Lomrokk, Jabba’s Gamorrean Executioner by Sideshow Collectibles
This statue is part of Sideshow Collectibles’ “Mythos” line. They’re all 1/5th scale statues that depict Star Wars characters in ways that are a bit different from the usual designs taken straight from the movies. These are versions of the characters that we may not have seen on screen, but that could have existed, like Obi-wan Kenobi when was he was wandering the deserts of Tatooine between the prequels and the original trilogy.
In this case, they’ve invented a character from whole cloth. Lomrokk is supposed to be a Gamorrean guard who was particularly large and cunning, and who served as an executioner for Jabba before he got his rancor. It’s not a bad backstory, but I don’t think you really need it to be able to appreciate the statue. You could just think of it as a slightly different take on the Gamorrean design.
It’s still the same basic concept (green pig-man) but while the designs from the movie were more comical than menacing, this guy looks like a real badass. If Gamorreans looked like this, I could understand why Jabba would want them as his guards. He’s still quite stocky, but it’s all muscle.
The mythos line is a Sideshow exclusive line, so in the US you can only get it through Sideshow Collectibles (or on the secondary market). It’s currently sold out, and in fact I think it’s the first statue in the line to do so. Of course, that’s largely because of its relatively small edition size — only 750.
He looks a bit like he’s going to fall over when seen from the back. My son saw him from the back first and asked if it was a lady Gamorrean because of the way his head dress looked like long hair. 🙂
Like most Sideshow exclusives, this comes with an extra — an additional head that you can switch out. It’s either growling or yawning. While a lot of people were unsure about this head at first, I think it’s nicely done and it’s nice to be able to have some extra display options. Still, I think I’ll stick to the head with the closed mouth most of the time. A number of people on the forums I frequent have experienced issues with their extra head not sitting flush against the body. Sometimes the problem is quite pronounced. Luckily mine seems to be okay.
Lomrokk is about 19″ tall, which is big for a 1/5 scale figure (you can compare him to the Attakus Gamorrean above, which is also 1/5 scale). Most of the height comes from the very tall base, though. If you compare the statues themselves, Lomrokk is less than a head taller than the Attakus Gamorrean. Since he’s supposed to be particularly big, I guess that’s okay. The statue comes in four parts that you have to assemble: the base, the tauntaun skull, his axe, and Lomrokk himself. Overall, I’m pretty impressed with the level of detail and size of the piece. There are a few places where the paint could be better, but when taken as a whole it’s very cool.
It comes with a nice certificate of authenticity printed on thick card stock that has the backstory on one side and the concept artwork on the other. It can kind of double as an art print, and you could even frame it if you so desired.
Here it is on my shelf with several other Sideshow pieces. From upper left to lower right: the “You’re Going to Regret This” diorama, the “There Will Be No Bargain” diorama, Lomrokk the Executioner, and the life size Gamorrean Guard bust. I think it’s a great addition to the collection.
“Boba Fett Launch Lab” by Uncle Milton (Star Wars Science)
Like the “Anti-Gravity Balls” I posted about a little while ago, this is from Uncle Milton’s “Star Wars Science” line. It takes real balls (so to speak) to market ordinary super balls as “anti-gravity balls,” so my hopes weren’t too high regarding the educational characteristics of this product. It comes with a base in the form of one of Jabba’s skiffs, which is connected to a large pump (complete with Mandalorian crest) by means of a clear rubber hose. The rocket is decorated as Boba Fett, but it’s really just some clear plastic wrapping over a foam rocket. There’s a rocket pack that attaches to its back, which is also made of foam. The idea is that you’re recreating the scene in Return of the Jedi where Boba Fett uses his rocket pack to fly from one of Jabba’s skiffs to the other.
You stomp on the pump part, which sends air through the hose and up into the rocket, sending it up into the air. Pretty simple, but it works. You can use the Fett rocket with the rocket pack attached, or use either the Fett rocket or the rocket pack on their own. My son and I tried it a number of times, and it seems that using Fett rocket alone yielded the best results (highest flight), followed by the rocket pack alone, and then the two together.
I did find that the legs of the skiff came off very easily, although you may not even need them if you’re using it in the grass. We actually found it to be surprisingly fun. I would have preferred it if the rocket bore more of a resemblance to Boba Fett (if they had molded a real figure of some kind out of foam, for example), but maybe that’s asking too much. I’m not sure how much we learned about “rocket design, trajectories and aerodynamics”, but it was a fun diversion for part of an afternoon, and I suppose that’s about all you can really expect.
