This is a look at the Power of the Force 2 "Jabba the Hutt & Han Solo" set from 1997. It's based on the scene added to "A New Hope" in the Special Editions where Jabba talks to Han in Mos Eisley Spaceport.
I remember when my friend got this it was a huge deal. We've been wanting a Jabba figure for a long time but Kenner never made one and I didn't even know Hasbro ROTJ Jabba existed. Good times.
I bought this in 97 as a 15 year old. Had always desperately wanted the Kenner version but had no way of getting it (no longer on sale in the 90's, no such thing as eBay, no luck at car boots etc). So when I saw this I was ecstatic - I finally got the chance to own my very own Jabba. Of course I was disappointed with the reality of this figure, and something I couldn't figure out until recently was part of the reason was that he couldn't sit in the sideways orientation like the original, classic Jabba. I like what you did with a version of this toy, where you adjusted him to sit sideways and painted him the same shade of green as the vintage Jabba. I might try that!
The problem with including this scene, in my opinion, isn't the CGI (although, it is pretty bad). The problem is that it only provides a repeat of the information the audience already has because of the earlier scene with Greedo. Plus, it ruins the mystery of wondering what and who Jabba the Hutt was, which was a big reveal in ROTJ.
I don't know that I fully agree with the common argument that the scene is a spoiler as (since this scene was originally intended to be in the film), Jabba was never really intended to be a "big reveal".
I love this jabba figure - he was the king of my toys and could use holy magic for some reason when he raised his hands. He hangs around in my house to this day.
I actually like this figure in some ways. Most Jabba figures are made of rubber and over time they will dry out and crack but this figure is hard plastic so it's going to out live a lot of the newer figures.
I actually really like the POTF2 Jabba. Not because of the scene from which it’s based or because of Jabba himself, but because it can be repurposed as a separate hutt figure since it doesn’t really resemble Jabba in any of his other appearances. I wish Hasbro would give us more hutts besides Jabba.
When I started collecting PotF2 figures I had a hard time wainting for a Jabba figure. With no internet available back then it was not easy to get hands on an expensive Jabba from 1983. Actually Bib Fortuna was available in german stores before Jabba and I was quite happy once I had it. I bought the Dewback and Jabba and I was a lucky boy. What a summer 1997...
This Jabba was my very first Star Wars toy, I was so in love with it. I had no idea about the scene from the Special Edition that it was based on at the time, I didn't see those til I was older, I was only 5 at the time
I was born after ROTJ. This was my first Jabba toy. I hated that I couldn't turn his upper body to make him work for ROTJ play. I eventually got the TPM Jabba glob. I've watched every video. Good stuff! A trip down memory lane or an exposure to new stuff.
Good I watched the Video before I just bought this thing out of eBay because I actually like the line.I won a Stormtrooper and dewback one and was pretty happy.
What a weeeeird choice with them coming out with this Jabba first. I had this guy when it came out, but still used my vintage Jabba with my main setup. Man..it took forever for Hasbro to produce the Jabba we all wanted from the get go (w/throne).
Well you have to remember how excited people were about the special editions and the upcoming prequels back then. I guess adding Jabba to ANH with space-age CGI seemed really cool at the time, and I think Hasbro was trying to cash in on some of that excitement. Of course in hindsight it seems insane.
With my version of this jabba inside the box was a mint I mean MINT catalog that had Batman on the front is it rare? I’ve been trying to find out for a while now?
I've started to collect Vintage Collection/3.75 inch scale Black Series, but the Jabbas are all too expensive for me. Should I get this one ot the Jabba Glob?
Assuming you're referring to the human playing Jabba, the scene wasn't there at all (except on the cutting room floor) until the Special Editions in the late 90s. They only talked about Jabba but didn't show him
i have 2 of these-- I bought one for $12 used (with shipping ) from a facebook group.. then after a day.. I saw one on ebay used with box and with a Han Solo but used as well.. for $12.99 including shipping, I didn't think th eseller was going to accept my best offer (made 24 hours before the first purchase) of $4.99 plus $8 shipping .. But anyway.. I did not mind having 2 of these-- i was going to repaint and customize the "uglier" or "beater" of the 2 i have. Now you gave me the idea that aside from repainting it.. I will also cut a hole at the bottom so I can shine a flashlight-- or LED lights through his dark eyes... I was thinking maybe do a light piping...throgh the back of his head.. like those POTF Jawas..but then again... I might mess up the back of his head..maybe clear plastic cocktail stirrers will be a good material for the piping... ...hhhmm? cut a hole on the bottom...or cut holes behind his head? ;-) By the way ... the mechanism to move the tail... is there a way to adjust it so his upper body can face sideways?
+john mark gordon You can gut him and remove the internal mechanism to allow him to sit sideways. I did this a number of years ago, as you can see in the link below. I'm not sure if it's possible to do it and keep the tail wagging feature -- I would think not. mightyjabba.com/2009/12/09/repainted-power-of-the-force-jabba-the-hutt/
+Mighty Jabba's Collection yep-- I just opened him up right now.. it seems like there is no way to keep the wagging tail feature..just to make him sit sideways... great job on the repaint!
+Mighty Jabba's Collection when you repainted the eyes-- can you still make teh light shine through them? did you use opaque paint or clear red paint?
Assuming you mean the original vintage Jabba and not the one this video is about, I probably wouldn't pay much more than $20-$25 or so for the figure by itself. If you want the whole vintage setup, maybe $60-$75. A nice condition box can add a fair amount to the total.
What I would have done if would have been working on the film would have been to restore Greedo's original dialog before it was replaced by Jabba's when they cut the Jabba scene, and I would have made Jabba a hologram on a walking emitter. This would have been more forgiving and possibly made Boba Fett more threatening.
