24 Hours With The Sail Barge - What Did We Learn?

3/10/2019 Sail Barge The Vintage Collection HasLab

Jabba's Sail Barge arrived around noon on Friday, March 8, 2019, and we've taken a ton of images (stay tuned!), assembled it, pulled out figures from storage to populate it, and inspected it closely from top to bottom.  Here is what we've learned in the first 24 hours along with some tips which might help you with your set up.

Opening The Box And The Assembly

FedEx delivered Jabba's Sail Barge with several dings and rips in the shipping box but luckily Hasbro double boxed the Sail Barge on the inside and there was no damage to the Kenner-inspired packaging which housed the Kethanna. Hasbro also included extra plastic protection on the bottom and top of the Kenner box which helped keep it save from scratches. 

Opening the box, removing the included Yak Face and Jabba the Hutt figures, and assembling Jabba's Sail Barge took about 30 to 45 minutes. Assembling the barge was easy and most of the time was spent building the sails and trying to get the chains attached to the prison wall.  The fins in the back felt fragile and we took extra time and care to make sure that they would snap into place properly, which they did. In the end the set up was straight forward and easy with no hick-ups whatseover. 

What Has Changed? What Did We Learn?

Some features have changed from Hasbro's original vision for the Sail Barge. The Hammerhead skeleton for example in Jabba's Sail Barge cell is glued down to the floor and not supposed to be removed. This is different from what was communicated to us during our Google Hangout last year with members of the Hasbro Star Wars team. The included Jabba The Hutt action figure was painted nicely and looks quite different from the 2015 TRU exclusive Black Series release but it was not given the photo real face printing technology treatment like originally announced.

A nice surprise was that a part of the railing can be removed so that R2-D2 and C-3PO can fall off the Sail Barge. The trap door to the prison cell on the top of the barge is magnetic, so once it's open all you have to do is bounce it back with your finger and it'll close. The microphone on Jabba's console can be pulled out, however ours was stuck and we had to pull quite a bit to loosen it. We also think that the skeleton which was included with the 2001 Power Of The Jedi Amanaman makes a great addition to the jail cell. 

The included deck cannon which Leia uses to blow up the Sail Barge is not a straight re-release of the 2001 Power Of The Jedi cannon, it was re-worked and entirely repainted. This time the cannon doesn't have a shooting mechnism for projectiles, and the top of the cannon plus the handle bars in the back were newly sculpted.

A great feature is the thickness of the handrails by the stairs, they are the perfect size for figures to hold on to it!

How To Populate The Barge With Figures?

Before you populate Jabba's Sail Barge with figures make sure that you have both chains attached to the prison wall inside the cell. It's tight and you will very likely move the Barge in the process a few times. Once you have it all set up we recommend that you start populating the Sail Barge with figures in the cockpit first because the pilot seats are not removable and you will shake the barge while trying to position your pilots properly. After that we think it's best to populate Jabba's Sail Barge in the back next to Jabba because the support poles are fairly close together and you'll likely bump against them with your hand a few times, which again will shake the vehicle. After that it should be easy to get the figures set up in the kitchen and the deck without having them all fall over. 

Community Response

Looking at the feedback which we've received from JB readers it seems that the complaints are minimal and issues are isolated. Many of the shipping boxes seem to have been damaged during transportation but the Kenner-inspired packaging and the Sail Barge inside seemed fine. We had one report about a Yak Face figure not being included inside the box and heard several complains about the condition of the Yak Face card, which had dings and scratches. We'll post an update if we hear more complains. 

Summary

We are extremely happy with Jabba's Sail Barge, the vehicle is the most impressive Star Wars ship made in the 40+ year history of Kenner/Hasbro for 3.75" figures and the attention to detail on the inside and oustide of the ship is amazing. We'll be posting many more udpates about the Sail Barge in the coming days, please stay tuned. If you've learned something about the Sail Barge which surprised you please post it in the comments.

We Need Your Pictures!

If you own Jabba's Sail Barge, please post some pictures in the comments or tag us on social media. We are gathering images from fellow collectors for our Sail Barge section and would love to have you featured!