| Wax Sculpt for Micro Collection Gamorrean Guard Axe | |
| As wax sculpts go this isn't all that impressive. It's just an axe and hand. But it might fill in an important gap in the Micro Collection story.
As most Micro Collection fans know, a sculpt and a 4-up for a Gamorrean Guard figure exist; they're related to the Jabba the Hutt playsets that Kenner planned to release in 1983, then abruptly cancelled prior to production. Two such playsets were considered: a Throne Room and a Boiler Room. The Throne Room would have been particularly elaborate; existing conceptual art shows it as including a replica of the pit which housed the fierce Rancor monster. Clearly, this axe doesn't belong to the known Gamorrean Guard figure, as it's separate from the body and the axe is being held in a distinctive manner. Is it some kind of alternate sculpt or a cast-off of the sculpting process? That's what I thought at first.
But then this paperwork turned up. It details the developmental process behind each of the figures planned for the two Jabba sets. Above you see the sheet relating to the Throne Room. The Gamorrean Guard is noted as "G.G." on the sheet. In case you're wondering, "B.F." is Bib Fortuna and "R.N." is the Rancor. One of the funnier things on the sheet is the notation related to Jabba. It specifies that he's seated . . . as though a skipping or a cartwheeling Jabba might have been an option.
Here's the sheet for the Boiler Room, which looks to have been a low-cost entry in the line. As you can see it includes a second Gamorrean -- which means the axe you see here is in all likelihood a remnant of a second, hitherto unseen figure. So which G.G. went with which set? I'd speculate that the the known figure goes with the Throne Room whereas the one belonging to this axe goes with the Boiler Room. Since the axe seems to have been held out from the body, it's possible that the figure was intended to represent the Gamorrean as he bats that weird creature that harasses him as he's leading prisoners into the darker corners of Jabba's palace. |
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| Description by: | Ron Salvatore |
| Photo: | Ron Salvatore |
| From the collection of: | Ron Salvatore |
| Country: | United States |
| Film: | Return of the Jedi |
| Licensee: | Kenner |
| Year: | 1982 |
| Category: | Prototypes / Micro Collection |
