Mini review - Tusken Raider

Stryker asked about this figure in another thread so here is a little review of the SideShow Tusken Raider from their Scum & Villainy range.

One of my favourite Star Wars characters this one, the Sand People. I think they look and sound just right for what they are meant to be, a great piece of creative magic.


This is the SideShow Tusken Raider, which seems to have only been produced in fairly low numbers, and so can be quite hard to get hold of now.


This is a really great figure though, and I would say well worth the premium on price you are going to pay because of the scarcity.

The materials used are really nice and drape perfectly to achieve the look from the films. All the pouches have a leather like finish to them and there is some light weathering applied too.

I think the head sculpt is spot on.

The accessories are all nicely finished too, and as well as the Gaderffii stick shown here there is also a long barrelled Tusken cycler rifle for those pod race sniping scenes, and a second Gaderffii with a sort of paddle end to it instead of the curved spike end.


I wanted to go for that classic pose of the Tusken Raider shaking his gaderffii above his head while attacking Luke Skywalker in the original film. I hope I have done it justice.


I love this figure and I am really pleased that I didn't let this one go when I saw it for sale.





As always please feel free to comment.

#starwars #tuskenraider #sideshow #film

Nice. Thanks for posting. I can hear that howl just looking at these pics. So awesome.

Stryker2011 wrote:Nice. Thanks for posting. I can hear that howl just looking at these pics. So awesome.

Thanks mate, glad you like him. this is such a good figure and I only wish they where a little bit more available. I would buy another one today if it wasn't going to cost me my other kidney

Thanks for posting, Paul. It's been awhile since I've seen them, and they really do look perfect. Like the Jawas, you'll never need to upgrade. Of course, you might want more than one, but those prices are not collection-friendly.

Yeah this is one of the nicest figures in my collection, it really does have the right look to it.

The prices on these are silly now, if you can find one.

He does look pretty cool, though I'm not sure he's tall enough to be Luke's attacker, he was played by Peter Diamond and was over 6' if I recall.

Here he is as Iman Fasil in Highlander, he looks like a big bloke:



CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:He does look pretty cool, though I'm not sure he's tall enough to be Luke's attacker, he was played by Peter Diamond and was over 6' if I recall.

Good question. Perhaps Paul will provide the height measurement. I don't know how old this Sideshow figure is, but recent Sideshow figures (at least their biker scouts, tie fighter pilots, at at drivers, snowtrooper commanders) have been a tad on the tall side, more so than the Hot Toys figures. If that is true of the Tusken Raider, he ought to be tall enough.

URRRRRRR-UR-UR-UR-URRRRRRR!

Haha great man, he looks like a great figure.

GubernatorFan wrote:

Rogerbee wrote:He does look pretty cool, though I'm not sure he's tall enough to be Luke's attacker, he was played by Peter Diamond and was over 6' if I recall.

Good question. Perhaps Paul will provide the height measurement. I don't know how old this Sideshow figure is, but recent Sideshow figures (at least their biker scouts, tie fighter pilots, at at drivers, snowtrooper commanders) have been a tad on the tall side, more so than the Hot Toys figures. If that is true of the Tusken Raider, he ought to be tall enough.

Hard to say, I think Michael reviewed him when he came out and Peter's was the tallest Tusken out of all of them, certainly more so than any body SSC will have done.

Just looked at Michael's review, which is from 2012 (!), sounds like it could be a first or maybe second generation Prometheus under there and they were definitely on the short side.

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:He does look pretty cool, though I'm not sure he's tall enough to be Luke's attacker, he was played by Peter Diamond and was over 6' if I recall.

Here he is as Iman Fasil in Highlander, he looks like a big bloke:



CHEERS!

Oh yes Peter Diamond was a big fella for sure when ANH was shot and the costumes helmet would probably add a further 2"-4" to his height as well. I have seen an original screen used Tusken mask and they are bulky.

The figure when standing fully upright is a hair over 12".

As intimated in the review though this is a general Tusken Raider figure, and not specifically the one played by Peter in ANH. It was never marketed as the Tusken who attacked Luke, that is just the pose I chose for mine.
 
The included accessories mean that any number of Tuskens might be portrayed, none 100% accurate to a particular screen counterpart in all probability.  This was always meant as a general interpretation of the Sand People.  As I said the choice of pose is entirely my choice.

I am really not so picky over the absolute screen accuracy of a figure like this as I view them as more collectors item than scale model.

The only figures I may take such an in depth view with are the DAK figures I bash. There I even have an assortment of 1-1 kit so that I know how all the uniform parts and equipment work together, how it feels to wear it, its weight etc...and how the soldiers may have used their kit to aid with accuracy.

PickleMunkey wrote:URRRRRRR-UR-UR-UR-URRRRRRR!

Haha great man, he looks like a great figure.

Thanks mate, glad you like him.

If the figure is just over 12" in height, then it would be palpably taller than Luke, at least the appropriate farmboy Luke from HT (which is the only one I have in this scale -- other than my ROTJ Luke kitbash which borrows the head sculpt -- and seems great to me).

scalawag wrote:

Rogerbee wrote:He does look pretty cool, though I'm not sure he's tall enough to be Luke's attacker, he was played by Peter Diamond and was over 6' if I recall.

