The initial reveal of the TVC “army builder” 4-pack expression caused a lot of excitement in the community.  Packs of “troopers” were something collectors have wanted for a long time.  We’ve gotten the occasional offering here and there over the years, but with the debut of the Stormtroopers pack, it seemed we were finally on the right path.  Hasbro followed that up with some outstanding sets, such as the Rebel Fleet Troopers and the Echo Base soldiers.  There were a few duds, namely the Death Troopers the Phase I Clone Troopers, mostly because they offered nothing new.  Somewhere in between lies this set.  It offers just enough newness to warrant attention, but it kind of falls a little flat in the “fun” area.

With the release, and upcoming deluxe repack, of VC279 Tusken Warrior, it seemed logical that Hasbro give that figure some context.  The most important context would be to partner her with a jumpsuit “training” Boba Fett, but that seems (sadly) extremely unlikely.  The most likely would be to give her some clan members to hang out with, and Hasbro deemed the army pack as the best way to accomplish this.

What we get are 3 identically sculpted figures, and a 4th with an alternate torso and headsculpt.  The three tribesmen and the chieftain are mostly, if not completely, constructed of re-used parts.  The entire upper body comes from VC199 Tusken Raider, which itself was mostly re-used.  The legs are from the VC245 - Obi-Wan Kenobi (Wandering Jedi), and the feet are from the aforementioned VC279 Tusken Warrior.  The two parts that I can identify as new are the Chieftain’s head, which looks a cloth-wrapped version of Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, and the Chieftain’s torso, which sports his specialized neck adornments.

The real differentiator here, and it’s probably enough for many collectors to declare this set worthy, are the colors and robes.  The colors are a motley mix of black, dark brown, light brown, and tan.  None of the figures are painted the same way.  One of the tribesmen is all tan, similar to the OT Tuskens, another is all black, and the third has a black shirt and tan pants.  The Chieftain has a tan shirt and brown pants.  The “value” of the set appears to be from the generous use of soft goods.  The skirts have 2 different styles, and the robes have 3 - again they have different color mixes to keep things interesting.  One of the tribesmen has some interesting patterning on the head wraps, while the other two are more straightforward. 

For accessories, we get a pair of rifles and a pair of Gaderffii sticks - all of which were previously seen accompanying the Nomad Fett pack-in figure that came with the TBOBF version of Fett’s Starship.  The only new accessory is the specialized Gaderffii stick.

So why is this set mediocre?  Despite Hasbro’s best efforts to hide the old tooling with some admittedly impressive coloring and soft goods magic, the figures struggle to be fun to pose.  The kit-bashed nature means that the parts don’t necessarily work together harmoniously as if they were designed at the same time.  We already know about the wonky elbows which Hasbro upgraded for VC199 from the previous swivel version.  That was an improvement, but they don’t look or perform great when articulating for poses.  The legs are a decent choice, but I found them to be rubbery, and not able to readily hold their positions.  The figures tipped over a lot during the photography session.  And of course, due to the older tooling used, the wrists are not ball jointed.  One of them is in a slightly awkward position, but at least the other will actually move, unlike the debacle in VC199 where most of the wrists were stuck and broke off during any attempt to rotate.

The good news is that if you can get your figures posed well, and if you bought an additional set and wish to mix up the robes and accessories, you get a really nice looking bunch of characters from Boba’s Tusken tribe.  The star of the set is the Chieftain, which is the only figure that has any new tooling.  Now Hasbro just needs to give these guys someone to fight.  I’d really love some Pyke Syndicate soldiers.  And also jumpsuit Boba.

With all the variations of Tusken figures from the past few decades, you can build yourself a rather nice group of different tribes.  We’ve got the OT tribe, the PT tribe, Hasbro’s own creation of the red/brown tribe, and the Book of Boba Fett tribe.  Good stuff.  The set is decent, and I do like the variable outfits as well as the Chieftain.  The figures aren’t going to blow anyone away, but they do make a nice addition to our collections.  8/10.