Darth Maul - Life-Size Busts

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.

Darth Maul at Life-Size Bust scale is quite intimidating. You know something is very well made when it makes your skin crawl and frighten small children (which it has – we have first-hand experience with this). When Sideshow Collectibles decided to develop a product line of 1:1 Life-Size Busts for the various Star Wars characters, it was inevitable that Darth Maul would be one of the first few characters attempted in this very aggressive line. Thank goodness they did decide to start with one of the most popular villains in the Star Wars saga. Obviously, the Life-Size Busts line alienates most collectors. Due to their sheer size and price, these aren’t collectibles for the average Joe. But for the collectors that can make them part of their collections, the Life-Size Busts line offers unprecedented detail and accuracy that just simply cannot be achieved in a smaller scale. To be able to see the pores in the skin of Darth Maul (just one small example actually) should spell out just how much attention to detail get documented in this scale. Sideshow Collectibles even hired the help of Spectral Motion to help capture some extra special magic in how well Darth Maul gets translated into a Life-Size Bust. Darth Maul is the premier piece in the series of Life-Size Busts Sideshow Collectibles has in mind, and they are already doing incredible work as evidenced by Darth Maul.

Hand crafted and hand painted, you may be able to see tiny imperfections in the paint job on Darth Maul. But it is obvious that Sideshow has high-quality assurance expectations with these pieces, and there is very little to find fault in with the overall appearance of the piece. From the eyes to the nose, to the horns to the chin, Darth Maul looks incredibly real. It is evident that a lot went into this piece and the artists at Sideshow Collectibles have certainly breathed life into this piece. Darth Maul is snarling and showing his decaying teeth. You feel the anger in him, and if you didn’t know any better, you’d second guess that this thing is real. Even Ray Park himself was alarmed at how much this bust looks like him. That is a testament to how awesomely the pieces in the Life-Size Busts are and will continue to be. The skin in spots may look a little too much like a dark pink than bright red, but we have to keep in mind that this isn’t an action figure. Sideshow has access to reference materials that the casual collector doesn’t so you can rest assured that this is an accurate paint job. The horns on the top of his head are quite sharp (and hard since they are made from high-quality polystone) and equidistant (yet not uniform) from each other. They too have received stunning paint jobs, and you can see the texture and various colors in them.

Darth Maul comes with a partial replica of his costume as well. The nice part is that a portion of his cloak comes with the bust so you can pose him with or without it. And it has been designed so well that it doesn’t look like it’s sitting too high on his horns with you place it on the top of his head. Darth Maul is mounted on what Sideshow is calling a “mechanical” base. It isn’t reminiscent of anything “Star Wars” exactly, yet it looks like it could have been pulled somewhere deep within the Star Wars universe. It is a gorgeous base that will be used for all future busts. The nameplate is also very attractive. The Star Wars logo is separated from Darth Maul’s name with a decorative line and placed underneath the faux glass. It is shiny and catches your eye. That was a very nice touch to this bust. Limited to only 1000 pieces worldwide, we expect this Life-Size Bust to sell through rather quickly. (Editor’s Note: This item is fetching a premium on the aftermarket right now!) We don’t expect many other pieces to be produced for this healthy edition size for other Star Wars characters, but anything is possible. If Sideshow keeps producing awesome pieces like Darth Maul, the line should have a very healthy run. We hope it does because they are some of the best Star Wars collectibles out there.