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Photo Shoot 8 - Salacious Crumb w/Jabba the Hutt


Ektris

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I know I've said it before, but I feel like yet again that I need to stress that I've not really found a good place to take pictures in my apartment yet. I feel like I might need to make a custom photobooth if I want to keep doing this... But I'm lazy heh. Still, I'm not too thrilled by a lot of these, but it's the best I was able to come up with.

 

So with that preface out of the way, let's get to the main event!

 

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Salacious B. Crumb here is truly the star of the show. He is a big reason why I wanted this San Diego Comic-Con exclusive version. Because the retail Jabba comes with literally nothing but a big empty box, not even a hookah or dais in sight. But Crumb was so much more interesting to me than those even. He just looks cool. And to my surprise is actually a really good action figure! Although missing elbows and knees, everything else you could possibly want is there, including even a nice multidirectional neck. They really went all out on this Kowakian monkey-lizard and it shows. Which is really quite surprising when he amounts to nothing more than an accessory and is really just a throwaway pet in the lore that doesn't really matter.

 

Too bad I don't feel the same way about Jabba.

 

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From his... Umm... well, he doesn't really have a waist, so uh... His swivel joint cut up, Jabba's not bad. He's got some nicely articulated arms, he really does, even though this toy's gimmick can sort of get in the way at times at the shoulders. Really not sure if I'm breaking anything when I hear the loud click of a gear snapping over another just by trying to move them sometimes, but he's got shoulders and I'm going to use them. That's more important to me than his weird, barely noticable eating/talking/mouth-something gimmick (see picture 2 above). At the same time... I do like that it was included. It does work and is kind of cool. I would have just been fine without it though. But hey, at least he can still get his hookah (if you have one...) in his mouth. It's really like his left hand and arm were sculpted just for this purpose... My only real problem with this half of his body are his eyes - it seems to be a somewhat widespread issue where they aren't exactly painted centered. Mine are only a little off, so it's not bad, but some pictures I've seen make him look pretty dumb.

 

What isn't good, by any stretch of the imagination, is everything below that cut. I'm guessing it was part a desire for accuracy and part a cost issue, but I'm really not happy that his lower body is a solid piece. I'd have liked to be able to snake my Jabba around, make it look like he was actually moving. Instead he will only ever look good in the throne room pose (which is really unfortuante if you don't have one for him to sit on). And of course, it is just one incredibly large hollow piece of... I want to say vinyl, because it feels exactly like the same material as some Kamen Rider vinyls I've handled. It just doesn't have a great feeling to it and is very disappointing. At least the paint is spot-on though.

 

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But now the real big draw of this set: the throne room. And what a load of garbage it is!

 

Allow me to interject for a moment the story of acquiring this piece. If you attended SDCC and were willing to wait in line for endless hours to get one at the show before they sold out (and they did), you had no problem getting it. If you're like the majority fo fans, you had a horrible time. Because as is per usual Hasbro fashion with SDCC exclusives (and unlike a lot of other big toy retailers), they don't announce when reserved online stock will go live. It is genuinely unpredictable. This year, in fact, was the latest they ever went up! But to make matters worse is their response to questions... The actual, official response to any inquiry was "just keep staring at the exclusives listing 24/7 until they show up." REALLY?! That's just so unprofessional and inconsiderate of loyal customers... It's literally impossible to do and was just overall aggravating. In fact, they went up while I was at work and was lucky enough to have been monitoring the page anyways. Most wouldn't have been. And of course Jabba was one of the first to go out of stock there too. The entire experience was annoying.

 

And then when you finally get this prized exclusive, that you have wasted an inordinate amount of time to get, you are met with... Nothing but disappointment. Nevermind Jabba himself. But that throne room. This set was called "Jabba's Throne Room," not "Jabba with throne" or anything to that effect. You were buying his throne room.

 

And it is just horrible. Bad. Terrible. Completely and utterly garbage.

 

The plastic bubbles you see in the pictures, to hold the figures in place in packaging (along with ugly twist ties I removed), are glued into place on the throne room. Which means you will never remove them without completely destroying the diorama that was the entire point of the exclusive set! If they wanted to make a diorama... Make it actually usable and not hideously disfigured by plastic bubbles!

 

At least they included a cardboard Han in carbonite for those of us who didn't get last year's exclusive. >_<

 

Overall I am met with incredible disappointment with this set. I will always stand by my opinion, however, that it is the only one worth getting. The hookah and railing (once you manage to rip that out of the evil bubble), and even Crumb, complete Jabba. He was clearly designed with these things in mind, especially the hookah. The ordinary retail release gives you just Jabba and seems like a terrific waste of money given he's mostly just hollow. At double the price, though... The SDCC one wasn't much better. And nobody should ever, eeeever pay aftermarket prices on him unless desparate. But I really felt like I needed a Jabba in my collection, so this had to be it. It was a genuine pain to get and not even that great, but hey... I guess getting lemons sometimes is just part of collecting. Maybe he was just supposed to be left in packaging... which to me is a ridiculous notion, but even then the ugly plastic and twist ties would have ruined the looked. But for all that, I really can't recommend him for anyone but the diehard fan.

 

He does at least look cool sitting on top of all my books above the other characters I have (barely fit too, which was a lucky coincidence... also, picture is just for reference of the area, did not take an updated one with Jabba), which I feel is appropriate for a Hutt heh.

 

~|ET|~

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I got the regular version on order. I'd have quite liked Crumb, but not enough to pay so much more for him. Looking forward to it - enjoying gradually getting all the main characters in my standard scale.

 

Thanks for the pics!

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