Darth Maul - SW [TPM 3D] - Movie Heroes (MH15)

Darth Maul duels Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Theed Royal Palace on Naboo. The Sith Lord handles the lightsaber with supreme skill, making it difficult for the two Jedi to gain the upper hand in life-or-death confrontation. Maul slashes at his opponents with his double-bladed lightsaber as the three duel from the hangar bay to the generator complex.

The 2012 Movie Heroes line is stuck in a time warp in many ways. We’re not only reliving Episode I, we’re also reliving the reduced articulation, the chronically repetitive character selection and weak action features of the figures we saw at retail from over a decade ago. There is no denying that the sculpts are significantly improved. And it seem that Hasbro is attempting to remain noncommittal about who the Movie Heroes line is actually intended. Clearly as collectors we would exclaim that it’s definitely not for us, but when you look at a figure like Queen Amidala (MH17), Anakin Skywalker (MH14) and even Jar Jar Binks (MH13), it’s hard to resist our curious nature and many of us will likely become closet purchasers of this line. Obviously none of the action figures will receive a definitive thumb’s up by collectors, but it’s hard to say that there are no figures at all that will draw in some interest by adult collectors. You may disagree and please let it be clear we are very unhappy with the Movie Heroes line, but perhaps not all of it should be dismissed.

One figure that you could safely dismiss is the new Darth Maul (MH15) figure. Do you remember the three Deluxe Episode I figures? Think of that concept applied into a new action figure without the need for the huge lightsaber “tool” to move the figure. Darth Maul is one loose mess of a figure riddled with the most annoying action feature. (You press his legs together to make his arms move while holding his double-bladed lightsaber. What’s tragic about this action figure is that Darth Maul is well-proportioned and doesn’t have that bad of a head sculpt. So why go through the agony of paying for new tooling only to ruin it with these action features? What’s worse, Darth Maul’s forearms are the loosest joints we have ever come across. Unless you plan to pose him at the ready with his lightsaber at all times, his forearms are going to spin in unnatural positions and harm the figure’s overall aesthetics. Sigh.

We have commented on the head sculpt. It isn’t the greatest we have ever seen on Darth Maul, but it has the potential to rival both the portrait on 2005’s ROTS The Sith Evolutions version and even 2009’s LC Darth Maul (BD05) figure. A revised paint job would really make it shine. But no matter how “good” the head sculpt is, it probably won’t save this figure from being overlooked by a huge portion of collectors. There is just too much wasted opportunity. Whether it’s because we just can’t accept that Movie Heroes is truly the first kid-focused line or it’s because we want to like all of the all-new sculpts that Hasbro designs in this day and age because they are so few and far between anymore, we do know that the Movie Heroes line is far from being up to snuff. Many are having trouble reconciling the line. We wish we could offer a reason to pick up this figure, but we can’t. It’s just not worth the time or energy and it’s certainly not worth almost ten of your hard earned dollars.