Marvel #28 - Whatever Happened to Jabba the Hut?

No, that's not a typo in the title, Jabba the 'Hut' was how it was spelled back then. And check out how he looks!

This was the vile gangster's physical appearance in the early days, long before it was decided that he would be the giant slug we would see in Return of the Jedi.

This issue lets us know what Han and Chewie get up to after our heroes are split up in the aftermath of the whole 'Wheel Saga'. Setting down on a rainy planet called Orleon, they hide out in a cave which appears to have a few leaks. Jabba and his cronies soon arrive, keen on killing our heroes and taking their ship. During a firefight, Han and Chewie make the frightening discovery that their cave is infested with 'stone-mites' - a species created during the Clone Wars as a form of biological warfare. These critters secrete an acid that could eat through the hull of the Falcon.

Han has the great idea of burning the creatures off with some sort of 'de-icer' force field. Eventually, they blast through the rock which is little more than a shell now after the stone mites have devoured half of it and soar away to freedom.

Encountering Jabba's space-cruiser in orbit, Han and Chewie learn that their arch enemy is in a spot of bother. One of his crew members inadvertently brought some of the infernal creatures aboard and now the irate Hut has a hole in his hull. Escaping in a spacesuit, he begs entry aboard the Falcon and receives it only after agreeing to cancel Han's debt to him.

Meanwhile in the adverts... Marvel underoos! And a few other superhero goodies. A gold Cylon commander from Battlestar Galactica and a slightly odd ad for Chiquita Banana walkie-talkies and compasses.

Kenner 3-3/4" Action Figures - The Droids

C-3Po came with no accessories and other than his dazzling gold finish, the figure might seem a bit of a poor effort. But really, what else does old Goldenrod need to do other than stand around looking pretty?

This is probably the figure that ages the worst starting right from the point of being taken out of his plastic bubble. He is made of a much more rigid plastic than the other figures and his stiff joints loosen up at an alarming rate so much so that most of the figures these days are floppy and limp as wet lettuce. The other point is his gold paint which flakes off very easily. This example looks Ok from a distance but up close he is as patchy and mottled as he is in the film. An that is unintentional of course.

R2-D2 on the other hand rarely has problems with his joints in that he only has two of them and to be honest, they rarely get used much whatever pose you put him in. His shiny golden dome suffers much the same problem as his counterpart's golden finish and is often found faded by sunlight. The only other thing that can really age the figure is the sticker on his midsection which, after spending many years in toy boxes clattering around with other figures, is often faded, scratched and worn.

Marvel #27 - Return of the Hunter

A popular villain returns in this issue, namely Valance aka The Hunter. We last saw him tracking down the Starhoppers (Han's buddies who he believed to be the rebels who destroyed the Death Star) and we know a couple of facts about him. 1 - he is part cyborg after a nasty accident. 2 - he has a deep hatred of droids and is disgusted by the idea that Luke Skywalker treats them as equals.

Since his disappearing act in the last issue that featured him, Valance has been hanging out on a world called Feriae Junction, gunning down two-bit hoodlums in seedy cantinas. One of his employers pays him in droids which Valance promptly blasts into smithereens. Part of this may be some sort of twisted therapy for his self-loathing at being a cyborg, but part of it is due to his desire to destroy the two droids that Luke treats as his friends.

Meanwhile, Luke and 3PO are scouting out an Imperial blockade and narrowly avoid destruction by a Star Destroyer. They hop into hyperspace and make for Junction where they plan to pick up parts for repairing R2 units. Valance is alerted to their presence and makes to intercept them, but stops to quickly dispose of an imperial spy who has been keeping tabs on him.

The showdown between Luke and Valance goes down in a scrapyard and after a shot from his blaster is deflected by Luke's lightsaber, Valance takes it in the face and his cybernetics are revealed. This doesn't stop him from disarming Luke and things look bad for our intergalactic farmboy until 3PO steps between the two of them, prepared to die for his master. This totally blows Valance's mind as he cannot comprehend the reasoning a droid might have to sacrifice itself for a human. He lets Luke and 3PO go on their merry way while he presumably rethinks his life...

Kenner 3-3/4" Action Figures - Tatooine Dwellers

That blisteringly hot desert planet with the twin suns would lend several more characters to Kenner's action figure range when they released their second line in 1979, but amongst the original 12 there was just three (not counting Luke). Ben 'Obi-Wan' Kenobi, Jawa and Sandpeople.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (who went under the name 'Ben' back in the early days) was one of only three figures with lightsabers from the first movie. Blue is the correct colour (unlike the inexplicable yellow of Luke's saber). He sports a brown vinyl cloak and the only major variation that I'm aware of is his hair colour which came in white and grey (shown here).







'Sandpeople' was an odd title for the Tusken Raider figure, not least because it uses the plural when only one figure was released per card. The name was changed in later lines to 'Tusken Raider'. Like Ben (and Darth and Leia), this guy came with a vinyl cloak. The one shown here is of the stiffer variation with a short 'cropped' collar. I've seen examples of the figure with the other softer cloak and higher collar too. Another variation is the 'hollow cheek tubes' one which is much rarer than the 'solid tubes' variation shown here.

The cool thing about this figure is the position he holds his 'gaffi' stick. If you raise his arms, he mimics the pose struck by one of his number in the movie before attacking Luke. It's difficult to find this guy without at least some paint loss on the various silver 'knobs' on his head and face. This one has seen better days and I may consider replacing him some day, but he'll do for now.

