I’ve decided to start a YouTube channel focusing on Star Wars toys and collectibles — not necessarily only Jabba-related items, although those will certainly be among the most common. I’d appreciate you watching my videos, “liking” them and subscribing to my channel. Although I’ve been editing video on computers since the mid-90s, I’ve never done much with YouTube, so a lot of this is new to me. I’ll be posting videos here on the site as I release them.

Here’s a link to my channel:

Mighty Jabba’s Collection on YouTube

The first video I have added to my new YouTube channel covers the Vintage Kenner Tatooine Skiff. I haven’t yet created a blog entry for this item, but one is on the way. In the meantime, why not check out the video?

Star Wars Command is essentially a line of Star Wars-themed army men. They’re non-articulated figures molded in a single color of plastic. From what I’ve heard, a lot of Star Wars collectors don’t find this line appealing, but I think they’re actually pretty fun. You can get a lot of figures for not too much money, allowing you to have large battles, and the figures are generally pretty well sculpted.

We first heard about this “Rancor Revenge” set in October of last year, but since then there had been no news of it, and almost all stores carrying the Star Wars Command line have put them on clearance. Since they mostly seem to be gearing up for the release of the Force Awakens toys, it seemed like the set might not get a release at all. But as it turns out, they are being sent directly to Tuesday Morning discount stores (and possibly others). That’s where I found mine, thanks to a tip on the Rebelscum Forums. This set is probably going to be a little hard to track down for this reason, which is a shame since it’s easily the nicest of the Star Wars command sets I’ve bought. The box is in four languages (English, Spanish, French and Portuguese), which makes me think that they will be using this in multiple countries. I’ve also seen a European box with other languages on it crop up in auctions from the UK.

You get 15 figures (including the rancor and Jabba) and 6 vehicles in the set, which seems like a relatively good deal for the $12.99 that Tuesday morning charges. It’s not quite as good as the $2 or $5 per set I’ve been paying on clearance for many of the others, of course, but still good.

Jabba himself is a hollow shell, which is slightly disappointing. After examining him closely, he appears to be a shrunk-down and modified version of Hasbro’s Black Series Jabba the Hutt. I’m not sure why they went with the “metallic” color for him instead of something like green, but it doesn’t look bad.

The rancor is the real standout figure in the set. It’s really well sculpted and includes a spring-loaded arm, allowing him to fling boulders, just like he didn’t in the film.

You get a few characters and vehicles that aren’t directly related to Jabba, but you also get some of the core Jabba’s Palace characters: Han in Carbonite, Lando in Skiff Guard Disguise, Leia in Boushh Disguise, Bib Fortuna, Boba Fett and two Gamorrean Guards.

You also get two skiffs and Jabba’s sail barge.

I really don’t have any complaints about this set, except that it will probably be hard for many people to find. I also put up a quick unboxing and review video on YouTube, so check it out if you’re interested.

I’ve been trying to find a picture of this for several weeks, ever since I heard about Morbid Enterprises’ new line of Star Wars inflatables. One finally popped up in an auction, so I’m going to borrow it here. It’s not bad looking, and it apparently stands 5 feet tall, so this is one sizable decoration. It looks like it will retail for around $140. Not sure about release date, but presumably it will be before Halloween…

The new version of Disney Infinity 3.0 just came out a couple of days ago. In case you are unaware, Disney Infinity is a video game in which you collect physical figures that allow you to use the corresponding characters in the game. Previous versions of the game have featured Disney and Marvel characters, but this time they’ve added Star Wars. I decided to take a quick look at the figures and the game play, as well as some of the Jabba-related unlockable content. Jabba is not a playable character, alas, but he does show up right from the beginning as a non-player character who gives you missions and the like. Plus, the game allows you to design a virtual house with themed rooms — including a Jabba the Hutt theme! The video’s a bit on the long side, so you can jump ahead toward the end if you just want to see Jabba-related stuff.

I just added a fairly comprehensive overview of the Vintage Kenner Jabba the Hutt Action Playset to my YouTube channel. Check it out if you’re interested.

I recently posted a YouTube video I made about the Vintage Tatooine Skiff that covers it fairly comprehensively, but I also wanted to do an entry on the site. My conclusion in the video (SPOILER ALERT!) was essentially that the Tatooine Skiff is great, but way too expensive on the secondary market. It’s hard to justify for many since Hasbro’s later reissues are actually slightly superior in a number of ways. The expense and the existence of alternative versions like these reissues was the main reason I spent years collecting Jabba the Hutt items and never had a vintage Tatooine Skiff.

