The Tusken Raiders - Star Wars series 1 card #21

A spooky Tusken Raider.

What's Topps about this card?

1. Tusken Raiders, I feel, borrow somewhat from some of the more human shaped bad guys from the Dr Who episodes also made in the 1970's.

2. The weapon he is holding in this shot is a gaderffii, or gaffi stick. More a type of club or mace than an actual firing weapon.

3. In the culture of the Tuskens, to expose any part of the flesh was forbidden and seen as a disgrace...much like some religions in our own world.

Hunted by the Sandpeople! - Star Wars series 1 card #20

that there be a Bantha..

Here we have a Tusken Raider (aka Sand person or people, take your pick), riding a Bantha.

What's Topps about this card?

1. That Bantha has to be one of the better creatures in the Star Wars universe, maybe because it has a striking resemblance to a woolly mammoth.

2. In the original version of A New Hope, the bantha was played by a trained elephant named Mardji in a fur costume. In later version the Bantha was digitised.

3. The distinctive spiral horns of the bantha grow at the rate of a knob each year...fact!