Few figures have caused such excitement among collectors as the Jawa. Notoriously hard to find even back in '78 (the Jawa was one of the last figures of the original 12 to be released), the figure then underwent a major change. The original version came with the Kenner stalwart vinyl cape. Allegedly, to make the diminutive figure give more bang for your buck, Kenner replaced this with a more expensive looking cloth cape (shown here). I don't have to tell even the most casual collector how valuable a vinyl-cape Jawa is today.

I really like this figure. Sure, he's tiny and I can imagine many kids didn't feel that he was worth the $2 price tag (Kenner really should have released 2 figures per card). But he's got some great detail for his size like the tiny yellow eyes. The cloth cape kind of obscures everything about the figure though, and you have to take it off (Jawa striptease!) to see what's underneath, as it were. Anyway, the whole deal is quite a contrast to the other figures in the line and that's probably why I find it so striking.

Marvel #24 - Silent Drifting

This one's an interesting issue. After telling of Luke's pre-movie adventures, Marvel went and told a story of Ben Kenobi's past during the time of the Old Republic. The whole tale is framed by Leia telling a story to Han and Luke after Han successfully blasts a couple of TIE Fighters by luring them in with a false explosion.

The story takes place aboard a pleasure cruiser. One of the passengers is Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi en route to meet his old friend Bail Organa. It's great to see an early interpretation of the Jedi Knights. Ben seems to be wearing a military style uniform rather than his Jedi robes. I guess back then everybody just assumed that Ben's clothes in the movie were just his desert hermit garbs rather than an extension of what he was wearing 20 years previously. I know I was surprised when the prequels came along that all the Jedi were dressed up like Tatooine hermits.

Nice one-liner, Ben! I can totally see the Ewan McGregor version of the character pulling this stunt off. Even the Alec Guinness version possessed some of that cheeky humour so I think Marvel interpreted a younger Obi-Wan perfectly. After teaching the above scumbag some manners, Kenobi is approached by another villainous looking fellow and offered a share in a partner ship. Tagging the man as a slaver and smuggler, Kenobi declines.

Trouble strikes when a group of 'Merson' ships attacks the cruiser. Kenobi is called to the bridge and takes command, using the force to detect the fighter ships and giving orders for the cannons to be fired, blasting them in turn.

Word reaches him that somebody aboard is sending signals to the Merson ships and upon heading back down to the bar, he finds the scumbag who approached him earlier being threatened by the rest of the passengers. Choosing to destroy the fermentation device as a distraction, Kenobi inadvertently knocks out the signal transmitter, thus saving the day.

None of this seems particularly like Han's evasion of the TIE Fighters, so I don't really know what Leia's point is here. I guess she just wanted an excuse to tell a good story.

Landspeeder Toy

Check out this little beauty! Luke's landspeeder was one of the first wave of vehicles released alongside the original 12 figures in 1978 (the other two being the X-wing and TIE-fighter). Despite being slightly more brownish in colour than shown in the movie (I guess Kenner didn't think a pink toy would be much of a hot seller to young boys), this vehicle is surprisingly faithful and pretty much to scale. With all the cool Tatooine figures released at that time I can imagine that Kenner's landspeeder went trundling across many a shag carpet, knocking down Jawas, Stormtroopers and cantina scum with Luke and Ben behind the controls.

It's got some neat features too, like the pop-open hood which shows the engine and has room for some weapons to be stored. Also, the gear stick makes some spring loaded wheels pop down which causes the landspeeder to wobble about as if floating. It was often advertised showing R2-D2 and C-3PO sitting on the back as shown in the movie, but they would just slide off as soon as the landspeeder was given a playful shove unless their feet were fixed into the small pegs on the rear of the seats.

These aren't hard to pick up in decent, complete condition for low prices, but there are a few bits and pieces that can go missing over the years such as the dashboard stickers, hood, seats and windshield which has a tendency to yellow over time.

I don't have the box for mine, but here's what it looked like below. As far as I know the landspeeder was only released as part of the Star Wars line (and not repackaged for The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi). It was however re-released in 1984 along with a few other older vehicles as part of Kenner's 'Collector Series'.

Tarkin is Back!

I set this blog up purely as a 'retro' showcase of stuff made over 30 years ago, so it was never going to be a 'latest news' type of blog. But every so often I get wind of a little snippet that, although only connected in a small way, hits all my geek buttons and I can't resist sharing.

www.starwars.com have recently revealed that an upcoming character in the current TV series The Clone Wars will be none other than original Star Wars villain; Grand Moff Tarkin!

Now, The Clone Wars is a bit of a sticky point for most old school fans with many dismissing it as little more than an extension of the often derided prequel trilogy. Personally I think it's far better than that. Where the prequel trilogy got bogged down in politics and huge amounts of 'set up', a TV series has much more room to get back to what Star Wars was all about in the first place - swashbuckling, serialized adventures in outer space! Sure, it's all 'Anakin, Obi-wan and Ahsoka' rather than 'Luke, Han and Leia', but a lot more care seems to have been taken to cater to the fans by working in little bridges to the original trilogy such as this recent revelation.

It is not known what Tarkin will be up to in the series (although he seems to be going under the title of 'Captain Tarkin' so it looks like a promotion is on the horizon). I think the character has been terribly underused over the past three decades seeing as he was pretty much the main villain in Star Wars (the one 'holding Vader's leash' so to speak) so I'm glad he's getting a look in now. I honestly thought he would play a major part in the prequels, but was to be disappointed.

It probably won't happen, but I think it would be really cool for Tarkin to appear in a scene alongside Count Dooku, just for the excuse of reuniting Hammer veterans Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing on screen again. I know, I know; it's not really them, but you can see where I'm going with this right?