Tusken Raider (Archive) — Star Wars The Black Series

Overview

The Tusken Raider at the Archive Collection captures the canonical Tatooine desert nomad — fearsome desert savages who are the foremost reason Tatooine colonists do not wander far from their isolated communities. Released March 2021 single-carded as part of the Wave 4 Rogue One Archive Collection cluster. Mainline non-exclusive at $19.99 — standard mainline pricing. 19 joints. Six accessories: a removable soft-goods robe, a rifle, a gaderffii stick, and three different exchangeable tips. The figure is a re-release of the 2017 Black Series Tusken Raider (figure id=5977).

The Six-Accessory Loadout — Richest in Wave 4

Six components is the highest accessory count in the Wave 4 Rogue One cluster and among the most accessory-rich releases in the Archive Collection overall. The loadout breaks down into two distinct equipment categories: the weapons configuration (rifle + gaderffii with three tips) and the costume component (soft-goods robe).

The Gaderffii Stick and the Three Exchangeable Tips

The gaderffii stick with three exchangeable tips is the Tusken Raider Archive’s most distinctive accessory engineering. The tips can easily be attached to the stick. The figure is able to hold the gaderffii stick with both hands simultaneously and can raise it over its head — standard two-handed reach-weapon engineering supporting the canonical Tusken Raider above-head gaderffii-raised display configuration that is one of the most recognisable poses for the character class.

The three different tips are a smart design decision specifically for army-builder collectors — if you purchase multiple Tusken Raider figures, the three tip variants can be distributed across copies to create slightly different-looking figures on the shelf. For collectors who build Tatooine raider-pack display configurations with multiple Tusken Raiders, this accessory variation reduces the visual monotony of identical-weapon-configuration army-builder groups without requiring separate figure acquisitions.

The Rifle and Its Grip Problem

The blaster rifle looks nice, but the figure is unable to hold it properly. This is a specific weapon-grip engineering critique worth flagging clearly — unlike the gaderffii, which is designed for two-handed grip, the rifle’s geometry doesn’t engage with the Tusken Raider’s hand tooling in a way that delivers secure weapon-grip display. The rifle is better used as a display-adjacent prop or slung-pose accessory rather than a held-in-hand weapon configuration.

The Soft-Goods Robe and Its Warning

Once the head is popped off it’s possible to take the Tusken Raider’s soft-goods robe off — though this is not recommended, as the robe is tucked in underneath the plastic very well even with the head off the neck peg. The soft-goods robe is permanently the display state for practical purposes. For collectors who want the canonical fully-robed Tusken Raider display (which is the only canonical display configuration — Tusken Raiders in screen appearances are always fully robed), the robe stays on. This is the correct display state for the character anyway.

The Paint and Sculpt

Hasbro sculpted the Tusken Raider very nicely — there are lots of details on the head which look great and the overall figure accurately represents the on-screen appearance. The colour tone on the outfit looks good and the boots were nicely weathered. The weathering on the boots captures appropriate Tatooine desert-environment operational wear-and-tear.

One paint-application critique worth noting — there is a wash on the bottom of the Tusken Raider’s clothes, but it looks as if somebody just painted a stripe from left to right rather than a natural wash distribution. It’s not a deal breaker, but the bottom-garment wash application could have been executed with more realistic dirt-and-shadow distribution. For collectors who care about paint application quality on lower-garment weathering specifically, this is a minor structural critique.

The straps across the chest and the pouches around the waist are not removable. Standard integrated-equipment design.

Articulation

19 joints. Ball-jointed top neck, swivel-jointed lower neck, ball-jointed shoulders, ball-jointed elbows, ball-jointed wrists, ball-jointed upper body, ball-jointed hips, swivel-jointed thighs, swivel-joints above knees, swivel joints below knees, ball-jointed ankles. Above the 17-joint Phase 4 baseline through dual-axis neck engineering. The figure stands securely when on display without any balancing issues — standard character-class standing-stability engineering with no specific balance challenge from the figure’s proportions or head-mask configuration.

