1996 Kenner Jabba The Hutt Buddie Prototype In Original Bag
I seldom buy sell find anything other than antique toys, but just about 14 years ago I knew one of the Kenner engineers working in China. He was responsible for factory production of the "new" Star Wars Buddies toys. (i.e., those little plush toys that EVERY non-collector thought would "be worth money some day"). He sent me a couple of these thinking that I would be interested in them. I stuck 'em away and held onto them ever since. All were prototypes and were noticeably different from the actual final production toy. In this case it's Jabba the Hutt. I've included an example of the Kenner production toy (1st photo) and the prototype (2nd photo). Both are identical in size and shape, but that's where the similarity ends. It doesn't take much to see the difference. Besides the color, one brown and the other black, the eyes are completely different. The production toy has eye lids painted to match the surrounding color of the face and are orange with black pupils. The prototype has clear plastic eyes without any color. The only other differences I can see are 1) the tail seems to be a little bulkier on the production toy, 2) production toy has Kenner "Made In China" tag stitched directly into its bottom seam, and 3) production toy has a white plastic hook inserted into the back of its head (to hang on a store rack). The black prototype comes in the original clear plastic bag just as I received it from the factory. Size: Both 11" Date Sold: Jan. 2010
Price Sold: $ 160
