Sith Infiltrator - TAC - Vehicles

The Sith Infiltrator streaks silently and invisibly through space to its destination. Hidden beneath the side panels and mounted on the wings are launchers that fire probe droids or missiles, depending on whether the craft's pilot is on a mission to seek or destroy his intended quarry. The wings flare open, greatly increasing the craft's speed and attack maneuverability. Darth Maul flies a Sith Infiltrator to the planet Tatooine during his quest to find Queen Amidala.

1999 may have been the year for The Phantom Menace, but Hasbro made us wait an excruciating eight years before they decided to produce Darth Maul’s signature vehicle, the Sith Infiltrator. A longtime desired vehicle, it finally came to pass in 2007’s 30 (77-07) line – which in all honesty is an appropriate time of release to help celebrate 30 years of the complete Star Wars saga. Sadly, the vehicle may not meet everyone’s expectations because it is much too small in scale when compared to the one we saw in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The vehicle itself is a very nice toy. Forget about its size issues for a moment, the Sith Infiltrator is loaded with details and unobtrusive play features for the kids. It does feel like it has some substance and it holds any Darth Maul figure that can sit in its cockpit. So all the parts are into play here. But until Hasbro can give us an all-new and large sculpt of this vehicle, there will undoubtedly be a faction of fans that may hold off until they can get a premium Sith Infiltrator vehicle that is much bigger into their collections instead. (Don’t hold your breath.) That being said, if the line ended tomorrow, this recent update would fare well because it doesn’t’ look terrible. And Hasbro approached this vehicle in this scale for a reason – to keep things affordable. Many, many young fans are a fans of Darth Maul and don’t want to be priced out of his awesome vehicle.

Hasbro squeezed a great deal of play value into this vehicle. As one of two all-new sculpted vehicles in the third wave of the 30 (77-07) midsize vehicle assortment, they kept screen accuracy (not scale) in play here. The Sith Infiltrator is a very nice looking vehicle. The colors, details, and design is very impressive. We would have loved to see a rear vehicle door, but that would require a much larger sculpt to make that work. Instead, Darth Maul’s vehicle’s cockpit is accessed by a flip up hatch (not too much different than what Hasbro did for the TIE fighter vehicles) and there is enough room to accommodate 2007’s TAC Darth Maul Saga Legends figure. Not only does the Sith Infiltrator have exterior firing projectiles, but the long fuselage splits into two halves and each side houses a probe droid projectile. The projectiles can also be utilized interchangeably for additional play value. A “hidden” button at the bottom of the cockpit releases the four wings to imitate what the vehicle looks like in flight mode too. But in order to put them back down, you’re going to have to use your hands. The landing gear is a bit odd in our opinion. It’s described as pivoting landing gear, but it really just feels like loose legs. Part swivel and part hinge-jointed (inversely), they have a wide range of motion for two pieces that essentially just “click” into place when assembling this vehicle together.

We’re really impressed with the detail of the cockpit. In our opinion it looks as if the intention was to reproduce the details identically to the vehicle in the film, although we don’t really get to see these details in the film. There are a lot of knobs and buttons that have been tooled inside of it, something that we don’t take for granted at all. It is really something special how much goes into the inner workings of these toys. Hasbro could have gone very simple, but they decided instead to make it as detailed as possible. The Sith Infiltrator looks great no matter whether you’re flying it around your house or just resting it on a shelf in your Star Wars room. Sure it is far from perfect as far as its size is concerned, but we have to remember that this is a toy and it’s meant to fit into a vehicle line where all of them are comparable to each other. After all, look how long we put up with incorrectly sized TIE fighter wings…. and that didn’t steal away our quality playtime. From the beautiful deco to the play features that don’t detract from the aesthetics of the vehicle, the Sith Infiltrator should become a popular vessel in the midsize vehicle assortment. Admittedly, Darth Maul’s Sith speeder doesn’t look right next to it because of the Sith Infiltrator’s scale issues, but this is just the way it is for now. But as a standalone piece we know for certain that kids and even collectors will be able to enjoy what this vehicle offers.