Link: Oodles of Snootles
StarWars.com just put up an article about Sy Snootles merchandise, including a number of photos from my collection. Apparently Sy Snootles will be appearing in this week’s Clone Wars (“The Hunt for Ziro“), as will Ziro the Hutt. I’m hoping that we might see a Ziro figure at some point, and having him in the show in addition to the Clone Wars movie might increase the chances of that.
Star Wars Medallions (Slave Leia and Jabba) by Craft House
One of the things I love about Star Wars collectibles is that there is such a huge variety of stuff available. Some of it is a little odd, but it’s almost always interesting. I’m not really sure how they came up with this idea, but essentially you get two large chromed plastic “medallions” (each around 2.5″ in diameter) that you are supposed to highlight using the included sponge wedge and pot of “stain.” I had hoped the medallions would be metal (at least aluminum like the coins that came with many Star Wars action figures) but they’re just plastic. Still, they are chromed to a very high shine (as you can see in the in-package shot above, this makes them hard to photograph).
They had several other two-packs with other characters, but this particular one includes one medallion with Han Solo, Chewbacca, and the Millennium Falcon (this one is going to my friend Rodders who is a Millennium Falcon collector), and one medallion with Slave Leia and Jabba. The Leia medallion features the motto “We have powerful friends. You’re gonna regret this.” On the back is a bit more text about Leia.
This came out in 1996, so the “stain” in the little pot had deteriorated into a gelatinous mass that wouldn’t have worked very well if I tried to use it on the medallion. So I just brushed some acrylic black paint on it, waited a few seconds for it to partially dry, and then wiped it off with a tissue. The idea is to leave the paint in the recesses of the sculpt, making it easier to see the detail, and I think the black paint probably worked about as well as the original stain would have.
Jabba the Hutt Sketch Card by Isaiah Mcallister
This is a sketch card of Jabba the Hutt by Isaiah Mcallister, who draws the web comic Bear vs Zombies. Nice angular design.
Jabba’s Palace Art Poster by Tom Whalen (Mondo/Alamo Drafthouse)
Like the Salacious Crumb print I posted about a few weeks ago, this is an art poster put out by Mondo/Alamo Drafthouse as part of their Star Wars series. The artist is Tom Whalen, who has done a lot of very impressive work with re-imagined movie posters. He’s got a great style. Limited to only 260 pieces, this sold out within minutes of being made available on the Mondo site. It’s 26″ x 17.5″ and printed on very heavy stock. Here it is matted and framed:
Us Magazine With Jabba the Hutt Cover (August 1, 1983)
This August 1, 1983 issue of Us Magazine has Jabba the Hutt on the cover, and a decent article inside about creating many of the aliens used in Return of the Jedi. It has quotes from Phil Tippett, Joe Johnston and others. I have created a PDF file that just includes the Jabba article, so click the magazine above to view it.
One sentence I found interesting was this: “Sound designer Ben Burtt did the vocalizing [for Jabba].” IMDB and many other sites list Larry Ward (apparently a linguist from Berkeley) as the voice as the voice of Jabba. But I have also heard more than one person claim that it was in fact Burtt who did it. Burtt would have been in charge of processing the voice to make it sound so booming and alien, so perhaps this is what is confusing people, but I would like to find something from Burtt directly that explains exactly what went on.
Jabba’s Palace Chocolate Molds
I was pretty surprised to see these on eBay a few days ago. They’re plastic molds for making your own chocolates or lollipops. The seller had a number of other characters, but of course the Jabba’s Palace characters caught my eye. From looking at the pictures, it seemed pretty likely that there were in fact just bootleg copies of some of the characters from the vintage Jabba the Hutt Play-Doh Playset, and once I got them in hand, it was obvious that was the case. They added spots for sticks, and they also changed the Jabba sculpt a bit. The one in the Play Doh set has a much longer tail. They got rid of that and added a cute little stub of a tail instead. I don’t understand why they didn’t include Han in Carbonite from the set, though. He seems like a natural, given his chocolate bar shape.
