One of the most beloved features of Star Warsaction figure collecting is the endless roster of blink-and-you’ll-miss-them characters Hasbro is dedicated to churning out. This tradition began with Kenner in the seventies, with the second-ever wave of Star Wars action figures including deep cut droids and Mos Eisley cantina denizens — including one who technically wasn’t even in the movie. This mix-up was the result of Kenner receiving limited and jumbled reference materials from Lucasfilm for the line, and Lucasfilm made sure it wouldn’t be repeated for The Empire Strikes Backand Return of the Jedi. Kenner was given production materials well in advance of the films’ release, which ended up creating an entirely different problem: when it came to secondary characters, Kenner had no way of knowing which ones would feature prominently in the finished film. Next time you watch Return of the Jedi, try to find Pruneface in the Endor mission briefing scene without employing the “pause” button.
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Another character featured in that same scene has speaking lines, but at first glance seems like just as odd of an inclusion: General Crix Madine, most recognizable for his incredibly fake beard. Madine delivers a few lines of exposition during this scene and is absent for the rest of the film, and yet received an action figure in Kenner’s first 1983 wave of Return of the Jedi product. An urban legend, circulated among fans for decades, claims to have the answer — and it’s supported by behind-the-scenes photos and deleted scenes: General Madine had extra scenes shot for during the Battle of Endor sequence, and fans have a theory on how they would have been used. Less well-known and just as surprising is the impact Kenner had on how Madine appears on screen in the finished film. Although among the least popular figures in the original Kenner Star Warsline, carded samples of the original still command high aftermarket prices, as demonstrated by a sample up for auction now through Goldin.
Why Kenner’s General Madine Action Figure Exists
Here’s the story, as Star Warsfans tell it: Admiral Ackbar was set for a major role in the climax of Return of the Jedi, but the film’s production team were nervous about the complex puppetry needed to bring Ackbar to life. Concerned that it might look unconvincing, or worse yet, not work at all, Lucasfilm conceived a back-up: all of Ackbar’s scenes would be reshot with a human character, General Madine. Since Kenner was designing their Return of the Jedi figures more than a year in advance, working off of pre-production materials, they didn’t know whether the finished film would use the Ackbar or Madine version of the scenes. To compensate, they made figures of both. This neatly explains why Madine was made, as he stands out as the only named, human Rebel Kenner produced. Other Rebel characters with similar-size roles (Mon Mothma, Wedge Antilles, Biggs Darklighter, General Rieekan) went unrepresented by Kenner, making the choice to give General Madine his own action figure otherwise feel somewhat inexplicable.
The hypothesis that Madine’s deleted scenes were shot as a back-up to Ackbar is supported by production stills of Madine commanding the same Home One bridge set as Ackbar. However, when some footage of these scenes circulated, there were fans who felt the footage didn’t support the theory. After all, Madine isn’t heard delivering the same dialogue as Ackbar, and it’s possible that the set reuse was just to save money. Madine could have been commanding a different Calamarian Cruiser during the battle, and the bridge just looked the same as Ackbar’s vessel. Instead, these scenes were shot to supplement Ackbar’s, rather than replace them. They were still cut for redundancy, just not in the way that was initially thought. Because no official answer has been put forward by anyone at Kenner or Lucasfilm, all that’s possible is conjecture based on the publicly-available stills and fragments of deleted scenes. It’s not dissimilar to how the deleted Tosche Station scene in A New Hope was a fan theory and rumor for decades prior to its inclusion on the 2012 Star WarsBlu Ray boxset. Either way, it’s safe to say Kenner assumed Madine would have a larger role in the film when they greenlit his action figure.
How Kenner Is Responsible for General Madine’s Fake Beard
While no one is sure what role General Madine’s deleted scenes were supposed to have played in Return of the Jedi, an officially-licensed book confirms the role Kenner played in giving Madine his infamous fake beard. Jonathan Rinzler’s 2013 book The Making of Return of the Jedi explains that the pre-production stills Kenner were given of Madine showed him in-costume with a beard. The figure was sculpted based on these stills before production on Return of the Jedi even began. When it did, actor Dermot Crowley showed up on set clean-shaven, creating a potential mismatch between the character’s on-screen appearance and merchandise. Lucasfilm took these incongruities seriously, as demonstrated by the time they demanded Kenner redo a figure from scratch when it came out too different from its on-screen counterpart. Crowley was fitted with a fake beard, though with the shooting schedule already locked, there was little time to take pains about its appearance. Crowley is good-humored on the subject, even posing for a photo with the still-surviving fake beard prop at a 2013 Star Warsconvention.
Regardless of why Kenner chose to make General Madine, reception to the figure might help explain why they didn’t make any other Rebellion leadership. Though sales data for individual figures doesn’t exist, apocryphal recollections from the memories of fans agree that Madine lingered on shelves far longer than most (or at some stores, any) of his Return of the Jedi wave-mates, languishing in the clearance aisle at a steeper and steeper discount. Merchandise of the character has been sparse since, with only one other figure released since. It was originally issued by Hasbro in 2004 as part of the Saga Collection, and was later re-released in the Original Trilogy Collection. Alongside other deep background characters like Sim Aloo, Madine represents a hole in the modern “Vintage Collection” line, with packaging designed to emulate the original Kenner cardbacks. Calls for a new figure have been relatively muted, suggesting that many modern collectors are wary of replicating the legendary shelf-warmer status that the original Kenner figure commands. Kids had a hard time envisioning what to do with Madine’s action figure, and despite a typicallyrich, no longer canon Expanded Universe history, it might be that the most interesting thing about this character is what he didn’t do.
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