Why Was There Never a Vintage Grand Moff Tarkin Figure Released?

What I cannot understand is that there were many characters who only ever had very brief non speaking cameo roles in the films, but there were action figures made of these characters. Grand Moff Tarkin played by Peter Cushing, had an important role in "A New Hope", but no figure was ever made of him during the vintage Kenner production! All it would have taken was a different head applied to an Imperial Commanders body!

I am wondering whether or not Peter Cushing opposed Kenner making an action figure of himself! Perhaps he demanded a fee or certain royalties from Kenner which they refused!

Going back to characters who made brief appearances, Where was Prune Face? I don't ever recall seeing him! I'm presuming that he was in Jabba's Palace or something in ROTJ! He looked like a bounty hunter type.

Other figures that were not released

Seeing that a figure of Luke Skywalker in Stormtrooper disguise was made, then why didn't they do a Han Solo one? Mon Mothma too, they made a figure of General Madine but why not her?

Good question, we discussed this before in another thread so I put some quotes here:

Yzerman wrote:

I think for Star Wars characters there wasn't enough time. Kenner were late getting figures out and that affected the whole line. So when they had released the 20 characters the new movie Empire was already in the making and news and rumours about it were floating around. By that time I'm guessing Kenner had to focus on the new movie and the new characters so that the figures were ready this time by the release of Empire. They didn't want to have the same delay as they did for Star Wars. So that's why Tarkin, Motti, Rebel fleet trooper, Sandtrooper etc never were produced.

Dr Dengar wrote:

To add to this:

Characters like Tarkin, Motti, Rebel fleet trooper, Sandtrooper were probably less recognized and appreciated by the majority of kids buying the toys in 1983. Already six years had passed since Star Wars was first released in the cinemas, and the kids most appreciating these SW characters, were now spending their money on skateboards and BMX bikes.

So I understand Kenner's decision to do not release those earlier characters during the ROTJ era. Purely market driven. One exception is off course Luke in Stromtrooper disguise, though a character from the first movie, he still could get along as a cool stormtrooper for the youngest generation of kids.

From this thread:

http://www.imperialgunneryforum.com/t3162-yak-face-and-other-jabba-s-court-denizens-why-there-are-so-many-of-them#51484

benstoybarn wrote:

Going back to characters who made brief appearances, Where was Prune Face? I don't ever recall seeing him! I'm presuming that he was in Jabba's Palace or something in ROTJ! He looked like a bounty hunter type.

It took years before I discovered he was one of the good guys actually, who fought in the Endor mission.

Thanks for the info, I never would have guessed that Prune face was one of the good guys. He always looked like a bounty hunter to me.

On Rebelscum Ian_C wrote:

I had heard the same thing about Cushing, but I think sometimes it gets confused with Julian Glover, who never wanted a General Veers made after his likeness.

Trying to justify it from a Kenner mindset, Tarkin, Beru, and Owen wouldn't get made because of three reasons:

1) Second wave of SW figs were essentially to cross-sell the Land of the Jawas and Creature Cantina playsets, so those three weren't necessary.

2) Third wave was for ESB and beyond, so Kenner had moved on to the second two films from 1980-1984 (there were no exclusively-ANH characters made in this time).

3) By the time they got to POTF in 1985, the popularity had esentially disappeared, so Kenner had to find figures that they felt would hold interest. Aside from core characters like Luke and Han, they went with aliens and Ewoks. They likely dismissed those three as 'boring' human characters that died in the first movie 8 years earlier.

Ian

Taken from this thread: http://forum.rebelscum.com/t894179/

Ian's answer seems to fit well with the quotes given in the previous posts.

Thanks for all of the info, it's definitely interesting stuff.

I would have also loved to of seen figures of the various different X-Wing pilots such as Wedge Antilles released. All that Kenner would've had to of done was change the helmet colour on the Luke X-Wing figure! Green we would of had Wedge, change the helmet colour and add a moustache then we would've had Biggs, although in the possibility of making a Jek Porkins figure, then I guess that they would've had to of broken the mould on that one!

benstoybarn wrote:

although in the possibility of making a Jek Porkins figure, then I guess that they would've had to of broken the mould on that one!

I guess they could also have used Rancor Keeper's mould to make a Porkins figure.

Interesting! I would have been one of those weird kids that would have liked a Tarkin figure. The Death Squad Commander was one of my favorites. I painted a mustache on one of my Luke X-Wing figures to turn him into Biggs. I was heavy into model building so I was always repainting my figures and vehicles.

I've always just thought that aliens and robots were more
appealing to kids and therefore more likely to sell :stir: