Sandtrooper (Tatooine Patrol) - POTJ - Basic

For missions on arid planets such as Tatooine, the Empire sends in desert stormtroopers called sandtroopers. With rare exceptions, these Imperial soldiers are completely loyal to the Emperor, and are prepared to carry out their orders with ruthless efficiency.

The 2001 Power Of The Jedi Sandtrooper (Tatooine Patrol) figure is a bit of an anomaly. There isn’t a Sandtrooper in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope that is wearing a gray pauldron…. unless this is meant to be a dirty version of the white “sergeant” pauldron instead. In order to be screen accurate, that’s likely what we will have to go with as the black and orange pauldrons really do speak for themselves. Sandtrooper (Tatooine Patrol) is a tremendous step forward in Hasbro’s attempt to bring an a modern and accurate Sandtrooper action figure. (They just should have went with the orange pauldron just for obvious reasons alone.) The body is thinner, the helmet is truly excellent and the paint operations are about perfect when it comes to the amount of dirt that is actually present on the armor in the film. Articulation is quite another topic however. Even this new Sandtrooper (Tatooine Patrol) just doesn’t mean our expectations of what a stormtrooper/sandtrooper should have in terms of articulation. He comes with some cool accessories and he has proper articulation to utilize them well, but it’s how he “looks” that saves this action figure the most. And in all honesty, the Sandtrooper (Tatooine Patrol) isn’t half bad at all. As a long-awaited modern update to the 1995 The Power Of The Force “2” figure, we believe collectors will be basking in joy for this release. And at the very least they’ll fully embrace and accept what Hasbro has accomplished here.

There is nothing to doubt about the relevance of the 2001 Power Of The Jedi Sandtrooper (Tatooine Patrol) figure. It will hold up well over the years just keep in mind that it isn’t flawless. More tweaking needs to be done to the sculpt before calling it a definitive version of the Sandtrooper character from Episode IV. Armed with a healthy dose of accessories and scanners that actually clip to his survival backpack, this particular Sandtrooper brings something new to the table that previous releases have not been able to accomplish. We really appreciate the two-layer paint operations Hasbro gave the Sandtrooper (Tatooine Patrol) figure in terms of its “wear and tear” and/or “battle-damage”. Not only are there markings applied in a way where they seem to be mapped onto the armor in sections, Hasbro also added “sprayed” sand/dirt to the final layer of deco which gives the figure a truly “lived in Tatooine” appearance. They evidently didn’t hold back saving pennies on the paint operations here and for that we’re quite thankful because the Sandtrooper (Tatooine Patrol) figure just looks incredible visually. The paint operations are some of Hasbro’s greatest work to date. As far as accessories, the Sandtrooper (Tatooine Patrol) is mildly accessorized. The survival backpack is removable and the scanners and blaster are extra accessories you can have him hold at your own disposal. Sadly, he doesn’t come with any of the long barreled signature blaster rifles. That would have been the icing on the cake.

What we find most disappointing is that Hasbro spent time to create an all-new sculpt for the Sandtrooper (Tatooine Patrol) figure, but then they decided to make the pauldron a color that isn’t screen accurate. Just to recap everything, sandtroopers wear three differently colored pauldrons. Orange denotes squad leader, white denotes sergeant and black denotes corporal. And those are the only three options these characters can have. Even some that appeared in A New Hope weren’t wearing any pauldrons at all. Hasbro could have gone for that look instead and it would have been more accurate. As mentioned above, we’ll assume that this is just a dustier version of the corporal or a dirtier version of the sergeant. Either way, gray is not an official ranking of an Imperial sandtrooper on any front. (Editor’s Note: Hasbro re-released this figure in The Original Trilogy Collection, but as a result of producing the same figure in two different eras, the paint jobs differ and the differences are noticeable. There is significantly more dirt on the helmet. On the 2005 release and the spattered dirt pattern throughout his body, leg and arm armor is lighter.) In conclusion, the Sandtrooper (Tatooine Patrol) is still a very nice update and the figure feels right at home in the Power Of The Jedi line. This line has not only given us modern releases to classic vintage figures, but it has also given us never before offered Star Wars characters as well as stunning updates to some of the first produced modern figures. The line keeps getting better and better!