Darth Maul (Tatooine) - EI - Basic

The evil Sith Lord Darth Maul learns the power of the dark side from his master Darth Sidious. Together, they plot to destroy the Jedi and enslave the peaceful planet of Naboo.

The mad rush in April 1999 all centered around Darth Maul. At the time, Darth Maul was a character we knew nothing about other than he looked pretty awesome and was the main antagonist in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. And all collectors knew that he would be the pinnacle of all Star Wars collecting for the next couple of years…. And certainly the focal point of attention for the entire 1999 year. He had varying outfits throughout The Phantom Menace. It seemed as if the hotter the climate was, the more layers he was wearing. A scene involving him to attempt to attack Qui-Gon Jinn and young Anakin Skywalker almost resulted in disaster. And the release of Darth Maul (Tatooine) sort of sets the stage for the outcome of these events. Darth Maul spent some time of Tatooine utilizing various Sith probe droids to find his quarry. Ultimately, he was wasn’t successful, but he did wage a strong battle with Qui-Gon Jinn before he and everyone else escaped into the Naboo Royal Starship. It was an exciting scene from the film and clearly made for great toy material. Hasbro worked that into the line very quickly.

The need to make Darth Maul (Tatooine) is relevant. Star Wars collecting is about getting every version of the character possible. And because Darth Maul wears an almost identical version of his costume throughout the film, it’s important to point out the subtleties when appropriate. A character with so few wardrobe changes and about the same amount of dialogue, it’s amazing the overzealous popularity that exists towards Darth Maul. But then again, should any of us be surprised? In Star Wars, less often means more for us and it seems that the less we know about a Star Wars character that looks amazing, the more we seem to love him or her. As far as the Hasbro line is concerned, we’re actually surprised that Hasbro didn’t release more versions of Darth Maul than they did. But at least with the ones they did release they tried to capture the essence and feel from different scenes within Episode I. Darth Maul (Tatooine) looks alright, but his articulation is essentially rendered useless because of the molded robes. And we don’t think the deco, albeit very cleanly applied, represents the true look of the character all that well.

Although Darth Maul (Tatooine) comes with a couple of extra points of articulation, they don’t offer the character that much more in terms of benefitting it. Sure the arms around the elbows swivel to recreate lightsaber swinging motion, but with the inability to articulate the shoulders all that well, this extra articulation is nearly moot. Underneath of the molded robes is a nicely tooled body complete with a swivel waist and swivel hips. Darth Maul (Tatooine) comes with a lit lightsaber, but only one half of it is ignited. Not one of Hasbro’s greatest efforts, Darth Maul (Tatooine) does provide some usefulness for display builder and diorama collaborators. We still think a better version of this outfit for Darth Maul can be found in the Tatooine Showdown Cinema Scenes set. That figure has a whole lot less articulation than this figure does, but it looks significantly better. All in all, Darth Maul (Tatooine) is destined to be a hit just because of the character is represents, but in all honesty the figure may leave you feeling a little bit flat. It’s about as good as it is bad in all honesty.