Vintage Clipper Jabba the Hutt Play-Doh Set from the Netherlands
Interestingly, there are about as many international versions of the vintage Jabba the Hutt Play-Doh set as there are of the vintage toy playset. This one is from a company called Clipper (aka Clipper BENELUX because it distributed toys in BElgium, the NEtherlands, and LUXembourg). It’s a similar design to the American version of the set, but I find the American version to be a bit more esthetically pleasing.
In particular, I like the back of the American version better, since it includes of some kids with awesome 80s haircuts playing with the set, while this version is rather sterile looking. One reason for this might be that the Clipper set includes instructions in both French and Dutch (fun fact: “gebruiksaanwijzing” means “instructions” in Dutch).
I’m trying to get every version of this set. There’s a German set that is very similar to this one, but with German text on the box. There’s a Canadian version with a silver box, a Palitoy set from England (I think), and a Lili Ledy version from Mexico (down there Play-Doh is known as “Supermasa”). There might be more that I don’t know of as well.
Vintage Jabba’s Palace Poster by Sales Corporation of America
This poster was released in 1983 by Sales Corporation of America (who also released this great Jabba baseball cap, among other things). It’s 11 x 14, so maybe a bit small for a poster. It originally came shrink-warpped to a piece of cardboard, but the plastic was coming off of mine and I knew I wanted to frame it eventually, so I too it off. I don’t know who the artist is, but it’s a nice painting. (EDIT: I’m told by a reader that the artist is Robert Hunt.)
Jabba the Hutt Model Kit by Knight Models
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the Spanish company Knight Models just recently released a Jabba the Hutt model kit, and I’m happy to say that I just received the one that I ordered from a company in the UK. I imagine there will be places to get it in the US later on, but of course I had to have it as soon as possible. 🙂 I plan to paint this up, but for now I’ll post a mini-review of the unassembled kit.
It comes in a nice metal box like you might get fancy cookies in. Inside, the parts are protected with some thick foam. It does give it a bit of a high-end feel, which is good when you consider that this cost me a bit over £100 including shipping (or over $150).
Inside you see the main parts of the kit, which consist of Jabba, Leia, the throne, and four baggies with miscellaneous parts (including parts of the throne railing and hooka pipe, the throne gargoyle heads and rings, pillows, Salacious Crumb, and so on). There is also a booklet called a “Pinture Guide” (Picture Guide) that shows you in very general terms how you might paint up the kit (the text is in Spanish). Finally there is a card that has your model’s edition number on one side (I got #40 of 500) and a bit of text about Jabba on the other (again in Spanish).
Here are Jabba and Leia (minus one of her arms, which is a separate piece) placed temporarily on the throne. The throne is about 7″ wide by 3.5″ deep. With Jabba on the throne, he’s about 3.5″ tall. It’s not a bad size.
The level of detail is good, but my first impression was that I was a bit disappointed that Jabba and the throne aren’t made of metal. The throne is clearly resin, as are the pieces of the throne railing and hooka. I think Jabba is resin as well, although of a different type and color. For this price, I expected metal. That said, it doesn’t make that much of a difference once it’s assembled and painted, except that the model will be lighter than if it were made of metal.
Leia and most of the smaller pieces are metal. So far the only real complaint I have about the kit is that the gargoyle heads seem rather “off.” They have overbites instead of underbites and (this is the biggie) they have two eyes when they should only have one big eye. Also, they’ve made the throne so that the gargoyles go all the way around it, but all of my other models, statues and toys just have four in the front and two on the sides. I may leave some of them off when I assemble it.
I’m looking forward to putting this kit together, although it may take a while as I’m rather busy with work and our new baby. I think it’ll be an impressive piece when it’s finished.
(EDIT: Here’s the finished model.)
I recently got a copy of “The Padawan Menace,” which is a half-hour TV special that aired on the Cartoon Network about 6 months ago. It’s a comical adventure using LEGO Star Wars characters. I was surprised that Jabba has a pretty large cameo appearance, as do Bib Fortuna, the rancor and some Gamorrean Guards. I’ve uploaded a short video to Youtube with just Jabba’s scenes to give you an idea (see below). It’s definitely a fun little show if you like LEGO Star Wars.
I thought it was interesting that they reused Jabba’s lines from Return of the Jedi. Even though the lines in Huttese don’t really match what Jabba is supposed to be saying, I think it probably sounds better than having a new actor record something. I have also added some screenshots to the Articles section of my site.
I’m wondering if the design for the CGI Jabba minifigure will be what we see in the upcoming LEGO Jabba’s Palace set. I think it’s a lot more attractive than the previous version. I’m also hoping that we’ll see a rancor and rancor keeper at some point in the near future, since they’ve never made one.
LEGO Jabba’s Sail Barge Store Display (Set 6210)
Stores often have displays of LEGO sets showing them assembled and sometimes incorporating some kind of lighting or movement feature. This is one such display, made for the LEGO Jabba’s Sail Barge set released in 2006. It’s is definitely one of my favorite LEGO sets. Originally this would have been displayed in Toys R Us stores alongside a sample of the Star Destroyer set (6211). I’ve never seen the display in person, but I did swipe this photo from an eBay auction to give you an idea. I don’t mind not having the entire display since half of it was unrelated to Jabba and there’s not much in the display aside from the models themselves. (The sails in the picture have clearly gotten messed up, and Boba Fett appears to be missing altogether.)
There are a few differences between this and the retail set. First and most obvious is the fact that everything is glued together. This was done by LEGO, presumably to make it possible to ship the display to stores and allow them to put it out with a minimum of assembly. All of the pieces of the set have been glued with something resembling superglue, and hot glue was used in some places as well (such as the doors on the side, which would normally fold down.
