Masters Of The Dark Side (Darth Maul & Darth Vader) - POTJ - Multipacks

As Lords of the Sith, Darth Vader and Darth Maul draw their power and control from the blackest depths of the dark side of the Force. Darth Vader commands by terror and is key in helping Emperor Palpatine hunt down nearly all of the Jedi Knights. As a disciple of Darth Sidious, Darth Maul's highly trained physical and tactical abilities make him one of the most dangerous Sith apprentices in history.

Did you ever expect to find Darth Maul and Darth Vader side by side battling it out for Sith supremacy? Neither did we. But that’s exactly what Hasbro did to bring collectors two updated versions of the two most popular Sith lords in the Star Wars saga. Heck, maybe they’re just packaged together and not meant to be fighting each other because that would be an Expanded Universe tale we’re not so sure could be pulled off. Although judging from the assortment number that this was meant to be a sub-line that would continue, the Masters Of The Dark Side (Darth Maul & Darth Vader) two-pack ended up becoming a one-off release. But that was alright because it really did give us two nicely tooled and painted action figures of characters we grew to love in the Star Wars saga. These all-new sculpts arguably brought the best versions to date of these characters to the toy line. They’ll hold up well, but they’re not perfect and they will undoubtedly make quite a few collectors happy. And with ample accessories, this multipack should please collectors of all energy levels. The strengths of these figures are their sculpts and not articulation. That you’ll have to remember.

Darth Maul is not bad. He appears a little too bright however. In the film, he has more of a muted red skin color but the action figure is almost neon is brightness. He comes with only seven points of articulation which is hardly an upgrade from the figures we received in the Episode I toy line. Hasbro did however update the figure with ball-jointed shoulders. Interestingly, they do little to improve the figures pose-ability or much else. In fact, we think the awkwardly angled arm actually inhibits the aesthetics of the character. Still, in all fairness Darth Maul looks quite natural when posed with his included lightsaber. And the lightsaber has its own accessory too: a removable blade for extra play value. Darth Maul’s lower body is quite frustrating. For a character that is so agile, athletic and moves like martial arts expert, it’s quite annoying to not do much with him as far as posing him in dramatic ways in your collection. Darth Maul looks alright, but his lack of articulation really affects the quality of the updates made to him. We expected a little bit more from Hasbro here. He is a hugely popular Star Wars character, so it’s likely that fans will gobble this up regardless of its faults anyway.

Darth Vader on the other hand is much more impressive. Based on his appearance from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Darth Vader also shows very little in articulation updates, but it’s clear that Hasbro strived to make a very accurate representation of this character in the 3.75” line. Darth Vader could have really used the ball-jointed shoulders that Darth Maul received instead. Had Hasbro updated Darth Vader in this fashion we believe the figure would have thoroughly impressed collectors. Still, Darth Vader is nothing to wince at because between the soft-goods cape, the well-sculpted inner robes and a head sculpt that just wows us completely, we think that this will be a constant “go to” figure for Hasbro for years to come. Again, the lower body is very inhibited, and we don’t care too much for Darth Vader’s forward lean, but if you can overlook most of these things we believe you will find a well designed action figure. He comes with a lightsaber as well, but the lack of articulation in his arms lends very little in the way of exciting posing options. There is no doubt that this set brings us improved action figures, we just need Hasbro to go a little bit further.