Darth Maul - Real Action Heroes

Darth Maul was a weapon forged by the hateful energies of the dark side to ensure the victory of the Sith over the Jedi Order. A creature of pure evil, Maul had no personality beyond his ultimate devotion to his master, Darth Sidious. His goal was singular – to exact vengeance upon the Jedi for the decimation of the Sith ranks.

It seems that some of the biggest and coolest villains have the most untimely deaths in the Star Wars saga. But maybe that’s what makes them so cool and last so long in the psyche of fans across the world. Because Darth Maul has this ironic longevity (in death, not life), the various licensees around the world have seen Maul as a proverbial cash cow. And he is one Star Wars villain that has seen a plethora of collectible releases. In general, there is no shortage of collectibles based upon him. And there specifically was no shortage of one-sixth scaled collectibles when it came to Darth Maul either. Hasbro was probably the most guilty about pumping out one one-sixth versions of Darth Maul figure after the other. For the most part they came out pretty well. Three immediately come to mind, but there were likely others if we searched the appropriate databases. It wasn’t until Sideshow Collectibles and Medicom Toy took the reigns over one-sixth scaled collectibles that collectors were treated to the highest quality Darth Maul one-sixth scaled collectibles to date. The items they're producing are unreal in unmatched quality. And they have been delivering impressive collectibles of this character in various formats. Darth Maul will remain a popular mainstay in the multiple collectible formats Star Wars licensees produce. And you can probably expect a few more one-sixth scale interpretations before they're no longer made (if that ever happens).

Sadly, not everything can be completely perfect on the first attempt. Perhaps the Real Action Figures Darth Maul succeeds as much as it fails, and this oxymoronic assessment isn't meant to be noncommittal. We love this figure very much despite its issues. But it certainly isn't the best one-sixth version of Darth Maul out there as a whole. The outfit is much too shimmery and he almost has a giraffe's neck. But the portrait is absolutely stunning. So why does it not look perfect then? Look at this figure yourself. What the heck happened to the neck there? As we've already mentioned, this is almost painful because the likeness is fabulous as is the costume underneath the shiny outer robes. Darth Maul is a hair shorter than the average figure too. (All of the Real Action Heroes are manufactured in a slightly smaller scale than Sideshow Collectibles’ 1:6 Scale Figures line.) Also, the Real Action Heroes body is of a higher quality than Sideshow Collectibles Art S. Buck body type. Don’t get us wrong because both figures are excellent, we just think that the latter has more issues that make the figure look a little more awkward than it needs to be. While the body type is superior, we have to question the expression Medicom Toy decided to give Darth Maul. He is borderline cross-eyed at certain angles (because of the way his eyes are looking “through” his brow), but this is really being picky because the figure truly looks remarkable 99% of the time and it’s really one of the best likenesses of Darth Maul that has ever been captured in one-sixth scale.

Despite the likeness (which we deem to be the greatest in 1:6 scale to date), we still have to question the silhouette of the head. It seems a little bit too oblong which certainly isn’t the shape of Darth Maul’s head of course. He has a boxier shaped head. It's likely that this is accentuated to look worse thanks to the terribly long neck. Perhaps if his neck was shortened the head wouldn't appear to narrow either. You think that this figure would have more negative than positive based on our complaints, but we’re overall very satisfied with the final result. The figure can be posed in limitless ways, and Darth Maul looks very threatening when you get him in those oh-so-accurate screen inspired poses. Certainly Darth Maul isn't completely perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but we still possess a strong fondness for it. If we had to pick only one 1:6 Scale Figures interpretation of Darth Maul figure for our collection, we likely would absolutely choose the Sideshow Collectibles version. But we would absolutely feel like we have missed out of this version because it's really done well too. It is very important to note that the RAH Medicom version may have the superior paint job. It's excellent and Maul’s tattoos are perfectly captured on his head. The horns are also very faithful to how they appear in The Phantom Menace (and are quite sharp we might add). Obviously there are many details to consider when choosing your own one-sixth Darth Maul figure. And there are a lot of options to choose from as far as Darth Maul is concerned. Choose wisely, because these things aren't cheap at all. Hopefully we have made it a little bit easier for you to choose.