Star Wars 6" The Black Series #2 Darth Maul...

Here's figure #2 from Star Wars 6" The Black Series ("TBS") line. I've covered figures #1 and #3 prior to this. After the Sandtrooper, Darth Maul is the most 'scalped' figure off the TBS Series 1 here at my local TRUs. I've only seen him once or twice in the wild before he eventually evaporated into a myth-like status. Like I said before, I'm not even gonna bother hunting the 6" TBS figures in the wild. I'm just too annoyed by the fact that I'm gonna have to battle it out with those darn scalpers to these. I already have the 6" TBS figures on 'standing order' with my toy pusher so I'm covered there. Anyway, let's today see how the Zabrak Sith lord fare against the rest of his OTC series mate!

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The packaging's the same as the one you've seen on Luke and Artoo before. I've talked about this twice before.....yada...yada...yada.

The quote printed at the back of the packaging here represents one half of the ONLY dialogues uttered by Maul in Episode I. The only other diaologue uttered by the Sith lord talked about how 'sparsely populated' Tatooine was. Funny how cool guys have less stuff to say in movies.

 

Here he is....free at last! Darth Maul is holding his un-ignited lightsaber hilt(s) in this picture.

 

Hasbro's been kind enough to give us two (2) heads. One is sans the hood/robe and the other is covered by the hood. Funny thing is, the hooded head is attached to the hood/robe itself! So you just gotta pop the whole entire hood/robe PLUS the attached head itself if you wanna go with the robeless/hoodless look for Maul. It's okay in my books, just 'un-conventional'.

 

Since the second head comes attached with the hood, we get a nicely contoured fabric look on top of Maul's head instead of the bulky ugly sight on most 3.75" Jedi/Sith figures. The hooded head, if left standing on its own can be real mind-boggling at times as it's basically a flying head inside a robe! Talk about being creepy!

 

Maul can be seen holding his binoculars here. Just like the time when he first arrived on Tatooine and began to look far at the horizon to look for signs of life etc on the planet.

 

The hooded head didn't stay long on my Maul as I prefer the hoodless look for my shelf. You see, I have Duel of The Fates playing consistently in my head and images of Darth Maul battling it out with Qui Gon Jinn and his Padawan seems to flash through my mind all day long.

 

I love the use of soft cloth with the plastics on this figure. It seemed to be a bad idea on some 3.75" Star Wars figures but somehow it worked better with the 6" figures. They don't look awkward or mis-shaped at all.

 

As per the Luke Skywalker figure, I love it that these 6" are given the ball-jointed and swivel hips. Can't stress how important it is for someone as flexible as Darth Maul to have all his crazy articulations.

 

I noticed that the paint was not fully applied to each of his horns. You could see that the paint was supposed to run through a bit lower (almost touching his scalp) but it was left hanging half way. Not sure whether this was intentional or other wise. I've already some collectors applying some paint to resolve this anomaly. I'm leaving my Maul as he is though as I'm not too annoyed by it.

 

Here's Darth Maul up against Luke Skywalker! Technically this never happened since both of 'em didn't belong in the same era anyways but for the fun of it!

Did I mention that his lightsaber can be split into half? You'd get to re-enact the scene where his weapon was sliced into half in Episode I. I've always liked (and would like to imagine) him wielding 2 separate lightsabers instead of the 'spear'-like saber he came with. Maybe it's just me.

 

Just look at him snarl! It may be too far fetched to say this but I think this figure captured Ray Park's likeness pretty well underneath all that face tattoo.

 

THE REBEL'S VERDICT: My, my....I think this version of ol' horn-head Dathmorian Zabrak Sith lord is superior than the VOTC 3.75" version! I was pretty adamant of staying away from the Prequel character in the beginning. Heck, I was even that close of listing Darth Maul here on eVilbay the moment I got my Wave 1 set. I'm glad this figure changed my mind on the Prequel figures. Episode III Obi Wan and Anakin is coming up in Wave 3. I just hope Hasbro will give us Episode I Obi Wan and Qui Gonn to accompany Maul on my display shelf real soon. I just don't get it with collectors who constantly complain that Hasbro 'didn't hit the mark' or 'disappoint' with their TBS 6" line. They're very well produced (though far from being perfect) and no Star Wars fan should be without. I'm all in for the 6" TBS line! We need Darth Vader next!