Vintage Japanese Return of the Jedi Poster
If I seem to be writing about a lot of posters recently, it’s because I finally dug out my backlog of posters and took pictures of them. I was kind of excited to get this one, as I am a Japanese translator and feel a sort of connection to things from Japan. I’ll have to say, though, that as a poster this is kind of a mess. It’s just a jumble of publicity photos that aren’t even really arranged very well. And what’s with the gigantic Darth Vader standing there behind the planet? Kind of odd. It’s also very text-heavy for a movie poster, with captions under all of the photos, plus a Japanese version of the movie’s opening crawl in the upper left.
Aside from a mention of him in the opening crawl, the main connections to Jabba are the picture of Bib Fortuna among the film’s main characters in the bottom left (weird), and the shot of Luke and Leia on the sail barge. I’m kind of surprised there’s no picture of Jabba himself, but I do seem to recall hearing that they purposely avoided showing him in some cases before the movie came out, so as to not spoil the surprise. Maybe they weren’t given any shots of him to use for that reason.
“Soon You Will Learn To Appreciate Me” Poster for Decipher Jabba’s Palace Expansion Set
This poster was a promotional item for the “Jabba’s Palace” expansion set that Decipher released for its Star Wars Customizable Card Game. It’s roughly 32 x 25 and has a nice and clear image of Jabba, Bib Fortuna and Salacious Crumb. There’s something about it that makes me think that it’s been enhanced or otherwise altered with photoshop. Maybe it’s because it lacks the grainy quality that I associate with a lot of shots from the original movies. This looks like it might have been taken today.
It has the line “Soon you will learn to appreciate me” across the top, which was always one of my favorites lines from the Jabba’s palace scenes — very ominous… The poster originally came folded, and mine had then been rolled up, so it was a bit of a challenge to get a good photo of it.
Vintage Italian Return of the Jedi Theater Lobby Poster with Jabba the Hutt (“Il Ritorno dello Jedi”)
This poster was one of a series that hung in Italian movie theaters during the original release of Return of the Jedi. They’re like lobby cards, but somewhat bigger at roughly 17.5″ x 25.5″. They also have all of the information about the movie’s cast, etc. so they can function as standalone posters. Each one had a couple of different photos from the movie, as you can see in the shot of the full set below. I only have the one picturing Jabba. It’s kind of unusual to see a movie poster that features Jabba and Bib so prominently. I’d like to get this framed at some point, but the unusual size will probably make it an expensive proposition. 😦
Unleashed Boba Fett Figure by Hasbro
I posted about the Unleashed Slave Leia figure a while back, and now I have Boba Fett from the same series. I got this one loose, so I don’t have any in-package shots, but it was very cheap so I’m not too bothered by that. I’ll have to say, I’m pretty impressed with this figure. The sculpt is great and the paint, while not perfect by any means, is still quite well done. I really like the effect of the translucent fire. I could see Sideshow or Gentle Giant releasing something very similar to this, but in polystone instead of plastic, and charging many times the original $20 price.
Obviously this depicts Boba Fett as he’s descending into the sarlacc pit before meeting his ignominious demise (or not, depending on who you want to believe). It’s got a nice size to it — about 10″ tall at the top of his left hand, and about 7″ wide if you count the sarlacc’s extended tentacle.
I mentioned in my post on the Gentle Giant Slave Leia statue that I usually only collect Slave Leia things when there is a direct link to Jabba, such as when it is part of a line of Jabba’s Palace figures or statues, etc. That goes double for Boba Fett. Despite his short screen time, he is such a popular character with such an iconic look that they’ve made an incredible amount of merchandise for him — probably more than for all of the Jabba’s Palace characters combined. So I mostly got this because it includes the Sarlacc, but I quite like it.
Now Open: MightyJabba.com!
I’ve decided to purchase the domain name mightyjabba.com for this site. You should still be able to access links or bookmarks that point to the wordpress.com site, so there’s no need to change anything as far as I know. It’s just a bit easier to remember than the old URL. Let me know if you encounter any issues, though.
Jabba the Hutt Paper Cutout by ICE Paper Designs
I got this paper cutout of Jabba on eBay from a seller who apparently does some amateur paper cutout/scrapbook design. It’s a fairly simple design, but I thought it was rather effective. It’s made of several layers of differently colored and patterned paper that have been cut out and glued together.