“The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett (An Origami Yoda Book)” by Tom Angleberger (with Barnes & Noble Display)
This book, the latest in the “Origami Yoda” Series, just came out a few days ago. The series is aimed at young kids who like Star Wars and combines fiction with some art activities like drawing or making origami. Some of the books, like “Art2-D2’s Guide to Folding and Doodling,” are basically full-on activity books, while this one is heavy on the fiction side, but it still has a few activities like making an origami Jabba, etc. My son and I haven’t had a chance to really read this one yet, so I can’t comment much on the content beyond that, but it’s a nice hardcover book with a lot of doodles on every page, in addition to text.
It turns out that there’s a Barnes & Noble-exclusive version in addition to the standard release. The exclusive version is identical to the regular version with the exception of a sticker on the front and some trading cards for the various characters in the back (see below). They’re not bad, but the book was several dollars cheaper from Amazon, and I’m not sure they’re worth that much extra.
Naturally, I had my copy reserved quite some time ago at Amazon.com, but a couple of weeks ago my wife was visiting the local Barnes & Noble and sent me a picture of the display they had there. It occurred to me that it might be possible to get the display when they were done with it, and they were nice enough to save it for me (that’s one reason why I felt kind of obligated to get the B&N-exclusive version as well). It’s probably around 5 feet tall and has a nice big picture of Jabba the Puppett (notice the two t’s at the end).
I don’t think I’ve seen a store display so Jabba-centric before, although there may very well have been others. These are generally destroyed after they are used, so I’d say it’s actually pretty unusual to have one. I’m not sure where to put this at the moment, but I would like to display at least the top half of it.
Jedi Force “Jabba’s Palace Rescue” Adventure Pack by Hasbro
It’s been about six months since I first posted about this set, and it’s finally starting to become available in stores. So far I haven’t found it available online anywhere but eBay and third-party sellers on Amazon (meaning that you’ll probably be paying as much as double the $19.99 suggested retail if you absolutely have to have it now). I found this set at my local Target, however. Strangely they only had one of these, but four of the “Death Star Escape” set. I’m not sure what to make of that.
“Jedi Force” is the replacement for the Galactic Heroes line, although some Galactic Heroes can still be found in stores. It reuses a lot of the same vehicles and some of the same figures as Galactic Heroes. In this set, they’ve reused the Jabba and Gamorrean Guard from the Jabba’s Palace Cinema Scene, and the Han in Carbonite that was available in a three-pack with Boushh and Han (there was also a Han in Carbonite released with the Slave 1 Cinema Scene, but that one is thinner.) I guess some reuse is okay, although it would have been nice to see a new Jabba. The Han in Carbonite also seems strange because it’s considerably smaller than the Han Solo figure that comes in the set (Jedi Force figures are taller than Galactic Heroes).
These sets are quite nicely designed, with Jabba on a cardboard throne with an archway behind him, although I’m not sure where they got the window with the scrolled iron work from. It would look more at home in a gothic church than Jabba’s Palace.
Galactic Heroes Jabba (L) and Jedi Force Jabba (R)
The Gamorrean has some minor differences in paint work (the metal pieces of the armor seem darker for example) but it’s pretty similar. Jabba, on the other hand, is painted very differently than the Galactic Heroes version. At first I thought he was cast in a different color plastic, and in these photos the Jedi Force one does look greener.
Jedi Force Jabba the Hutt
But the difference in color isn’t as big in real life, and I believe it’s mostly due to the fact that they didn’t use a brown wash over the figure like they did with the Galactic Heroes version. That also means that you can’t see the details as well on the Jedi Force version. They’ve also painted more of his body in the example above, with the tan paint extending to the tail area, and that may add to the illusion that his green parts are greener than before. (The one in the boxed image above doesn’t have quite as much paint on it, leading me to believe that there’s a fair amount of variation between figures). One other difference is that they made his arm tattoo red, while it was more of a tan on the previous version. Generally the simpler paint job makes it look cheaper than the Galactic Heroes version.
Galactic Heroes Jabba the Hutt
Overall, it’s a nice little set, especially if you don’t have the Galactic Heroes versions. But I should mention that at $20 (or $16.99 at Target) for 5 figures plus Jabba, it isn’t as good of a deal as the Galactic Heroes sets were. The Jabba’s Palace Cinema Scene came with 8 figures plus Jabba and a larger cardboard display package as well. I guess that’s inflation for you.
I posted about the head mold for the Hasbro Jabba Glob figure not that long ago, and at the time I didn’t think I would be able to find any more molds for a long time. But as luck would have it, a forum posting I made about the head mold eventually led to me someone who wanted to sell this. Like the head molds, this is a rotocast mold, so you can see much of the detail from the inside of the mold on the outside as well, plus some additional warty growths that seem to be common side effects of the process used to create the molds.