However, I was able to do a trade with a fellow collector to get one of these, and I’m glad I did. For me, the box is about 60% of the appeal, since the toy itself is very similar to the reissues. It’s definitely nice to fill that hole in my collection.

Although the toy itself is also great, it’s a little hard to believe that they went with this design, since it seems unreasonably fragile for a toy. There are lots of thin plastic parts and mechanical features that have a tendency to break. That’s one reason that this toy is so expensive these days — just finding one that’s complete and in working condition can be a challenge.

That said, I love the design as an adult collector. It displays really well and has action features that are actually fun. Who wouldn’t love making their figures walk the plank?

The “ejecting” floor panel is also cool, although I think the fold-down railings might be even more fun, since you can have figures hang from them.

These features did come at a cost, of course, and that’s the fragility I mentioned above. These things often break, or at least their parts can become dislodged inside, which has similar results. When I was working on the video, I noticed that my 1999 POTF2 skiff’s landing gear was no longer working, so I disassembled it. I haven’t opened up the vintage skiff and have no intention of doing so, since it can be hard to get everything put back together. But I think it’s pretty much identical to this:

In my case, it turned out that the connector at the end of one of the rods connected to the landing gear (A in the photo below) had come out of the hole in the rod connected to the lever (B). The rod that keeps the other rods in place had also come out of its slot (C). I imagine this is a fairly common issue. It was a simple matter to fix, since nothing was actually broken. I just had to snap it back in. But I found that once I had it back together, the ejector floor panel feature didn’t work right. The spring in it was either bent or in the wrong place. I did manage to fix it by inserting something so that the spring functioned again, but it was all very fiddly and frustrating.

It’s definitely a good looking vehicle. It’s too bad that the vintage version is so expensive, but at least there are alternative versions available.

It’s a shame that they never made a Sail Barge vehicle. It looked a little bit like it might happen when Hasbro was releasing things like its “big” Millennium Falcon and AT-AT (both of which are awesome), but I think the days of those big vehicles may be behind us. Of course, this does open the door for customizers. I’ve seen some pretty impressive custom Sail Barges, but unfortunately they can be quite expensive (and big!).

I just posted an overview of the Hasbro Jabba Glob figure on YouTube. It’s got a few surprises…

I stumbled upon this item completely by accident when I was searching Walmart’s site to see if their exclusive Jabba the Hutt, Slave Leia & Salacious Crumb Funko POP! figure was available (answer: no). But this was a nice consolation prize! These kinds of decorations have been around for a while, but they always seem to focus on Vader, Yoda and R2-D2, and to a lesser extent some other characters. Rarely do they make anything for Jabba. But Gemmy has a fairly large line of these, including characters like C-3PO and Boba Fett, as well as the usual suspects. I’m not sure if they’re Walmart-exclusives, but I think they may be.

He’s got a treat bag that reads, “Jedi mind tricks and treats won’t work on me,” which is obviously a reference to Jabba’s line from Return of the Jedi about Luke’s Jedi powers not working on him. It’s cute, and a bit of an inside joke for Star Wars fans, rather than the usual easy jokes, so it gets full marks from me on that front. However, compare the photo from the Walmart website with what I got above and you’ll see that the actual item has way less stuffing in it and generally feels a bit deflated.

These things are basically plushes, but they have some plastic or cardboard sheets inserted in their bottoms to help them stand, and in Jabba’s case there’s also a plastic pole of some kind sticking up inside him to help him maintain his shape. The stitching and stuffing are not nearly as nice as a well-done plush, however, and I don’t think this would stand up to actual play very well. Admittedly, it’s marketed as a decoration and not a toy, but it’s worth noting. I should also mention that this is pretty huge! It’s called a “21-inch” figure on Walmart’s site, but the dimensions given are roughly 25″ wide by 14″ high, so I’m not sure where the “21” came from. In any case, it’s easily the largest Jabba plush ever made. It’s also extremely similar to the talking Jabba plush made by Underground Toys, if a lot larger.

The Underground Toys version is much better made, and the material is also a nicer fuzzy plush. I’d definitely choose it over the Gemmy version if I had to take just one. But the Gemmy one does have size going for it. For some reason these appear to be no longer available on Walmart’s site, but I’ve seen a couple of people on Twitter post pictures of them in stores, so they must be getting out there.

I just added a video covering the Jabba the Hutt and 2-Headed Announcer to my YouTube channel. By the way, today marks the 6th anniversary of the Mighty Jabba’s Collection site!

The Jabba discs are all distinct variations, if you look closely.

