Vintage Jabba the Hutt Tube Socks by Charleston Hosiery
It may be hard to believe, but yes, they did make Jabba the Hutt tube socks. As I mentioned with the Jabba belt I posted a few days ago, you might think that this would be a poor choice of character for this kind of item, but it’s entirely possible that these companies produced these items before seeing the actual film, so they may not have known just what kind of character Jabba was. In any case, I was very excited to be able to score a pair of these still in the unopened package (because after all, who wants used tube socks?)
As you can see, they were packaged together with a pair of Darth Vader socks (the standing Vader figure in the center is just on the plastic package and not on the socks themselves). But it seems that they were also sold on their own, without any plastic wrap and with just a tag attached. You can see the socks outside of the packaging here. This pair has blue and red stripes, but there was also black and red striped variety.
These would of course be a perfect match for the Adidas Jabba the Hutt shoes. 😀
“Sluggish” Print by Adam Watson (Dr. Seuss-Inspired Jabba)
My father, of all people, sent me a link to an article about a series of Dr. Seuss-inspired Star Wars art by cartoonist Adam Watson. You should definitely check out all of his work, but of course I was most interested in his Jabba. Luckily, prints of these pieces are available pretty cheaply through Imagekind, so I snapped up a print of the Jabba. You can get a variety of sizes, but I went with the 10 x 7.5 so that I could fit it in an 9 x 12 frame with a mat. I just love finding different interpretations of Star Wars characters like this.
“That Bad, Huh?” Print by Spencer Brinkerhoff (Celebration V)
This print by Spencer Brinkerhoff depicts the moment in Return of the Jedi when Han and Luke are being taken off to the Sarlacc Pit. When Han asks Luke “How we doing?” Luke says “Same as always,” to which Han replies, “That bad, huh?” It was created for Celebration V several months ago, and I got mine at that time thanks to Avfin on the Sideshow Freaks Board, who kindly picked one up for me. But due to its unusual size (12 x 24) it took me a long time to get it framed. I don’t like paying huge amounts for custom framing, so I usually get off-the-shelf frames and then have mats custom cut to fit the artwork, but given the widescreen aspect ratio of this piece, that was tricky. However, on the Rebelscum forums, Spencer himself suggested that a frame intended for displaying a record album and its sleeve side by side might be just about perfect. They sell the frame at Michaels, and during a recent sale it was quite cheap. I still had to get a black mat cut for it, since the frame is a little too big, but it looks good and was much cheaper than custom framing.
This is part of a series of prints that Spencer has done in his animated style, each named after a memorable line from the scene they depict. The other two are “Sorry about the mess” (a Celebration Japan exclusive) and “I know” (which is currently available from ACME Archives Direct.
Vintage Jabba the Hutt Dungeon Action Playset by Kenner
Sears was quite a player in the toy industry in the mid 1980s. So much so that they they even had their own exclusive products, made just for them. The Jabba the Dungeon Action Playset was one such product, but if you’ve seen many vintage Star Wars toys, you may be thinking that this looks a little familiar. In fact, the dungeon playset is just a reworked version of Kenner’s Droid Factory Playset, which came out a few years earlier. Both sets are more “inspired” by the movies than anything. This one is based on the scene where droids are being tortured in Jabba’s dungeon, but it looks nothing like what we saw in the movie.
There were two versions of this set. There’s this one, which included the Klaatu, Nikto, and 8D8 figures, and another one that came out later, which included Amanaman, Barada, and EV-9D9. The latter version is considerably more valuable.
There’s an interesting bit of trivia about this set. If you look on the side of the box, you can see a sentence under the picture of R2-D2 reading “Use the branding iron on any Droids in JABBA’S DUNGEON.” However, this originally read “The branding iron will torture any Droids in JABBA’S DUNGEON.” Apparently they were wary about using the word “torture” on a child’s toy. You can see a shot of the original box design on the right above. The interesting thing is that they didn’t actually change the box — they just stuck a sticker with the revised wording on it over the old sentence. I guess the change came too late in the production process for them to change the box.
I originally bought this as a sealed box, thinking that I would keep it that way and get another loose one so I could display the contents as well, but it arrived in worse shape than I had expected. After a while I decided I might as well just open it. You can see the contents above. As I discovered with the Desert Sail Skiff Vehicle I got a while back, it can be pretty fun to open and assemble vintage toys. Unlike the Sail Skiff, though, the stickers that came with this set were almost completely dried up, so I had to use some glue to apply them. Everything else was in great shape. Each figure came in a taped baggie.
Even though I’ve been collecting Jabba items for quite some time now, it took me a long time to finally pick one of these up, and I think it’s mostly because it didn’t really appear in the movies, and is a little low in terms of its fun factor. It’s really just a plastic base with a crane on it. Still, it does have an interesting history.
Nikto Guard Figure by Hasbro (Toys R Us Exclusive)
This is one of Jabba’s guards that appears in the Clone Wars cartoon. It’s a Toys R Us-exclusive figure and is currently in stores. From what I understand, it was originally intended to be included with the Clone Wars Jabba the Hutt Battle Pack, but was held back for cost reasons. For a while Toys R Us did give these away with any Star Wars purchase over $30, but now they are just selling them for $10.99 apiece, which seems extremely expensive for this figure. It’s well done, but fairly spindly. His accessories consist of a shoulder bag/holster (with Jabba’s clan tattoo on it), a removable cowl, a blaster pistol, a rifle and a stand. Both of the weapons are made of super soft plastic that barely holds its shape, so it’s hard to keep the rifle from looking like a bent noodle.