Here he is as Iman Fasil in Highlander, he looks like a big bloke:



CHEERS!

Oh yes Peter Diamond was a big fella for sure when ANH was shot and the costumes helmet would probably add a further 2"-4" to his height as well. I have seen an original screen used Tusken mask and they are bulky.

The figure when standing fully upright is a hair over 12".

As intimated in the review though this is a general Tusken Raider figure, and not specifically the one played by Peter in ANH. It was never marketed as the Tusken who attacked Luke, that is just the pose I chose for mine.
 
The included accessories mean that any number of Tuskens might be portrayed, none 100% accurate to a particular screen counterpart in all probability.  This was always meant as a general interpretation of the Sand People.  As I said the choice of pose is entirely my choice.

I am really not so picky over the absolute screen accuracy of a figure like this as I view them as more collectors item than scale model.

The only figures I may take such an in depth view with are the DAK figures I bash.  There I even have an assortment of 1-1 kit so that I know how all the uniform parts and equipment work together, how it feels to wear it, its weight etc...and how the soldiers may have used their kit to aid with accuracy.

Fair enough,

If you want a general one it would no doubt be fine. Though a taller body would work if you wanted Peter attacking Luke in a dio.

CHEERS!

Roger -- see my response above. Besides, he doesn't have the Tusken Raider attacking Luke.

Very cool figure and quite accurate, from the looks of it.

Height, when it comes to sixth scale figures, is a crapshoot I've found. Unless one takes the Shovelchop approach and makes it happen, this guy's the same height as that guy. On my shelves, I've been thinking of using bases made from different thicknesses of wood...as in a slice of a tree limb. With a chop saw, that's pretty easily done and one limb can yield a wealth of bases in varying thicknesses.

For example. Wesley Snipes is 5'9" tall. My Blade figure seems a little over 12", or about 6'2".

See where I'm going with this?

Of yeah I see where you are going with this.

That does look like a great idea to address some of the height issues. You are dead right it is a complete crap shoot as to what height manufacturers decide to make figures.

The use of different elevations under the figures is a really good idea, especially if you are trying to recreate the correct look of a movie scene. I did a lot of that (pretty much for the first time) with my mini review of the HT Tarkin figure on OSW. For regular display purposes, it might be less necessary. I don't think Paul needs it unless he really wants to get the look of a particular scene just right. I think what he has in his display works beautifully.

To get around the height issue of my Slave Leia, I had to completely remove any stand for her. I originally didn't have the others on their original stands, but then the Jiaou Doll Leia is so tall, it looked ridiculous. Scary how Slave Leia is the same height as Hoth Leia who's standing on a 1"-thick platform.

Simple, yet effective solution, Stryker. It is a striking contrast (no pun intended). Of course, you could have her sitting up on her side like she was on Jabba's throne, and then no need to worry about the difference in height

When I get Jabba's throne later in the year, that's probably what she'll be doing.

They do make a difference,

I think the height thing is more down to wanting to use more standard bodies than it is anything else. It's far cheaper to reuse one standard type than it is to produce a new type for each character.

3rd party manufacturers like Kit's guy at OneSixthKit and Coomodel have at least made some effort to redress this. However, if an outfit is tailored to one body, getting it to fit another can be an ask.

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:However, if an outfit is tailored to one body, getting it to fit another can be an ask.

Very true. I remember when Hot Toys put out their original (not Rogue One) stormtrooper two-pack, one of the two was purposefully shorter (perhaps in part using shorter ankle pegs, but I think there were some differences in the height of the body proper too), and on him the armor fit in a clunkier, tighter way that inhibited articulation more than the same armor on the "standard" stormtrooper. This was covered in Michael Crawford's review (I don't own this particular boxed set). So there would be a good example of what you described. Although, one might consider that this would be realistic, as generic stormtrooper armor would "hang" differently on the stormtroopers of different height.

Except weren’t the Stormtroopers all supposedly clones? So wouldn’t that mean they were all exactly the same? Haha. (Despite Lucas’ assertions after the fact, I know he didn’t always have that planned, but isn’t what he said...?)

Stryker2011 wrote:Except weren’t the Stormtroopers all supposedly clones? So wouldn’t that mean they were all exactly the same? Haha. (Despite Lucas’ assertions after the fact, I know he didn’t always have that planned, but isn’t what he said...?)

Unless you insist on a(n unattested) change in recruitment between the Empire and the First Order, we now know that the stormtroopers are like janissaries (taken from their parents at a young age and indoctrinated and trained as shock troops).

Stryker2011 wrote:To get around the height issue of my Slave Leia, I had to completely remove any stand for her. I originally didn't have the others on their original stands, but then the Jiaou Doll Leia is so tall, it looked ridiculous. Scary how Slave Leia is the same height as Hoth Leia who's standing on a 1"-thick platform.

Those look great mate, and the height difference between the 2 Leias is catered for nicely by the stand solution here.

I can't wait to see slave leia in Jabba's throne room when you get it, that will be so cool mate.