JABBA’S SAIL BARGE by Hasbro

Jabba the Hutt’s Sail Barge is ready for departure, and today’s post is your ticket to ride!

Early last year, Hasbro announced they would make a Sail Barge vehicle compatible with the 3.75 inch STAR WARS action figures.

But there was a catch.

It would only be produced if Hasbro received at least 5,000 pre-orders by a certain date. They ended up getting 8,010 orders, and yes my toy-dusty friends, I was one of them. Check out hasbrolab.com for more details.

Not long after the orders were in, Hasbro sent us Barge-Backers a super cool book:

It’s nice sized (threw a ruler down for reference), with 62 pages.

Here’s a look inside:

We get original Ralph McQuarrie sketches,

construction blueprints of the set used in RETURN OF THE JEDI,

photos of the set being constructed,

and on-set photos during filming.

The book then shifts to Hasbro designing the toy:

It was a blast getting the book in the mail, but then the real wait began, because the barge itself didn’t arrive for another ten months.

But come, it did.

 

For a sense of scale, here it is on a couch,

and here it is standing next to a randomly selected 10-year-old.

Here’s the other sides of the box:

And the box end:

Okay, let’s open this up! (Yeah, yeah, I know that will devalue it, but oh well)

The box is designed to completely unfold around the barge. Right away, we see the exclusive Yak Face and Jabba figures.

The Yak Face packaging is super cool because it’s designed after the packaging of the extremely short run of POWER OF THE FORCE figures from 1985.

You can see the similarities to this vintage POWER OF THE FORCE packaging that I still have of Luke in Stormtrooper Disguise:

And here’s the back of the Yak Face packaging:

Moving on, here’s a close up on Jabba – a fantastic face sculpt!

We continue to unravel the box, and the instructions come into view.

Fortunately, there is not much assembly required. Those are the red sails on the sides, made of fabric and rolled up.

After a bit of assembly, it’s time to break out the action figures for some Sail Barge photo ops!

“This is your last chance, Jabba. Free us, or die!”

For these pictures, I used a mix of original and modern figures. The smaller Skiff vehicle is from 1985.

Let’s start with the cockpit and work our way down.

There’s plenty of room in the cockpit with lots of detail on the control panels.

A doorway then leads us to the jail area.

On the deck above there’s a trap door that opens with the push of a button that can send a figure down into the jail.

The jail also has a figure of a “Hammerhead” skeleton chained to the wall!

Moving on from the jail, we next come to a kitchen area where Jabba’s snacks are prepared.

We then come to two ladders that lead to entrances to the deck above.

The room here is designed to be for weapon storage, and there’s even a

hidden space beneath the floor that you can use to smuggle spice… or hide from bounty hunters.

As you can see, there’s another staircase on the other side of this room that also leads up to an opening in the deck that figures can pass through.

And on the other side of this staircase, we finally come to where Jabba hangs with his cronies.

Let’s take a closer look at what’s on the wall here:

You have to admire the detail that Hasbro put into this.

Some more fantastic detail on the wall – a Rancor statue!

Here’s a few more shots from the top deck:

The barge guns can be easily attached and detached to various points along the rail.

The main deck gun (the one Leia and Luke used to destroy the Sail Barge) can be swiveled to face any direction, and moves up and down as well.

The sails are also easily removable, which makes for easier playing on the deck. Here’s some shots with the sails down and all the side pieces on.

-sigh-

So what do you think of Hasbro’s new Jabba’s Sail Barge?

I gotta say it’s pretty remarkable.

Until next time, this is Toydust signing off!

 

NEXT WEEK:

WE TAKE A LOOK AT ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITE AUTOBIOGRAPHIES