Like the Saga Legends Boushh figure, this also comes with a die and game card that can be used with the “Galactic Battle Game” but I really don’t have any interest in that. In any case, it’s nice to see some more Jabba’s palace aliens come out in the Clone Wars style.
Vintage Return of the Jedi Elastic Belt With Jabba the Hutt Buckle
When I think of vintage Jabba belt buckles (as I often do…), I think of the rectangular metal one put out by Lee in 1983. It’s nice, but not particularly rare. You can always find quite a few of them on ebay for a few dollars. But this round one is another story. It’s also made by Lee and is also from 1983, so I’m not sure why it’s so much harder to find, but this is the first time I’ve been able to track one down. Like the rectangular one, it’s quite small and clearly made for children. It’s made of metal, with the usual vintage Jabba artwork under what appears to be a layer of acrylic.
It may sound silly, but just love finding the rarer vintage items like this and the Jabba the Hutt bathrobe. I guess part of the appeal is that they’re a little bizarre. I can’t imagine very many kids nowadays wanting to wear a Jabba belt buckle. It seems like it would just be asking to get teased or bullied. But it may be that back when Return of the Jedi first came out, he hadn’t come to be associated quite so closely with the concepts of obesity and ugliness.
EDIT: I later got another version of this belt, using the same buckle but with blue and red elastic.
Jabba the Pug and Gamorrean Pug Magnets by Brian Rubenacker
Jabba has been portrayed as a dog before, such as with the Slobba the Mutt plush or “Jabba the Mutt” on the “Return of the Dogi” parody T-shirt. But these are actually part of a larger series of paintings by artist Brian Rubenacker, all featuring pug dogs as various characters — many from Star Wars. They’re really quite charming. Take a look at the Darth Vader one, for example. These two magnets are 2.125″ x 3.125″ and are reproductions of paintings that he was commissioned to do. You can buy them both on Etsy:
Unlicensed Jabba the Hutt Top From Argentina
I got this from an ebay seller who sells a number of similar toys. I don’t have any details about who made it or even exactly what it was used for. The seller said he got a bunch of this kind of toy in a shop, but that they would have been used for vending machine or cereal toys. I’m not even totally sure that it’s a legitimate product, and not something that the seller made on his own, since the two halves of the top came apart very easily, and it would have been trivial to print out any image and insert it into the top. In any case, there are no markings aside from “Ind. Argentina” so it’s obviously a non-licensed item. I guess I’ll just have to take him at his word that these were actually sold in this form in Argentina. The top is about an inch and half in diameter and actually spins very well, despite being made from rather lightweight plastic.
Unlicensed Han Solo in Carbonite Life Mask
Illusive Concepts made a full-size Han in Carbonite prop replica a number of years ago, and Sideshow Collectibles is rumored to be working on one of their own. But I’ve never really been that interested in getting one for myself. I don’t have any place for one, and it would be very expensive (think $5-$6K). But when I saw that I could get this life mask on ebay for just $20, it seemed like a no brainer. Jabba needs his favorite decoration, after all. 😀
It’s life size, and appears to be a plaster cast of the face part of the Han in Carbonite prop. I don’t know where the mold came from, so maybe it’s just a recreation of the prop, but it certainly looks like Harrison Ford. The mask came to me with one-tone, all-silver paint job that didn’t look that great, so I used some black and silver paint to detail it. I think it came out pretty well. It has a hook on the back so you can hang it on the wall.
Ralph McQuarrie “Jabba the Hutt” Lithograph (70mm Film Originals from Willitts Designs)
As many of you know, Ralph McQuarrie was a concept artist for the original Star Wars movies and may be the person most responsible for the “look” of Star Wars. He made dozens of concept paintings such as this one. He’s got a great style.
This lithograph is one in a series that were released in 1997 by Willitts Designs, each featuring a McQuarrie concept painting and a 70mm film cell from the same scene in the actual movie. They came nicely framed and matted. The frame is about 12 x 18, but the actual image is closer to 7 x 15. Press the (very conspicuous) button on the bottom of the frame and the cell will light up, allowing you to see it. Each film cell is different, presumably because they just used a single copy of each film for all of their pieces.
I do like that mine has the subtitled line “I will not give up my favorite decoration” on it (something I say to my wife all the time :D), but frankly, I could do without the whole “film cell” thing. I don’t like the button sticking out of the bottom (couldn’t they have made it recessed?) and because of the electronics and lights inside, the frame is unusually thick — about 1.5 inches.
One of the reasons I was attracted to this piece was actually the fact that they were all signed by McQuarrie himself, as I don’t have an autograph of his. These pieces are still signed with his old-style signature. Unfortunately Mr. McQuarrie suffers from Parkinson’s Disease, so nowadays he just signs his initials (RMQ). As you can see, it’s “limited” to 2,500 pieces, which is really quite high for something like this, so it’s not really that rare or valuable. Still, it’s a nice enough piece.
Mighty Jabba's Collection 