Hasbro's New Tatooine Skiff

I finally got my new Tatooine Skiffs last week, which will be added to my Khetanna display in due course. Before that though, I thought some of you might like to see some pics of the new skiff and also some comparison shots of it next to the POTF version. Like almost all ships and vehicles made by Kenner and Hasbro, the new skiff is still undersized, but it's also a vast improvement over its frankly tiny predecessor! I will say that the new skiff's box (lovely box art, btw, although why no Kithaba / Barada?) is a lot narrower than I expected, but it's still a lovely piece :-D













And here's the old POTF version:

And some comparison shots:

Wow!

Mate those comparison pics are excellent - and you picked a great time to share them -

Just bought a POTF2 Skiff but it's in the States! Got the vehicle for a bargain price, it's boxed/sealed and I've always fancied one purely because it uses the same mould as the vintage. Over the years I've picked up the other POTF2 vehicles to display next to their originals (I don't have an original skiff though )

Was thinking of selling it rather than having my mate post it over as I'm sure it's going to be expensive - and I love the VC figures and vehicles so the new version might be the better option.

I'll go study your pics for a few more hours :lol:

Cheers

These pics look great as mentioned before I can't wait to see the lot on display / diorama

bosk70 said:

These pics look great as mentioned before I can't wait to see the lot on display / diorama

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db94 said:

Wow!

Mate those comparison pics are excellent - and you picked a great time to share them -

Just bought a POTF2 Skiff but it's in the States! Got the vehicle for a bargain price, it's boxed/sealed and I've always fancied one purely because it uses the same mould as the vintage. Over the years I've picked up the other POTF2 vehicles to display next to their originals (I don't have an original skiff though )

Was thinking of selling it rather than having my mate post it over as I'm sure it's going to be expensive - and I love the VC figures and vehicles so the new version might be the better option.

I'll go study your pics for a few more hours :lol:

Cheers

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Thank you both

Great comparison thread and it really does show the differences between the two so big thanks for taking the time to picture them.

I think if you're going for more film accurst then the new version really does make sense to own (especially up to the recent sail barge), but for me I still like the POTF version as it's essentially the vintage version with a few different colours. I would still love to own an original at some point but my POTF version will do just fine until then.

The new version is still very tempting though with a fantastic box so I may well cave in at some point.

Ian

Great post and brilliant pictures, many thanks.
As has already been mentioned, looking forward to seeing these set up with you Barge, will look amazing.

Palifan said:

Great comparison thread and it really does show the differences between the two so big thanks for taking the time to picture them.

I think if you're going for more film accurst then the new version really does make sense to own (especially up to the recent sail barge), but for me I still like the POTF version as it's essentially the vintage version with a few different colours. I would still love to own an original at some point but my POTF version will do just fine until then.

The new version is still very tempting though with a fantastic box so I may well cave in at some point.

Ian

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Jabba probably had a few skiffs knocking about in the palace garage, the smaller one is just an older model like the old Austin/ Layland Mini and the new bigger BMW one
In the diorama just put the smaller original one behind as its further away :lol:

As threatened, my new skiffs are now in place in the same cabinet as my Khetanna. For those who don't know, the display cabinet the Khetanna is in was never built with that in mind. It was actually built before Hasbro announced the barge in fact, but as luck would have it, I realised I could shoehorn one in there if I compressed the figures above it. Having ordered a Khetanna therefore, I thought it would be nice to add a skiff or two to the display, and so I was planning to do just that with the POTF2 version, but then Hasbro went and announced a new larger scale skiff! The cabinet is big, but never having been built with the barge in mind, let alone a barge and two larger skiffs, I realised the only way I could fit everything in is if I suspended the skiffs in front of the barge. As nice as it would have been to have had one skiff to the side of the barge, it simply wasn't possible in that cabinet, so I opted instead for a semi-recreation of the journey to the Sarlacc pit in Return of the Jedi, rather than the Sarlacc pit scene itself.

I must say that hanging the two skiffs with fishing line was an absolute bastard to do! Again, had I been planning it from the start I could have designed ways to make it easier into the cabinet, but instead I had to make do with what I had, which meant threading the line through the shelf brackets above, but without removing and replacing the figures from that shelf (it takes ages to do that!). And getting the sodding things level was a complete nightmare!

Anyway, I've finally done it and I'm pretty pleased with the result. The fishing line is obviously visible, but not as much as you might think (the photo flash makes it look worse). I may redo it eventually as the rear skiff uses more fishing line than it needs to, but it will do for now:

Very impressive seeing all that hot barge action! I wouldn't be too hard on yourself as I think you've done a fantastic job with hanging the Skiff's and hats off to you for taking the time to level it all up.

I'm still amazed that you ended up building a cabinet that was the right size for the barge before you even ordered it and it really was destiny that you would end up owning one, such an impressive piece.

Ian

Palifan said:

Very impressive seeing all that hot barge action! I wouldn't be too hard on yourself as I think you've done a fantastic job with hanging the Skiff's and hats off to you for taking the time to level it all up.

I'm still amazed that you ended up building a cabinet that was the right size for the barge before you even ordered it and it really was destiny that you would end up owning one, such an impressive piece.

