Review of Sandtrooper, Dewback
Star Wars sixth scale action figures

Introduction

Tonight I'm checking out the newest Sand Trooper released by Sideshow Collectibles - the Deluxe Desert Sands Detachment Trooper. He's loaded up with accessories, and his released was timed to match up with the release of the uber-cool - and uber-huge - sixth scale Dewback.

This beast is one of those unique display items that can become the center of your collection, assuming it's done properly. Of course, when your friends and relatives see this giant green lizard on your coffee table, being ridden by a trooper in dirty armor, any hope you had of appearing normal will be gone.

Both figures are expensive, with a suggested retail for the Sandtrooper at $135, while the Dewback is a whopping $300. This is a set that requires a lot of money AND a lot of space. A little crazy might help, too.

Packaging - ***1/2
The figure comes in the standard Sideshow Star Wars double fold box, with the wrap around cover and magnetic closures. Everything is collector friendly, and there's no twisties or annoying bands.

The big Dewback comes in a one giant piece, along with the separate base and a couple accessories, all inside two dense foam trays and a massive box. Nothing too special there, although it does keep everything safe, and the edition size and number is printed on the bottom of the box (as well as the bottom of the display base).

Sculpting - Sandtrooper ***1/2; Dewback ****
The sculpting on the Trooper is identical to past Stormtroopers - which is a very good thing. Overall, Sideshow's Troopers are my favorite, with armor that fits well but doesn't restrict the overall articulation and is easy to work with.

I do have a problem with how short the neck is, causing the helmet to ride close to the shoulders. It makes him look a bit stumpy, and a longer neck post would have been a big help.

Otherwise, the sculpted armor looks great. It fits well, and the extra pieces (the pauldron, back pack, pouches) fit nicely over top.

The Dewback is where the sculpting really shines. The skin is textured with a great variety of scales, very life-like and lizardly. The eyes have a sparkle to them, deep set within the skin folds, and the half step pose works great. It looks good with a rider, or with a figure standing to the side.

The Dewback is hollow, which is a good thing. This creature is HUGE - he comes in at a whopping 30 inches long, and 19 inches tall. The scale looks good, which is quite impressive considering how large they had to make him to fit in properly with their Troopers. If he'd been solid, the shipping charges would have been more than the cost of the figure.

Paint - ***
If there's one overall area where I felt both the figure and the beast fell down a bit, it's with the paint ops.

They've done a redeco on the Sand Trooper wear and tear, and it's a bit much this time around. Mine isn't quite more brown than white, but it's close.

I appreciate how difficult a tour of duty on Tatooine would be, but there's something about the brown that just isn't working for me. At least all the details are sharp and clean, and there's certainly no unintentional slop.

The paint ops on the Dewback are also sharp and clean, but a bit...underwhelming. There's nothing about the paint work that's poor, but it just doesn't pop the way I'd expect with something at this price point. It's a million times better than the old Hasbro version, but at three bills I'm expecting top quality paint.

Articulation - Sandtrooper ***1/2; Dewback Bupkis
The Dewback is a solid piece, with no joints of any real substance. The end of the bit in his mouth does turn on one side, but that's about it.

The Trooper is excellent, with the same base body that the rest of the Stormtroopers and Clone Troopers have used. No real surprises here for any one that's worked with one before, but I do have one minor nit that I mentioned in the a previous section. The head is fairly low on the shoulders, which makes the helmet look a bit scrunched up against the body. The neck post needed to be a smidge longer, as this would have helped increase the usefulness of the neck articulation as well.

The rest of the joints work quite well, even with the armor. There's very little restriction, and the joints are tight enough to hold most poses. He needs to hold a weapon up front to help offset the weight of the pack, but I wasn't too surprised by that.

One nice touch is that all the hands come with their own wrist joints, making it much easier to do the swaps.

Accessories - Sandtrooper ****; Dewback ***1/2
There's a ton of extras here - this is the Deluxe Desert Sands Detachment Trooper after all.

He has the aforementioned extra set of hands, as well as two pauldrons - one white, and one grey. I stuck with the grey version in the photos, but swapping between the two is quite easy. They are all material, soft and malleable, with no hard plastic to interfere.

There's also his cool survival pack, which you attach to his back with two straps. These work pretty well, although I did find myself tightening them fairly often. EDIT - it was pointed out to me that there is a small magnet on both the back and the pack, keeping it attached...somewhat. A slight bump and it pops off, so you really do need to use the straps as well.

