Sand People - SW - Basic

By the time I reached the point of no return as a young Star Wars collector, I began staring at the back of the 77-Back and 79-Back RETURN OF THE JEDI cards and mulling over which figures I had and didn’t have for too many hours. It was on these card backs that I paid close attention to the figures’ names as well as their sub-titles and did my best to memorize them. For the Sand People figure, it had already been switched to Tusken Raider (Sand People), and the first “go to” name for my brother and I quickly became Tusken Raider. Eventually, Sand People soon left our vocabulary. But as the years marched forward, I was reminded that this action figure was originally called Sand People first. (Why wasn’t he called Sand Person?) Many collectors aren’t aware, but this figure was also called “Sandpeople” (one word) for a very short spell before transitioning to the final Tusken Raider (Sand People) moniker. Again, why not Tusken Raider (Sand Person)? What was with Kenner's pluralistic obsession with this figure's name? Regardless of this figure’s many confusing name changes, it does stand out as a fantastic action figure. But it is far from being considered one of my personal favorites. Not only are there variations of his name on the packaging, but there are variations on the actual figure. Solid cheek tubes and hollow cheek tubes are the most apparent variation, but it’s not one for which I ever paid close attention. Kenner tooled him to hold his gaderffi stick correctly, and I feel that this is the figure’s strongest point. But too bad he came with that silly vinyl cape. Why couldn't they give him the cloth cape treatment also?

Hasbro's Most Definitive Modern Counterpart: 2021's THE VINTAGE COLLECTION Tusken Raider (VC199) figure.