Link: Life Size Jabba the Hutt on eBay UK
Live in the UK? Have a spare £9,000 rattling around in your pockets? Then you might want to get this life-size Jabba the Hutt puppet that is currently on eBay. It doesn’t look too bad for a fan-made piece, although it’s a ways from being movie accurate. They also don’t make any mention of what it’s made of, its dimensions or its weight.
Upcoming: First Shots of New LEGO Sail Barge Surface (75020)
As I mentioned a few days ago, it looks like 2013 will be bringing an update to the original LEGO Sail Barge from 2006. I’m not sure where it came from originally, but I found this preliminary image on the ToysNBricks forums. It looks like the set will come with Jabba, Slave Leia, drink-serving R2-D2, Jedi Luke, Max Rebo and some other character that I can’t figure out (it may just be a stand-in for a figure they don’t have ready yet). It’s exciting to get a Max Rebo, although I’d really like the entire band. The ship itself doesn’t look that great to me, but of course it may not be the final design. It’s smaller than the original and seems kind of off-model. We’ll see if it undergoes any changes in the next few months.
Mexican Bootleg of Vintage Kenner Max Rebo Figure
I wrote about some Mexican bootlegs of vintage action figures last year, and while they were pretty crappy, in many ways this is a step down from those figures. Yes, the other figures are terribly painted and have limited articulation, but at least they’re actual figures. This is really just a blob of soft rubber in the shape of Max Rebo. It’s soft and spongy — kind of like silicone. Needless to say, it’s not painted and has no articulation.
I don’t know much about it, like when it was made or if it was really intended as a kids’ action figure. I have seen another one like it in another collection, though, so it wasn’t just a one-off experiment that somebody made. I have no idea why they decided to go with orange.
Salacious Crumb and Slave Leia Christmas Card by PJ McQuade
This Christmas card was made by PJ McQuade and is available on Etsy. It’s printed on nice thick stock with a glossy finish. I like Salacious Crumb’s tacky Christmas sweater, as well as the message inside (and the sail barge facing it). There are several other Star Wars designs available.
LEGO Rancor Pit (75005)
The arrival of this set sort of took me by surprise, as I didn’t expect it until early 2013. But a couple of days ago it popped up on Amazon.com, so I ordered one right away. (It’s still available there as of now for slightly less than the $60 retail price.) It comes with the pit itself, a Gamorrean (the same one that came with the Jabba’s Palace set), a Jedi Luke (apparently a new figure, although it looks similar to ones we’ve had before), the rancor keeper (a new figure) and of course the rancor itself, which is the star of the show.
It’s pretty clear that they intend this to be a companion set for Jabba’s palace rather than a standalone piece. There are indentations on the bottom of the palace playset that fit in the pyramid shapes on the top of the Rancor Pit, allowing you to place the rancor directly under Jabba’s throne. This is an awesome idea, and something that people were hoping would be possible ever since they released the palace. The two sets don’t actually attach to each other in any way (the palace just sits on top) but the pyramids on the top of the rancor pit ensure that the palace won’t slide around.
I neglected to take a photo of this, but the entire wall with the portcullis (seen below) swings outward, allowing you to access the inside of the pit more easily. There’s also a handle (the red part below) that lets you keep the portcullis up or have it come crashing down on any unsuspecting rancors that might be around.
The rancor figure itself is fantastic. It’s quite large and has a moveable jaw, as well as moveable arms and fingers (two of them on each hand, anyway). It bears more than a passing resemblance to the vintage Rancor Monster figure.
Obviously you can have him hold a figure in his hand.
But he can also “eat” figures. He can’t swallow them all the way, but this is more than enough.
Here is the set on top of Jabba’s Palace. When you attach the rancor pit, you need to remove the tower from the palace set, or it will be left standing in midair, which looks a little odd.
Now we can finally have Oola drop directly into the rancor’s waiting jaws…
You can of course recreate his defeat as well. The rancor keeper has two faces, including this “sad” one.
