi version of Fett, from the scene on the skiff in front of the sail barge. The pose is very similar to the the one that Attakus used for their statue.
A look around the back shows the jetpack, with a more colorful paint job that is also specific to Return of the Jedi.
All of the Epic Force figures are permanently attached to bases, and have a little dial on them that allows you to rotate them. At first glance, this feature makes little sense, since if you want to see the back of the figure you can just pick it up and turn it around easier than you could rotate it with a dial. But I think they probably designed this with people who don’t open their toys in mind. For people like that, it would make sense since it allows them to see the back of the figure while still in the packaging. I guess it would also be useful in stores.
“Jabba All the Way” Print and Christmas Card by PJ McQuade
Last year I posted about a Christmas card featuring Salacious Crumb in a tacky sweater. This year, the artist PJ McQuade has another card available, this time featuring Jabba’s entire gang. It’s also available as a print. The print is 8.5″ x 11″ with a fairly large white border around the image, making a kind of built-in mat. The card version is folded in half so that Jabba is on the front and the rancor and others are on the back. Inside is the message “JABBA ALL THE WAY,” which is sort of my unofficial motto. 🙂
I’m getting a small sub-collection of Christmas-themed artwork featuring Jabba. This includes the “Jabba Claus” print from Daniel Falconer, the Jabba Claus Christmas card from Lucasarts, and the Jabba the Snowman card from Lucasarts.
Star Wars Miniatures Rancor (Universe #26)
This is a model from the Star Wars Miniatures game by Wizards of the Coast. It came out in 2005. I painted (and to a lesser extent, played with) a lot of miniatures for games like Warhammer Fantasty Battle when I was younger, so I have a bit of a soft spot for them. These miniatures were sold pre-painted, which still seems a little strange to me, since painting my miniatures was probably the biggest part of the hobby for me. This paint job isn’t fantastic, but it’s pretty good and is probably better than most people can do. And of course painting is pretty time consuming, so I can see the appeal of having them pre-painted.
I had been trying to get one of these models for a long time, but they always seemed to be going for more than I wanted to pay on eBay. When I finally got this in hand, I was floored by how huge it was. I had some of the other miniatures from the series, including Jabba himself, but the rancor is way bigger than I had expected — like 2-3 times bigger. He’s about 5 inches tall, which might not sound like much, but it’s about 5 times the height of most of the humanoid models. I think the reason he seemed so big is that their Jabba miniatures are actually significantly too small:
If you compare him with a Gamorrean Guard miniature, it doesn’t seem that far off in terms of size. (I couldn’t get him to actually hold the Gamorrean, so this one of those “some poses require additional support” type of situations.)
In any case, the sculpting isn’t bad but I don’t really care for the face. Also, the pose that they chose makes him face down to the floor. In the photos above, I’ve come right down level with him, but when you are looking at him normally, you have trouble seeing his face at all.
As with all of the miniatures in the game, you get a card that has his statistics on it.
Mighty Jabba's Collection 