Sand Blaster

This is one Sandman who'll put you to sleep... forever.

"By some incredible accident, the molecules of his body merged at that radioactive instant with the molecules of the sand under his feet, and his body took on the qualities of the sand itself — becoming virtually indestructible!"

— Reporter describing Sandman, Spider-Man

A character has power over sand, allowing them to create or control the substance. It notably differs from Dishing Out Dirt in that it only allows one to affect sand, meaning they're not going to be throwing around boulders or causing avalanches and earthquakes. While it is usually considered a subset of earth, sand manipulation is far from useless on its own. On the contrary, it can be shown to be just as powerful as more standard earth powers, but quicker and more flexible in use. Especially when in deserts or beach environments.

Expect users or abilities such as this to be associated with deserts in some fashion. A Handful for an Eye may be one of their tactics. Sub-Trope of Dishing Out Dirt and Single Substance Manipulation. Also compare Blow You Away and Sentient Sands. This may or may not include The Power of Glass, considering that sand is the main component of glass.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Cardcaptor Sakura, the Sand card appears as a constantly moving mass of sand that causes problems for Sakura and Syaoran. The card has a Bedlah Babe appearance.
• In Fairy Tail, there are numerous wizards who manipulate sand, including Fairy Tail's Max Alors, Phantom Lord's Sol, and the Celestial Spirit Scorpio. The most powerful sand wizard is Ajeel Ramal, a man known as the "Desert King" for being able to manipulate enough sand to cover a town and is as strong as other wizards known for toppling nations.
• Hoshin Engi: Chotenkun of Juttenkun can control a dimensional space paope called "Kosajin" (Red Sands Formation), which consists of an endless red desert in which he can freely control the sand to dry enemies until they crumble or animate colossal giants of sand.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders: Iggy's Stand, The Fool, can form itself and create objects out of the sand in the environment.
• Snatch from My Hero Academia can turn his body into a cloud of sand which he can then use to immobilize or restrain opponents.
• Naruto:
  • Gaara can control both environmental sand, and his personal supply of sand that's been seeped with his chakra, the latter being more powerful and moving automatically to protect him from attacks. When away from the desert, he can also sneak some of his sand underground to secretly grind up a larger supply of sand for himself underneath the battlefield. This comes from having Shukaku, one of the Tailed Beasts, sealed inside of him at birth, though he retains this ability after Shukaku is removed (with it later being revealed that the sand's automatic movements to protect him come from his dead mother's love). Because they both control physical matter (not Elemental Baggage) and have their own will, Gaara's sand techniques are immune to being negated, absorbed or controlled by others, which combined with the sand's incredible speed and durability has earned them the title of "The Absolute Defence".
  • Some minor desert-dwelling characters also have techniques that can create or control sand, though as they run on basic Earth chakra they're inferior to Gaara's. One or two even use techniques explicitly modelled after those of Shukaku's hosts, including a Filler character who uses "rock powder" and Gaara's father who uses Magnet Release to control gold dust (chosen because its greater weight allows it to overpower Shukaku's sand).
• One Piece: Crocodile, the Big Bad of the Alabasta Arc, ate the Suna Suna no Mi (Sand-Sand Fruit), which allows him to create, control, and even turn into sand. He has such mastery over his powers that he can throw around sandstorms on par with tornadoes and No-Sell any physical attack by turning into sand at the exact moment of impact. He also has the ability to drain the water from whatever he touches until it crumbles to dust, with his powerful Ground Death attack letting him turn an enormous area of terrain — and every living creature in it at the time — into sand. His only weakness is that getting wet negates his ability to turn into sand, although he can counter that with his desiccation ability. Take all of that and add in the fact that he's fought in a desert kingdom, and it's not much of a surprise that it took Luffy three tries to beat him in a fight, with the victory coming incredibly close on the third effort.

Comic Books

• Marvel Universe:
  • Sandman from Spider-Man can transform his body into sand and manipulate it. He can also incorporate nearby rock and sand into his arsenal.
  • Quicksand from The Mighty Thor can transform her body into sand and can then use it to shapeshift, protect herself, and attack other people.
  • Dust from New X-Men: Academy X can turn into sand.
• White Sand takes place on Taldain, a Tidally Locked Planet where Sand Masters can control the Dayside's magical white sand. How much they can control depends on their personal power and how much water they have in their bodies, and overexerting their power will leave a Sand Master a dried husk.
• The fittingly named Sandpit from W.I.T.C.H. is a moving pile of sand.