All of the minifigures are also glued into place — even their poses are more or less fixed. You can see this most easily on the skiff, where Skiff Guard Lando is in a permanent pose that has him almost ready to fall backward in to the sarlacc.
They also used some transparent cylindrical LEGO pieces to show Boba Fett just above the mouth of the sarlacc — I don’t think these are included with the retail set. Mine came off in shipping so I’m not sure where Boba Fett was originally placed.
If you turn the ship over, you can see that they added some gray LEGO blocks that also aren’t in the normal set. This makes the barge sit up higher and also allowed it to be screwed onto the display base.
Finally, there’s a folded triangle of cardboard that serves as a nameplate. Since I now have two sail barges, I think I’ll keep the store display version in one of my display cases and use the other one for playing with my son. 🙂
Jabba the Hutt Snapback Baseball Cap by Fresh Caps
This cap was released in 1996 by Fresh Caps (who also released the Return of the Jedi cap I wrote about a few months ago). It’s one of three baseball caps (that I know of) that are completely dedicated to Jabba — the other two being the vintage Jabba the Hutt hat by Sales Corporation of America and the New Era Jabba the Hutt cap (aka the best hat in the world).
It’s a little bit of an odd design, with the “Jabba the Hutt” name placed off to one side. As with the other Jabba hats, I’m not really sure who would wear something like this — at least non-ironically.
I think I’ve seen the Jabba artwork in a comic book somewhere, but I can’t quite place it. Anybody know?
Hasbro 12″ Princess Leia in Boushh Disguise & Han Solo in Carbonite
Hasbro released this set in 2003, back before Sideshow Collectibles had the license to make 1/6 scale Star Wars figures (like their own version of Boushh). It comes with one Leia as Boushh figure (which is closer to a Barbie doll than a modern 1/6 scale figure) and one light-up carbonite block.
Overall, the figure isn’t terrible, but the proportions do seem a bit off due to the oversized helmet. The body is only just barely posable compared to a modern 1/6 scale figure.
Take off the helmet and you get a surprisingly attractive (if very doll-like) head with rooted hair. Any resemblance to Carrie Fisher is purely coincidental. 🙂
This is actually the second 12″ Han in Carbonite that Hasbro released. The first version was sold in a set with a Han Solo figure and was completely sculpted. It’s actually still a decent alternative if you want a cheap Han in Carbonite for your Sideshow figures, if perhaps a bit oversized. This one is not as impressive at first glance, since it’s completely flat on the surface, with just a hint of Han painted on the surface. But press the small button on the upper left and you get a “melting” effect that is actually pretty cool. It fades in realistically and since you can see into the block it looks kind of like Han is actually starting to come out from inside the block.
I got this for a song on ebay, but I can’t really recommend the set given that Sideshow’s version of Boushh is very cheap on the secondary market. If you don’t want to go whole-hog and get the Sideshow Han in Carbonite display, you can still pair the Sideshow Boushh with the other Hasbro carbonite block (also very cheap) for a pretty decent looking display for very little money.
Hasbro Vintage Collection “Revenge of the Jedi” Figures
As I mentioned in my post on the SDCC Salacious Crumb figure, Hasbro released a number of figures on “Revenge of the Jedi” cards for the 2011 San Diego Comic Con, with plans to release all but the two mini-figures at retail later on. These are two of those retail figures (I got them at Toys R Us). They both had large stickers advertising the limited edition Boba Fett figure with prototype armor, while kind of ruin the look of the cards in my opinion, but they came off quite easily. The Leia figure is the same as the Legacy Collection Slave Leia that was released last year, but lacks the pair of “sitting legs” that allows the figure to sit on Jabba’s throne (presumably because they couldn’t fit on the vintage style card). That’s a shame, as the sitting legs were a really nice feature of that figure, but I do like seeing Slave Leia on this style card, since they never released a figure of her in the vintage line.
The other figure is the drink-serving R2-D2 figure, which also has no counterpart in the vintage Kenner line. It’s exactly the same as the Vintage Collection R2-D2 figure I posted about last year (with the exception of the “Revenge” card). I already have loose versions of these figures, so I’ll be keeping these carded since I really like the vintage style cards. If I find any more of the Jabba-related figures on “Revenge” cards, I’ll add them to this post.
Here’s another LEGO Star Wars shirt featuring Jabba in the design. Unlike the green one I posted about a while back, this is a long-sleeved shirt. Both of them should be currently available at Walmart, although it took me a while to find this one for my son. With the Ewok, dueling Luke and Vader, and B-Wing Starfighter, this clearly has a Return of the Jedi theme.
“Jabba the Snowman” Christmas Card from Lucasfilm
I posted about this card a few weeks ago. Lucasfilm sent these cards to their clients and associates this year. As you might expect, it was produced in rather limited numbers, but I’m happy to say that I was able to track one down (although it wasn’t cheap…) It’s actually really nice looking in person. It’s printed on very thick card stock and Jabba and the snowflakes have a sort of pearlescent look that is difficult to capture in a photograph. The photo above is pretty close, but the background of the card is actually entirely white, rather than the off-whitish color you see here.
Inside is the message “Warm wishes this holiday season from your friends at Lucasfilm,” along with the handwritten message “Your friends at Lucas Licensing.” Clearly those wishes were a little too warm for Jabba, since he’s melted all over the floor. 😀 I plan to frame this together with the Lucasarts “Jabba Claus” card I got a while back.
Mighty Jabba's Collection 
