Toy Review: ‘Star Wars’ Black Series Darth Maul Is An Excellent Figure

Star Wars, perhaps more than any other franchise, is full of eye-catching characters, both heroes and villains. It’s no wonder that so many have become pop culture icons, even with extremely limited screen time. Perhaps none are bigger than Darth Maul.

Maul debuted in 1999’s Star Wars: Episode I- The Phantom Menace as the largely wordless muscle of Darth Sidious, the Sith Lord manipulating the entire galaxy. Maul made a huge impact from his first frame, with his intimidating red and black skin with his horned scalp, and his double-bladed lightsaber.

The Phantom Menace ended with Maul bisected and falling down an energy shaft. That couldn’t keep a good Sith Lord down though. Eventually Maul returned in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, becoming a recurring antagonist through the series, rising to take over the Black Sun crime syndicate. And the upswing of that journey is where we find him at the beginning of Maul: Shadow Lord, starting this week.

Unsurprisingly, the series is getting a wave of Star Wars The Black Series action figures from Hasbro. Unfortunately, the figures themselves aren’t out until later this spring. Thankfully though, Hasbro has released a recent Maul figure that we picked up to take a look at.

This figure is part of a three pack released to celebrate the anniversary of The Phantom Menace, featuring Maul, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi. And immediately, this set looks amazing. I don’t know why more figures don’t come with cloth accessories, but even in the box, the robes on these figures are striking.

That meant out of the box, Maul is an intimidating figure. His hooded robe makes him stand out, even in just a neutral pose. Though you have to be somewhat careful removing it (on account of the horns and everything), it comes off fairly easy as well. Now the figure only comes with the robe and his lightsaber, but when the figure is this strong, that’s all I needed. Added bonus was that the lightsaber did split in two.

The design is simply movie Maul. He’s in black robes, his face design is pitch perfect. This is Maul come to life, even if it’s one of his more straightforward designs.

For posing, he’s almost perfect. The only place it fell short was in wielding his lightsaber in two hands. The hilt bent slightly as I attempted it, so I only left it that way for a single photo, then moved on. Otherwise, I was able to do just about any pose I wanted with him. Once again, an included stand would make the figure much better, but for a display piece or play piece, he’s great.

I’m excited to take a look at the other two figures in this set, since Maul himself is so strong. For one of the Star Wars franchise’s most iconic characters, Hasbro got it right, hands down.