These “Galactic Connexions” discs just appeared on Force Friday, and are exclusive to Walmart stores (and Walmart.com). Walmart apparently gave out some introductory packs on Force Friday, although I didn’t get one. Basically, they’re hexagonal plastic discs similar in size and feel to poker chips. They’ve got a nice weight and thickness to them. You can collect them, or also play a game with them a bit like dominos (or Sky Stones if you’re a Skylanders player). I did buy a couple of packs to see what they were like, but didn’t get any Jabbas — I had to resort to eBay to get the ones you see here.

The included instructions say there are 75 characters to collect, but the Topps website says there are 86. Either way, that’s a lot, and it includes characters from the original trilogy, the prequels and The Force Awakens. There is apparently a starter pack that includes 14 discs and a play mat that retails for $9.98, but the only ones I’ve ever seen in stores are the booster packs of 5 discs for $3.98. The thing about these is that there is an astronomical number of variations available for each character. Check out the key below. If I understand it correctly, every character is available in 9 basic variations, which are combinations of disc color and sticker type (regular, foil, or patterned foil). Plus there are at least 4 possible “ultra rare” disc colors for each character, which also have one of the three sticker types on them (so 12 more variations). The “battle damaged” “Slave 1” “Imperial Red” and “Solid Gold” variations are only available for certain characters, so if we’re just thinking about Jabba they wouldn’t apply. With 7 different disc colors and 3 possible sticker types, I think that’s 21 possible variations for Jabba alone (although math is not my strong suit…) They say there are “hundreds of combinations,” but my rough estimate is that a totally complete set (all 86 characters in all variations) would be around 2000 discs. Crazy!

Since these are blind bagged, just collecting all of the variations on a single character would be totally impossible without eBay, and nearly impossible even with it. I don’t plan to try. I think frankly Topps has overreached with this product. If there were only one disc for each character, or if there were only a handful of variations for Jabba, I might have tried to get a complete set, or at least get all the Jabba versions. But it would cost me hundreds just to collect the Jabba variations.

The details are a bit unclear even in the rules on the Topps website, but the “solid gold” Slave Leia disc is apparently actually made of solid gold and is a prize in a contest they’re running (although it seems that they don’t actually include the discs in the packages — rather you get a white disc that can be redeemed for the gold one. But they also mention some kind of room makeover prize in the rules, so frankly I’m confused by the whole thing.

Here are scans of the Game Rules & Checklist included with my booster packs (click to enlarge).

I posted about this maquette back in 2011. It’s the original maquette that Phil Tippett created to show George Lucas to get his approval on the Jabba design. This is apparently a casting of the original sculpture that Tippett did, but the original and the mold have both been destroyed, making this the only surviving version of the piece. It would also be the very first incarnation of Jabba as we know him.

This statue had appeared in a Profiles in History auction at the end of 2010, and at the time, the estimated selling price was between $30,000 and $50,000. As far as I know it didn’t sell. Now Profiles is selling it again with a starting price of $12,000, and they even have it up on eBay. It’s not a normal eBay auction, however. It’s part of a live auction event, which I guess means that your bid on eBay would be used as a proxy bid during the live auction. It also means you have to pay a buyer’s premium of 28% on top of whatever the final price is. It’s definitely way out of my price range, but it would be an amazing addition to the collection of a well-heeled Star Wars collector. As of this writing, there is around 8 days left in the auction. If someone reading this ends up buying it, I’d love to interview you about it.

Even after I heard that this product was coming out, it took me a long time to finally get a picture of it. It never occurred to me that two companies would be releasing inflatable Jabba the Hutt decorations this year, so when I saw the decoration I mentioned in a recent post, I figured it was the Morbid Enterprises version. Not so. That version is manufactured by Gemmy Industries, and I apologize for any confusion I may have caused. I hope to get one of the Gemmy versions to review separately.

I’ve been seeing more and more of this style of air-blown inflatable lawn decorations in recent years. I’ve never had one myself, but then again I don’t really do much in the way of decorating for the holidays. There’s a surprising number of them available in every conceivable style, including Star Wars characters. These kinds of things tend to focus on characters like Vader, Yoda and the droids, though, so I was happy to see that they were making a Jabba. And when you think about it, it makes sense since this is about the only way to make an affordable life-size Jabba the Hutt.

You just have to take it out of the box and plug it in, and it will inflate automatically in about 2 minutes. This kind of decoration has to have a fan going at all times or it will quickly deflate. In terms of its size, it’s really very impressive. It’s hard to convey this without seeing it in person. My kids kept wanting to hug him.

