| Wax Sculpt for Salacious Crumb Figure | |
| Does Salacious Crumb count as an action figure? I think not. For one thing, none of his body parts move. For another, you had to buy a playset -- the Jabba the Hutt Action Playset, to be specific -- in order to obtain him. None of this has stopped some collectors from claiming ol' SC as part of the standard figure line. I guess you gotta respect these folks for being inclusive and forward-looking. Gone are the days when the Crumbs and the Dianogas of the world were relegated to the back of the action figure carrying case, treated like second-class citizens by the whole of the articulated majority.
Figure or not, it's pretty hard to imagine the vintage line without a Crumb of some kind. And since the hunk of unarticulated, yellowish PVC that Kenner gave us back in 1983 is all we got, it seems to me that we have to be appreciate the little guy, even if there isn't much "action" to be found in him. Anyway, what you see here is the original wax sculpt for the Salacious Crumb non-action figure. It's the master used to produce every one of the bagged examples you can still find on eBay at bargain prices. The sculpt was in pieces when I got it, and it had to be painstakingly reassembled. The damage is unfortunate, but it does have the interesting side-effect of revealing the figure's wire armature, particularly in the areas around the arms and ears. Note that the wax varies in color from bubblegum pink to off-white. This is almost surely the result of the figure being worked on in several phases, perhaps even by several sculptors.
This hardcopy, which is made of Dynacast that has been sprayed with gray primer, reveals the figure in a slightly earlier form. Note the furry area on Crumb's right shoulder. It's smaller than the corresponding area on the sculpt. Sometime after this hardcopy was created, modifications were made to the sculpt. You can also make out differences in the creases on the two figures' bellies.
Here's the sculpt for the tail. Note the pencil-drawn parting line and the end of the internal wire that served as a base for the piece. Interestingly, the figure and tail turned up separately, with different individuals. Given the fragility of the latter piece, it's astonishing it survived intact. |
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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: | 1983 |
| Category: | Prototypes / Product Artwork |
