Max Rebo Band “Jedi Rocks” CD
Given the latest news about the changes George Lucas has made to the original trilogy, I thought this would be a good time to post about this item. As I discussed in my post about the Power of the Force Rebo Band figures, George Lucas replaced the Jabba’s palace musical number that originally appeared in Return of the Jedi with a different one called “Jedi Rocks.”
It features lots of new CGI characters, and really seems out of place in the overall film. Lucas apparently wanted a place to flex his CGI muscles, and I guess this stretch of time in the film fit the bill. Very few people see this as an improvement, and I personally can’t stand to watch this section of the film. So the idea that they would release a CD single with just “Jedi Rocks” on it kind of boggles the mind. Who (aside from a completist Jabba collector like myself) is going to buy such a thing? The version of the song on the CD is 2 minutes 46 seconds long — almost twice as long as the song in the clip (which is cut short when Oola falls into the Rancor pit). But the last half is just instrumental, so you’re really not getting anything you don’t see in the clip above.
The only sort of cool thing about this is the CD itself, which is mostly transparent and decorated with a picture of the (original) Rebo Band. If you turn it over, you can see the actual CD portion. I’ve never seen a CD quite like this.
I got this from Etsy seller Octopus Tree House. They have a few similarly styled prints, including one of Boba Fett that works as a sort of companion piece to this one. I really like this print. I’ve got a weakness for cute versions of Jabba. I get a bit of a “Muppet Babies” vibe from this somehow. Anyway, it depicts Jabba after a big day at the carnival, complete with Slave Leia stuffed toy and a froggie snack in a plastic bag. The print is a nice size at 12″ x 12″ (which will apparently fit into a frame intended for displayed a record album) and looks quite good.
Jabba the Hutt “Slime Magazine” Pin from Disney
Disney recently released a series of “magazine” themed Star Wars pins. The idea is that each looks like a faux magazine cover with a Star Wars character on it. They’re sold in sets of two, with one “revealed” (visible in the package) and the other concealed until you buy it and open it. As you can see here, the good characters are the “revealed” ones and the bad guys are concealed (and randomly packed to boot). So if you want a particular baddy you will have to buy a few and hope you get it. I just got this on eBay instead.
It’s a rather large metal pin at 1.5 x 2 inches in size. As you can probably tell, it seems to be mimicking the look of Time Magazine. The headline “Inside Jabba’s Hut” is sort of an inside joke of sorts, since these pins are sold at Walt Disney World’s Jabba’s Hut gift shop.
Disney also made a Jabba & Slave Leia pin for Star Wars Weekends 2006.
News: Original Art For Hamilton Collection “Heroes & Villains” Jabba the Hutt Plate Available For Sale
Todd Treadway, the artist who did the painting featured on this Hamilton Collection plate, contacted me today to say that the original painting is available for sale. It’s around 20″ in diameter and was done on illustration board. I really like this artwork, and would love to own the original, but unfortunately it’s out of my price range.
If anyone’s interested, you can contact Larry Pierce at Estes Silver & Gold in Estes Park, Colorado for more information. You’ll have to give him a call at (970) 586-6276 as Larry apparently doesn’t do business online. I won’t post the price here, but suffice it to say that original paintings like this do not come cheap, so serious inquiries only.
Return of the Jedi Baseball Cap by Fresh Caps
Released in 1996 by Fresh Caps, this baseball cap features several prominent characters from Return of the Jedi, and interestingly they are all from Jabba’s palace. There’s Jabba the Hutt, Bib Fortuna, Han in Carbonite and Jedi Luke (in what appears to be the same pose as in this picture showing him on Jabba’s sail barge). It’s a bit of an odd composition, but I was glad to find one of these as for some reason they don’t show up on eBay very often.
The other Jabba-related hats in my collection include the New Era Jabba the Hutt fitted baseball cap and the vintage Sales Corporation Jabba the Hutt and Gamorrean Guards baseball caps.
News: Play Huttball in Star Wars: The Old Republic
I just saw this video about “Huttball,” which appears to be a game sort of similar to “extreme” soccer that players of the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG can play against each other. Apparently it’s supposed to be sponsored by Giradda the Hutt (pictured below).
To be honest, I kind of hate everything about this. Everything from the name (Huttball? Really?) to the announcer and the overall tone of the game seem wrong to me. And don’t get me started on the idea of Jedi and Sith playing a ball game with their lightsabers (much less teaming up with each other). MMORPGs take so much time that I doubt that I’d be a regular player in any case, but I had thought about checking it out. Now I’m not so sure.
Vintage EV-9D9 Figure by Kenner
EV-9D9, you may recall, was the robot that assigned C-3PO and R2-D2 their jobs upon their arrival at Jabba’s palace. Richard Marquand (director of Return of the Jedi), apparently voiced “her” in preproduction, but I believe this was overdubbed in the actual movie. Yeardly Smith (aka Lisa Simpson) provided the voice in the radio play.
This is one of the “last 17” figures and as such is relatively sought-after. Loose versions can sell for as much as $50, with carded versions going into the hundreds. This is actually the one that came with my Jabba the Hutt Dungeon Action Playset, but it’s the same as the carded version.
