Receiving figures from Jabba’s entourage excites me beyond anything else in Star Wars. The first 30 minutes or so of Return of the Jedi are probably my favorite parts of the Original Trilogy and Star Wars. Jabba’s palace is so rich with diversity of characters. You have all our heroes, Jabba and his goons (including Boba Fett!), dancers and musicians, and not just droids, but torture droids. One of the torture droids that stood out was 8D8 as he repetitively tortured a Gonk Droid.
The graphic above shows the 3 8D8s from Kenner/Hasbro and a custom one made by Skylu3D. What stands out to me immediately is how proportionately accurate the TVC ones is. The other ones come off as blocky and there’s something about the TVC ones paint deco that also sets it apart. Hasbro did a great job with the paint deco and capturing all the weathering details of the droid. We all wish for elbows but that will be covered more below. The lower body sculpting is very lacking for this figure in the upper leg pistons were not captured individually in the upper leg sculpting. The feet are also inaccurate and not showing the detail that that the POTF, Skylu3D and even the Kenner one from 1983 are showing. For a set that is $89.99 each figure should be as accurate as possible. TVC 8D8 should include these details, especially if they were captured in the Kenner version!
Elbows. Elbows. Elbows. Without question his arms are very thin but is there not room for a joint like the BG-J38’s? IG-11’s articulation and engineering is beyond any 3.75″ ever made and it screams TVC expression to the fullest. Many collectors immediately thought of IG-11’s elbow articulation when news broke that 8D8 didn’t have elbows joints. How can IG-11 have them but not 8D8? I must admit IG-11 elbows are a lot bigger than I originally thought. Putting them side by side shows this. Could they have shrunk it down? I’m not so sure so that’s why I lean towards BG-J38’s and it’s a more similar joint. It’s unfortunate that he doesn’t have that articulation and it’s also unfortunate you can’t replicate him holding the torture device lever with both hands. Skylu3D version has so much articulation that the figure pretty much falls apart, so as much as that figure is amazing, it’s engineering fails to stay together.
In the end we’re left with a version that has all the right proportions and deco but is lacking in engineering and lower body likeness. He’ll look great in our Jabba’s Throne room dioramas but the $89.99 price tag should have required him to have at the very least a better lower body likeness. We’ve been told by Hasbro that factories/manufacturers have been pushing back on sculpting that is too thin so this is the compromise we’re left with. [shrug…]