The design is a little goofy if you look at it closely, but it’s not bad. And from a distance on your lawn or maybe at a party I think it’s just fine. They got his major features, including his tattoo. I do kind of wish they had used a different color scheme, though. This is basically the same color scheme as the Rubies Jabba the Hutt costume, which is based on the Clone Wars Jabba design. The brownish color doesn’t translate all that well for a Return of the Jedi Jabba.

There’s nothing Halloween-specific about the design, so it could do double-duty at a Star Wars-themed party, or even become a Christmas decoration with the right accessories (Santa hat and scarf, anyone?). I’ve seen prices for this up to $180 from some places, but the retail price is apparently $120, and I got mine for $99 from yardinflatables.com. (I have no affiliation with them whatsoever, but I got my order fast and they were the cheapest I could find.) Check out the YouTube video below for a quick review of this piece.

I just added a review of the Power of the Force 2 Jabba & Han Solo set to my YouTube channel, so check it out if you’re interested.

I wouldn’t have thought when I first posted about Petco’s line of Star Wars products two years ago that they would be doing well enough to come out with even more merchandise at this point, but here we are. In the past, I’ve posted about their very nice Jabba the Hutt dog toy (with lots of squeakers!) as well as a Jabba the Hutt dog toy that could easily pass as a plush toy for kids. But the item above is more of a chew toy that you might use to play tug-of-war with your dog. It’s cute, although not my favorite of Petco’s offerings. They have a whole line of different characters in this style — even a wampa!

While I was browsing the Petco site, I couldn’t help but pick up two Han in Carbonite toys. The first one below is for cats and has material inside that makes a crinkly noise.

The mouse doesn’t come out, even though it looks like it might.

Lookit that face!

The other one is for dogs and is more of a traditional rubber squeaky dog toy.

This set is a Walmart exclusive, and is just starting to appear in stores now. I’ve been keeping tabs on my local Walmarts, and I think these just appeared in my area this morning. It retails for $29.97, which is on the high side for these, but when you consider that you get three figures (and that one of them is huge), it doesn’t seem too terrible. Funko released a Jabba the Hutt POP! figure way back in 2012, but the Jabba in this set is much bigger (see the video at the end of this post for some comparisons).

The box is quite large, especially compared to most POP! boxes, and if the condition of the other boxes at my store is any indication, getting a completely mint one might be a little challenging if you don’t go early when there are a lot to choose from. When I asked about the set at some local stores, I was told they were each getting 14 to 16 of these, which is a fair amount. But I don’t think they will be restocked when they sell out, so if you want one of these, I’d start looking now. I imagine it will eventually show up on Walmart.com, but so far there is no sign of it. Remember that most Walmarts seem to stock these near the front of the store where they have trading cards and collectibles, rather than the toy section.

They included a cardboard throne with the set, which really helps with the presentation. It’s not attached to the box in any way, so it’s easy to use it as an accessory. The Slave Leia is very similar to the one that they released in 2012, but in a sitting position, although the hair is also a different shade of brown and her braid is shorter. She can be a little top-heavy thanks to her tiny body and gigantic noggin. Jabba himself is of course quite impressive at this size, and they even managed to include his arm tattoo, which was a detail that they didn’t include in the previous version. Overall, I do like this version better.

Salacious Crumb is a completely new character in the POP! line, and is extremely cute on his little pillow. In some ways, he may be the star of this set. Just look at this little guy!

Here’s my complete Jabba’s Palace display as of this moment. I’m hoping they will continue to add more characters.

Finally, here is a YouTube review I did of the set, including comparisons with the previously released figures.

I’m starting a new series of videos on YouTube where I look at some of the characters that inhabited Jabba’s palace and the merchandise that’s been made for them. The first character I’m tackling is Mosep Binneed.

I recently got this drawing from the artist Kyle Hickman. It measures 4 x 6 and is done in markers on thick card. There’s just something about the style and use of color that I really like. I’ve got this one in a frame on my desk at the moment. Kyle has a Facebook page and an Etsy shop if you’re interested in seeing more.

With Halloween fast approaching, I thought I would do a quick video review of the only commercially available Jabba the Hutt costume — the inflatable Jabba costume from Rubies. (I got mine 6 years ago — you’d think someone would have come up with a new one by now, but no such luck. Well, technically there is one, but…)

My kids certainly know what I like! My 4-year-old daughter did the drawing above, and I thought she did a great job including not only Jabba, but also Leia, Salacious Crumb and the throne. She drew it on a paper towel for some reason, which made it difficult to scan. I had to do a lot of cleanup work to get rid of the bumps in the surface of the towel. The one below was done by both my son and daughter together. Sniff!