Darth Nihilus - TBS [P3] - Six Inch Figures (Exclusive)

Star Wars: Knights of the OLd Republis II features Darth Nihilus, a Sith Lord so lost to the dark side that he became an endlessly hungry void.

The Black Series 6" Gaming Greats collections brings a lot of repetition to the line, but it also brings a fair amount of newness. We mean by this that these GameStop exclusives utilize a heck of a lot of existing tooling. The figures are complete repaints of existing figures in many instances, while others are kit-bashed parts of multiple figures. Hasbro has to save tooling costs wherever possible; otherwise, the line will become cost-prohibitive to produce. Producing figures that are simple repaints or simple compiling of multiple figure parts and selling them for typical MSRP allows Hasbro to build a budget for all new figures. Thankfully, Hasbro is good at compiling a diverse cast of characters from various videogames for the Gaming Greats sub-line. It's nice to see them delve into a collection of characters that fall into the Disney-ignored original Expanded Universe (now deemed Legends). Hasbro's become a little more adventurous throughout the Gaming Greats production, and Darth Nihilus might be one of their most aggressive efforts to date.

Although mostly based on 2013's TBS [P1] Darth Maul (#02) figure, Hasbro cleverly disguised the existing Darth Maul figure "underneath" to convert it into a proper Darth Nihilus. Darth Nihilus comes with an all-new head sculpt, but Hasbro also included new upper arms and an all-new molded lower skirt to make the reused parts unrecognizable. We commend them for a job well done. It's interesting to see how much crossover exists between Darth Maul and Darth Nihilus, yet the final version of Darth Nihilus is authentic, realistic, and seemingly screen-accurate. In 2008, Hasbro added multiple all-new Evolutions three-packs into the basic figure line. One of them was The Sith Legacy. It contained a super-articulated version of Darth Nihilus in a 3.75" scale. It was an excellent interpretation of the character. We feel strongly that The Black Series [Phase III] 6" version of Darth Nihilus is fantastic. However, it's still not as great as that 3.75" version. Regardless of your feelings on this, 6" collectors should be quite satisfied with this release of Darth Nihilus in the Gaming Greats sub-line.

Darth Nihilus comes with an all-new lightsaber that breaks down into a hilt and blade. Because Darth Nihilus is mostly comprised of Darth Maul's tooling, the hands are too large to hold the lightsaber's hilt securely. It's not an impossible task to accomplish, but you will have to carefully balance the thinner hilt in the widely-cupped hand to make it stay in place. Thanks to an excellent articulation system, albeit an outdated one, Darth Nihilus can achieve a wide array of poses and imitate many of the character's actions from the video game. We genuinely believe that video game fans will find favor with this 6" interpretation of the vicious Sith lord. The paint operations are simple, but they look good. The white skull-like face is eerie as it is foreboding. And we adore the soft-goods cape that flows behind the figure. A GameStop exclusive, Darth Nihilus, helps to round out a diversified line of action figures based on the original Expanded Universe before the Disney takeover. We hope more characters are on the way to collectors. Darth Nihilus and other characters in this range are so much more popular than anything Disney produced.