As far as I can tell, the same exact tail sculpts were used both for the Jabba Glob and Ultra Jabba figures — they’re identical down to the copyright date on the bottom.
Even though the Ultra Jabba figure was released in 2004, its tail still has the same “Copyright 1998” as the Jabba Glob figure, meaning that it is very likely that this particular mold was used to produce both figures. I think that’s pretty cool.
It’s a little hard to make out on the outside of the mold (and it’s reversed and difficult to see on the inside), but it has a copyright date of 1998.
Here are the two molds together. I think it looks pretty awesome — kind of like a “Jabba de Milo” statue. (The arms of the figures would have been made with traditional two-part molds rather than rotocast molds.) I really need to find a mold for the Ultra Jabba’s head now…
Jumbo Kenner Vintage “Power of the Force” Yak Face Figure by Gentle Giant (SDCC Exclusive)
I hadn’t intended to rejoin Gentle Giant’s Premier Guild this year, since none of the bonus items you could choose from really appealed to me that much. But when this guy was announced as an SDCC exclusive, it seemed that the only way I could get one for a reasonable price would be to join the club. I didn’t want a repeat of what happened a while back with the Yak Face mini-bust. I didn’t join the club then, thinking I could probably get it secondhand for less sometime down the line, but I ended up spending a lot more to get it later.
I wasn’t too pleased, then, when I discovered that Action Figure Express was selling these figures at normal price without the need for a PGM membership. I guess they bought up what was left over after SDCC (they also have a number of Gentle Giant’s other exclusives for sale). But it just seems wrong you can’t buy these at Gentle Giant’s own site (even with a PGM membership at this point, since they’re listed as “sold out”), but AFX apparently has 170 of them (as of this writing) available to the general public.
Aside from that, it’s a well made figure. Some of Gentle Giant’s jumbo figures have come out looking a little odd for one reason or another, but this is a pretty good rendition of the vintage Yak Face figure. The colors look more or less right, although the head and hands on the jumbo figure are a bit lighter than on my actual vintage figure. I did find the staff rather difficult to get into his hand.
Like the Jumbo Power of the Force Gamorrean Guard figure, this comes with a metal coin. It feels good in the hand, with a nice heft to it.
On the back of the package, you can see the other jumbo figures they’ve made (“Collect all 41!” is a nice touch.) I’ll have to admit that I never in a million years thought that this line of jumbo figures would make it this far. I have some hope that they may in fact reproduce the entire vintage range, which would be pretty cool. They have announced that they will be releasing a Wampa (which promises to be huge), so I’m really hoping that they will also do a vintage Jabba, Max Rebo Band, or even a Rancor!
This might not look like much at first glance, but it’s actually a prototype used at Kenner when they were trying to figure out how to make the vintage Jabba the Hutt figure. It’s made of hollow “flesh” colored vinyl and would have been made using a rotocast mold. It’s got quite a bit of excess vinyl on the bottom that would’ve been cut off if they had actually used these parts to assemble a figure. I don’t think they were ever planning on releasing anything directly based on this sculpt — it’s not up to their standards in terms of style or level of detail. Think of it as a sort of “sketch” or stand-in that they would’ve used while figuring out some of the logistics involved in the designing the toy. This prototype and others like it would have been the very first Jabba toys ever made. In fact, I suppose they’re the very first Jabba sculptures of any kind, aside from the maquettes used in the production of the Return of the Jedi.
You can see a similar prototype on the Star Wars Collectors Archive, and on page 161 of Gus and Duncan’s Guide to Star Wars Prototypes. The final version of the vintage Jabba figure did indeed use a rotocast head that wasn’t too different from this one in basic concept, but the sculpt was completely different.
Below is the tail, also made of hollow vinyl. From what I can tell, it seems that Kenner was originally considering making Jabba a completely rotocast figure (with the possible exception of the arms). This is quite different from the production figure, which used a hard plastic tail and incorporated an action feature (you turn Jabba’s head to make the tail swing). (I haven’t seen the mold for the head, but the tail mold can be seen on the SWCA.)
The bottom is particularly interesting because it seems that the sculptor envisioned Jabba as having squid-like suckers on his bottom. (At least I assume they’re supposed to be suckers. They aren’t… anuses are they? Ew.)
Below are the two pieces fitted together. They look kind of weird because of all of the excess vinyl on the bottom of the head sculpt, but you sort of get the idea.
