Tusken Raider Cape
Wolff
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Tusken Raider (Sand People) Cape was usually released with the following combinations of colour to figure:
There are 7 main variations plus subvariants. Subvariants do exist and may not all be documented. As a result of the fact that these were produced from a vinyl sheet bought from a third party involved, the subvariants may vary heavily depending on the supplier.
Vinyl cape material (PVC) is made out of a heated mass, rolled and milled in several processes to finally get printed or not. That is important to know, because shrinkage can occur to them when heated again, also depending if they were cold milled or heated milled in the last steps and the directions they were milled. Giving exact dimensions of 35+ year old PVC capes is not very helpful for a guide. They were likely die-cut under tension which would also contribute to capes produced in varying sizes from the same source.
So overlaying those to see differences isn’t helpful in most cases. What we have to do is look for overall differences in shapes, forms and die-cuts. For that reason I will refrain on measurements on all vinyl capes but have a scale on all my pictures for reference.
A Tusken Raider (Sand People) cape does not have a given front or back. But all of those capes have a left and right side determined by the asymmetrical shape of the cape. A front and back side was then assigned to make them comparable in the guide.
M1 was produced by UNITOY in Hong Kong. This is the earliest cape made by UNITOY. The one without crosshatch pattern is the earliest cape and has a flat top but is otherwise consistent with the ones with crosshatch in form and shape. The later ones with crosshatch have a defect to the cutting tool which does result in an irregular cut to the upper right corner. This was known before on Kader capes from Leia and Ben. The M1 cape mainly goes with Fam I COOs.
The following versions are known:
- smooth/faint, no crosshatch (M1a)
- crosshatch/faint structure (M1b)
- crosshatch/faint vertical lines (M1c)
- crosshatch/vertical lines (M1d)
M2 was produced by UNITOY in Hong Kong. The M2 cut mainly came with Fam II Coos with M2_2 and M2_3 mainly with the late Fam II COOs and No COO.
Above you can see M2_1, M2_2 and M2_3 cut in comparison. It is not about the different heights. The overall shape did change a bit over time. That can be seen most easily to the shape of the corners (see overview).
The following versions are known:
- crosshatch/faint (M2_1a)
- crosshatch/faint (darker tan) (M2_1a)
- faint/crosshatch (M2_2a)
- glossy faint/crosshatch (M2_2b)
- crosshatch/faint vertical lines (M2_3a)
M3 was produced by UNITOY in Hong Kong. The very small armholes indicate it’s made between M1 and M2 or late Fam I production capes. For now it remains unclear if theses can be sorted along a certain time frame or COO.
The following versions are known:
- glossy faint vertical lines (light tan)/crosshatch (M3a)
- faint vertical lines (dark tan)/crosshatch (M3b)
M4 was produced by KADER in Hong Kong. It is the most comon Kader cape and therefore mostly goes with early Fam IV figures.
Above you can see M4_1 and M4_2 in comparison. The differences can be seen on the overall cut when put one upon the other. But it can be best seen to the die-cut step (see overview) which is only present to M4_1.
The following versions are known:
- faint/crosshatch (dark tan) (M4_1a)
- faint/crosshatch (light tan) (M4_1a)
- rough/crosshatch (large) (M4_2a)
- rough/crosshatch (small) (M4_2a)
M5 was produced by KADER in Hong Kong. The cape certainly is an early and rare one. Im not sure yet if it came only with Fam V figures.
The following versions are known:
- faint/crosshatch (M5a)
- rough/crosshatch (M5b)
M6 was produced by KADER in Hong Kong. This cape is a unicorn. In shape and cut it is the only one I ever found, whereas I have doubles, triples and quadruples on all capes. It might be belonging to Fam III, which is a harder to find Tusken COO.
The following versions are known:
- faint/crosshatch (M6)
M7 was produced by KADER in Hong Kong. These are late Kader capes and the greenish tint one also came mainly with the infamous hollow tubes variant. Kader did enlarge the armholes to prevent the capes from splitting. So these capes seems to be used by Kader after ROTJ 65back and later at least for Fam IV.
The following versions are known:
- faint/crosshatch (light tan) (M7a)
- faint/crosshatch (dark tan) (M7a)
- faint vertical lines/crosshatch (greenish) (M7b)
*Coming soon
Sand People Figure Guide
Poch Sand People Guide
