J’Quille (Jabba’s Sail Barge) - SW [S - P3] - Basic (’04 #09)

Added: February 10th 2014
Category: Star Wars [Saga - Phase III]
Reviewer: Paul Harrison
Score:

Name: J’Quille (Jabba’s Sail Barge)
Collection: Star Wars [Saga - Phase III]
Number: ’04 #09
Source: Return Of The Jedi
Availability: February 2004
License: Hasbro

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A Whiphid from the planet Toola, J’Quille was a spy sent into Jabba the Hutt’s palace by Lady Valarian. His plans to assassinate the Hutt were rendered moot when Jabba was killed during the Rebel's rescue mission at the Pit of Carkoon. J’Quille was one of the survivors of the fight at the Sarlacc pit.

The later phases of the Star Wars “Saga” line made interchangeability a priority. As an easy way bring unique characters into the line at a faster rate, Hasbro thought ahead of the game for some characters so that they could tool just a few extra parts that allowed an all-new character to be born out of relatively the same sculpt (or at the very least most of it). A simpler way of putting this would be Hasbro intended to kill two birds with one stone and that single stone was a main base sculpt. Throughout the line you’ll noticed that they did this consecutively every year, and sometimes multiples times in a year. Some retools were more aggressive than others. Some came with a simple head sculpt change, while others utilized the updating of additional parts in the torso and limbs. But no matter how it was done, Hasbro did a fantastic job in keeping them unique from each other and seemingly creating two new figures with very little extra work. By Hasbro creating a few “duos” of Star Wars characters that share many similar parts not only saves on tooling costs, but it gets them out to collectors with very little delay as well. What collector doesn’t appreciate getting new figures in an expedient fashion? J’Quille (Jabba’s Sail Barge) (’04 #09) and Tanus Spijek (Jabba’s Sail Barge) (’04 #10) are two different aliens from Return of The Jedi, yet they have similar, but not exact, builds to each other. Without question, there are some obvious differences in the structures of their body, but perhaps not enough where Hasbro couldn’t make the both of them out of one base sculpt.

One of the biggest issues collectors have had with Hasbro using the same base sculpts for J’Quille and Tanus Spijek is that J’Quille is markedly taller by comparison. Other than the height issue, we think Hasbro did an admirable job on both action figures. Since J’Quille (Jabba’s Sail Barge) came first in the line sequentially, we’re referring to him as the all-new figure, whereas Tanus Spijek (Jabba’s Sail Barge) is the retool of the latter. Ironically, it is Tanus Spijek (Jabba’s Sail Barge) that benefits from the approach Hasbro took with the sculpt. He is the “pudgier” of the two and the base body sculpt favors his features more. J’Quille in actuality differs by being taller and more slender, but this action figure honestly works as is. J’Quille (Jabba’s Sail Barge) is a long-awaited action figure release from Hasbro. Collectors in general cannot get enough of the inhabitants of Jabba’s palace in general, so new aliens from these scenes only excite hardcore fans. J’Quille (Jabba’s Sail Barge) comes with a decent amount of articulation, but it is his sculpt that is a bit of an issue for us and we're hung up on minutia here. The Whiphid, who is also known by Toothface mind you, has been designed to replicate the costume from Episode VI very well for the most part. We are absolutely pleased with the likeness of him, but the details in the head sculpt aren’t a perfect match for the onscreen character. Thankfully, it is the excellent paint job that brings out the details in the sculpt wonderfully. Well-imitated, the head sculpt certainly resembles the Whiphid at an above average level, but some finer tweaking could have made it a dead to right exact match. It’s a great sculpt nonetheless. We actually feel bad talking down about it. But it’s just not “perfect” in our opinion. It’s excellent, just not perfect.

J’Quille (Jabba’s Sail Barge) comes with a unique blaster rifle that we haven’t seen issued in the basic figure line to date. The same weapon comes with Tanus Spijek (Jabba’s Sail Barge) (’04 #10) as does the same generic action figure display stand. The hands have been sculpted very well so that they can accommodate the blaster rifle, but the swivel articulation in the arms of course limit the angles you can situate the arms, and ultimately how believably the gun can be aimed by the action figure. The weapon may be a moot gesture anyway. We could barely see these characters in Return Of The Jedi as it is, do we really know if they even had weapons? We assumed that they were drinking all the time like everyone else in Jabba’s company. For those of you interested, Tanus Spijek (Jabba’s Sail Barge) shares the same torso, arms and legs as J’Quille (Jabba’s Sail Barge). The only difference is that Tanus Spijek has an all-new head sculpt, new hands and newly tooled waist attachment (which also gives him “breasts” and a tail on his backside). It’s actually a separately sculpted piece that is tacked down on the front so it cannot fully swivel. (J’Quille’s unique torso section comprises a section of his torso hair (also tacked down) and the pouches around his waistline.) So more simply put, it is the head sculpts, hands and torso section attachments that keep J’Quille and Tanus Spijek unique from each other. We hope that if we’re fortunate enough to ever get these characters redone in the future that Hasbro gives them completely new and unique sculpts. That being said, we are thrilled nonetheless that we have J’Quille in the basic figure line despite his shortcuts. Only a better version would make us happier.

Collector Notes

J’Quille (Jabba’s Sail Barge)

Status: J’Quille (Jabba’s Sail Barge) is an all-new figure.

Articulation Count: 10 points (10 areas of articulation)

Articulation Details: swivel head (1), swivel left shoulder (1), swivel right shoulder (1), swivel left elbow (1), swivel right elbow (1), swivel left wrist (1), swivel right wrist (1), swivel waist (1), swivel left hip (1), swivel right hip (1)

Accessory Count: 1

Accessory Details: blaster rifle

Date Stamp: 2003

Assortment Number: 84744/84715

UPC: 076930847442

Retail: $4.99 USD

Market Value: Click here to check the latest prices based on Click here to check the market value on eBay! listings.

J’Quille

Star Wars [Saga - Phase III] Wave 27

Lando Calrissian (Jabba’s Sail Barge) (’04 #07)

Rappertunie (Jabba’s Palace) (’04 #08)

J’Quille (Jabba’s Sail Barge) (’04 #09)

Tanus Spijek (Jabba’s Sail Barge) (’04 #10)

Holographic Luke Skywalker (Jabba’s Palace) (’04 #11)



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