Sandtrooper - SW [TPM 3D] - Movie Heroes (MH23)

Imperial Sandtroopers search Mos Eisley for the two Droids wanted by Darth Vader.

With all of the belly-aching we hear Hasbro make with regards to expenses from tooling costs and the amount of plastic it takes to bring us our figures, they sure know how to blow out the budget with some sculpts that just aren’t necessary. Hasbro has developed enough of a catalogue of parts to never have to expend a single dollar on their so-called kids’-focused lines so that the budget can be devoted to the collector-focused lines. So we’re not so sure why they feel the need to create all-new tooling to bring figures like the Sandtrooper into the Movie Heroes line. Granted, the Sandtrooper is a fun figure. His gun is ridiculously out of proportion and completely screen inaccurate, but the light-up feature will make you smile and make you realize why figures like this make the basic figure lineup a little more fun than usual. Surprisingly, not one part of the Sandtrooper has been recycled. It’s completely all-new. Even the head sculpt, which at face value looks exactly like the portrait from 2010’s TVC Sandtrooper (VC14) figure, is all-new tooling too. The figure only comes with one removable accessory – the ranking pauldron – even the survival backpack and the blaster are permanent fixtures here.

Between the packaging details (which also has a significantly abbreviated bio by the way), the pack-in game cards and the figure itself, every Sandtrooper rank is represented somewhere with this release. The Galactic Battle Game card shows a Sandtrooper squad leader and on the reverse side of the figure’s card back a Sandtrooper corporal is shown in the publicity picture along with the figure’s bio. Because of this, it’s our assumption that perhaps Hasbro had some plans to release the Sandtrooper corporal and Sandtrooper squad leader somewhere down the road, but that seems even murkier than ever now. The actual figure is a Sandtrooper sergeant. The Sandtrooper action figure is going to be one that kids will thoroughly enjoy, but we bet that collectors will be scrambling to secure one for their collections as well. Sandtrooper comes with only six points of articulation and most of that is swivel articulation. But the attention grabber here is his light-up blaster rifle. Admittedly we like the effect. We probably have criticized this figure and it's action feature in the past, but having the action figure in person have given us a new appreciation for it. Hopefully the photos in our gallery will give you a better picture of what makes this Sandtrooper fun and unique.

Part of wave 4 of the Star Wars [The Phantom Menace 3D] Movie Heroes line, right now collectors in international markets have been able to pre-order and purchase them. There has been no indication in the USA that these will be available online or at the brick and mortar level in any capacity and it’s unknown if any units have been prepared for release or manufactured for American release at the factory level. Only time will tell. If these do not get released in the 2012 Star Wars [The Phantom Menace 3D] Movie Heroes line look, this means that those who collect the Galactic Battle Game cards will be completely out of luck. This game has been terminated and 2013 product will not be carrying it forward into the products. Hasbro had one of their toughest years to date in 2012. The worst distribution of all time coupled with cluttering the market with repacks instead of introducing the new line look with all-new figures led to a shockingly bad product year for collectors. There are still products that have never been released that were intended for release. We do hope that the Sandtrooper will have availability to all those who want it. It certainly isn’t for everyone, but we bet you’ll find something to enjoy with it.