In this blog I'll explain another unfortunate Decipher mess-up that took place in their Endor CCG set just like I did with Commander Gherant. It concerns two characters called: Colonel Airen Cracken and Lieutenant Blount.
1) Colonel Cracken
The card of Cracken does show him in the correct location: the Millennium Falcon! I just wonder why the card says that he often flew support missions for General Madine and that he even flew a Z-95 (which doesn't appear in any movie). He could indeed be a part of Madine's commandoes, but his place during the Battle of Endor was as a navigator and gunner in the Millennium Falcon. When the fighting starts, Cracken disappears from the cockpit. He commands one of the Falcon's quad guns.
- Cracken's Decipher Card
- In this picture Cracken can be seen very clearly in the cockpit
- In this picture it's obvious that Cracken was one of the gunners of the Falcon. This scene is not seen in the finalised movie. It was probably taken on set, but it does prove where Cracken was during the battle.
- In this picture Cracken is seen in his 'commando' attire. You can see that he is wearing a headphone and speaker just like Luke and Han did in 'ANH'.
Update: Finally, the Complete Visual Dictionary says that Airen Cracken is the gunner in the Falcon during the Battle of Endor.
Cracken as a figure, wrongly pictured against an Endor background
2) Lieutenant Blount
Cracken is often seen on promotional pictures in the companionship of another character, called Lieutenant Blount by decipher. On his card he appears against a Cloud City (!) background and it says he's the wingman of Cracken. Of course Blount doesn't appear on Bespin, but also in the cockpit of the Falcon. He can be seen when the Falcon prepares itself to go make the jump to lightspeed. After this appearance he is not seen anymore, so I'd say we could presume he took place in the other quad gun, just like Cracken (*). In other sources Blount is sometimes credited as being a Rebel Commando and that he was part of the Endor Strike Team.
- Lieutenant Blount's Decipher card
- In this picture Blount is seen in the cockpit
- This is a promotional picture of Blount wearing the same attire as Cracken.
3) Unknown Navigator
Yet, there is one unknown navigator who remains in the cockpit of the Falcon during the battle. He says the words "Pressure steady" during the battle. He has not yet received a proper name.
Unknown Navigator
If you give credit to this information, you can combine it with information from The Fact Files / Rebel Alliance Sourcebook: Cracken and Blount were part of the SpecForces' Sixth Regiment - Heavy Weapons Specialists, known to many as 'Gunners'.
It seems that many people don't realise that the helmeted Cracken and the Cracken without a helmet are one and the same. In the Fact Files it seems that the helmeted Cracken and Blount were part of the Strike Team.
Colonel Cracken & Lieutenant Blount in their commando outfit with helmet.
(*) NOTE 1: In 2011 the deleted scene on the Star Wars Blu-ray confirmed that Blount was indeed the other gunner in the Falcon
NOTE 2: In 2012 Hasbro released a 2nd figure of Cracken, this time based on his appearance in the Falcon.
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