I’ve never made chocolates, but it was actually quite simple. Just melt down the chocolate in a double boiler, spoon it into the mold and put it in the freezer for a few minutes to harden. I didn’t have any sticks on hand, so I decided to just make normal chocolates. I’m thinking of making some plaster “chocolates” later that I can display in my collection case. 🙂
The characters, from left to right and top to bottom are Gamorrean Guard, Jabba the Hutt, Bib Fortuna, Squid Head, Jedi Luke, Leia as Boushh.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Custom Throne For Galactic Heroes Jabba the Hutt
Every Jabba should have a throne, but the Galactic Heroes Jabba (which came with both the Jabba’s Palace Cinema Scene and the Sail Barge Cinema Scene) was stuck with the cardboard one that was part of the packaging for the Jabba’s Palace set. I had wanted to make one for a while, and when I saw how undersized the heads on Hasbro’s Vintage Collection Jabba’s Throne were, it occurred to me that they would be about the right size for the Galactic Heroes Jabba (if perhaps not cartoony enough to match the Galactic Heroes style).
I sculpted the throne out of Fimo modeling clay (4 packages worth) and used the heads from the Vintage Collection Jabba that I had left over after doing my custom version. I had used the rings from the Vintage Collection version for my custom, and in any case they were always much too large for these heads, so I bought some new rings from the “make your own jewelry” section at Michael’s (9mm seemed to be the right size). I’ve never really sculpted anything like this before, so there was some trial and error involved. I think I could have spaced out the positions of the heads a bit better, but overall I’m happy with it. I had originally planned to make a hooka, railing, and frog bowl as well, and may do it later. But that’s a major project in itself, and I thought he fit nicely on the throne as it was.
A Blast From My Past
Things have been a little slow here at Mighty Jabba HQ recently, but rest assured I have a number of interesting things in the works. In the meantime, I thought this was kind of interesting. My mother was cleaning up their basement when she happened upon some drawings (tracings, actually) that I did when I was 8 or 9 years old. There were a number of Star Wars characters, but of course the Jabba caught my eye. I may have misspelled his name, but I was fan even back then. 🙂
EDIT: I just stumbled onto the source of these pictures. Although I don’t remember having this book, the Jabba I drew is an exact match for the Jabba on the cover of “How to Draw Star Wars Heroes, Creatures, Spaceships, and Other fantastic Things,” by Lee J. Ames. It may be that I was just following the instructions in the book, rather than tracing as I had assumed as first. I may have to see if I can get a copy of this.
Last year around this time, I introduced the Rubies Jabba the Hutt costume, which is to my knowledge the only commercially available Jabba the Hutt costume ever made. This year, I decided to try my hand at pumpkin carving. This was my first time using a dremel rotary tool on a pumpkin, and it was actually harder than I had expected it to be. Maybe it was my off-brand tool, but most of the heads I put on it didn’t really seem to work very well. I did finally hit upon one that worked okay, but I didn’t have nearly as much control as I wanted, so I struggled a bit. And of course, the kitchen table and I were totally covered in tiny particles of pumpkin by the time I was finished. Interestingly, the heat generated by the spinning dremel head apparently is enough to cook the parts of the pumpkin that you are removing, because there was a definite scent of pumpkin pie.
I put the two of them on the Sideshow Collectibles 1/6 scale Jabba throne, since I thought it would be cute, and also I submitted them to Sideshow’s Spooktacular pumpkin carving contest, so it seemed appropriate.
“Slave Won” Print By Otis Frampton
This is a print of a digital art piece by Otis Frampton, showing what I presume is the unveiling of Leia’s new slave outfit. It’s a bit too big to scan, so I had to take a picture from an oblique angle to avoid glare. It’s 11″ x 17″ overall, but it has a large white border, so the actual picture is only about 7.5″ by 14″. It’s #8 of an edition of 50. You can see the original digital piece here.
Mighty Jabba's Collection 