Although the figure has no accessories, it does have one unique feature — a movable mouth. I don’t think any of the other vintage figures have anything quite like it. You move a lever in the back of the head to move the mouth.
There are two versions of the Jabba the Hutt Dungeon Action Playset. I wrote about the more common of the two a while back. That version came out first, and included Klaatu, Nikto, and 8D8 figures. The version I’m writing about today came out a bit later, and has a different box (with distinctive green background) and three different figures (EV-9D9, Amanaman, and Barada). While not truly rare, it’s considerably more valuable than the earlier version, mostly because of the figures it includes, which are less common and relatively sought-after. It took me quite a while to find one of these sets for a decent price with the figures included.
One other difference is the color of the base and crane. The original version had a gray base and dark gray crane, while this version has a light brown base and dark brown crane.
I mentioned in my post about the other version of this set that one of the pictures on the side had a sticker placed over the caption, changing the text. It went from “The branding iron will torture any Droids in JABBA’S DUNGEON” to ”Use the branding iron on any Droids in JABBA’S DUNGEON.” My theory is that they felt that the original description was a bit too graphic for a child’s toy, but didn’t catch it in time to change the actual box. In this version there is a similar message, but if anything it’s even more child-friendly, reading, “You can pretend all DROIDS are in for a hot time with the branding iron accessory.”
Unlicensed Jabba the Hutt and Gamorrean Guard Necklaces
I know almost nothing about these, including when they were made and by whom, which I find a little frustrating. But they are metal necklaces that are about an inch tall. The reverse side is a polished golden color with no markings at all. The one on the left is obviously a Gamorrean, but in bizarre colors. The one on the right has more or less the standard Jabba colors, with the exception of the baby-blue eyes. However, he’s missing a tail, which is an odd omission since the tail plays a big part in making Jabba look like Jabba. It may just be that he’s supposed to have it trailing behind him, though, like the POTF Jabba figure. In any case, I found these to be rather fascinating, similar to the bootleg action figures I have.
Jabba the Hutt Garage Kit (Unlicensed Model Kit)
A garage kit is a model kit for amateur modelers, often produced and assembled by hobbyists working in their garages, hence the name. They’re usually unlicensed and produced in small numbers. I had a lot of trouble tracking down any information about this particular kit online. The person who sold it to me said it was made by Narin, who is a sculptor from Thailand most famous for his Predator garage kits. He said that it was made about 7 or 8 years ago, and that only 20 were produced.
However, before I bought the kit I contacted Narin, and he told me it wasn’t his. He did recognize the kit, though, and said that it was made by a team of sculptors from Thailand called “B-Shop,” which is apparently no longer around. He also said that about 20 were made, but according to him it was produced more like 15 years ago. It’s difficult to know what the real story is, but since they both independently said that around 20 were made, I’m comfortable with that part at least. I think it’s safe to say that this is an exceedingly rare kit. While you could probably recast something like this fairly easily, I’m not sure the demand is there, especially now that we have relatively inexpensive, high-quality options like the Sideshow 1/6 scale Jabba.
As you can see, it comes in six pieces cast in off-white resin: two arms, the tail, the body, the head/torso, and a railing. The railing is a bit strange, since it’s so simple, but I guess its presence is sort of suggestive of his throne. Each piece attaches with a slot. I’ve decided to keep this kit as it is, just loosely assembled rather than gluing it together and painting it. I’ve already got more than enough realistically painted Jabbas, and I think it’s more interesting this way — almost like a marble statue. In fact, I think I’m going to buy a black marble cutting board and use that as a base. I think it should look cool.
Overall, I’d say the sculpt is excellent. The face in particular does a good job of capturing Jabba’s asymmetric features. The tail seems a little misshapen (too flat, and too thick at the end) but that’s relatively minor.
They did include Jabba’s tattoo, although I noticed after getting the piece in hand that they actually gave him thumbs in addition to his three fingers, which is not accurate. Still, you can only see it if you examine his hands closely.
I was told that the kit was in 1/6 scale, but as you can see it’s considerably smaller than Sideshow’s 1/6 scale Jabba figure. But at 14.5″ long and 8″ tall, it’s still pretty sizable. It is a fair amount larger than the Jabbas in Sideshow’s “You’re Going To Regret This” diorama or Gentle Giant’s Jabba the Hutt on Throne statue.
This is has been sort of a “grail” item for me. (“Grail” is a term often used in collecting circles to talk about something that is rare and sought-after, or something that is high on your want list.) I first found out about it about a year and a half ago, when one was listed on Yahoo Auctions Japan. I was actually in Japan at the time on business, but I was only in the country for a few days, and didn’t have the time to get it, plus the price was more than I really wanted to spend. Then a few months ago someone put another one on eBay. Again, their price was too high for me, but I kept the person’s contact info and several months later finally managed to purchase it for a bit less than they had originally wanted. It was still more than I really wanted to pay, but I really wanted one in my collection, and they are quite rare.
Here are a few more pictures:
Mighty Jabba's Collection 