“Jabba Connect Four” Print by Greg Ham
In this print by Greg Ham, we see Jabba emerging victorious in a spirited game of Connect Four with Slave Leia. Greg says on the product page that imagines that Jabba the Hutt passed the time playing board games with his slaves. I love that mental picture. (Coincidentally, I learned a few days ago that the game Connect Four is a “solved game” meaning that, in this case, the player who goes first will always win as long as they don’t make any mistakes. Maybe Jabba knew this and was just toying with Leia…)
I can’t look at this image and not imagine Jabba crying out “I win!” like the kids always did in the TV commercials for games like this:
I had seen this image somewhere before, but I hadn’t realized it was available as a print until it popped up on Etsy. It’s only a 5×7, but the price is quite reasonable.
Jabba the Fluff T-Shirt by ochopika
Apologies for the lack of updates recently. I have a number of things in the pipeline, but I’ve been really busy with work.
I got this on shirt.woot, although it’s no longer available. It’s a cute design, although depicting Jabba as a cat is almost becoming a cliche. (For example, the “Jabba the Cat” print I posted about not long ago, or my “Jabbacat” polymer sculpture. I don’t really wear t-shirts in general, and that goes double for this one. I got it in a smaller size thinking that maybe my wife or daughter (when she get s a LOT bigger) might like to wear it at some point.
News: Jabba Cover & Comic in LEGO Club Magazine
A little while ago, I mentioned a “Design A Room For LEGO Jabba’s Palace” contest that appeared in LEGO Club Magazine. This time, they have Jabba on the cover, plus a whole comic set in the palace. You’re supposed to go to the LEGO CLub website and input the code “HUTT” to view the comic, but I’m going to host it here for posterity. Click below to view it in PDF form.
Link: “Jabba the Bun” on eBay
Here’s another in my ongoing series of ridiculous ebay actions. In the past, I’ve posted about a number of items that supposedly looked like Jabba the Hutt: a mushroom, a cookie, and a piece of wood. This time it’s a piece of bread. I guess (or maybe I should say “I hope”) it’s a joke. At least they’re not asking hundreds of dollars.
More Jabba-Related Fighter Pods
I’ve posted about the variations on Jabba the Hutt that have been released in Hasbro’s Fighter Pods line in the past, but one thing I like to do whenever possible is assemble a little Jabba’s palace display using all of the appropriate characters. There haven’t been a huge number of Jabba-related Fighter Pods released as of yet, and some of them aren’t explicitly Jabba-related, even though they will work in this kind of display. From what I can tell, the ones above are pretty much it. (Click the picture for a larger view.)
We have two versions Han Solo: one from the skiff and one of him in carbonite. And of course, Boba Fett. There’s another version of Fett in a different pose that I don’t have yet.
We’ve got Jedi Luke and Boushh (sure, this Luke is probably meant to represent him in the duel against Vader, but he’ll work). Boushh is one of my favorites — there’s quite a bit of detail considering how very tiny these figures actually are.
These droids aren’t explicitly from Jabba’s palace (they don’t have a drink-serving R2 yet) but they still work in a display.
The same can be said for Chewbacca. They have two versions, although they’re very similar. I’m hoping they will release a Bib Fortuna and Gamorrean Guard at a minimum.
Fighter Pods Ziro the Hutt (Target Exclusive)
There’s very little in the way of Ziro the Hutt merchandise out there. All I have is the Marbs marble and a Topps trading card. As far as I know, this is the first actual figure anyone has made of the character. This is a little surprising since he played a fairly large role in the Clone Wars movie.
As you can see, he’s just a repaint of the Jabba the Hutt figure (which was also the basis for the holographic Jabba the Hutt), but the paint scheme does make quite a difference. And I’ll have to say, I’m impressed with the intricate transfer work they’ve done here. This figure is only available in a $25 boxed set that includes a Darth Maul tin and is only sold at Target stores. I didn’t really want any of the other figures in the set, so I just bought Ziro on eBay.
No, you’re not on the wrong site. As it turns out, Jabba and Friar Tuck have more in common than just an elevated cholesterol count. When Kenner was making their line of toys for “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” in 1991, they reused and resculpted pieces from many different existing lines, including Star Wars.
Here is the good friar out of the package. Still doesn’t ring a bell? Let’s get him out of that bulky robe and into something more comfortable…
Hmm… Those sandals… Those chunky thighs. That furry codpiece, over-the-shoulder strap and armor pieces… There’s just something familiar about them all…
If you hadn’t guessed already, Friar Tuck’s body is VERY similar to that of the vintage Gamorrean Guard figure. The legs seem to be 95% identical, but they did rework the torso significantly, smoothing out the sculpting of the fur, removing the circular piece of armor on the chest and even adding a dagger to his belt. The arms look almost identical at a glance, but closer inspection shows that while the basic design of the armor is the same, they are totally different sculpts.
