Upcoming: More Shots of New LEGO Sail Barge (75020)
ToyArk has some good shots of the new LEGO Sail Barge that is being shown at Toy Fair 2013. It looks like it’s going to be retailing for $120 and will come out in August. Judging from the box, it seems that it will also be coming with a poster, which is interesting.
Unfortunately it does seem to be rather smaller than the original barge, even if the shape is closer to the actual vehicle. It comes with some interesting minifigures: Drink-Serving R2-D2, Max Rebo, Ree Yees, Slave Leia, Weequay and Jabba.
Here’s a video of the set by The Brick Show:
And here are some more shots, courtesy of ToyArk:
Upcoming: Plush Rancor From Comic Images
I was interested to see that Comic Images is going to be releasing a number of new Star Wars plushes, including a Rancor Monster, Tauntaun, Bantha and Wampa. They’re apparently around 10″ tall and will cost $14.99. They should be available quite soon. I’m very tempted to get all four.
Comic Images also made the Jabba the Hutt “Scruffy” plush and the plush Rotta with Backpack.
German Topps Force Attax Cards (“Jabba der Hutt”)
I got these from Germany a while back and am finally getting around to posting about them. They’re cards for the Topps Force Attax collectible card game, which as far as I can tell is only available in Europe. The official website seems to be down and I think the game is no longer being developed. It was apparently for two players and seems a bit simpler and more straightforward than some of the games that I’ve seen, but I’ve never played it.
I think the thing that attracted me to them were the “Jabba der Hutt” and “Jabbas Segelbarke” titles. As a translator, I’m interested in language in general, and I also find foreign versions of Jabba’s name to be rather amusing for some reason.
But the cards themselves are quite attractive. Particularly the one above (although you can’t tell it from this scan), since it has a nice shiny silver metallic background.
Hutt Family Portrait Paper Cutouts by My Son
It was my birthday a couple of days ago, and my son presented me with these paper cutouts of the Hutt family. According to him, it’s Jabba’s Daddy, Jabba, and Rotta. I particularly like how Rotta appears to be looking up adoringly at the others.
These “one shirt a day” places do their best to give you a sense of urgency about buying their shirts, since if you don’t get it the day it is sold, it’s never supposed to be available again. Of course I’ve found that’s not always the case. For example, just recently I’ve seen the “Jabba’s Gentleman’s Club” shirt appear more than once at more than one site (although perhaps with different color shirts).
But I did order this one from ShirtPunch, even though I doubt I would ever want to actually wear it. Maybe I can convince my wife… In any case, I like Oola, and Oola-themed items are few and far between.
Hasbro 12″ Lando Calrissian in Skiff Disguise Figure
Hasbro’s line of 12″ figures seems a little strange to me. As someone who basically started collecting with Sideshow’s line of 1/6 scale figures, I associate figures in this scale with high-end collector-oriented figures, rather than toys that you might find at your local store and actually give to a kid to play with. Of course at the time there were plenty of collectors buying these figures as well, but generally speaking they were made to be affordable and relatively sturdy. These are toys that can stand up to a little play, even if they don’t come close to Sideshow or Hot Toys figures in terms of their appearance. I have a few other figures from this line, including Slave Leia & R2-D2, Leia as Boushh, and the Gamorrean Guard. Lando seems to be one of the harder-to-find figures in the line for some reason.
Hasbro certainly seems to lead the industry in twisty-tie use. I find that using wire clippers or nail clippers to snip them off is much easier than untying them all.
The head sculpt is really pretty good — especially compared to some of the other figures in the line. The outfit does look pretty plasticky though. And the helmet seems almost comically oversized. It also doesn’t sit very well on the head, so he wouldn’t actually be able to see out of it.
Some people have had pretty good success upgrading figures in this line for use with higher-end figures, but I will probably wait for Sideshow to come out with this figure before adding the character to my Sideshow Jabba display.
How to Create a Jabba the Hutt Mii (For Nintendo Wii or 3DS)
I got a 3DS XL (the bigger version of the 3DS) for Christmas, and it’s a pretty good system that improves on the original DS in a number of ways. The 3D aspect is interesting, but most games wouldn’t be much different without it. One thing I like is that you can now create Miis (avatars) on the system, just like you can on the Wii. I haven’t really made any Miis since getting the Wii originally, and it’s kind of fun. You are really quite limited in the options available, so making a Mii that looks like a particular person or character can be challenging, but that’s sort of part of the fun.