Ian

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Thanks, Ian

Yes, I was very fortunate regarding the cabinet size. I built the new one simply to house my 6 inch Buffy, Angel and Family Guy figures, which were previously in one of my other cabinets that I wanted to use solely for modern Star Wars 4 inch figures. I made the new cabinet as wide as I could get away with to maximise shelf space, and deep enough to allow staggered shelving, and it's that latter property that enabled the Khetanna to squeeze inside. There's only about half an inch of clearance between the edges of the sails (the Khetanna's widest point) and the rear and front of the cabinet, so it is very fortunate!

That looks so good and as one is behind the other you don't notice the size difference , I tried to hang speeder bikes in a cabinet on an endore scene when I was a lot younger, like a see saw :lol: what a nightmare hats of to you , I can just hear the sound track and see the sand dunes speeding by

Great job.
You've used the available space well.
As above I can only imagine how difficult it was to get those two lined up and looking like they are flying along in front of the barge.
Really impressive, congratulations.

Looks fantastic. I picked up up from Echo live and for £40 i must say i really felt like this was worth every penny as iv said before i don't collect modern but cant afford a vintage skiff and this looks great so much detail. My only gripe is the ramp on mine is stuck and wont come out also one of the side pieces wont fit due to the moulding being bigger than the hole it fits into. But overall i still love it.

Stubbs said:

Looks fantastic. I picked up up from Echo live and for £40 i must say i really felt like this was worth every penny as iv said before i don't collect modern but cant afford a vintage skiff and this looks great so much detail. My only gripe is the ramp on mine is stuck and wont come out also one of the side pieces wont fit due to the moulding being bigger than the hole it fits into. But overall i still love it.

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Yes, although I love the new skiff, I don't think they're especially well made. The two side pieces / railings and the two end ones for that matter could be quite tricky to get in place on mine, so I can easily imagine if the moulding was just a little bit overlarge on one of the railings that you would have great difficulty inserting it properly. At the risk of stating the obvious, if you want it to fit, I recommend taking a very sharp knife (X-Acto / Stanley, etc.) and carefully trimming one side of whichever peg(s) are too tight. By shaving it incrementally, you should be able to get the thing to fit properly.

As for the ramp / plank not extending on yours, I wouldn't stand for that! I would definitely break out my screwdriver and take the bottom of the skiff off to see if I could get it free. Both of mine do extend, but on one of them the plank does get more firmly wedged in, so again I could imagine a slightly tighter one becoming stuck.

Best of luck if you do try either of those repairs. I know doing that sort of thing isn't everyone's cup of tea, but in my experience it's usually pretty simple when you take the plunge

bosk70 said:

That looks so good and as one is behind the other you don't notice the size difference , I tried to hang speeder bikes in a cabinet on an endore scene when I was a lot younger, like a see saw :lol: what a nightmare hats of to you , I can just hear the sound track and see the sand dunes speeding by

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Thanks . Your Speeder Bikes sound cool too, but yes, I can imagine them swinging about like crazy if you knocked them!

Perhaps I'm misreading / misunderstanding your reply, but just to clarify, although I showed comparison pics of the new and old skiffs in my first post, the pair of skiffs hanging in the cabinet are identical; they're both the new larger Hasbro versions.

Mini99 said:

Great job.
You've used the available space well.
As above I can only imagine how difficult it was to get those two lined up and looking like they are flying along in front of the barge.
Really impressive, congratulations.

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Thanks, Nick

Now that I have a bit of space beneath the skiffs, I'm wondering whether I should put anything there? I was thinking about a bantha, but then I wondered if it would look like the Khetanna was about to mow it down! :lol:

Snaketibe said:

Mini99 said:

Great job.
You've used the available space well.
As above I can only imagine how difficult it was to get those two lined up and looking like they are flying along in front of the barge.
Really impressive, congratulations.

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Thanks, Nick

Now that I have a bit of space beneath the skiffs, I'm wondering whether I should put anything there? I was thinking about a bantha, but then I wondered if it would look like the Khetanna was about to mow it down! :lol:

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I think that anything else in there will begin to look cramped, had you considered painting the base a sand colour, and i know you have the skills, perhaps a background?

Snaketibe said:

bosk70 said:

That looks so good and as one is behind the other you don't notice the size difference , I tried to hang speeder bikes in a cabinet on an endore scene when I was a lot younger, like a see saw :lol: what a nightmare hats of to you , I can just hear the sound track and see the sand dunes speeding by

Click to expand...

Thanks . Your Speeder Bikes sound cool too, but yes, I can imagine them swinging about like crazy if you knocked them!

Perhaps I'm misreading / misunderstanding your reply, but just to clarify, although I showed comparison pics of the new and old skiffs in my first post, the pair of skiffs hanging in the cabinet are identical; they're both the new larger Hasbro versions.

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Sorry I thought you hung the original one too, didn't know you had two of the new one's can see that now, I don't buy much modern but this skiff I just may have to pick up

Thanks Jeremy made me want to go and buy one of these now.

Nice comparison shots, looks stunning