I hadn’t watched Maul: Shadow Lord, so this figure gave me the motivation to do so.  As with most other recent Star Wars media, I wanted to watch Maul, I just hadn’t made time for it.  I didn’t see Mando and Grogu until it was available for streaming, and I only just recently viewed the Cad Bane arc in Tales of the Underworld.  I have wanted to see all of these things, but it has simply been less of a priority for me.

So with this figure in hand, I binged Maul this past holiday weekend.  As I expected, I enjoyed it.  In fact, I think I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.  My wife and I watched 8 straight episodes on Saturday, mistakenly thinking that was the whole series - and so we saved episodes 9 & 10 for the next day.  It was good stuff, and I enjoyed most of the characters that were introduced in the show.  As such, I also became more interested in the action figures.  3 days ago I had no interest in Devon Izara.  Now I’m glad she’s in TVC - mostly. 

Once again, I’m torn between wanting figures of everything, and then realizing that this is a path that will lead to ruin.  I know not everyone agrees with this, but the piecemeal allocation of the limited TVC resources is something that just isn’t going to work.  We need to get back to basics for TVC, and do some serious world-building.  And unless Hasbro plans on releasing 20 figures from Maul, it’s a pointless exercise.  In order to make something out of Maul and deliver a world worth building, we need: 

Jedi Master Daki
Detective Lawson
Rylee Lawson
Two-Boots
Rook Kast
Mando mercenaries
Vario
Maul’s spy droid
Nightbrothers
Proto Stormtroopers
Imperial patrol speeders
AT-DT
The car that the heroes escaped in
Might as well get Dryden Vos in there, and while we’re at it, throw in some Pykes (which are conspicuously absent from the line at this point).

The best action sequences were of the lightsaber battles, and almost all of them included Master Daki, so him being absent prevents you from doing a lot that was on screen.

But then again - do I want any of this instead of getting more OT/PT stuff to expand on the worlds in which I am already invested so deeply?  Probably not.  I think I’d like Master Daki, and call it a day.  But even then - I’m not losing sleep over it.

As for the figure, it’s decent, but has a couple of flaws that hurt.  For articulation it has most of the expected JLA - with one major problem - it has swivel forearms instead of ball jointed wrists.  This is common with lady figures, and it very much diminishes the poses that they can achieve.  Generally, I’m less likely to enjoy a figure of a female character because it just doesn’t pose as well.  Aside from the wrists, I often have some difficulty getting the dainty feet to assist with dynamic posing.  That said, the figure is still well balanced, and can achieve the running pose seen in image 21 above.  The range of motion of the neck/head is limited.  The elbows do go a little past 90, but the knees do not.

Articulation aside, the sculpt is solid.  It’s a nice realistic interpretation of the animated character - which is what needs to happen.  Another flaw is the inclusion of a “Forcey” left hand.  It looks good when she’s doing some magic, but it limits the lightsaber posing.  You can get a two-handed weapon grip, but she looks weird doing it.  A swap out hand would be preferable.  Now that it seems this is much more common - especially with Jedi, I feel it’s missing here with Devon.

The paint applications are pretty good.  Devon is unusually vibrant in her coloring, which isn’t typical for a Jedi.  But kudos to her, because she actually is wearing a decent disguise, unlike Obi-Wan who is wearing standard-issue Jedi garb while “hiding” on Tatooine where Vader was born and raised.  All that said, I’d probably prefer a little grime and wear and tear, seeing as she and Master Daki are essentially unhoused and on the run.  She’s a little too shiny and clean, but that’s not enough of a ding on the score.

For accessories, she comes with a hilt that plugs into her belt, and unlike the recent Asajj and Anakin, the hilt has the shiny silver paint to match the lit saber.  Both the hilt and the lit version fit nicely in the figure’s right hand, although not so much in the aforementioned left hand.  Lastly is another flaw - the plastic cape.  It looks nice, but really limits the poses you can get.  It wasn’t easy for me, but I was able to get a little bit of action out of the figure while it had the cape on.  Considering Devon wears this throughout 95% of the film, it’s definitely limiting.  She does toss it aside when she fights alongside Maul to confront Vader, but that was it.  I would have preferred soft goods here. I know there seems to be a lack of consensus on such things, but for action oriented characters, I feel strongly that soft goods are the way to go.

The Force hand, the wrists, and the plastic cape combine to knock this figure down a couple of pegs.  I’ll give it an 8/10.