As a child of 6 who lost his shit when Jabba was revealed in RoTJ and still feels that puppet is one of the most magical feats of puppeteering of all time (hear that G. Lucas!?)...I hate this toy and the whole cgi scene...here is what your video helped me realize....this scene and idea is the exact moment the franchise started to lose it/get silly (the prequels...TLJ...) I used to fear the palace....still hoping the musical number from ‘97 gets taken out officially some day....
Yeah...the seedy, dark environment made Luke all the more the hero and showcased his growth....I was always like...Luke will take care of it and get us all out of this horrible place....”stick close to Chewie and Lando...I’ve taken care of everything...” Doesn’t get better than that!
When this figure came out in 97 it just made me want the vintage version more as it was the only true Jabba available at the time (side facing, on the throne). Even the vintage Max Rebo band is the best version ever produced. The SE versions of figures were and are god awful.
Ha, I was collecting at the time, and definitely have no nostalgia for this piece of crap lol. It was actually the launch of the POTF2 line in '95 that started my obsession with collecting. Thank god I sold all of those roided out figures before they became completely worthless.
I admit this is a terrible looking jabba, but I could imagine this being a realistic ziro the Hutt if you repainted him. It's probably just the whiny/sad facial expression, but he reminds me of ziro for whatever reason.
I remember getting this set and absolutely hated it. The original Jabba I had as a kid was so much better. I don't think they ever made a decent POTF2 or later Jabba and always used the "Jabba Glob" for all my dioramas because it was the only Jabba that looked fairly realistic to the prop, dispensed with the annoying action features that invariably ruined the look of the Jabbas and finally was made from a rubbery soft plastic that was far closer to what I imagined Jabbas skin to be. I stopped collecting at some point so not sure if they ever made a decent one after that, and now in my getting-old age I've started collecting the Black Series and have a 6" scale Jabba on its way which *looks* pretty decent but will wait til I have it in hand to say for sure. As for Han, wow, forgot how American Gladiators he looked...I was so glad when they dropped the steroid abuse asthetic and went with realistic figures that actually looked similar to the actors with physiques that looked like people who, well, weren't abusing steroids. Even the POTF2 3PO was buff for heaven's sake! As for the Jabba scene being included in the Spec Editikns, I was excited until I saw it..well, no, I was in awe the first few times...but it's the shoddy CGI Jabba and wait, hey look, look, it's BOBA FETT see him, right there, he looked at the camera!!! Boba Freakin Fett in A New Hope, wow wow WOW! (how I imagine the people inserting him in the scene imagine most fanboys would react). Every "update" to the CGI Jabba looks IMO worse and worse and is amusing to me that they can't recreate a latex puppet blob convincingly or even acceptably in CGI! Heck, film an actual latex Jabba and splice it in the scene, it couldn't look worse. And how about just have Han (or a stand in of course) just walk in front of Jabba instead of the stupid stepping in his tail which of course would be Jabba's back where he "steps" - which would be more like a jump up and would probably fall as his foot sinks in fat blubber, not to mention get shot or at least pistol whipped by Jabbas minions afterward. After all there's plenty of other giant annoying creature walking in front of the camera shot in other scenes (the Landspeeder getting stopped by the troopers is especially annoying and what is the point of that dinosaur brontosaurus things obscuring the shot??) merging a Han stand in walking in front obscuring the camera briefly or cutting to show Boba FETT even would fit in better than what they did. And it's the aforementioned "cram even more distractions in every scene" that distracts me. Animate the Dewbacks that were there, you don't need a bad CGI trooper stiffly riding one with other troopers walking at weird angles - just improve what's there. Yeah, there were already things happening in many scenes, but it's like the end of Rise of Skywalker - just multiply everything by 1000 and call it an improvement. Nah.
Watching you turn vintage Jabba like that made me genuinely traumatized. It was like watching a scene from a possession film where a characters body contorts. I've had a vintage jabba literally all my life an he is NOT supposed to move like that. It is unnatural and unholy.
The only thing I know about this was a letter that was written to toyfaire about this person getting coned at a toy show. Instead of jabba there was a old oil filter 🤣🤣🤣 It could be 💩 who knows My question was why buy that?
I didn't like most of the new scenes added. Most of them were geared for 9 year old kids, which I guess is fine, but it also assumes that 9 year old's were somehow not as adept as they were when the films were originally released. They wouldn't have been so bad if they weren't akin to fart humor.
The added scene was bad in so many ways. One of which is the way Han walks around Jabba and it was later edited to step on his tail. It made no sense. It was passed off as a comical moment, but the amount of disrespect to the galaxy's biggest crime lord wouldn't have been tolerated.
I for one like the Jabba Docking Bay 94 scene. I think if they tweak it one more time, it will be perfect. And before anyone boos me, the original incantation of Jabba made him look like the love child of Floyd Pepper from The Electric Mayhem and Joe Camel...
to be honest, could they have tried to make the movie Jabba from a new hope have a bit more effort but into it? It's like they took the return of the Jedi Jabba but just make him look laughable and overall nothing really like Jabba. And maybe the scene could be a bit better if they didn't make Jabba repeat with Greedo said. not super amazed with this jabba
this figure is, without any doubt, the worst tbing ever happened to that poor crime lord.. absolutely horrible. Sadly I actually own only tbis version of him (after loosing tbe vintage one when i was a kid) so i ve started the modifications on him.. it potf2 sucked for the most but this is absolutely horrible..
The '90s STAR WARS toys are grotesque. The ugly Jabba figure and packaging look unimpressive. Glad you carved him a new a-hole. 🤣 The vintage 1983 Jabba looks so much better.
