Jabba the Hutt Action Playset

This playset was one of the first boxed items I acquired on my re-entry into the collecting hobby back in the early 1990s. As I recall, I attended a toy show of some kind in Toronto when I was in school there, and a dealer had absolutely stacks of these boxes at his stall. I can't remember what I paid but it was certainly not anymore than about $40. Should have bought all they had, I guess...

In any event, what we have here is the Sears (direct) version of the Jabba playset. This box version wasn't generally available in a true retail sense - I understand that it was what you got when you catalog-ordered the item from Sears. The box itself is pretty plain - two-colour litho, and the same image on the front and back of the box. There's nothing printed on the top and bottom nor on the end flaps.
 

Here's some images from the small "RotJ" catalogs with a nice tableau for me to re-create... which I am able to do because, back in the 1990s, I personally unsealed and opened up the packaging :-O

And here it is! The string on my production toy is obviously much shorter than on the version used for Kenner's photography, though.

A few words about the "action" feature of the playset (yes, "feature" is singular). The two "outboard" decorative "heads" along the front of the base are connected to the platform pieces on top of the base. When the heads are rotated, the two sections of the platform rotate upwards from the edges, as shown above.

"One look into his glassy eyes and kids will know - JABBA THE HUTT means business!"

And when Jabba means business you get dumped in the pit. Some sculpted detail there - bones, lizards, detritus from past victims, etc.

Copyright info on the bottom of the base. "Made in... who the %^&@ knows?"

As with many Kenner playsets, the Jabba set contains what seems to be an inordinate number of small parts... in addition to the base, there's the hookah stand, hookah bottom bowl, hookah chimney,  hookah top bowl, pipe and string, slave collar and string, and the Jabba and Salacious Crumb figures. Yikes!

Jabba's bong

Radar Laser Cannon (Tri-Logo)

As I've mentioned before on this blog, a big part of retaining one's sanity (and financial solvency) as a vintage collector is establishing what you will NOT collect. For me, my collecting dead zone has always included the toyetic representations of vehicles that were never shown on-screen in the original trilogy (I'm looking at you, Mini-Rigs).

However, fortunately for me, Kenner released some really cool toys during the Empire and Jedi periods that hit the Mini-Rig price point, but represented some essential items that actually DID appear on-screen. I'm going to cover these in the next few blog posts, and the first one up for discussion is the Radar Laser Cannon.

Of course, this is the crew-served weapon used by the Rebels on Hoth to defend Echo Base from the Imperial attack at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back. Note that this is not to be confused with the "other" radar laser cannon that was packed into the Hoth Ice Planet Adventure Playset! This one is much more detailed and has a cool "blow apart" play feature. The one that came with the HIPAP is a one-piece toy, is smaller in size, and is not designed to come apart in any way (except permanently if, for example, your little sister smashed it to pieces).

The "Action Figure Accessories" range is shown on the box side. All from the Empire film, strangely enough.

You can make it "esplode"!

The two box sides shown above illustrate the unusual features of this packaging - it's tri-logo! In the  picture above we see the English logo, with French and Spanish shown in the picture below.

But wait, there's more! Italian, German, and Dutch text are also included under the logos. It's like a mini-European Union on there, pre-Brexit of course :-(

On to my favorite bit - the replication of the box art. Pretty straightforward this time, with only two Rebel Soldiers crewing the Radar Laser Cannon.

My example of the toy came with instructions - notably, in English only...

Copyright information is on the bottom of the toy - notable in that copyright date is 1982, a rather late release for ESB toys. However, in addition to being released in an ESB box, the toy was issued in 1983 in RotJ livery branding, and presumably the Tri-Logo packaging shown came out with the rest of the Tri-Logo stuff in 1984.

trilogo.info hosts a ton of information about Tri-Logo packaging on carded figures, playsets and vehicles, but unfortunately doesn't have any info on these "accessories". I've emailed Joe, the creator and administrator of the site, to see why this might be, and I'll update this blog with anything relevant I find out.

Stay tuned to the blog for more Accessories!

Rancor Monster Figure

Inspired by the latest episode (56) of the Vintage Rebellion podcast, I got out the old Rancor monster for a photo session.

And what a monster he is! Easily the largest creature in the Kenner line, he's packed with play features as well, as you can see from the box photos above. Movable legs, wavy arms, rotating wrists... and most importantly, the snapping jaws!

On to the tableaux...

Here we see Luke running towards (!) the Rancor, who's already nabbed an unfortunate Gamorrean Guard.

Here we have the image from the box front... Rancor has switched the Gam Guard from right hand to left, in order to free up his right hand to grab Luke. I said "his"... and apparently this is correct; even though the Rancor's name is "Pateesa," it's a male rancor.

View of the back end of the Rancor. I suppose you might say "if you're seeing this, you've already been killed and eaten" :-(

The point here is a closeup shot of the control button for the Rancor's jaw action.

Press the button and the jaws open...

Release and they snap satisfyingly shut! Can't say much for the standard of dental care at Jabba's palace either.

Copyright info is hidden away on the back of the leg.

Had to include a couple of shots with the Rancor Keeper, of course.

Smile for the camera!

Apparently the backstory on Pateesa is that he was a birthday gift to Jabba from his majordomo, Bib Fortuna. "Don't say I never got you anything!" But on that point, I don't think a large, vicious animal requiring significant resources to upkeep is really an appropriate gift. I feel the same way about giving someone a puppy. "Thanks for this gift... that I now have to feed, housetrain, clean up after, pick up the droppings of, and provide medical care to... for the next 8-12 years. Yeah thanks again." Hey - dogs are great. But unless you live in the same house with the recipient, or the recipient begs for you to get them one, don't give one as a gift. At least the Rancor served a useful purpose for Jabba by disposing of unwanted slave girls.

Anyway... I never had a Rancor monster in my childhood collection and honestly, until I got this one out for pictures, I never fully realized how cool a toy it is. The snapping jaws are just great and the toy is really huge! I think the original pricetag on my box was $16.99 though which is plenty for even a very large figure. But the sculpting detail is outstanding and the play value has to be there in this one.

Till next time! (which will be soon, I promise :-)