Max Rebo Band, The (Jabba’s Palace Musicians) - TAC - Exclusives

Jabba the Hutt has made a fortune through his criminal activivites, and he loves to spend it on entertainment for himself. The bloated gangster likes to sit in his palace and listen to the Max Rebo Band, surrounded by music, singing, and beautiful dancers. As the band plays on, Jabba deals out payments and punishments, depending on his mood at the moment. The Max Rebo Band is made up of true professionals whose music and singing never falter even when blaster fire erupts or the rancor is thrown another unwilling meal.

After a wonderful basic figure line and pretty much some of the best exclusives we received to date, Hasbro takes multiple steps backwards with The Max Rebo Band (Jabba’s Palace Entertainers and Jabba’s Palace Musicians) in the 30 (77-07). Who would have thought action figure sculpts from the archaic The Power Of The Force lineup would still be viable choices for which to build an exclusive. Star Wars collectors everywhere waited over a decade for Hasbro to update the Max Rebo Band in general, hoping first for a pre-Special Edition version of Sy Snootles first and then super-articulated updates to Max Rebo and Droopy McCool. Oh, and of course the other newly added characters from the Special Edition performing “Jedi Rocks” would be our next choice. But no, Hasbro dusted off the old sculpts, repainted them and collected them all in a two separate exclusives for us to supposedly love and cherish. Across the Jabba’s Palace Entertainers and Jabba’s Palace Musicians you have to spend over $50 and 10 figures across two sets, most of which you likely won’t want for a second time. Admittedly, Hasbro did divide the ten figures up nicely and the paint job updates are appreciated, but those sculpt. Well, they’re just terrible.

The Max Rebo Band (Jabba’s Palace Musicians) set is obviously the better of the two. Collectors are treated to the original band mates in this set and it makes plopping down $25 a little bit easier. There’s still no sign of the “puppet” version of Sy Snootles with the trademark feather in her “cap” but for reasons unknown, both Max Rebo and Droopy McCool have aged the best out of all the figures included here. This doesn’t mean we don’t want to see definitive new figures at some point, but Hasbro did a fine job on these characters in 1998 and the sculpts in 2007 prove this over and over. Droopy McCool is especially timeless. His pose, his detailing and his impressive paint job impresses us beyond words. And if Hasbro never attempted him again, we’d be more than happy with keeping this in our collection for the rest of our earthly lives. Max Rebo isn’t as good as Droopy McCool and his nalargon is still incorrect. How is it still missing the output speaker? It was missing on the vintage Kenner figure and they made the same mistake in 1998. To date, the only properly scaled Red Ball Jet organ completely intact is Gentle Giant’s polystone statue set. And there aren’t that many collectors who are willing to shell out that kind of money for a collectible like that. Besides, its in a larger scale than the 3.75” figure line.

Also included in this set are Doda Bodonawieedo and Barquin D’an. Both the respective Rodian and Bith are terribly outdated, appear too thin and skinny, and either have a terrible center of gravity or lean over a bit in an awkward fashion. Their enhanced paint jobs look pretty good actually, but it won’t be enough to lift you out of the funk you feel over the sculpts being way outdated and served to you again a decade after the fact. They each come with only six points of articulation, something that is truly laughable in 2007. If you’re looking to add the “original” Max Rebo Band into your collection where they’re displayed in one box set, this is your only option. Fan sites across the web will continue to petition Hasbro for them to make an all-new set of the band, but until that happens, this is your only option for the time being. We just hope in the future that Hasbro can focus on creating exclusive multipacks like these sets that can include much better quality action figures. We doubt many would disagree with us that another clone trooper set with super-articulated figures would have been a much better option for collectors than the Jabba’s Palace Entertainers or Jabba’s Palace Musicians sets. This one is the better of the two and it’s definitely the harder one to find.