When news of the Black Series debuted, Darth Maul was easily the least impressive figure of the group to me. The prototype pics did not do this figure justice because when I passed by the figure on a peg at SDCC, it nearly leaped into my hands. In person he looks great and is actually my favorite of the group. Let’s take a closer look at the new 6-inch scale Darth Maul!
Packaging
Like with my Luke, I don’t have the packaging for this guy. Apologies for that, but I had to rip into it without any tools at SDCC and it got pretty banged up as I walked the floor. Still, it’s very good looking stuff, though I would handle with care as you wouldn’t want to leave finger prints all over the nice matte black surface. I suggest those white gloves that doctors wear or perhaps just chuck the stuff and grab that figure!
Accessories
Maul comes with some cool stuff. First off is his swappable cloaked head sculpt. The outer cloak is actually glued to the head and can be easily popped on and off to get Maul’s two costume variations in one figure; that right there is a fantastic feature. The cloak is made of a very flexible plastic and allows for some decent movement, though not as much as Maul has without the cloak.
Maul also comes with his famous dual-bladed lightsaber that can be split in two and the blades can be removed. There is a small peg on the hilt so you can plug the lighsaber into Maul’s belt if so desired (FYI, Maul’s blades do not fit Luke’s hilt). The hilt is made a of a pretty soft plastic that does bend a bit and pops apart, so setting up a pose can be a bit tricky, but they hold the pose great. Last are Maul’s binoculars from the nighttime searching scene in The Phantom Menace. Unfortunately, you can’t really pose him looking through them, so he just holds them. Still nice to have.
Sculpt
The sculpt is sharp and there is a lot of nice texture detail that makes the cloth sculpts feel more like cloth. There is a bit of soft goods around the skirt at the waist, but it actually blends in pretty well with sculpted material. Maul’s face looks fantastic as he has this really intense look that I absolutely love. I can’t help but start humming “Duel of the Fates” when I pick up this guy.
Articulation
Maul is loaded with great articulation, including:
- Ball-jointed head and torso
- Hinged neck
- Swivel/Hinged shoulders, elbows, ankles, hips, and wrists
- Swivel thighs
- Double hinged knees
The torso ball joint is right above the belt line and has an impressive range of motion. I’m able to get Maul into a ton of leaping and deep crouching poses with no issues. The wrist articulation allows for some very cool lightsaber-wielding poses as well. There is a slight difficulty in keeping Maul balanced standing as his feet are a bit small; it just takes a little fiddling. If you have no patience for that, he does have foot pegs that fit the DC Movie Masters Superman stands.
Final Thoughts
I had originally thought of possibly skipping Maul from this series. I’m not the biggest prequel trilogy fan, but this guy could not be denied. The figure is just incredibly cool in package in person, and once you crack it open, the playability, poseability and cool factor are just off the charts. This is an unqualified rave from me. Well done, Hasbro.
Maul is available for Preorder on Amazon now.
