Mighty Jabba's Collection

Ever since I got my Attakus Jabba last year, I’ve wanted to get the other parts of their Jabba lineup. In particular, the hooka pipe seemed like a must-have. Unfortunately, they very rarely show up on the secondary market, and they are expensive when they do. I saw one in Japan when I was there earlier this year and I believe it was around $400. And there was one on ebay a few months ago that ended well over $200, if I recall correctly. So you can imagine my surprise when on a lark I typed “salacious” into the search engine at Big Bad Toy Store and saw that they had one of these available in their “vintage” (used) section for only $120. Sometimes they sell damaged items, so after making sure that it was in good condition, I ordered immediately. Part of me wonders if they had the pricing on this confused with the standalone Salacious Crumb statue that Attakus put out, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Interestingly, I got #749 out of #750.

I’m very impressed with this piece. In some ways, I’m more impressed with it than I am with Jabba himself. Salacious Crumb sits on a pillow and can be moved anywhere you like. I didn’t think he looked that good in the pictures I saw before getting him, but in person he looks quite good. The railing, hooka, and frog bowl are particularly impressive. It’s hard to convey this in pictures, but at 13″ high by 16″ wide, this is a very large piece — by far the largest version that has been made for a collectible. The railing looks like some kind of hammered metal, and the hooka and frog bowl look like they really have liquid in them. It’s a very impressive effect, and makes the Sideshow version (which is the next closest in size) look pretty bad.

The mouthpiece of the hooka detaches from the clear plastic tubing that connects it to the pipe so you can have Jabba hold it in his hand.

It’s hard for me to get a good shot of the hooka with Jabba due to their size and the lighting where they are, but you get the idea. As you can see, I’m running out of room here. I’d like to figure out a place where I could potentially display all of the Attakus pieces, but the depth of the Jabba statue makes that hard — he won’t fit on most normal shelves. In any case, I’m very happy with this piece and hope to get more in the future.

Gentle Giant’s line of mini-busts can be a little hit-or-miss. Some are fantastic, while others are just okay (and a few are pretty bad). This one definitely falls into the first category. The sculpt is excellent. I think the likeness to Femi Taylor could be slightly better, but in any case it’s a very attractive bust.

They also did a good job with the paint, managing to get her green skin tone down pretty well, as well as her over-the-top makeup. Her jumpsuit is made of real cloth that lays perfectly on the figure, and they also used a real piece of rope or twine on her collar. (Here’s a bit of trivia: Leia had a chain while Oola only had a rope. Maybe Jabba was paranoid about Leia escaping?)

I also like the pose that they chose. It looks like she’s been frozen in the middle of a dance step, which can be tough to pull off without making the piece look awkward. I don’t yet have the Attakus statue of Oola, so I don’t know what it looks like in person. But judging from pictures, it looks to me like the Gentle Giant bust is the best Oola collectible we’ve gotten so far.

Hawthorne Village is a part of the Bradford Exchange and seems to specialize in little sculptures of fantasy buildings. They have a number of licenses for popular TV shows and movies, including Star Trek and Star Wars. If you read any of the fan magazines, you’ve probably seen an ad or two for their products. Their Star Wars line is called the Galactic Village Collection, but they seem to cater more to the casual collector rather than the hardcore fan, and in fact their reputation with most Star Wars collectors doesn’t seem to be very good. This is partially because they use heavily Photoshopped images to make their stuff look better than it actually is (see this thread on Rebelscum.com for some examples).

But another reason some people dislike them is that they only sell their products via a subscription model. This means that you can’t just buy a particular item. You have to sign up to buy every item in their Star Wars line (this page on Sandtroopers.com has a list of the ones they’ve announced so far). While it’s true that you can send items back if you don’t like them and you can cancel at any time, most collectors don’t really like being forced to buy everything in a line. They cost $59.99 plus $9.99 shipping and handling, and one item is sent “every month or two” (pending availability). Jabba’s Palace is the fifth item in the line, so even if you signed up today, it would take a minimum of 5 months, and likely longer, before you would receive this particular piece. I don’t like any of the other pieces in the line, so I never signed up. Instead I waited for this one to appear on eBay. I had to pay a bit over retail, but it was certainly worth it to avoid the hassle of the subscription.

As far as I know, there has never been a statue of Jabba’s Palace. Some have shown parts of the inside (usually just his throne) but never the entire palace. In fact, the only other collectible that I can think of that shows the exterior of the palace is the Micromachines Planet Tatooine Playset (and that only bears a passing resemblance to the actual design). That certainly makes this piece unique. It’s about 5″ tall by 7″ wide, and quite lightweight, making me think that it’s cast in some kind of plastic rather than polystone or an equivalent. The paint is actually pretty well done. The flash makes some of the brushstrokes more obvious, but in person it looks good.

Like all of the pieces in this series, the palace lights up (with the help of two AAA batteries), but the light-up effect is very anemic. The only place where you can see light are under the main door in front, in one door in the main tower, and another door on the back.

Jabba himself isn’t quite as good as the palace, but he’s not bad either. My main complaint (aside from the “I’ve got a question!” pose and the extra finger on his hands) is that the throne looks a little odd. It’s too squared off and smooth, and the gargoyle heads shouldn’t be colored gold. He’s around 2.5″ tall by 3.5″ wide.

Overall, I think it’s a reasonably nice piece, and in any case it’s your only choice if you want a statue of Jabba’s Palace. Unfortunately, unless you want to subscribe to the whole line, you’re going to have to wait for someone to sell one on eBay before you can get one.

EDIT: I got the Galactic Village Sail Barge later on.

I also found the original concept art for this piece by Christopher Lauria on Deviantart.