And here it is with the production figure. It’s roughly the same size, but you can see the difference in the quality and detail of the sculpt.
Below are a couple of shots from the SWCA showing a painted version of a prototype Jabba figure created using this sculpt. All of the pictures of assembled prototypes I’ve seen seem to use hard plastic rather than vinyl, so it may be that they gave up on the idea of a completely rotocast figure fairly early on. I wonder if one reason for this was that they wanted to incorporate the action feature in the toy. You can see where they have separated the tail into two parts, presumably to make the feature possible. You can also see that it appears to have plastic eyes, similar to the actual figure. Also note the throne, which is quite different from the final one.
And here is what appears to be a more polished version. (This picture is from a post at “Home of Boushh” and is from a Kenner slide — I’ve cropped and flipped the image since the image of the slide was reversed.) The paint and overall color scheme is more refined, and the throne appears to be closer to the retail version, although still different. Salacious Crumb is also different from the final version. Unfortunately, it seems that no one knows what happened to either of these prototypes. I would of course love to have them in my collection. But even things like my raw vinyl prototypes are incredibly rare, as very few were made and those that survived were snapped up by collectors years ago. I’m very happy to have tracked them down.
Jabba’s Palace Stained Glass Panel by RussG
Almost exactly a year ago, I received a stained glass panel of Jabba the Hutt done by RussG, who does stained glass as a hobby. I told him at the time that I’d like to have another piece done sometime, and we finally got around to doing that just recently. Originally I was thinking of doing the Rebo Band, but I decided to go with Jabba’s Palace instead. I think Russ did a fantastic job. (Notice the twin suns on the right.) It’s quite a large panel, at around 12″ x 19″ (so it’s a bit bigger than the Jabba panel). It’s difficult to take pictures that really do it justice, but these give you some idea. In the shot above, I have it upright on a stand, which allows the sunlight to shine through it from the back.
And in this shot, it’s just on the floor. This lets you see what the glass itself looks like without any light behind it. The glass is really quite beautiful in person. I’m very happy to have another stained glass piece in my collection.
Kenner’s vintage Jabba the Hutt figure is my favorite figure for a variety of reasons. It came with a cool playset that had a lot of play possibilities. It’s quite large compared to most Star Wars figures. It’s got an action feature in the form of a moving tail that actually adds to the figure rather than taking away from it (Spitting Jabba, I’m looking at you…) And it’s very well sculpted, managing to evoke the creature from the movie while still remaining a bit stylized and — dare I say it? — cute in the manner of the other vintage figures. So being able to own one of the original molds that produced that figure is pretty special for me.
The vintage Jabba figure was made using two kinds of molds and two kinds of materials. They used hard plastic in traditional two-part molds for his body and tail, while his arms and head were made of a more rubbery material. However, while the arms were also made using a two-part mold, the head was made using rotocasting — a technique where liquid plastic or rubber is poured into a mold, which is then spun at high speed so that the material evenly coats the inside. The finished product is hollow and completely free of mold lines.
The inside of the mold — these rods were there to leave holes for the plastic eyes to be inserted
As I mentioned in my post about the mold for the Jabba Glob figure (where you can find some more details about how these molds are made and used), rotocast molds are interesting because they more or less maintain the original shape of the original sculpture on the outside, making them look almost like metal sculptures themselves. This makes them a lot more interesting to me than traditional two-part molds, which generally just resemble blocks of metal or silicone. With this one, you can make out almost all of the key details found on the head of the vintage Jabba figure. This is nice, since it’s hard to see much on the inside of the mold.
Above, you can see the mold next to a first shot prototype of the vintage Jabba’s head, which is pretty much what the head would’ve looked like when it had been freshly removed from the mold. I don’t know if there are molds for the other parts of Jabba floating around in people’s collections or not — I haven’t seen any. It might be that the original Kenner molds for his body and arms were eventually destroyed, as was the case with many of the molds for the vintage Star Wars stuff (or so I have heard). I’d certainly love to get my hands on some more preproduction items for my favorite figure, but this was a real “holy grail” item for me and I’m very glad to have it in my collection.
Artist Mike Mitchell has a series called “Just Like Us” that shows famous people or characters in mundane settings. This one shows Jabba the Hutt enjoying the company of several kitty cats. I’m a huge sucker for anything that makes Jabba cute, so of course I had to have this. Unfortunately, this was an SDCC-exclusive limited to only 150 pieces (at least half of which seem to have gone immediately to eBay), so it was a little expensive. It’s 10 x 13 and printed on nice thick card stock.
Mighty Jabba's Collection 