Holographic Darth Maul - TSC - Basic (SAGA 048)

There were unbelievably four holographic action figures released in The Saga Collection. Before becoming staples in the basic figure line, these types of figures were usually relegated as exclusives at Toys R Us. Something has clearly changed in the way Hasbro has determined these equally slightly annoying and slightly interesting figures arrive to collectors. Darth Maul got his chance as a holographic image too. Released as Holographic Darth Maul in wave 7 of The Saga Collection, Hasbro used an older basic figure from the Episode I line and cast it in translucent blue (with sparkles) to make it as authentic as they could to a real holographic image seen in the film. It really doesn't work. Darth Maul actually appeared as a hologram in The Phantom Menace, so this isn’t some cheesy Expanded Universe interpretation of him. Yet the figure isn't all that impressive. Cleverly, Hasbro utilized the 1999 EI Darth Maul (Tatooine) figure since that version of Darth Maul has his hood up (and exactly how he appears in the hologram in The Phantom Menace). As a result, we get a pretty screen accurate version of Darth Maul’s holographic appearance, despite the effect of the figure looking a little dull.

Holographic Darth Maul comes with an admirable eight points of articulation, but don’t think that they are all totally usable. No, Darth Maul’s outer robes severely inhibit any good or usable movement. So unless you want more articulation than moving his arms back and forth, you may want to pass over this figure and find something else more suitable for your needs. But if you definitely need a holographic version of Darth Maul, then this is your only option. Besides, do you really need a holographic image of Darth Maul to move in every which way? This is solely our opinion, but the face of this figure could be anybody. Darth Maul’s distinguished tattooed face is anything but recognizable on this figure and if we didn’t know any better we’d think this figure is grimacing at us. Obviously the tattoos would need to be indentations or score marks in the face to make them stand out clearly. But since the original figure just had these tattoos painted on the face, you’re just not going to get the same effect in translucent blue plastic (with glitter). Either way, this approach has worked well and the simple sculpt couldn't be a better choice.

Darth Maul comes outfitted with a lightsaber cast in the same color plastic as himself. This is certainly not a big deal. But we love the fact that Hasbro labeled his personalized action figure stand as just “Darth Maul” so we now have a “Darth Maul” specific stand to use with a super-articulated version of him, like the figure from 2005's ROTS The Sith Evolutions set for example. (Hey! Why didn’t Hasbro use the Evolutions figure for the holographic version of Darth Maul instead?!) For those of you who are longtime collectors, this is not the first time we received a holographic version of Darth Maul (although it’s the first articulated version). In 2000, there was a Walmart exclusive Light Up Darth Maul Figure As Holograph product released that was actually pretty cool but didn’t sell well at all and this exclusive line was quickly canceled. Only Darth Maul and Qui-Gon Jinn got released. The figures sat atop a holoprojector with a light bulb below them and would give the appearance of a real hologram. Hasbro has moved away from that concept, so it looks like the basic figure line is where these types of figures will remain. That's OK. Hasbro is reaching the end of their list for "holographic" interpretations of various Star Wars characters. And we honestly wouldn't mind if they stopped it altogether.