Darth
Maul
Darth Maul's alternate
mode is a Sith Infiltrator. As you'd expect from a Star Wars Transformer,
the alt mode is nearly perfect-- a few tell-tale black pieces from the
robot mode show through on the rear half of this mode, but you can't even
tell that they're Darth Maul's arms, so it's really not an extra at all.
The proportions are spot-on, and the paint detailing is pretty good. The
mold detailing is also nice, but the amount of it is a tad below-average.
The landing gear looks odd, however (though I assume it's accurate to the
movie) and mine actually supports the vehicle mode at a slight angle. Plus,
there's no way to really retract the thing. The wings look cool, with foldable
flaps for when the ship is "flying" and when it's landed, and they each
house a lightsaber-missile launcher. Of course, like all Star Wars TFs,
a miniature figure of the real Darth Maul is included, which can fit in
the cockpit hatch. One good thing about this figure is that you don't have
to bother with taking the pilot figure out during transformation, which
is always a bit of an annoyance.
Darth Maul's robot mode
is pretty good with a Star Wars TF. The proportions are pretty good, though
the arms could stand to be a bit bigger and the way the upper legs protrude
out of the sides of the waist is a tad odd. The 'Mech face is very menacing,
as it looks like Darth Maul's but with various mechanical details, such
as metal knobs where the real Darth Maul's bone spikes were, and little
skinny black lines (presumably electrical wires?) crisscrossing all over
the 'Mech face. Darth Maul comes with the same double-bladed lightsaber
he had in Episode I (made by putting his two lightsabers from vehicle mode
together), and he can strike a good number of poses with it-- he can move
at the head, shoulders (at three points), elbows (at two points), wrists,
hips (at two points), knees (at two points), and the ankles. His "skirt"
made out of parts of the vehicle mode looks pretty good, though the flap
between his legs is a bit annoying, as it gets in the way of articulation
a bit and can pop off too easily. My main complaint about the mode, though,
are that his wings and part of the main body of his vehicle mode just hang
behind his upper back, without really looking like anything. The backpack
pieces also don't have any pegs to clip together-- although the hinges
are strong enough to keep them in their positions now, I worry about the
backpack flopping all over the place as time passes.
Darth Maul is definitely
an above-average Star Wars TF, with a great vehicle mode and a pretty good
robot mode. He does have some minor proportion and kibble problems, but
these definitely don't cripple him enough to make him a bad figure. Recommended.
Review by Beastbot