Jabba's Palace: Will You Dine for Eternity At the Bantha Buffet? or Will the Chain Put a Choke-Hold on Your Cash?

So after my Rancor article, I knew it was not going to be very long before I got the Jabba set out and completed this masterpiece of a Lego duo. I was actually a bit afraid it might be a little bit of a letdown after how much fun I had putting together the Rancor Pit. On the other hand, this set was a decent amount bigger and had a lot of cool little details as well as a ton of minifigures so I figured I would still be in for a good time. So I got the set out and dumped it out just as before. First off, this set looks a lot bigger than 800 pieces just like the Rancor pit looked bigger than 380. The reason behind this are the giant plane pieces that have to hold up Jabba and his eating addiction. The roof pieces are also very large as well – there are only about 9 pieces that make up the whole round top of the palace. Here is a picture of what I got out of the box:

Looking at the booklets, building this set is really fun because you get minifigures in several of the bags, not just a the beginning, and we all know that putting together the minfigures is the most fun part of building a set. First up in bag 1 is Leia in the Boushh Disguise. I really like this one because it adds a lot of playability to the set if someone wants to re-enact the scene from the movie (not that I did it). The outfit and helmet are great:

I believe this disguise is exclusive to this set so this minifigure will be sought after by anyone collecting.

The Chewbacca is next and he is just the normal Chewbacca that has been in tons of sets. I would have enjoyed to have a different one here, but he did normally wear the same thing so I guess there isn't much they could do different:

Next up is Jabba himself. Honestly I have never opened any of the sets that had Jabba in it before. It is a pretty great minifig, but after opening the Rancor, he is just not near as impressive. Next to normal minifigures he looks pretty good still. I guess it is all about perspective. I think they maybe could have made him look a little more scaly and little more nasty. I would have really liked some fat flabs.:

Next up is B'Omarr Monk. Hes a cool guy just because he is completely different than other normal figures. Even though he is the same as the original set, he adds a ton of playability to this set – I mean his legs are made of swords! I went ahead and included him in with the picture of the first bag which includes the bottom part of the tower.

The tower is fairly easy to build, but at most points is a bit unstable. I had to redo it a few times because it kept coming apart. I think it could have been just a little more sturdy if they used less 1x1 pieces and less of the slanted pieces here. I have unsteady hands though so this may not bother everyone. It definitely still looks good – I just worry about playability with it unless a kid just leaves it there and doesn't touch it – buildings coming apart while you are playing is no fun.

Next up with bag 2 is the Gamorrean Guard. The same figure as in the Rancor Pit. I like the figure a lot so I am totally cool with having two of them. On top of that, when have you ever seen a guard alone? They travel in pairs. You can't guard something by yourself properly. That's just science:

The rest of bag 2 is the top part of the tower. The top is fairly vanilla, but I do like the playability with the added lookout spot where minifigures can chill out and guard stuff. The opening door is really pretty cool as well. I really like the detail here that Lego added at the top of the tower. I will say that I wish the door had some easier method to open and close for playability sake, other than you having to open it and then set a piece in to keep it up. It works either way though, I may just be lazy:

The back of the tower really shows this awesome Lego detail. The box with the Laser in it. The guns hung up on the wall of the top tower. Unfortunately that's really only an added playability bonus as the way this tower faces, you don't really see that part when displayed.:

Bag 3 brings us Oola next. This is an exclusive minifig to this set and a really good one at that. Though Oola doesn't really have a big part in the movie (I think she gets eaten by the Rancor right?) I love the figure. Lego's shades of green are so bright and vibrant. She really stands out and really contrasts the other minfigures well. This will really add to the set value:

Now we have Han Solo (which is a slight redesign) and his carbon chamber. The chamber itself is a slight redesign as well. While I think its pretty well detailed and looks good, I wish it stood out just a little bit more. The dark color doesn't help it as much – not sure how they could have done it better, but I think far away from it, it seems a bit dull :

Bib Fortuna is next – this is not an exclusive minifigure but its only the second set its been in so I think it does add some value to the set. Hes really well done with the cape and all. The best part though is the facial expression. Its very mean and devilish looking:

Bag 4 is the base if the palace. It's a pretty bland building though it doesn't take very long to build. I will say it was a little bit flimsy while putting together. This is one of the parts I think would be hard for a small child to put together without some help because there are only small pieces holding the large flat pieces together until it is finished. Several times I would push too hard and pop something else apart:

Bag 5 seems like its just separated so they didn't have to really pack in bag 4. It isn't that many pieces at all because they are fairly large. These include the pieces to finish the floor and add on the trap door. The trap door was obviously expected, but its great for playability. A child can keep dropping Luke down over and over – or I guess anyone else they want to feed to the Rancor (although I would venture that a Rancor doesn't want to be fed – He wants to hunt!):

Bag 6 includes the sides of the of the palace. This is much sturdier that the tower piece that I put together earlier. It stays together a lot better while building. Lego does something a little bit out of the ordinary for them: They actually have a few steps where they seem to be rushing the build a bit. A few of the steps you are adding 10 or 12 pieces. I can't complain because I normally am irritated with putting together two pieces and then turning the page, but this was tricky not to miss a piece here or there. Again the detail is amazing on the front of the palace. There is also a little spinning stand for the Carbonite Han which is pretty cool:

Salacious B. Crumb finally! I love this little guy in the movie – he reminds me of Alf! Honestly I was a little disappointed with the minfigure unfortunately. It is very small (which makes sense) and is made of soft, bendable plastic. I was hoping he would be more of a Lego piece like the other minifigures, but the detail on the figure makes up for it pretty well. Again, an exclusive minifigure and one that I think will be very good for the set's growth.