Slave Leia Statue by Gentle Giant
This statue has been on my want list for a long time, but auctions for it always seemed to go a bit higher than I wanted to pay. Finally, though, I was able to get one for a very good price. I mostly get Slave Leia items when they are part of a larger scene or series of Jabba’s Palace characters, but I made an exception for this piece, even though it’s basically a standalone statue without any companion pieces.
So far, no company has come out with a high-end 1/6 scale figure of Slave Leia (Hasbro’s figure doesn’t cut it by today’s standards). This is mostly because her nearly naked body poses huge challenges for an articulated figure. I’ve seen a number of customs that people have made, and they usually end up looking rather bad simply because of all of the exposed joints. Since this statue is 1/6 scale, a lot of people have decided to use it in their 1/6 scale Jabba displays, along with the Sideshow Jabba the Hutt. Unfortunately, she doesn’t come off of her base, so she doesn’t really fit in all that well with the Jabba display. I have seen a couple of people who have managed to remove the Leia part of the statue from the base so that she can be placed on Jabba’s throne, but from what I understand it is rather difficult. I don’t think I’ll be trying that.
I’d say the likeness is pretty good. Gentle Giant’s standard paint applications have a tendency to make statues appear artificial looking, but I think the underlying sculpt is a good one. It’s definitely better than Gentle Giant’s Slave Leia mini-bust. I do think they fell into the common trap of making her more buxom than Carrie Fisher actually was, though. I also think that her facial expression is a bit too sultry — even though she was in a sexy outfit, she was more defiant than anything during the Jabba’s Palace scenes. That’s one thing I like about Sideshow’s Premium Format figure, as it shows some of the character’s strength.
If you asked me what the best Slave Leia statue was, I’d say it’s a tossup between this and the Sideshow Premium Format figure. The PF has size on its side, and is a non-standard pose (which can be either a plus or minus depending on how you look at it), while the Gentle Giant piece probably has the better likeness. Both of them would look best with a repaint, though. In any case, I’m glad to finally add this to my collection.
The Jedi Luke PF is a bit controversial. It’s definitely well done in terms of its outfit and facial sculpt, but the pose seems to turn a lot of people off. In addition, he lacks the cloak that a lot of people associate with the character. I briefly considered buying the Ultimate Quarter Scale Jedi Luke figure, just so I could use the cloak it comes with. But it looks cheap and is the wrong color. (Luke’s cloak can look black in some shots, but is brown.)
That’s why I was very glad to see that “Wifey” on the Sideshow Freaks forum had started making these cloaks for people. I’m quite impressed with the job she did. The material drapes nicely over the figure and looks like it’s part of it. I suppose I should have taken a shot of the statue with the exclusive Jabba’s Palace blaster as well, but I really prefer the lightsaber. Personally, I think a cloak like this would have been a lot better choice than the blaster as the exclusive bonus for this piece.
Jabba’s Palace Print by Jeffro Kilpatrick
I believe I first saw this piece as a t-shirt design on Redbubble.com, but it’s no longer there. Since Redbubble’s shirts are rather expensive (and I don’t really wear T-shirts anyway) I contacted Jeffro to see if it was available as a print. It’s 12″x12″ and I’ll have to say the colors came out really nicely on the print — very vibrant. He actually made two different colors schemes. This is more of a night club-inspired scheme, but he also made a desert-inspired one that I don’t have. I just prefer the more vibrant colors of this version. I assume the inspiration for the lettering (and lack of apostrophe in “Jabbas”) comes from Caesars Palace hotel and casino in Las Vegas. It’s not completely the same (the “e” is a different style, for example), but it’s certainly close.
The version I have has the spelling of “Tatooine” corrected, although I thought “Tataooine” seemed kind of appropriate too. 😀
Jabba’s Palace Drawing by My Son
I’ve posted things that my son has made for me in the past, like a Jabba stick puppet, or a Jabba’s Palace playset made from paper cutouts. Yesterday, he surprised me with this drawing. From left to right, there’s C-3PO, Han in Carbonite, Jabba on his throne, Bib Fortuna, and R2-D2, with the rancor pit below, complete with gate and button. (He also said that the thing in the bottom left was the Sarlacc.) He said he did it all from memory, which impressed me. He’s definitely got more knowledge of Jabba’s palace than the average kid ;). He was very excited when I told him I would put his drawing on my site, so here it is. 🙂
Mighty Jabba's Collection 
