T
thegreatshaggy
Guest
"I hope your salary is more generous than your costume, Miss uh…"
"You, uh… can call me Arica." ―C-3PO and Mara Jade
"You, uh… can call me Arica." ―C-3PO and Mara Jade
Arica was the alias used by Mara Jade when she infiltrated Jabba's Palace in 4 ABY. Disguised as a dancer, her goal was to get close enough to Luke Skywalker to kill him, as Palpatine had ordered her to.
However, Jabba realized Arica wasn't what she appeared to be when she tried to use the Force to influence him to let her come on the sail barge with him. She was prevented from boarding it secretly by Melina Carniss, Jabba's slave overseer, who believed she was trying to kill Jabba.
When Oola was fed to the rancor, C-3PO spoke with Arica, who told him about Jabba's predilection for dancing girls and the dangers they faced.
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Where to begin on this figure. I came up with doing Mara Jade as Arica way back in 2007 when I pick up my custom Slave Leia off Ebay to add her to my growing Jabba Diorama. Well deployments got in the way and I couldn't start the project until the summer of 2009. The first version started of utilizing a BBI Cy Girl body with a custom head. Well my first attempt at making the costume didn't go too well and I quickly abandon the project after only a few months of working on it.
Fast forward to 2010 after completing my first three custom figures utilizing modified clothing items that I did I decided to tackle the project again. This time around I enlsited the aid of Deniz Baygan of D-Art Studios .:
-Art Studios With limited photos of what Arica's costume look like from the few SWCG pictures available, we quickly realized that we had to turn to the Cosplay and Fanart community. A quick search found a wealth of information and pictures. Armed with these we started to turn my idea into a reality.
With Deniz working on the oufit I turn to which body I was going to utilize. The BBI Perfect Body was still in consideration but I was turning more towards waiting for the Triad Toys EVA body. Then Hot Toys released their Scarlett Johannson as Black Widow in Iron Man 2 and when I saw it I said 'that's Mara Jade right there'. I managed to pick up a HS and body from Black Ops Toys and another over at Toy Anxiety before they got picked clean. One I used for Mara Jade as the Emperor's Hand and the other for Arica.
When the costume arrived it was a nervous few minutes putting it on since the material that Deniz utilized was extremely fine and I was worried about damaging it. As the fasteners finished I was extremely happy. With the help of some rubber washers to hold the boots on and some wiring for the head piece and Arica as done.
Overall this was a great project and with the inclusion of the outstanding Jabba's Corridor diorama it really brings her out.
