Wrong belt.  Wrong belt.  Wrong belt.  (Deep Inhale.  High pitched scream) WRONG BELT.

Despite our friend at Jedi Temple Archives alerting Hasbro to the fact that they have been shipping Sandtroopers with Stormtrooper belts even though they have an appropriately tool Sandtrooper belt from the Evolutions figure, we still get Sandtroopers with the wrong belt.  If you read this site faithfully, you know the difference lies and the size and color of the pouches which hang from the belt.  Stomtroopers have narrow long white pouches, like this figure.  Sandtroopers have shorter wider black pouches, like the evolutions figure.  The matter gets further confused in that the Special Edition inserted Sandtroopers are wearing Stormtrooper belts, but we can all agree that the Special Edition garbage is…um…garbage.

This is essentially a slight redeco of the VC112 Sandtrooper from the Vintage Collection which itself was a redeco of the VC14 Sandtrooper which was a repack of the Sandtrooper from the Walmart exclusive Legacy Collection Dewback set. That ancestral figure was a pure white clean Sandtrooper which makes about as much sense as an all-white Phase II Clone, in that there is no such thing as a clean Sandtrooper.  Some nerds insist that an all-white Phase II Clone does appear in Revenge of the Sith for a microsecond, but I think we all know that’s really the result of some lazy digital artist forgetting to apply the color mask to a 41st Elite Clone.  Fun fact for you.  That forgetful digital artist was later hired by Hasbro to design the paint mask for the Black Series 41st Elite Clone.

Thankfully this release and its immediate predecessor were treated to a dirty wash to capture a more screen like appearance.  I was clearly enamored with the newness of the VC112 Sandtrooper and gave it a 9 out of 10.  Now that the novelty of finally getting a property decoed Sandtrooper and a new E-11 Blaster with a collapsible stock have worn off, the warts of this mold are showing through the veneer of the shiny new bobbles.  It’s the hands.  He hates these hands.  Stay away from the hands.  I just can’t stand these horrible inflexible hands from 2004’s VOTC Stormtrooper.  Hasbro please hold a ceremony to destroy the mold for the VOTC Stormtrooper arms.  Fans will rejoice like it’s 1997 on Coruscant. 

If you watch the Death Star scenes from A New Hope where the Stormtroopers gather around the freshly captured Millennium Falcon, they all carry their E-11 Blaster in the same way.  They hold the grip in their left hand with the weapon slung across their hip and the barrel in their right hand.  These hands are sculpted to achieve that pose and almost nothing else.  In fact the left hand is so precisely sculpted to fit the exact dimensions of the grip from the 2004 E-11 accessory that it takes a bit of effort to get the new E-11 into the figure’s hand.  Because the right hand is also so unforgivingly sculpted to accept the barrel of that older smaller accessory, there is no chance of it holding the barrel of the new accessory with the stock collapsed. 

For the hate of these hands, I’m lowering the score of this figure back down to 8 out of 10.

At the time of this review, the full Legacy Collection set is still available directly from Amazon

8/10 Bantha Skulls