Here’s my current display of the new Jabba legos (including the new skiff and sarlacc). It’s a bit cramped, but it’s the best I could do with the single IKEA Detolf shelf I had available. I’m extremely pleased with these sets. In fact, I’d say that in terms of detail and playability, the LEGO sets are the best Jabba toys they’ve made. I really hope the rumors of a new LEGO Sail Barge are true…
Link: LEGO Rancor Pit (75005) Now Available On Amazon.com
I only just posted about the Rancor Pit being found in some stores a few hours ago, and now it’s available on Amazon.com. It’s $59.99 and shows as being in stock.
Although not really expected until 2013, the LEGO Rancor Pit (Set 75005) has actually started appearing in a few stores (this photo was posted on a LEGO forum). I probably wouldn’t head out looking for it just yet, but this is encouraging. It looks like it will be around $60 (the price tag in the photo appears to read $54.99).
In other exciting news, there will also apparently be a new LEGO Sail Barge set coming out in 2013 (it will apparently be set 75020). I’m extremely excited about this — at least if it’s significantly different from the set that was released in 2006, and it’s hard to imagine that it wouldn’t be.
Upcoming: Return of the Jedi Poster with Jabba and Rancor Coming from DarkInkArt and James Silvani
DarkInkArt (a subsidiary of ACME Archives) will be making a Return of the Jedi poster available for purchase starting tomorrow, December 11th. It’s limited to 250 pieces and will sell for $50. It’s 16 x 24 inches in size. It’s pretty clever how he used text as part of the piece itself, with “Return of the Jedi” standing in for Jabba’s throne and “Star Wars Episode VI” actually making up the face of the rancor.
“Battle at the Sarlacc Pit” Battle Pack by Hasbro (Target Exclusive)
Target has had a number of exclusives from Hasbro, such as the Jabba’s Rancor set from 2009. I guess this set was in stores in 2008 — a bit before I made the jump to full-blown Jabba collecting — so I passed on it at the time. I’ve been wanting to get one for quite a while and finally got one new in the box for a pretty reasonable price. As you can see, it comes with five figures (Weequay, Lando, Han Solo, Luke and Boba Fett — more on these below) and of course the skiff and the sarlacc pit itself. The figures are all retreads of things we’ve seen before and the skiff has also been released in the past, so it’s the sarlacc that’s the real attraction here. Hasbro does a good job of displaying these sets in the boxes, although they can be rather difficult to get out. But for a set like this, I don’t like keeping it in the box.
The skiff is nice enough, and features retractable landing gear and gangplank. I did find that the landing gear had a tendency to retract too easily, though.
The sarlacc is actually three main pieces. On top is a “sand” shell that is made of very thin plastic. Seriously, it feels like it will break if you look at it wrong. It’s also got a shiny finish that doesn’t really make it look much like sand. It’s more like a loaf of bread than anything.
Under that is another sandy piece with the pit and sarlacc in the middle. This is made of much thicker and sturdier plastic. The sarlacc itself comes with the “beak” that was added in the special edition of Return of the Jedi, but luckily this is removable.
This is without a doubt the best part of the set. The sarlacc looks fantastic and is surprisingly realistic looking. It’s made of very thick plastic that’s quite rubbery and heavy. The tentacles (at least the big one) have wires inside for posing.
You can remove it from the sand part, although I’m not really sure why you’d need to. The “beak” also comes apart. I suppose this is to allow you to have it “eat” figures.
These battle packs come with a number of figures, which may make them seem like a good deal, but they are generally substandard compared to the figures that are sold individually. These are not very well painted and they’re not the super articulated types of figures we’re accustomed to.
Overall, it’s not a bad set considering all you get, although the figures are not great. It’s probably worth getting just for the sarlacc part, at least for me.
Link: Jabba the Hutt-Shaped Potato on eBay
Here’s yet another humorous ebay auction. This potato does look a little like Jabba, although all potatoes look a little like Jabba, so I’m not sure how much that’s really saying. Bidding starts at only $1 if you’re interested… Enough of these have been cropping up lately that I went ahead and added an “eBay Auctions” category to my site.
Mighty Jabba's Collection 