Last Updated:
02/10/01
Last Updated:
02/10/01
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Jawa

What can I say, I'm crazy 'bout Jawas,... UTINNI !!!!  When I'd heard that Hasbro was
going to make every ones favorite little scavengers in 1/6 scale I was a bit eager
with anticipation.  But, after it had been released, I was thoroughly displeased.

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Most of this figure is garbage, it's only real redeeming 
quality is his light up eyes.  He has very little articulation 
(5 points), and is about an inch and a half shorter than 
what most Jawas should be. The robe isn't too bad, 
but it's not quite the way I remember the Jawas.  The 
material isn't the greatest and the hood is too small.

So, after siting alone on the shelf for a few years, I've 
finally gotten around to chopping the lil' bastard up. 

This all started around Christmas when my brother gave me a box of various
clearance toys he picked up really cheap.  Some of it was pretty
nice, but most of it was meant purely as custom fodder.

Here we have an exclusive premiere James Bond Villain. 
He has ball jointed shoulders and hips, as well as joints 
in the knees and elbows.  He stands approx. 5 to 5 1/2 
inches tall, which is almost half an inch taller than the Jawa. 

His hands and feet are a bit small, I normally would
replace them, but I didn't want to get too far involved
with this project before I knew if it was going to work.

Luckily, the figure I used was already wearing gloves, otherwise
I would have had to paint his hands.

First I ground down his head to a simple peg 
about 1/3 of an inch wide.

In order to increase the Jawa's articulation, I went ahead 
and bisected his upper arms.  I then inserted a screw 
between the two halves to create a primitive swivel joint.

When I was finished, I had a new body with a 
total of 15 points of articulation.

Now for the head.  At first, I thought I would try to carefully remove
the Jawa head, but after a moment of reflection I just snapped his little
head off.  I carefully cut the wires so they could be spliced
back together when I glue his head back on.

I made a cast of the Jawa head and painted it with several 
different shades of brown.  Since the eyes no longer 
light up I painted them gold.  Yellow would probably 
show up better, but the gold makes them look 
more like they're glowing.

I drilled a hole approx. 1/3" in the bottom of the head 
and made it deep enough to completely fit over the 
peg on the body.

Now I have a Jawa that's about an
inch taller and has three times the amount of articulation.

I swapped clothes with another figure for now, but 
in the future I hope to make him a decent body suit.

I put the original Jawa robe on him but with wire running 
through the hem on the hood to help keep it's shape. 
I painted over the belt to add a weathered effect.

 

!!  COMING SOON  !!

Next I'll be making custom accessories for the new Jawa.  Hopefully much
more accurate than the hasbro counterparts.