Borrowing of this nature isn’t that uncommon for action figures, and I guess if it works, there’s nothing wrong with it. In the case of Friar Tuck, he was in a robe anyway so most people probably never even saw what was going on underneath. And it’s clearly not a case of them just directly reusing the body, since quite a bit was changed. It’s not even entirely clear to me if they actually reused some of the sculpts for the Gamorrean or just used the figure as an inspiration (although the legs are so close that I think they had to have used the original Gamorrean legs). Kenner did a lot of borrowing for Robin Hood, as this post on Action Figure Insider illustrates. They even reused several ewok playsets to make Robin Hood toys.
Since Friar Tuck looks so much like a Gamorrean in this outfit, I’ve decided to add him to my vintage Jabba’s Palace display as another guard. He should fit right in.
Angry Birds Star Wars “Jabba’s Palace Battle Game” by Hasbro
I posted about the Angry Birds Star Wars “Tatooine Battle Game” a couple of days ago. That set included Jabba, the Rancor and Jedi Luke (with a Millennium Falcon launcher), while this one has Jabba, the Rancor and Leia as Boushh (with Jedi Luke’s lightsaber as the launcher). At the time I said that I wasn’t sure why they really needed two very similar sets that included Jabba the Hutt and the Rancor, and I’m still a little fuzzy about that, but I do have some more information about how they differ now that I have this set in hand.
First of all, this set doesn’t have the “Jenga” name on it and is put out by Hasbro, while the other set was actually put out by Hasbro Games. While the “Jenga” set included some dice and some very simple rules for playing a two-player game, the instructions for this game consist entirely of three words: “Stack!” “Launch!” and “Destroy!”
Even though both versions are called “Battle Games,” it seems like this one is supposed to be more of a playset than a game. You just set up the blocks and try to knock them down. There doesn’t seem to be any set way that you’re supposed to build the “palace” either — the instructions, the front of the box, and the back of the box all show slightly different configurations. One other difference is that unlike the “Jenga” set, it’s not really possible to store the pieces for this set back in the box — at least not without some serious effort.
This set claims that the Jabba the Hutt figure is an “exclusive” that’s only available in this set, which seems weird considering that we got a Jabba with the “Tatooine Battle” set. However, if you look at them closely you will see that the Jabba and Rancor figures that come with the sets are actually slightly different. My hunch is that the Jabba that comes with this set is meant to be part of the series that will be available for sale in blind packs of two figures, while the figures from the “Jenga” set are sort of considered to be separate.
The “Jabba’s Palace” version (on the left) is clearly a different color and is also slightly smaller than the one from the other set (on the right).
I like their little piggy ears and tails…
They also have different bottoms, and this difference extends to the Rancor figures from both sets as well. However, the Rancors appear to be the same size and are more or less the same color (maybe very slightly different).
I’m not all that impressed with this set, since without any sort of game element it seems like it would get old pretty quickly. When I compare the two sets that come with Jabba, I almost get the feeling that they were two competing designs for the same product, but somehow they both ended up getting made. For me, the main appeal of Angry Birds Star Wars will probably be the app (and this set comes with a mysterious code to unlock some sort of bonus content in the app). But I also like the little figures pretty well, and may end up just collecting those. I’m hoping there will be more Jabba-related characters so I can use the blocks to set up a little palace scene.
Link: Star Wars Made Entirely Out Of Scarecrows
io9.com has a post about someone’s lawn that has pretty much then entire Star Wars story told in scarecrow form, including a Jabba the Hutt.
Jabba the Hutt Jack O’Lantern by Me
I’ve already posted about my Bib Fortuna and Rancor pumpkins this year, but here’s the big guy. As I mentioned earlier, I tried carving a Jabba pumpkin a couple of years ago using a rotary tool, but I like this 3D sculpting method a lot better. It is pretty time consuming, but I’m already getting pretty good results after only a handful of pumpkins.
This is actually my second try at a 3D Jabba pumpkin. The first just didn’t come out right at all, and looked more like a frog than Jabba. I think there’s plenty of room for improvement with this one as well, but at least he’s recognizable. The eyes in particular can be tricky.
I may try a couple of more characters if I have the time. A Salacious Crumb would seem like a natural.
Mighty Jabba's Collection 