Fan Works

• Combining this trope with Sentient Sands, Sandbox from Ben 10: Reincario is this. Being made of sand, Sandbox is capable of morphing his body in various ways (it's explicitly stated to be similar to a single-celled organism), such as morphing his arm into an Arm Cannon to launch sand projectiles at opponents. He can also morph the sand into sandstone to serve as makeshift restraints or armor.
• In The Infinite Loops, Johnny Joeastar is mentioned to have learned Sand Alchemy as he's crossing deserts in his baseline all the time.

Film — Animated

• Rise of the Guardians:
  • The Sandman, a.k.a. Sandy, has the power to create magical sand. He can use it to make people fall asleep, control their dreams, and (since he can't talk), to make shapes that he uses to communicate with.
  • While Pitch Black can't make sand of his own accord, he can corrupt the Sandman's sand, which he can then use to make people have nightmares.

Literature

• In Fengshen Yanyi, one of the late antagonists can use his magic and a set of flags to summon the "Crimson Sands Formation", which consist in a patch of desert with red sand, where each grain is actually a miniature but sharp sword: people trapped inside will inevitably sink in the desert and cut to pieces.
• In Journey to the West, the Monster of the Week Sai Taisui fights with a fine steel broadaxe, but also owns three magical bells: the first summons fire, the second smoke, the third a sandstorm. All together they're extremely effective against Sun Wukong's sensitive Magical Eye.
• In the short story "Sandmagic" by Orson Scott Card, the young man Cer Cemreet, who is obsessed with the need for revenge against those who killed his family, decides to become a mage. But only one kind of magic can offer him the power he seeks: the magic of the desert, known as sandmagic.
• Eruhaben's special ability is "dust" in Trash of the Count's Family. He's capable of controlling dust and instantly disintegrating things into dust.

Live-Action TV

• The Flash (2014): "Flash of Two Worlds" has Team Flash battling a meta-human (brought by Zoom from Earth-2 to kill the Flash) nicknamed Sand Demon who can turn his body into sand-like particles and control them at will. He likes using concussion bombs as distractions, since his unique physiology allows him to survive the blast without a problem. Jay Garrick (Earth-2's Flash) teaches Barry to throw bolts of lightning, which allows him to kill Sand Demon by fusing him into glass. The villain then falls and breaks into tiny pieces.

Podcasts

• Cool Kids Table:
  • Dario from the game Here We Gooooo! is yellow, which gives him power over sand. Amongst the practical applications, he can also use it to give opponents the "dizzy" status effect.
  • Grain from The Chimera Program can control sand.

Toys

• BIONICLE:
  • In the first series, sand is an elemental power, and one notable character with it is the Elemental Lord of Sand.
  • BIONICLE (2015): Pohatu is able to manipulate sand through his elemental power of stone.