The Structural Outlier in Wave 4

The Tusken Raider is the structural outlier in Wave 4’s otherwise-Rogue One-focused cluster. Three of Wave 4’s four figures are Rogue One Imperial trooper variants (Imperial Death Trooper, Imperial Hovertank Driver, Shoretrooper). The Tusken Raider is the canonical A New Hope Tatooine character that breaks the thematic pattern — a Tatooine desert nomad in a wave otherwise centred on the Imperial military.

For the Archive Collection’s broader character-class coverage, the Tusken Raider fills the Tatooine indigenous-species slot that no other Archive release covers. It’s the only non-Imperial, non-Rebel, non-protagonist character class in the Wave 4 cluster.

Other Tusken Raider Figures

The Tusken Raider has been a recurring Tatooine character-class release subject. Other notable releases include the Power of the Force 2 With Bantha (figure id=100), the Saga Collection A New Hope release (figure id=457), the Power of the Jedi Desert Sniper (figure id=743), the The Phantom Menace Discover the Force variant (figure id=953), the Vintage Collection Villain Set II 3-Pack (figure id=1168), the Power of the Force 2 standard release (figure id=1250), and the 2017 Black Series source body (figure id=5977). The Archive release joins this catalogue as the dedicated 2021 Wave 4 Archive Collection re-release with the distinctive three-tip gaderffii loadout.

Secondary Market

Single-carded Archive Collection release with dedicated Archive cardback packaging, March 2021. Available through wide retail channels at MSRP and the secondary market. Verify all six accessories — soft-goods robe, rifle, gaderffii stick, and all three tips — are present. The three small tips are the most easily lost components during transit.

Verdict

Tusken Raider (Archive) at the 2021 Wave 4 Archive Collection delivers the canonical Tatooine desert nomad through the Archive Collection’s richest single-figure accessory loadout in the wave — the gaderffii stick with three exchangeable tips supports canonical two-handed raised-weapon display and smart army-builder tip-distribution variety, the nicely detailed head sculpt and weathered boots capture the canonical screen-accurate desert nomad appearance, and the figure stands reliably without balance issues.

The rifle grip is the meaningful functional critique — the figure can’t hold it properly, limiting the rifle to display-adjacent or slung-pose configurations. The bottom-garment wash reads as a flat stripe rather than natural dirt distribution — minor but noticeable. The soft-goods robe removal is strongly not recommended.

Buy this figure if you build canonical Tatooine display configurations (the Tusken Raider is the only Archive Collection Tatooine indigenous-species character, essential for desert-nomad scene assembly), if you build army-builder Tusken Raider raider-pack displays (the three exchangeable gaderffii tips support visual variety across multiple copies without additional acquisitions), if you want the six-accessory loadout with gaderffii engineering, or if you collect the Archive Collection as a complete set. Skip if the can’t-hold-rifle-properly limitation is a dealbreaker, or if you specifically want the Mandalorian-era Tusken Raider visual distinct from this ANH-era configuration.

The fearsome desert nomad of Tatooine’s sand-swept wastes. The figure with the six-accessory loadout, the three-tip gaderffii engineering for army-builder variety, the can’t-grip-properly rifle critique, the nicely detailed head sculpt, the flat-stripe bottom-wash note, and the structural outlier position in the Wave 4 Rogue One Imperial cluster. The only Tatooine indigenous-species character in the Archive Collection. Mainline distribution, March 2021, Wave 4.

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Part of Star Wars The Black Series | Phase 4 Archive Collection. Related: Imperial Death Trooper (Archive) P4-ARC-DT | Imperial Hovertank Driver (Archive) P4-ARC-HD | Shoretrooper (Archive) P4-ARC-SH | Anakin Skywalker (Archive) P3-ARC-AN.