Here’s another tough figure to review.  I like it almost as much as it annoys me.  I’ll start with the good parts.

Tusken Warrior looks great.  You have to inspect closely to see that Hasbro cut a few corners for this kitbash, but it does come across as a new figure at first glance, so there’s some success here.  The female Tusken Warrior who trained Boba Fett in the ways of Gaderffii combat.  (I had no idea that the word was spelled with two “i’s” until I researched this.) was a cool character in the series.  While Tuskens are generally viewed as antagonists, or just jerks, at best, she was one of the first that earned some street cred from viewers.  She was also one of the first that stood out as an individual, rather than just an obscure member of a random tribe of attackers.  She proved her worth in combat when she single-handedly wiped out a carload of Pykes during the Boba Fett-led attack on the spice train.  She also was simply unique in that most of what we know about The Galaxy has Tusken males being the only warriors in the tribe, so she had somehow managed to distinguish herself enough to cross that societal boundary.  Interestingly, she went nameless in the show, and has yet to be identified by name in any canon material.

Back to the figure, while it looks great and has some new parts, there is some kit bashing here.  And while it seems to work well aesthetically, there are a few minor shortcomings.  The upper body is from VC116 Rey (Jakku) - previously released in the Black Series.  At the time, we gave that figure a 9/10.  The shortcomings developed as figures improved over recent years.  As such, the upper body lacks a ball jointed waist, as well as the new double-barbell neck.  This wasn’t a problem in 2015, but isn’t great in 2023.  The re-use of the upper body is masked by the new shoulder armor/shawl soft plastic accessory, as well as the belt/tabbard accessory.  The head, of course, is all new, and looks great.  As far as I can tell, the lower body is new.  As such, the figure has the new-style ball jointed hips as well as rocker ankles.  The soft goods used for the skirt is nicely tattered, and allow for complete range of motion of the legs.  I believe the gaderffii stick is unique to this figure, and the warrior can wield it pretty well, even though Rey’s hands were obviously not sculpted with this particular accessory in mind.

Again, I have no problem with the re-use of parts here.  While a fully tooled figure would allow for this warrior figure a bit more dynamism, it’s not a showstopper.  I’m all for smart use of old tooling, and I think Hasbro did a decent job here of giving us a brand new character while saving on costs that might be better used elsewhere. 

My problem with the figure is one that is all to common these days.  It exists in a near vacuum.  World-building is tough to do when you don’t have world-building assets.  We do have a four pack of Tusken Raiders from this tribe coming soon, including the Clan Chief.  That’s good news.  Once that set is in hand, especially if you spring for more than one and mix and match accessories, you can build yourself a neat little tribe.  You could also grab a several-decades-old Bantha, as well as some massiffs.  However, we are missing one hugely important character:  Boba Fett in his disheveled flight suit.  Without Boba, the warrior is nearly useless in a display.  Most of her on-screen activity consists of one-on-one combat training with Boba.  At least he would allow to more or less complete the basic encampment, although some tents would be nice.  Almost as important as Boba, would be some actual foes for the Warrior to defeat.  We have no members of the Pyke syndicate, and obviously we have no spice train.  I get easily frustrated with Hasbro when I have a figure that serves almost no purpose.  The upcoming Tusken pack will ease those frustrations, but a flight suit Boba and some Pykes are required here.  As such, it’s hard to be thrilled with this figure.

Overall, I give the Tusken Warrior an 8.  It can do some nice combat poses, and it’s a well-done kitbash of a new character that deserves to be in our collections.  But collectors deserve some more world-building products to give her something to do besides just stand there.