For Jabba, you need to get a creative. (Full disclosure: when making this I took some hints from various other versions of Jabba Miis I found on Google.) Instead of just using the stock eyes, noses and mouths, you need to substitute some parts for others. Jabba’s chin is actually a large nose, moved down to the bottom of his face. His nose is actually a set of eyebrows, and the mouth was made bigger with a mustache. I used some glasses to give the impression that he has big round eyes. The hairstyle helps create the illusion that he has a triangular head like Jabba. And finally, I added a mole around the location where Jabba actually has a mole or other growth.
While you can control the height and stockiness of the character’s body and choose a color for its shirt, you can’t change its basic shape. That makes the illusion a bit less effective when you see the full-body:
Still, I kind of like having a Jabba living in my 3DS. 🙂
Bulk Case of Vintage Kenner Jabba the Hutt Figures
I’m not totally sure of the story behind this box, but I’ll give you my best guess. I’ve heard that boxes like this were used to ship the Jabba figures from the factory to another location where the Jabba the Hutt playset was assembled. But they made a lot of those playsets (it’s still relatively common even today) and they had quite a few of the playset parts left over after the Return of the Jedi line had wound down. I’ve heard stories of resellers in the mid-1980s who bought up dozens or even hundreds of individual pieces. Some of them allowed their customers to “build their own” playsets by mixing and matching pieces. So it may be that this was surplus stock purchased by a reseller back in the day when Kenner was trying to make a little money on their extra Jabba inventory. In any case, I’ve never seen a box like this for sale before, so I naturally snapped it up when it appeared on eBay.
According to the markings on the box, it would have originally held 24 pieces, but mine only has 14. (It’s also missing the entire top of the box, unfortunately.)
It’s marked with the vendor name “Kader,” which I assume refers to this company in Hong Kong (the baggies are all marked “Hong Kong” as well).
Each Jabba is in a plastic baggie, and would have been inserted in the playset box just like this. Unlike most other baggies that Star Wars figures came in, the baggies were never sealed. They’re open at one end. Why do I need 14 vintage Jabbas you ask? You sound like my wife…
How else could I make a synchronized swimming team of Jabbas? (As a side note, I’ve never noticed how much Jabba’s body looks like a spermatozoa…)
You can make a sarlacc pit entirely out of Jabbas.
You can spell out “JABBA!” entirely with Jabbas. (Look closely. It’s there!)
You can even make a psychedelic spiral design like this. I’m quite taken with this one. (Isn’t it interesting how they appear yellow in some shots and green in others? I guess it’s due to the different color backgrounds.) Part of me wants to track down 10 more Jabbas in baggies to complete the box, but even I’m not crazy enough to do that… Or am I?
Custom Ziro the Hutt Sculpture
I got this resin cast of Ziro the Hutt from an eBay seller. It’s a little on the rough side, both in terms of the quality of the sculpt and the quality of the casting — lost of bubbles on the underside. But you don’t see many Ziro collectibles, so I guess it’s not bad to have one. It looks a bit better in person than these pictures would imply.
I think they intended it to be used as a stand-in for an action figure-scale Ziro, which Hasbro has surprisingly never made. As you can see below, it’s roughly the size of the Power of the Force Jabba figure.
I had originally intended to paint this up, but it would take a lot of work to fill the bubbles and otherwise finish the casting, not to mention the trouble of painting all of his tattoos, etc., so I’ll probably leave it the way it is. It’s not a bad match for the other unpainted resin sculptures I have, like the garage kit or the resin model kit.
When you’re dealing with a collectible that’s uncommon but not truly rare, patience is the key. With most things, as long as you wait long enough and keep checking places like eBay regularly, it should be possible to get one for a reasonable price. That’s what happened in this case. I first posted about this series of 24K gold cards nearly two years ago when I got the version with Han Solo and (CGI) Jabba. I had been watching for the more iconic “Jabba and Slave Leia” version to appear for a reasonable price, but people have a tendency to list them for prices that are really quite high (and of course they don’t usually sell). But I finally found this one for sale from England, and the cost of shipping was actually more than the price of the item itself.
Like the one I posted about before, this one comes in a nice leatherette case with a velvet lining. It’s encased in a thick slab of acrylic, which gives it some weight and protects the gold card, which I assume is very thin. It looks like the photo was created on the gold by making little indentations of various depths (or directions?). It’s not printed on the surface. It’s certainly an interesting effect.
It’s quite difficult to photograph, but I think you get the idea. Depending on the angle, it looks very golden and metallic, but change the angle a bit and you can see the photo very well.
On the back is a little explanation about the scene and the item itself. As I said last time, I certainly wouldn’t pay the $100 they were apparently asking for this when it originally went on sale during the 90s, but if you can get a good deal they are certainly interesting collectibles, if a little odd.
Mighty Jabba's Collection 