Jabbautomaton T-Shirt by ApeLad (via shirt.woot)
I just picked up this shirt from shirt.woot. It shows a very young Princess Leia riding a coin-operated Jabba automaton (Jabbatomaton). How awesome would it be to have one of these in real life?
It’s an interesting time to be a Star Wars fan. We have had more Star Wars-related shows and movies in the last few years than I would have thought possible, but the reaction to some of these has clearly been a bit less enthusiastic than Disney would have liked (Ahem.. Solo!) But one thing that has gotten almost entirely positive press (from what I have seen) is the new Galaxy’s Edge section of Disneyland (and soon to be Disney World). It really does look very impressive, and part of their big push has been the addition of an amazing about of exclusive merchandise. Among these are the toys from the Toydarian Toymaker, which is supposed to be a sort of in-world toy shop, although it doesn’t really make sense for an actual in-world toy shop to have figures of specific people from the movies like Rey.
But having a toy hutt, or even one of a major personality like Jabba makes perfect sense. As you can see, this plush is done in a sort of primitive style meant to evoke a handmade toy. It costs $19.99 at the park, which isn’t really cheap for what it is, but frankly I thought it might be more. Of course they don’t have any easy way for people who can’t visit the park to buy these things, so you’ll have to assume that you’ll pay roughly double that if you want to get it on eBay.
I’d say this is a pretty nice piece overall, and from what I’ve seen the merchandise in general seems to be high quality. I’d certainly love to visit someday, but in the meantime I’ll have to satisfy myself by getting one or two things on the secondary market.
Tiny Tin Pocket Pals Lunchbox with Jabba the Hutt
Here’s something I picked up a while back, but I got a bit distracted with all of the Celebration-exclusives. This is part of a line of miniature tin lunch boxes made by Gentle Giant. They’re generally blind boxed, but I picked this one up on eBay. Inside is a rubber eraser in the shape of a thermos.
The page for these on Gentle Giant’s website seems to have disappeared, and I think they only ever had the Marvel ones listed, so I’m not sure what the status of this line is.
The Tiki Bar-inspired ceramic mugs known as Geeki Tikis have seen remarkable success, with lineups from Star Wars, Marvel, Fallout, Game of Thrones and more. Maybe the popularity of things like Funko POP! figures sort of paved the way for this, and from what I understand the whole Tiki aesthetic is making a big comeback as well. The collectors among us can be glad because it means that they will be delving into the more obscure characters in addition to the most popular ones that appeal to the general public. In this case, that means the Rancor monster.
The rancor is quite large for a mug (indeed, they refer to it as a “mega mug” on the box) and it will apparently hold 45 ounces of liquid. The Jedi Luke “mini muglet” sits in his hand and is more like a large shot glass. The finish and sculpting on both are well done, although the line where the interior glaze meets the exterior color is a little wavy on both mugs. They look pretty cool together and it’s definitely nice to see more merchandise centered on the Rancor.
So I don’t really have any complaints with the products themselves, but there is one thing we have to discuss, and that’s price. The Jabba the Hutt & Salacious Crumb set that I reviewed back in 2017 was very similar, and was sold as a Comic Con exclusive, but it only retailed for $25. And because it was a shared exclusive with Think Geek, you could just order it from the Think Geek website and not pay extra on the secondary market. The Rancor set cost $60 at Star Wars Celebration and was only available there. This means that you’ll probably have to pay $100 or more on the secondary market to get these guys, and I’m not at all sure it’s worth it except to the hardcore collector. But naturally I couldn’t pass it up — not when there are more Jabba-related characters on the way.
I’d like to get a nice little Jabba’s Palace display going with these mugs, and I’m off to a pretty good start.
These challenge coins were sponsored by Star Wars collectors clubs and organizations from around the country and were given away at Celebration Chicago 2019. If you collected enough of the coins, you could also get one of the cardboard display cards as well. I really love items like this — they represent some of the best parts of Star Wars fandom. They’re made by fans, for fans, and for free (at least originally — I had to pick it up on eBay for a price that was definitely NOT free).
The coins themselves are very nice indeed. They are made of thick, heavy metal with embossed designs and lettering, as well as enamel paint. Each of the coins is based on a vintage Kenner Star Wars figure from Jabba’s Palace, and has the name of the person/organization that sponsored it on the back.
The cardboard display card was a little disappointing in the sense that the cutouts for the coins were just slightly too small — enough that coins wouldn’t actually fit. I ended up taking a pair of pliers and enlarging the cutouts but a fraction of a millimeter, and then they fit as intended.
In addition to the 15 coins from the main set, there were also two special coins made: a Sarlacc coin that was only available to sponsors, and a coin for Lando that read “Infiltrate the Barge” rather than “Fill the Barge.” These were going for pretty hefty prices on the secondary market, so I had to pass on these, but I’m glad I was able to get the main set of 15. After all, it’s pretty unusual for there to be new collectibles themed after vintage Kenner Jabba’s Palace toys.