Bag 7 includes the back part of the palace. Most of it is is just normal brick laying. As you can see it is coming together nicely:

Bag 8 is very quick and easy as it includes the roof for the palace and as I mentioned before it is mostly big pieces. I like that they did this with bigger pieces as I really like the smooth top to the palace. More Lego pieces equals rougher roof.:

So now it's done and it's time to take it to the Rancor Pit and put this masterpiece together. The palace has small places on the bottom of it for the slanted pieces on top of the Rancor Pit to fit inside. It doesn't actually attach; the Palace just rests on top of the pit. This makes it pretty easy to put together, but may be harder to keep together for a child playing with it. I got it together and I have to say it is pretty impressive together. No one is walking by this in my house without commenting on it:

Honestly, my only downside display wise is the tower section that's separate from the palace. It looked really cool on the box next to the palace as a lookout, but now it's much lower because of the Rancor pit. I guess it would have been tough, but I need a way to get it to the right height so it will look more natural again. The set's themselves look awesome together with the mass amount of minifigures and the flow of the set, for anyone who has seen the movie, is really spot on. I will say that looking at the sets together makes the Rancor even more impressive, but I wont harp on that now because I did for a whole article. So after all the pictures, what do we see in the future for this set? I am going to go out on a limb and say it did intrigue investors for a short while sometime around Marchish? But what about interest now that all that is over?

To compare to other sets, I decided to take the following criteria:

• Iconic Star Wars movie scene or vehicle
• Must have been redone in a similar manner several years later
• Set must be retired

Here is what I came up with:

• Bobba Fett's Slave I – 6209 in 2006 and 8097 in 2010
• The AT-AT Walker – 4483 in 2003 and 8129 in 2010
• The Clone Turbo Tank – 7261 in 2005 and 8098 in 2010
• Jabba's Palce – 4480 in 2003 and 9516 in 2012

I decided to take the old and new and the percent difference between the old set and new set between CAGR so we could use the old Jabba set to predict what the new one might do. What was actually very intesting is that two of the remakes did better than the original by a considerable amount! This is most likely because of the improvement in detail of the sets and the increased popularity in Star Wars and in Lego. Below are the results:

Wow is all I can say. The Slave and the AT-AT CAGR increased significantly which is a good sign for investors interested in this set. The old Jabba's Palace is sitting there at 16.94% CAGR which is pretty good on it's own with the mean being around 8.5% for Star Wars sets. I would have been satisfied for this set to have shown 15% CAGR but this suggests it will be better.

Averaging the three together, and comparing how this set would look after 2014 from the data we have here (each of the newer sets we are comparing are 3 years old) the average suggests that the new Jabba's Palace could see an increase in CAGR of 76% which is astounding! This would mean Jabba would see an increase to ~30% CAGR which would put it at a value of almost $200 after two years EOL. Now most of this is predicated off how well the second AT-AT did, but this is somewhat fair because of several things I will discuss below. What I decided to do was weigh a few negatives and positives before deciding where this set might sit:

Pros

• The new Jabba's Palace in considerably better than the old set. Way better compared to the increase in the other sets we compared it to. The original Jabba only had a few minfigures – this one has 8. And the original didn't have the Rancor pit. It also 600 more pieces.
• The controversy – This set should EOL at the end of this year from what Lego has indicated giving it a shorter run. Also we saw that people were willing to pay $175 for this set which is always a good sign.
• Discounting. This set's retail has been a little bit high but retailers have really shown a commitment to discounting it. I think you could score a lot of these for $80 before it's gone.
• Playability – this set has so many figures and trap doors and everything that it will appeal to kids quite a bit.
• The new Star Wars Movies – Introducing a new generation to Star Wars can only help.
• 2 Exclusive minifigures and several that are only in a few sets.

Cons

• Will Most likely be targeted by investors.
• With the controversy a lot were purchased and stored – we may not ever know how many.
• Discounting will keep a lot of consumer's buying it as well.
• Jabba wont be in the new Star Wars movies.
• Clone Turbo tank going down is a little troubling (although it's less iconic)

So where does it put us? I think a safe bet on this set would be 23-25% CAGR in the first two years. Honestly it could go way up and way down. The set is really nice and I love it with the Rancor Pit. However, even though nothing is a sure thing,

I hesitate more on this set just because of everything that has gone on with it. I don't necessarily guarantee it will do better than the Rancor Pit. I think the Rancor Pit is the safer bet, but this set has more potential because its worth more in general. I honestly think either way we will see a bunch of these sell again right as this set goes EOL and it will drive the price up. If we see it go up to 25 CAGR in the first two years, most of us should be satisfied to get out then with the price right around $185.

My advice: Don't target this set as a top investment, but if you see a good deal on it under $90 or so, I would pick it up. While I don't know that you should put tons of money into them, I think they will definitely gain money and if anything could be a really good quick flip if the flames start back up when the set EOLs.

Either way, if you are a Star Wars fan, this set is definitely a must have even if you have the first one already. The colors and detail have improved immensely over the old set and as I talked about, the Rancor Pit and this set together are amazing.

What do you all think? Do you think this set will do better than the Rancor? What's your prediction on the CAGR?

Note: All of the information here are my own opinions and are pulled from my experiences. You may or may not have success with these methods.