Jabba The Hutt Action Playset - TVC - Playsets

We finally have the Jabba The Hutt Action Playset in The Vintage Collection, and it’s right on time to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi! If you missed our sarcasm, don’t worry; there will be ample opportunity for more. Overall, we’ll let you off the hook easily and state that we’re pretty impressed with this overpriced piece of junk (said affectionately). It has a fair share of issues, but we must admit what a joy it is to finally have something “Jabba The Hutt” in The Vintage Collection all these years, even if it’s just a rehashed figure and accessories that we’ve seen many times beforehand. The stars of this set are the exclusive carded figures. Both are all-new additions to The Vintage Collection, and the controversial Salacious B. Crumb shared most of its VC number with its ancestor. Why Hasbro didn’t faithfully follow their nomenclature for Salacious B. Crumb is beyond us. They’ve repeatedly stated that all-new sculpts/tooling would result in a brand-new VC number. But they didn’t follow that rule here, much to our chagrin. Perhaps they believe they’ve pulled the wool over the barking and clapping seals’ eyes by adding a subtle and discrete “A” after VC66, which makes it “different enough to make you mad.” That said, the all-new Salacious B. Crumb is the first articulated, realistic, and “to scale” Kowalkian monkey-lizard for this scale, and it turned out beautifully. Aside from some sloppy paint operations, we’re pretty happy with this release. We wish Hasbro wouldn’t release O96 figures in this capacity. Too many people already frustrated with TVC will only get angrier, killing Hasbro’s diminishing fanbase.

8D8 will probably get a lot of fanfare, but we’re thoroughly disappointed with its lack of articulation. Sure, we get all the standard points of articulation, including a swivel head, shoulders, hips, and swivel waist. However, the only additional articulation this figure comes with is hinge-jointed feet, which we’re thankful for but don’t immensely help the figure meet its mark. The design of 8D8 is superb. This character always reminded us of “The Terminator’s” exoskeleton. We’re not sure why, but there is something vaguely familiar about it here. Hasbro perfectly captured the super-thin head, spindly limbs, finer details, and paint operations like pros, but the minimal articulation here feels like Hasbro robbed the collecting community. It’s hard to believe, but this is only the third 8D8 action figure since 1983. We received our first modern update in 1998, and that version came with a torture rack (that barely functioned and had no center of gravity) and stupid light-up eye ports, but it looked excellent for its time and holds up reasonably well today. Not receiving any accessories at all with 8D8 feels egregious here, too. Why is Hasbro so stingy with accessories? If they didn’t incorporate a bunch of articulation in 8D8, then why couldn’t they expend ANYTHING else to include here, like tortured droid parts or something similar? Anything would have worked. Despite the lack of accessories, we concede that both new figures in this playset turned out exceptionally well. You’re going to be happy with the final results. We hope the Rebo Band is next.

The most popular character in this exclusive multipack is Jabba The Hutt. Hasbro dusted off the Jabba The Hutt tooling first utilized in 2015’s The Black Series [Phase II] Jabba’s Rancor Pit Toys R Us exclusive set. They reserved the same tooling for the first HasLab project: Jabba’s Sail Barge (The Khetanna). Hasbro took an all-new approach to the paint operations, and we feel the figure hasn’t looked better. We also get the dais, railing, and bowl with pipe to complete Jabba’s signature look. Generously, Hasbro also included some premium or luxe soft-good accessories to help populate Jabba’s throne, including three distinct rugs (they all have unique shapes). Then they also included two large maroon pillows, one sizeable brown pillow, one large pink pillow, one large white pillow, one small maroon pillow, and two small brown pillows. These extra accessories do wonders for the display. And aside from feeling a little too rigid in the display, we appreciate the unique approach taken here to help decorate the dais. Additional accessories included here are three goblets, one plate, and finally, one frog for the bowl. When fully displayed, the Jabba The Hutt Action Playset looks impressive. We would have included Boba Fett’s throne if we had had more time. If we get some free time, maybe we will do that. The packaging looks decent, but we must comment on the photography. It’s dreadful. It’s almost as if Hasbro has an amateur doing their box art photography, which is quite sad. This release is exclusive and is, unfortunately, expensive. But this is our lot in life.