PEZ dispensers have been around since the 50s, and they’ve made quite a few of them for Star Wars characters, but up until now there have never been any Jabba’s Palace characters — at least as far as I know. So naturally I was excited when I heard that Funko would be making PEZ dispensers featuring three characters from Jabba’s Palace: Jabba, the Gamorrean Guard, and Salacious Crumb. Although these debuted at Celebration Chicago, they were also available on the Gamestop website (and I think in stores as well). So I was able to avoid paying scalper’s prices for these, although they were still a bit expensive at $8 apiece.
Since these are made by Funko, they naturally use Funko’s POP! Figure styling. At first glance I thought maybe they were just literally the same sculpts that they used for their POP! figures of these same characters, but if you compare the sculpt of the Gamorrean Guard, and Jabba the Hutt with Salacious Crumb figures, I think they are a bit different.
Naturally, they work just as every other PEZ dispenser — you bend the head back and a little capsule of candy comes out. It’s relatively unusual for Jabba to associated with a food item, so it’s nice to have another item to add to things like the vintage Pepperidge Farm Cookies, a vintage Dairy Time yogurt pot from the UK, a popsicle stick from Spain, and a box of corn flakes from Canada.
(By the way, this was included in this YouTube video I made about Celebration exclusives, if you want to see a bit more about it.)
As much as I like the commercial products and exclusives that get shown off at Star Wars Celebration, the “swag” that people and companies make to give away at various events is often a lot more unique. Seven years ago (!) I posted about some swag from the 501st Legion Imperial Bash at Celebration VI, and this is in a similar vein. It consists of a shot glass, patch, and 3 buttons, all featuring artwork of Jabba the Hutt, Bib Fortuna and Salacious Crumb as 1920s-style Chicago gangsters (with the shot glass and buttons showing them as if they were in mug shots). There’s also a poker chip with Oola’s image on it that reads “Oola la!” on the back. I don’t know any specifics about who made these, or for what event, so if you know feel free to comment or shoot me an email.
(By the way, this was included in this YouTube videoI made about Celebration exclusives, if you want to see a bit more about it.)
Chia Pets have been around for years, but I’ve never actually had one. The basic idea is that you have a figure of some kind made of pottery that you smear a paste of chia seeds onto, and when the seeds sprout it looks like fur or hair. I never in a million years would have expected them to make a Jabba version, but I’m glad they did. This was available at Star Wars Celebration Chicago, although the box itself has a sticker that reads “2019 Convention Exclusive” so maybe they will be selling it elsewhere as well?
It includes a fairly large (maybe 8″ wide?) statue of Jabba on his throne. I think it’s really quite well done and includes a lot of detail on the throne, like pillows and the like. I think it works pretty well just as a statue, although of course it is made of hollow clay pottery.
They also give you a little wooden Salacious Crumb that you can stick in a slot in front of Jabba. I’m guessing it’s supposed to be similar to the little wooden sticks you put in the soil by plants to tell what they are? (Not a gardener.)
This was a little on the pricey side: $45 retail at the convention, and of course considerably more on the secondary market. So I don’t think I’ll be trying out the chia growing part of the product, since it will probably discolor the statue. Unfortunately I couldn’t bring myself to get two of them.
(By the way, this was included in this YouTube video I made about Celebration exclusives, if you want to see a bit more about it.)
Even though I couldn’t make it to the convention, I did manage to pick up a lot of exclusive merchandise from it, so here’s a video outlining all of the Jabba-related stuff I got from Celebration Chicago 2019. I’m going to be making individual entries on the site for these items in the coming days.
Get a Jabba the Hutt Aura on LINE Play!
I’m willing to bet that the Venn diagram of Jabba fans and LINE Play fans does not overlap much at all. LINE Play is a mobile game where players make avatars that they can dress in all kinds of cute and/or frilly outfits, and they can also decorate their houses with similarly cute items. My sister has played the game for a long time, and let me know that they had a special deal for Star Wars Day where you can get a Jabba the Hutt “aura” (basically a thing that you wear that follows you around all the time in the game). To get it, you have to have another player send you three Princess Leia costume items, which cost “cash” (an in-game currency that costs actual money to buy). So yeah, the number of people who would want to do this is probably very small. But I’m one of them!
Above is my avatar wearing the aura. The only slightly bad part is that your avatar always obscures part of Jabba when you’re wearing it. Part of me wishes they had made it a furniture item that you can decorate your house with instead, but on the other hand making it an aura means that you can take it with you when you visit other people’s houses or the public areas of the game. Below you can see me wearing the Princess Leia outfit that I needed to get the Jabba. Cute, no?
If you want one of these auras for yourself, you have to act quickly — they are only available through sometime on May 5th (although that may be Japan time, so it’s probably best to think of it as ending on May 4th). Below is a short video to give you a better idea of what it looks like in the game.
Mighty Jabba's Collection 