Unused Return of the Jedi Maquettes to Decipher CCG Characters and Species
I love how Decipher's Star Wars CCG brought in unused maquettes or puppets that didn't make it into the Original Trilogy and created new characters (and species). The Special Edition set from 1998 especially.
The Sic-Six card from the Jabba's Palace Limited set featured the "6-Eye" maquette for Return of the Jedi that would've been present in the Jabba's Palace scenes.
A puppet of this creature was made for Return of the Jedi, but ultimately went unused in the film.
The name Sic-Six comes from an alien species developed in 1989 for West End Game's Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Species, although it looked vastly different from the maquette/puppet created for ROTJ.
In the Special Edition CCG set, one of the light side cards was Bron Burs, who belonged to a species from the Mid Rim planet of Nentan. He was based on a maquette for an unused Jabba's Palace creature.
Neb Dulo was another light side card in the Special Edition set, representing a species that came to be known as the Tocoyans, from the Inner Rim planet of Tocoya. This was another unused maquette for a Jabba's Palace denizen.
A Tocoyan would make an appearance that same year in 1998's Shadows of the Empire: Evolution #1 as a background alien.
Another unused maquette turned CCG card was Soth Petikkin, a Tefaun from the Outer Rim world Tefau. He was based on the unused "Alien 25" maquette.
Brangus Glee was an alien featured on a dark side card in the Special Edition set. He was based on the "Alien 23" unused maquette. The lore text on the card mentions that he hails from the Mid Rim planet Dor Nameth, which interestingly would lend its name to a sequel era species, the Dor Namethian, which first appeared in a deleted scene from The Last Jedi 34 years later. Dor Namethians would appear on screen in finished scenes from the Disney+ series, Andor.
Another dark side card featured the Lobel, an alien species based on "Alien 20", an unused maquette for Jabba's Palace in Return of the Jedi which hailed from the toxic planet Quesh in Hutt Space.
The Lobel would reappear in 2019 in Star Wars: The Old Republic as enemies, along with a series of pets named Lobelot, Lobelisk, and Lobelode.
The Makurth were a species featured on a dark side card in the Special Edition set, listed as being native to the Outer Rim planet Moltok. This species was based on "Alien 19", a rejected maquette for Return of the Jedi. Though they didn't make any physical appearances in any further media, the Makurth appeared in written form in the 2006 Legends novel Darth Bane: Path of Destruction and later in 2017's Canon novel Thrawn.
Another character based on an unused maquette was Niado Duegad, whose name is an in-joke anagram of "Dianoga Dude". The card shows Niado as being at the Mos Eisley Cantina, but he was actually a rejected design for Return of the Jedi, "Alien 18". The lore text on the card mentions him as being native to the Hutt Space planet Vodran, the homeworld of the Dianoga. His actual species name remains unknown and hasn't popped up anywhere else, as far as I can tell.
Even the Special Edition's krayt dragon card was based on an unused maquette for Return of the Jedi.
This design differs greatly from the krayt dragon we would see 37 years later in "Chapter 9: The Marshal" from the second season of the Mandalorian series. It does somewhat resemble the Ralph McQuarrie concept art of a krayt dragon however.
It's a shame that Decipher lost the rights to the Star Wars card games, because they could have added many new characters and species from some of the designs for the Jedi Library busts.
(Photo from @MTrac1000's unidentified species posts)
