Darth Maul (Sith Apprentice) - POTJ - Basic

Early in Darth Maul's training as a Sith, he wears special padding as he learns the rigors of hand-to-hand combat and furthers his mastery of the dark side of the Force. An extremely loyal and apt student, Maul longs to seek revenge against the Jedi order. It will not be long before he is ready to aid his master, Darth Sidious, in his quest for galactic power.

In 1998, Hasbro produced an incredible selection of Expanded Universe figures. A portion of these figures were based on concept art from the Original Trilogy, by both Joe Johnston and Ralph McQuarrie. They resonated strongly with Star Wars collectors across the galaxy because it was these drawings that brought to life our most favorite characters, vehicles and environments from the Star Wars saga. History always repeats itself, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that Episode I was carried out in a similar manner. George Lucas commissioned some of the best artists in the industry to create sketches of the new characters, vehicles and environments that would make up Episode I and many of them became responsible for what was displayed before our eyes in The Phantom Menace. The Jedi and Sith were displayed quite differently in the concept art than how they appeared in the final version of the film. Wearing armor instead of robes made them feel more like soldiers than defenders of their faith, so a costume design that harkened back to the style of Obi-Wan Kenobi from A New Hope was the obvious choice.

This doesn’t mean that the Prequel Trilogy origins of Darth Maul, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi wouldn’t make for interesting action figures of course. So Hasbro produced all three characters in the Power Of The Jedi line, much to the satisfaction of collectors everywhere. The figures overall came out great. Some looked better than others. But interestingly enough, the most anticipated figure didn’t fully meet the expectations of collectors. Darth Maul (Sith Apprentice) should have turned out better than he did. It’s a greatly sculpted action figure, but its features prevent it from satisfying collectors. It has an excellent head sculpt and an accurately detailed costume, but the lower robes and closely positioned legs make it a nightmare to stand up unassisted. We can easily forgive imperfections, but one thing we can’t tolerate is an action figure that refuses to stand straight up on its feet. The images in the gallery are strewn with the best tricks of the trade to give you a false impression that this figure has a decent center of gravity. Here’s the disclaimer: our images are lying. Functionally, Darth Maul (Sith Apprentice) is one of the worst action figures produced to date. That doesn’t mean we hate him however.

The design of Darth Maul (Sith Apprentice) portrays very tight and constricting body armor. It nearly resembles a straight jack in our opinion. The issue is that is falls below his knees and prevents any useless movement of the legs to balance him. Even the slit in the front is useless. Clearly better engineering needed to be brought into the mix to make this the best action figure it could be. This is the figure’s biggest issue and it almost prevents you from enjoying the awesome head sculpt, the detailed costume, and the appreciation to get another concept art action figure into the line. If you don’t mind action figure stands, Darth Maul (Sith Apprentice) isn’t the worst figure by any stretch of the imagination; but it sure makes you pine for something better. We must give credit where it’s due. It’s truly one of the nicest interpretations (visually) of Darth Maul that Hasbro has ever offered. It’s a shame that it was “wasted” on a figure that isn’t ideal. Even the construction of the head sculpt prevents any meaningful movement in the portrait. This figure definitely has more than its share of issues. That being said, we’re glad Hasbro took a chance. It’s a great start, but we hope they perfect it with a future release.