"IF I TOLD YOU HALF THE THINGS I'VE HEARD ABOUT THIS JABBA THE HUTT,
YOU'D PROBABLY SHORT CIRCUIT..."

Jabba's Palace is the third set on display on our ship. Threepio was unfortunate enough to have spent some time at this vile gangter's hideout, so he recalls it quite well. "It was horrid! Never mind the B'omarr Monk spiders chasing us, or the awful Gamorrean Guards drooling over us, but the worst was the Rancor! I thought we were doomed for sure, until Master Luke rescued me! Just looking at this diorama makes all those nightmares return!"

The entire background and floor was made from wood covered with Podgy (white glue) and sprinkled with sand. After it dried, the appropriate designs were painted on. Behind Jabba is a painting of the table and fireplace, authentic to how the room looked. Blocks of wood were set beside the removable floating dias and covered with sand, both glued on and sprinkled loose to recreate the steps on either side of Jabba. Two trap doors were carved out in front of the dias, lined with black paper and the doors from the dias inserted. (Jabba now sits on a small cardboard sheet covered with the "furs" on his dias.) The trap doors can really swing open if need be! Jedi Luke and our custom Oola have been placed on top of them, just before they are dropped into the Rancor pit. Jabba's dias is complete with the slave chain, pipe and bowl. A replica of the amphibian is even placed inside the bowl, if his excellency gets hungry!

Steps to the left also go through a doorway cut out to see the carbonite block General Solo was trapped in. Princess Leia, in her Boushh disguise, is represented here looking through the doorway at Master Han. She can also be seend in her Slave Leia outfit, chained to Jabba. He is flanked by the Rancor Keeper, Maliki and the Torture Droid giving a hot foot to a poor Gonk droid. Speaking of torture, EV-9D9 is also on the scene.

Max Rebo and his band are also on the left of Jabba, complete with their instruments and microphones. Others on the set include Skiff guards, a Jawa fanning Jabba, Gamorrean Guards, Bib Fortuna, Jabba (of course) and his right-hand Kowakian monkey-lizard, Salacious B. Crumb. Lando, disguised as a Skiff Guard, can also be seen to the right.

The doorway leading out to the front door is shown, painted to the right of Jabba, with a few of the palace "regulars" milling about (a Rodian, Snaggletooth, Weequay, Ree-Yees, Prune Face, Yak Face, a Bo'marr Monk, Amanaman and a Quarren). And last, but certainly not least, is a figure of Threepio, complete with the green ooze, slapped onto his  face and chest by Jabba himself. (Uggh!)
 

From the Professionals:  Notes on how ILM created Jabba's Palace
 

That old gang of mine (27K)"While the creatures of the cantina scene in Star Wars were memorable, Lucas felt they lacked a truly unearthly quality. Jedi, for sheer number and variety of alien creatures, would be remembered as the moster movie of the series.

Creature Design Supervisor Phil Tippet and his team set up an entire creature bay and were developing creatures six months before the script was locked down. For eight months they developed designs for the strange denizens who formed the entourage of the gangster Jabba the Hutt (whose palace was created as a matte painting, with the droids composited as an in-camera, latent image effect). The crew gave nicknames to thier works in progress (including "Woof," "Quee Quay," "Droopy McCool," "Apple Slug," "Hole in the Head," and "Ree Yees." The names "Klaatu" and "Barada" paid homage to the alien characters of the classic film The Day The Earth Stood Still.) They evolved from design sketches to three-dimensional prototypes to final effects (which varied from costumes for actors to flip-on masks and articulated puppets).

Jabba, who held Princess Leia prisoner, would emerge as a major character in the film. Since Jabba required physical interaction with real actors, the debauched creature (inspired in part by Sydney Greestreet's sinister role as Casper Gutman in The Maltese Falcon), was built as a full-scale, articulated, foam latex creature by a team headed by Stuart Freeborn. Hidden cables in the giant Jabba allowed as many as ten off-camera puppeteers to work the various articulate functions that brought the creature to life."

-Mark Cotta Vaz, "From Star Wars to Indiana Jones. The Best of the Lucasfilm Archives" 1994.
 
 
 

"The mold for the sprawling Jabba took two tons of clay and was so big that no oven could hold it; an entire room had to be turned into a Jabba bakery."

-Gerald Clarke, Time Magazine, May 23rd, 1983.