Video Games

• The Rat King of Arknights has a seemingly near-total command over sand, to the point that he can cast sand shields over him and his Graytail minions. His daughter does something similar but prefers to utilize it as The Power of Glass, which she demonstrated during the Dossoles Holiday event.
• In Dynasty Warriors 7: XL, Pang De's Ex Attack has him using his twin pole axes to rise a whirlwind of sand before smashing the enemies in the ground, causing a splash of red sand. His first Musou attack has him pounding the ground in front of him, sending forth an explosive burst of crimson sands.
• Killer Instinct has Kan-Ra who can fight by magically conjuring sand to attack his enemies.
• The King of Fighters XIV has Kukri, a mysterious member of the Official Invitation Team who can control sand to attack, whether by dropping a ton of it on top of his foes, suffocating with it, or creating sand clones to confuse his opponents.
• Kirby's Return to Dream Land: Sand Kirby, exclusive to the Deluxe remake, allows Kirby to conjure up sandcastles and waves of sand, as well as a fist made entirely out of sand.
• The Legend of Zelda: The Sand Rod in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds allows Link to create pillars of sand, which is useful to traverse quicksand, expose enemies hiding beneath the sandy floor, and move or stop heavy objects (and in the latter game, Link can also merge into the pillars like he does with solid walls). The rod reappears in Hyrule Warriors as a proper weapon against the hordes of enemies, and can be upgraded for greater effect as well.
• The boss ghost Serpci from Luigi's Mansion 3 uses this when battling Luigi, protectively encasing herself in a sandy replica of her head while creating giant sand snakes to attack him.
• Monster Hunter:
  • Monster Hunter Portable 3rd:
    • Nibelsnarf is a desert-dwelling Leviathan with a wide maw it can use to absorb sand and then exhale it as a powerful sandy torrent. On rare occasion, it will expel dust from its gills to harm unsuspecting hunters.
    • The Sand Barioth, subspecies of the snow-dwelling Barioth, is capable of shooting balls of sand as well as creating sand cyclones, which it can then use to perform a rapid charge at the hunter during battle. In 3 Ultimate, specifically in G Rank, it can even shoot smaller cyclones that can move across the area.
  • Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate: During its second phase, Hallowed Jhen Mohran is capable of inhaling a gigantic amount of sand and then exhale it as a massive sandstorm onto the endangered Dragonship. The standard Jhen Mohran can do this as well, but only in G Rank. This move is later borrowed by Dah'ren Mohran in Monster Hunter 4 and by extension 4 Ultimate.
• Mortal Kombat 11's Final Boss Kronika and her servant Geras can use sand for offensive purposes.
• In Pokémon, there are sand-themed Ground & Rock-type moves, such as "Sand Attack" (reduces the opponent's accuracy by throwing sand in their face), "Sand Tomb" (traps the opponent in quicksand or a mini sandstorm, depending on the game), "Sandstorm" (summons a sandstorm that affects the whole field, damaging Pokémon other than Rock, Ground, and Steel types every turn) and "Scorching Sands" (deals damage and may burn the opponent). Additionally Pokémon with the "Sand Stream" ability, such as Tyranitar and Hippowdon, automatically produce the effects of the Sandstorm move when they enter battle.
• Leona Kingscholar of Twisted Wonderland's unique magic, "King's Roar", is able to make everything he touches (or everything within his range, as showcased in his SSR version's personal story) dry up and turn into sand. It is potentially lethal to living beings as well.
• Warframe:
  • Inaros is a pharaoh-themed Warframe who can manipulate sand at will, sucking the moisture out of his enemies, burying them in the ground for him to devour, and conjuring massive sandstorms to toss his foes around.
  • Invoked with Baruuk's ultimate ability, Serene Storm, by giving him access to his Exalted Weapon, Desert Wind, knocking his foes aside with powerful bursts of sand-like energy particles.

Webcomics

• Bronze Skin Inc.: The Sand King in Chapter 6 is able to manipulate sand to make castles and even sand golems.

Web Original

• WitchCraft SMP: Sand Witches are able to collect sand at a faster speed and summon sand to drop it on their target(s). Unfortunately, the latter ability only works when there isn't a roof over the target's head.

Western Animation

• Aladdin: The Series has two, probably because sand is everywhere. Sadira manipulates more conventional sand, while Mozenrath has the Black Sand his kingdom is named for that seems, for all intents and purposes, to be sentient quicksand.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • The Sandbenders are a tribe of Earthbenders living in the Si Wong Desert, whose style of Earthbending incorporates unusually loose, fluid motions better suited to controlling sand. This gives them an advantage against the protagonists, who are more accustomed to Earthbending solid boulders.
  • Toph initially has difficulty bending sand. Because she "sees" via ground vibrations, sand makes everything fuzzy to her, and was a major factor in her letting Appa get captured (which Aang chewed her out for, never mind that she was trying to prevent the Wan Shi Tong library from sinking into the sand at the time). Later in the series, she's seen sandbending a perfect replica of Ba Sing Se out of sand to show off her progress.
• In the Steven Universe episode "Giant Woman", Pearl telekinetically controls sand to illustrate to Steven how she and Garnet's Fusion Dance works.
• In Wolverine and the X-Men (2009), Dust cameos with her ability to turn her body into sand and move around freely.

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AHHH! IT'S IN MY EYES!