SFX's Toy Shop #2: JABBA THE HUTT: MEGA

[sfx5000]

Hey gang, welcome to the Toy Shop!

As you can tell by the great threads about game play variations and future figures, Attacktix lends itself to creativity. I've had a few ideas rattling around for awhile and I thought I'd share them with you. Think of them as figure mods, but instead of paint & clay I'll use ones & zeros.
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Today I'm going to tackle Jabba the Hutt. Since the early days of Attacktix, oh so long ago, one of the characters people wanted to see immortalized in 'tix form was the Hutt. I, on the other hand, was of a different opinion. Jabba is one of my favorite characters but lets be honest, he's a fat slug that basically did jack-squat. He wasn't what I'd call a fighter so I didn't think he'd translate well into the Attacktix world.

But even more pressing in my mind was "How do you make him fall?" He's a short, squat, chubby dude. Not exactly the type that is easy to knock over. But it was this problem that got my mind a-racin'. Design comes in many forms. Sometimes you develop a cool idea and sometimes you have to come up with a creative solution to a problem. And the problem of knocking the Hutt on his ass was a problem I wanted to solve. I give you...

JABBA THE HUTT
(original photos via Rebelscum.com)




Jabba is a MEGA and can be broken down to 3 major sections

1. TAIL/STRIKER (works just like Boga)
2. HEAD
3. TARGETS/TORSO



His HEAD is solid plastic and very heavy. It features two large TABS with holes in them (as seen in the side view).



His barrell shaped TORSO contains the TARGETS (a) and a ROD (b) that runs the length of the TORSO. This ROD goes through the HOLES (c) in the TABS and creates a kind of hinge.


How does he work?

A. When both of the TARGETS are hit
B. the HEAD is released and falls backwards...
C. rotating around the ROD
D. The weight of the head falling backwards causes the base to tip and lift off of the playing surface

Jabba's special power is:
ATTACKBACK: Free move and attack for up to two of your BOUNTY HUNTERS



What does this mean?

Well it's pretty self explanatory... you can knock Jabba out.. Momma said knock him out!!

And there you have Jabba the Hutt: MEGA. But, he's pretty similar to the Boga and in a game that looks like it will get more innovative with each release, kinda simple. He's just missing that special something. What could it be?...








Ahh yes, he needs a little Crumb. That's right folks, the nastiest muppet around, SALACIOUS CRUMB, is just the guy to spice up our game play.

How does he work?

SALACIOUS will sit on a small track in front of JABBA. He will be connected to JABBA's tix wheel. As JABBA moves SALACIOUS will slide back and forth blocking a TARGET. He will have to have some kind of special gearing that allows him to move back and forth in a somewhat random fashion. If he moved back and forth evenly people could cheat by timing his movements to block a certain TARGET.

I think that Mr. Crumb will add just a bit more of that 'fun factor' that makes Attacktix the game we all love.

Here is the completed Jabba



Well, that's it for today's Toy Shop! Join us next time for...

FORCE JUMP FIGURES

[spartan117]

Sweet, This is awesome..it looks so real... i really like the salacious idea. Great job i would love to use him in a game. What about speical? im thinking of throwing them into the Beast cage Like vengance. So he would feed you to the rancor.

[sfx5000]

spartan117 said:

What about speical?

Thanks.

And double thanks for reminding me about the special power. I've edited the post.

[Phoenix]

Woah! He would be powerful for sure. Great special power & great defense. I can't help but feel though that 4 movement may be a little too fast for jabba. Nah - you need him to move to attack I know. Great job as usual SFX! I love it.

[crookedterror]

Wow sfx5000, this figure looks great! Jar-Jar was also exceptional. If only you could use the Force to make these figures leap out of cyberspace then we'd all be happy.

[Dark Horse]

Awesome work mate. How about some vehicles next?

[Lonestar]

sfx,

I don't know what you do for a living, but you should be working for Hasbro!!!

Another GREAT concept by the Toy shop!

I realized where you were going and thought it was brilliant by the third picture. The round swiveling turso is absolute genious for bringing down this slug! You are the Master and I am once again in awe of your creativity.

Another character that I couldn't envision or even desire in Attacktix not only brought to life by you, but so perfectly constructed and detailed that I actually regret not being able to buy one.

Thanks and keep the GREAT ideas comin!!!!

oh, and the random movement of crumb might be a bit difficult to engineer. Maybe the Slug can ONLY move one tix (seems realistic to me), thus he will be 'exposed' every other move and he has to move sometime in order to be able to useful enough to attack.

[sfx5000]

Thanks everybody!

phoenix said:

I can't help but feel though that 4 movement may be a little too fast for jabba.

Yea, I thought so as well. For the most part I'm just winging it with the movement and total point numbers.

darkhorse said:

How about some vehicles next?

Well, I've got the next 3 or so percolating in the ol' mellon but I do have some vehicle ideas. It's tough with the vehicles because basically all you have to do is slap some 'tix guns on a snowspeeder or something and there you have it. I like to design some new feature or game play into the things I come up with. Plus, I'm of the opinion that Attacktix vehicles should only be ground combat (tanks, speeders, etc.) or vehicles that engage ground troops (republic gunship) so there will be no X-Wings or Tie Fighters coming from me. Something like a Falcon playset would be cool, but I don't think a Tie Fighter against a bunch of Rebel troops would be very fair... but now as I think about it, the Tie Bomber more than likely droped some ordinance on a battlefield or two.

lonestar said:

I don't know what you do for a living, but you should be working for Hasbro!!!

Thanks! I'm a Graphic Designer so these are right up my alley. But my day job is a snore compaired to the fun I have coming up with these. I did take some basic toy design classes at school, but I think these come more from being an adult that never really grew up.

lonestar said:

oh, and the random movement of crumb might be a bit difficult to engineer. Maybe the Slug can ONLY move one tix (seems realistic to me), thus he will be 'exposed' every other move and he has to move sometime in order to be able to useful enough to attack.

I agree about crumb. I'm not much of an engineer, more of an idea guy. But I've seen some crazy clocks with very complex moving characters so I sure the geniuses at Hasbro could come up with something.

Thanks again everybody. Glad you like him!

[eyeball]

well you could also make it so he is on some kind of machine that moves him cuz he doesnt move much.......

[padiwan]

As ive said before, send this baby in to hasbro its professionally enough done to reach someone hopefully, anyway great job as always and now that your done with that whats comes next?

[Commander Gree]

These two toy shops look like they are almost in production. ;D ;D They are really well thought out!

[sfx5000]

padiwan said:

As ive said before, send this baby in to hasbro its professionally enough done to reach someone hopefully, anyway great job as always and now that your done with that whats comes next?

Hasbro doesn't accept submissions. Kinda sucks.

Next will be 'Force Jump Figures'. You'll dig 'em, there fun!

[sfx5000]

And crumb wouldn't have to be exactly random. It could just be an odd pattern that would be hard (though not impossible) to predict during combat.

Example:

left
right
right
left
right
left
left...

...and that could repeat.

It would be like counting cards in Blackjack, much simpler, of course. And since you grind him before you start people won't know exactly where in that rotation the crumbmeister is.

"Was that left, left, right... or 3 rights and a left?"