Thomas Storai 
“The Hot Toys Darth Maul is an amazing figure with a fantastic headsculpt that features separate rolling eyeballs. This is a must-have!”
After Ahsoka Tano, Darth Maul is joining The Clone Wars line of figures from Hot Toys. The figure was recently released in Hong Kong and is now shipping internationally. Is this new Maul figure worth your money?
THE BOX
The box is not exactly your usual Star Wars box. On the outside, it looks similar – a black box with a picture of the figure and the Star Wars logo. But it is taller and thinner. Though, that is not the best part. When you remove this part of the box, you discover the Mandalorian sarcophagus box. And this is simply awesome! Indeed, this is not simply a figure box, this is also something you can use in your collection!
ACCESSORIES
That sarcophagus box was already something great to include with the figure but he also has some other cool accessories! The display base is your usual Star Wars interior base. This time, they used dark gray paint.
The figure comes with five hands with gloves and four bare hands. For the bare hands, you have two hands to hold the lightsaber and two open hands it’s nicely painted red and black. As for the hands with the gloves, there are two open hands, two hands to hold the lightsaber, and one Force hand. I’m a little bit disappointed on that side because I expected more hands with that figure. At the very least, they should have closed fist hands too.
Then you have the lightsaber. It is the remaining part of this saber from The Phantom Menace with another saber attached to it. They used metallic paint. It looks great. And it’s nicely detailed. With that saber, you have two normal blades and two action blades. You also have the LED light-up saber arm. It can only be used if you display the figure with his outfit. You can’t use it if you display your figure bare chest. It’s always a cool feature to have on a figure!
Then, he also has a hood that can be attached to his outfit if you want to recreate his look when he contacts the Pykes in the Ahsoka arc from the final season of The Clone Wars. Finally, he also has a clone trooper piece of armor to recreate his scenes from The Clone Wars when he escapes the Venator cruiser. It is the same piece used on other clone figures but painted only in white.
THE FIGURE
This is my first Darth Maul figure. I hesitated between The Clone Wars version and the Solo: A Star Wars Story version. Ultimately, I picked The Clone Wars because this series has a very important place in my heart. And I have to say I am really glad about the choice I’ve made. It’s such a cool outfit! And unlike his Solo outfit, this one feels more like a combat outfit.
It uses a bit of pleather on his tunic and for the belt and also plastic for the pauldrons but most of the outfit is made of fabric. So this means, you can give him great poses. The robotic legs are not die-cast but it’s plastic. Though the paint gives it a mat metallic feel which I like!
Even though, we don’t see him like this in the final season of The Clone Wars. There is a second way to display this figure – you can remove his tunic and have him bare-chested. It can be cool to display him like this! This certainly looks badass. They didn’t go seamless for this one because of the black marks on his red body. I think they don’t have the technology yet that allows them to paint motifs seamlessly. And to be honest, not going seamless means we can give him great action poses. So I do think it is better for this figure! The elbows only feature a single joint, not the usual double joint but that is for the aesthetic. And honestly, even with a single joint, you can get some cool poses!
HEADSCULPT
Now about the headsculpt, it was made by Taeho Kang and painted by JC Hong. This is a fantastic headsculpt. You can recognize Ray Park there, he is the one who plays live-action Maul. It is spot on. I love the serious angry look they have given him with his mouth slightly opened.
And just like Ahsoka, he has the separate rolling eyeballs feature, which is simply AMAZING! Another cool thing is his head works with a magnet just like Venom. I do hope they use that for more figures especially when you have to remove the head to either put the helmet on or move the eyes.
GALLERY
VERDICT
This is an amazing figure with a fantastic headsculpt that features separate rolling eyeballs, this is a must! And let’s not forget the awesome Mandalorian sarcophagus box! This figure is definitely worth it!
The Hot Toys Darth Maul is distributed by Sideshow Collectibles in Europe and the United States and is available to PRE-ORDER NOW!
Collectables Editor at Future Of The Force.
Star Wars and Marvel specialist, anime expert
