It seems the best way to approach the review of this San Diego Comic Con exclusive is to break it down in to its parts since the 6” scale Jabba the Hutt, which is outstanding, is identical to the general release figure in the Black Series 6” Deluxe Line.  Plus by segregating the parts, I can cut and paste the Jabba review into the general release photo gallery review and save myself a whole mess of time.  I like being lazy.  It’s what I’m good at.  If I had to take the Office Space quiz of what would I do with a million dollars, the answer is be wonderfully lazy.

The first aspect to consider is the packaging.  The packaging is part of the draw for convention exclusives. To be honest, it’s a bit bland.  The front is a largely unbroken black wall with logo graphics and the familiar Black Series monochromatic portrait at the extreme left and right.  The flap simulates the teeth of Jabba’s main gate and there are splotches of glossier elements to simulate the stucco appearance of the palace.  These glossy elements honestly do not work.  It more looks like you got some schmutz on the packaging.  Three sides of the package are solid flat black.  The back has the familiar ghost image which honestly pops more than the front of the packaging.  The bottom of the package instructs you to articulate the arm up and down to open and close the mouth.  More on that when reviewing Jabba himself. 

The package does open up rather neatly to reveal all of the contents.  It’s tough to discern where the packaging ends and the toy begins since there is an interactive element to the package.  A cardboard representation of Captain Han Solo in carobonite can be removed so that last year’s exclusive can be inserted.  After some internal debate, I’ve decided to call this interactive packaging and not part of the toy.  The toy is the two figures and the railing with hookah. The ability to reveal the contents of the package and insert the actual carbonite block offer a best of both worlds scenario.  Hasbro has allowed collectors a middle ground by doing this.  You can display the contents while technically keeping the item sealed in package.  You would have to open one side of the package to remove the cardboard carbonite block insert however.

I do have one major issue with the packaging. Jabba’s dais is frustratingly part of the cardboard elements.  Jabba without his dais is as maddeningly incomplete as leaving off the last two notes of Shave and a Hair cut.  If you just screamed “TWO BITS” in Roger Rabbit’s voice, you can be my friend.  A plastic dais would have been very much appreciated, but it was not included.  A viable consolation prize would have been using the cardboard insert as a stand in.  Unfortunately the plastic packaging is glued to the surface of the cardboard dais instead of held in place via tabs like the plastic elements on the vertical faces.  This means it cannot be removed without tearing the paper.  Why Hasbro, why?  If you want to preserve the cardboard dais, you will have to surgically remove the protruding plastic elements with an Exacto knife.

This Jabba figure is fairly outstanding and it pains me to say that.  I want the 6” line to be terrible because I hate that it exists.  I have nearly twenty years invested in the 3.75” scale.  I simply will not buy into another scale as a collector.  As a contributor to this wretched web site, I am compelled to accumulate this line.  This figure simply nails it.  As Jabba the Hutt represents the height of Roman debauchery and indulgence, he is inert by his nature.  The primary role of this figure is almost as a display piece and it exceeds to that end.  It looks amazing.  The texture and splotchiness of his skin very much represents the “worn ridden filth” aspersion Han Solo cast upon the crime lord.  The folds and ridges evoke the perfect amount of grotesquery and disgust for this glutinous mass.

Jabba the Hutt does not move.  His environment moves around him.  For that reason, it’s hard to imagine any more points of articulation that Habsro could have included without violating the nature of the character.  The arms feature ball joints at each the shoulder, elbow and wrist.  Whatever little movement his Excellency will tolerate, the figure can mimic.  This includes holding the hookah pipe in his mouth.  The entire upper torso can swivel so that Jabba can face forward as he did during the Special Edition if you are a terrible person and wish to recreate that CGI atrocity in Docking Bay 94.

The play feature is a bit of a fizzle.  Moving the left arm up and down likewise moves the lower jaw in the same direction.  This would be useful to collectors is the mouth could locked in its position, but as soon as the pressure is removed from the arm, the mouth returns to the partially closed position.  Fortunately this play feature is not obtrusive to the figure, so it has no overall impact.  It’s simply a foul ball.  Overall this 6” scale Jabba the Hutt figure excels everywhere it needs to.

Salacious Crumb is the first Star Wars figure ever to feature an articulated tail (I think).  This allows you to effectively clamp the accessory/figure onto Jabba’s tail.  With ball joints at the hips, shoulders, neck and tail, Hasbro has crammed seemingly all the articulation they can into the little laughing jerk.  I’ve hated this little dingus since 1983 and nothing is going to change my mind about that.  The range of motion of the neck should allow you to recreate all the movie poses you wish.  Hasbro packed a fair amount of win in a tiny figure.

What can be said about the railing and hookah other than sure enough, it’s a railing and a hookah?  That hookah is nicely detailed and includes the pipe.  If you’ve dismissed this offering because you thought it does not include the pipe, I guess that makes you a BIG(JIM) jerk.  I really whish at this scale and price that there was a way to stow the pipe when Jabba is not imbibing.  Sadly there is not.  Your only option is to remove the plastic tube connecting to the pipe entirely.  Ultimately this is an environment piece which is judged on the detailing and it does not disappoint in that department.

The blandness of the packaging when folded and the dual dais issue of not including a plastic one and an impractical cardboard one compel me to declare this set as less than perfect.  But not by much.  The 2014 San Diego Comic Con exclusive Jabba the Hutt’s Throne Room earns a 9 out of 10.

Unfortunately this set sold our rather quickly on Hasbro Toy Shop. so if you want one, your best bet is the secondary market.