Nothing on the pack moves, but the sculpting and paint are great. It's also hollow, to keep it from toppling the Trooper over every time.

Not in the posed photos are the long and short cycle filters, but I did include them in the general accessory photo.

There are three triple magazine pouches, one for the shoulder and two for the belt. There's also a small pouch that fits on the belt nicely in back, covering up the velcro closure.

There's no problem with weapons, either. He has not one but FOUR blasters. There's his small, pistol-like blaster, plus three different rifles. Each fits nicely in the gripping hands, and are properly scaled and sculpted.

Some also have moving parts - stocks, sights, supports, etc. Take a little care, because some of the pieces are quite small.

The sculpts and paint work on these heavy blasters (and the light duty blaster as well) are excellent. Sideshow has been cranking out excellent guns for quite awhile now, and these continue the tradition.

He also has his own display base, complete with sculpted sand. If you end up with both the Trooper and the Dewback, you won't need it, but for those only picking up the figure, it can come in handy.

While the Dewback is far more a statue than an action figure, he does have his own set of accessories.

There's the large (and very heavy) sandy base, complete with a very cool decorative paint job on the underside. Unlike the figure, the base is NOT hollow. The post is a permanent part of the back foot, so you won't be able o stand the Dewback without using the base.

The Dewback also has four very cool, and very complex fur covered packs. Slip the straps out of the outer buckles, and inside you'll find more pockets. There's a variety of straps on the edges, and they attach to the saddle with two small clips.

Finally, there's the long, metal lance, which can be held by the Trooper, or slipped through the straps of the saddle bags.

The Dewback also has a removable fur cover for the big saddle horn, and the bed roll is removable as well. I left mine in place, but you can swap them out for a different look.

That's a ton of extras for both figures, but it's particularly nice to get this many add ons with a statue like the Dewback.

Outfit - ****
The Dewback doesn't have much of an outfit, but his fur saddle horn cover and leather reins do add a nice touch to the otherwise sculpted figure.

The Trooper's armor looks as great as always - I've already discussed it in the Sculpting section.

Add in the removable belt, nifty pouches, a soft pauldron, survival pack and extra weapons, and overall you have an amazing outfit.

Fun Factor - ***1/2
I can't even begin to imagine how cool it would be have this as a kid. The figures are actually pretty sturdy - as sturdy as some toys intended for kids - but I wouldn't recommend giving these to anyone for actual 'play'. Be happy that you can pose them, display them, and prove how big of a Star Wars fan you really are.

Value - **
While I really like both of these figures, I have to say they aren't cheap. The Trooper runs $135 at Sideshow's site, but you can get him for closer to $120 at many retailers. That's still a pretty good chunk of change, but the large number of accessories make up for it - almost.

The Dewback runs almost $300 through Sideshow, but you can save another 10% going with one of the retailers in the Where to Buy section. While the sculpting is great, I have to say that with no light or sound feature of any kind, he seems about $50 or so too high.

Things to Watch Out For -
Zippo!

Overall - ***1/2
While both of these are on the high side when it comes to price, they are both great looking figures. Like the Hot Toys Tumbler, I never expected to see a great, properly sized sixth scale Dewback.

This is the sort of thing that will only appeal to a select group though, people crazy enough about a) Star Wars and b) action figures to pay the big bucks to get these...and then have the space to actually show them off. They made 2500 of the Dewbacks, which seems like a big number to me - but perhaps that means you'll get a better deal on the secondary market, at least at first.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpting - Sandtrooper ***1/2; Dewback ****
Paint - ***
Articulation - Santrooper ***1/2; Dewback Bupkis
Accessories - Sandtrooper ****; Dewback ***1/2
Outfit - ****
Fun Factor - ***1/2
Value - **
Overall - ***1/2

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
I've covered a ton of sixth scale Star Wars over the years. Highlights include:

- Earlier this month I checked out Figrin D'an.

- speaking of Troopers, there's the Sargeant Clone Trooper.

- just before that was the diminutive Jedi, Yoda.

- I also liked the recent Gammorean Guard.

- it was awhile before that for the previous review, Admiral Thrawn and his command chair.

- prior to that was Lando Calrissian, and the Shock Trooper.

- Darth Vader was perhaps Sideshow's best Star Wars release.

- then there's the Utapau Trooper, the Imperial Stormtrooper, and Captain Antilles.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page for many previous sixth scale Star Wars reviews, and in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

Discussion:
Want to chat about this review?  Try out one of these terrific forums where I'll be discussing it!

Enjoyed this review? Be sure to head back to the main page to find thousands more just like it!