Editor’s Note:  This review has been updated with our second look at TVC…

Original Review:  Bret - 9/4/10 01:52 PM

To spare Bret’s dignity, the following review has been stricken from the archives.

This is a good figure.  It’s a repack from the recent Wal*Mart exclusive Dewback.  People dug the new rifle he came with, so you’ll be able to get it on a basic carded figure.  The meticulous among us can argue about the authenticity of the details on each Sandtrooper figure, but for the “close enough” crowd, it’s good.  Lot’s of articulation (although the head is restricted by the pauldron), two rifles that he can hold in either or both hands, and a backpack.  In my opinion, the cardback with the Star Wars movie logo is particularly striking. 8/10.

Updated Review:  Bret - 7/xx/2018 07:05 AM

That review was written by Bizarro Bret.  I take it all back. 

I’m doing Chris a favor by reviewing this, as I think at this point we’re both emotionally drained from reviewing multiple maddeningly imperfect sandtroopers and stormtroopers.  In our recent re-review of the VC112 Sandtrooper (which for some strange reason we decided to move forward with even though it’s jarringly out of sequence in our TVC Second Look), we covered the minor issues in the sculpt and paint applications that would make the figure perfect.  Most of these are to correct the differences between the armor loadouts of the stormtrooper and sandtrooper, but also to correct the super rigid hands which make gripping accessories and displaying in the THWG pose a rage-inducing mess.

This figure is identical in sculpt to the VC112 figure.  All of the problems with VC112 apply here, but then you add on to that two major issues that actually make this a painfully annoying figure, despite my review almost 8 years ago.  VC14 was released in a completely clean paint scheme, which immediately makes it absurdly out of place in any Tatooine display, unless this guy was a replacement soldier and had literally just stepped off the transport shuttle to join his platoon mates.  But if he walked more the 50 feet, it would immediately be ridiculous again.  There really should be no such thing as a clean sandtrooper.  And while some of Hasbro’s past efforts on weathering and battle damage are actually unique and obtrusive enough as to render army building such a figure useless, they did a pretty great job with dirtying up VC112. 

Note from Chris:  Hasbro explained that the thinking with the perfectly white Sandtrooper was that collectors could remove the pauldron and use the figures as regular Stormtroopers.  It was a good thought, but misunderstands the nature of collectors who demand accuracy.  Aside from the giant hole in the figure’s back, this figure, being a Sandtrooper, does not have the Stormtrooper paint apps to the ab plate. 

The other big problem as that the iconic sandtrooper wears the orange pauldron.  A main line TVC release of this character should have come with the orange pauldron.  Again, this was corrected by way of VC112, but as Chris mentioned in that figure’s original review, we will never know if a dirty, orange-pauldroned sandtrooper would have been much better for the long term health of the TVC line at the time, instead of getting bogged down with VC14.  The card photo is pretty cool, but, it depicts a sandtrooper using binoculars.  I’m sure those binoculars must be included in the pa…nope, there are no binoculars.  What a tease.  The figure differs from VC112 in that it comes with the RT-97C heavy blaster rifle, instead of the super cool E-11 blaster with collapsible stock.

As it is, the figure is actually pretty good in a lot of aspects - certainly not terrible if rated in a vacuum.  And having alternate color pauldrons isn’t bad in the long run, but the shiny white armor is hard to get over, and the other items that need to be corrected all add up to having this figure fall short.  I would regrade this figure as a 5 or 6, instead of the 8 I originally gave it in a moment of extreme generosity.  I must have been pumped for the opening of the Giants 2010 season, and their new stadium.  I’m sure those of you reading this felt that way as well.

Poor paint scheme, poor choice of pauldron color (at the time), and a litany of missteps with the details of the sculpt make this NOT definitive by any stretch.  Hasbro should fix the issues, and just give us something approaching a definitive sandtrooper already.  But before they do that, they should focus a large percentage of their efforts on the developing a definitive basic stormtrooper.  It’s a travesty that everything we have so far is inferior.  Enough!

Verdict: No Action (except burn the mold and start over) 

Not surprisingly, you can get this figure pretty cheap on eBay.  Get one, if you must, but be aware of the shortfalls before you buy.

Verdict Guide:
Re-sculpt = The figure is not definitive, and a new version should be developed.
Re-issue = This version is definitive (or close enough), and shows sufficient secondary market demand to warrant a straight repack.
No Action = This release does not require new attention.