Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 3,206: 8D8 (The Vintage Collection)

8D8 (Jabba the Hutt Action Playset Pack-In Figure)
The Vintage Collection 3 3/4-Inch Pack-In Figure
Item No.: No. F9397
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #325
Includes: Carded 8D8, carded Salacious Crumb, a Jabba, throne, bag of rugs, glassware, and other accessories
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $89.99
Availability: August 2024
Appearances: Return of the Jedi

Bio: Jabba the Hutt was one of the galaxy’s most powerful gangsters, with far-reaching influence in both politics and the criminal underworld. (Taken from the Hasbro Pulse product page copy.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Entertainment Earth now!

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Commentary: With 20th century levels of articulation, you're going to be mad. But with 21st century sculpting and deco with a thin build, Hasbro did a really nice job. This update of 8D8 was long-needed. We got one in 1984, and one in 1997, and now, in 2024, we have the definitive version... and it's kind of an odd one. I think that for the right price, there's no such thing as a bad toy - and at $90 (with Jabba, a throne rereun, and Salacious Crumb) this set is a nice display piece and a bad value. 8D8 has jointed ankles, a jointed waist, a ball-jointed neck, jointed shoulders, and jointed hips. For The Vintage Collection in 2024, that's not really acceptable - we got some limited joints in the pre-2010 era, but a droid with visible joints that don't work really stings. 8 points of articulation, which sort of drags down the gee-wiz factor of the entire set. But if Hasbro sold this guy on cards in stores for $17, he'd probably be hanging there until the next decade. Selling him as an online-exclusive item in a gift set was the right move. (But probably not at $90.)

The 1984 figure had 5 joints and was a chunky little guy with no accessories - and he seemed fine for the time. In 1997 Kenner made a very good update and even included a torture rack with the era-appropriate light-up eye ports. The sculpt and deco were better than 1984, but the deco is even better with the 2024 model incorporating silver claws, weathering, and more droid highlights. If you leave it on the card you'll never realize you got shorted on articulation, and Hasbro did a very nice job with the chest and eyes, with a figure that looks better than the one that was warming pegs on Rite-Aid drugs from 1997-2009. Heck, if 8D8 didn't appear on The Book of Boba Fett, odds are he'd be under $5 forever. Fiction matters, people!

I think Hasbro's sculptor did a bang-up job here - the model looks great with a gaunt face, haunted eyes, and an even-more-skeletal appearance. It's not as tall, and it seems like a fantastic collectible for carded figures. As a toy, it leaves me wanting. The prototype photos had open claw hands - the final silver hands can't open. The waist joint and ankles are nice, but I expected lateral arm movement or elbows this time. I assume it was an impossibility due to the utterly tiny arms, and the lack of any sort of torture rack or accessory in the box with Jabba just makes this figure seem like an inferior follow-up 27 years after the last one. It's a very nicely painted figure, and a very nice sculpt, but the expectations of The Vintage Collection (and its pricing) results in an action figure that fails to meet what I would say are the lowest expectations. If we're going to get Kenner-level articulation, we need Kenner-level pricing. (This is why I'm currently so bullish on 1980s Retro Kenner figures - you get less articulation, but more importantly, you pay for less articulation.)

It feels good, though. The ball-jointed neck of the droid is very expressive, the arms swivel nicely, and the hips kind of jolt into place with a satisfying lock every few degrees. It's not a click... it's like a click, but with a thud. It feels very stable, and the ankles seem to be stiff enough to not topple over. The engineering is very good for what we've got, but with no on-pack accessory it's a carded figure that offers fans very little for their credits.

On the cheap, or if money is no object, this is the very best 8D8 figure money can buy. It's just not very robust. As (arguably) $17 of a $90 set, you're probably going to feel kind of lousy when you finally open it and it's just not all that robust. There's nothing wrong with the figure itself, but "value" counts for a lot and there's not a lot of "value" in the Throne Room combined with this set. If Hasbro ever does a "cheap" assortment for The Vintage Collection with figures like 8D8, R2-D2, or anybody under 3-inches tall or with under 10 joints, I would be singing this figure's praises to the point where you would be annoyed. If we ever get another EV-9D9 - the last one was in 1997 - I anticipate it will either be constructed similarly to 8D8 or part of The Retro Collection.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Hasbro Pulse.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 3,206: January 14, 2025