Dan Madsen Shares Details About The Fan Club Exclusive Cantina Band Member!

11/26/2024 Power Of The Force 2

Dan Madsen, former President of the official Lucasfilm Fan Club in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s, shared the letter he wrote to Kenner (not Hasbro!) on his Instagram account when they were discussing ideas for an exclusive Fan Club Star Wars action figure in 1996. It's rare to get insights into the behind-the-scenes dealings, especially from back then, so this is truly a gem!

Here is the letter Dan wrote on February 1, 1996 to Todd Rywolt, who was working at Kenner Toys' marketing department:

Dear Todd:

As per your phone call of last week, please find here our ideas for an exclusive STAR WARS action figure for the Official STAR WARS Fan Club. We are very excited about Kenner's interest in producing an exclusive figure as it will add another benefit of belonging to the Club and should help us in signing up new members so that they could purchase this figure.

We have given much thought as to which figure we would like to do. Despite the fact that there are dozens of characters from the STAR WARS trilogy that could make great action figures for the Fan Club this list wasn't hard to compile. We immediately disqualified any figure that had been done before. While there are many great figures that were done for the original line that may not be brought back for Kenner's second generation of STAR WARS toys, we thought it would be in our best interest to do something that had never been done before. We also didn't want to consider any characters from the novels, comics or games.

In making this list we took these considerations into account: What characters do fans want the most? What characters would fans buy multiple copies of? What characters would lend themselves to Kenner's new improved approach to sculpting? What characters are unlikely not to get made for Kenner's new line and would be a unique addition to STAR WARS collecting by the Fan Club?

Here's the list in order of desirability:

1. Cantina Band Member (Bithians)

These are still some of the most memorable aliens from the trilogy. These characters have been expanded in a recent story by Kathy Tyers. We now know the band as Figrin Da'n and the Modal Nodes. If we could offer several instruments fans could buy five and make the whole band. We feel this is the best choice for a Fan Club exclusive figure!

2. Rebel Trooper

These are the troops who appeared in the opening scene on the Blockade Runner. They have special helmets and unique guns. STAR WARS fans would be able to recreate scenes like the Throne Room finale with these figures.

3. Imperial Sandtroopers

These stormtroopers have an orange pad, a utility belt, a special back pack, and different guns. If they were sculpted in a different pose than the current stormtrooper they could work well.

4. Grand Moff Tarkin

Fans have clamored for this figure for years. Unfortunately, because this character is humanoid and has an unremarkable outfit, it probably wouldn't be quite as popular as the previous three suggestions.

5. Devaronian

The devil-like character with horns from the Mos Eisley Cantina. This last suggestion is sort of a toss-up.

Since you mentioned that it would take at least 6 to 8 months to develop a figure we would want to get started ASAP. I look forward to talking with you soon to discuss all the important details of the Fan Club working with Kenner to make this exclusive figure a reality. It would be great if we could offer this figure in our Christmas issue which we would have available at the STAR WARS convention at Disneyland in November. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best Regards,
THE FAN CLUB, INC.
Dan Madsen
President
cc: Howard Roffman/Lucasfilm Ltd.

All five figure suggestions were made into toys eventually! Dan revealed on the GFT - Galactic Figure Talk podcast a few years ago that the Cantina Band Member figure would become the best selling item the Star Wars Fan Club ever had (this audio snippet is still part of the GFT podcast intro). Below are the images which Dan posted, look at that cool oldschool looking Star Wars Insider letter head!

Thank you to Dan for giving us a rare glimpse into some of the dealings back in the days!