Darth Maul’s first official interaction with one of the good guys came in the deserts of Tatooine, on the outskirts of Mos Espa at the landing site of the Royal Naboo Starship.  It was here, just as Qui-Gon and Anakin were about to board the ship, that Darth Maul officially announced himself to the galaxy.  He sped up to the confrontation on his crescent shaped speeder. Fortunately for the population of the Galaxy who was hoping to have a miserable existence for decades under the rule of Emperor Palpatine and his apprentice, Darth Vader, Qui-Gon sensed a disturbance in the Force in time to command Anakin to drop, and then gave him enough time to escape to the ship.  (Actually, I’m not really sure why Anakin and Qui-Gon are running towards the ship in the first place before Maul even showed up.  Were they racing?  Did they have to pee real bad? 

Anyway, through this point in the film, and then until the Duel of the Fates on Naboo, we only see Darth Maul wearing his hooded robes.  Apparently the whole “first third/first act” theory of toy releases didn’t apply to TPM, because we got the “Jedi Duel” versions of Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, and Darth Maul, before we got them in their outfits from earlier in the film.  This was the second basic carded release of Darth Maul, although the one that came with the Sith Speeder also had the robes.  This version was the first to have plastic outer robes.  Later, a mostly a stylized statue figure was released in the Tatooine Showdown Cinema Scene 3-pack. 

This figure looks okay, but it is basically terrible.  The figure (at least my sample) has the same issue with the chin coloring that the 1st basic Maul was known for.  The robe hood is sculpted onto the head. It looks nice, but there’s no movement out of the swivel neck joint.  It covers the separately sculpted robes.  The seem like they can be removed with some effort, but the head was making me nervous that I’d rip the piece trying to remove it.  The figure has swivel hips, but like the neck, that articulation is rendered mostly useless by the sculpted robes.  He’s got a swivel waist, which can be engaged fairly well.  He’s got swivel shoulders and elbows.  All of these points are hindered, but not completely prevented, from movement.  The figure is positioned so that it can grip the long lightsaber hilt with both hands well.  but it’s hard to make any convincing battle poses with it.  Any attempt at this generally will result in some awkward looking fighting stances.  It’s a shame, because the figure looks pretty nice.  It works well as a neutrally posed figure standing with Darth Sidious on the balcony on Coruscant, where you can recreate his big dialogue moment, as voiced by Sctanley himself, spelled with a ‘C’. 

It would also work out okay as he searches for his quarry on Tatooine, although you’d need to throw in some appropriate accessories like the binoculars or wrist controller that are not included.  But it’s pretty bad as a Tatooine duel figure. 

The figure does come with the single-bladed option for Maul’s lightsaber, which the Sith Speeder version did not.  Beyond that, it’s not a particularly compelling figure.  The Darth Maul with Sith Speeder has better posability, and the soft good robes, which were fairly revolutionary at the time, hold up even today as some of the best fitted Jedi/Sith robes available.  Meanwhile, the almost-statue that came with the cinema scene is a great, dynamic looking figure, even though it’s almost impossible to pose in any other way.  Depending on your preference, either one of those figures is better than this one. Of course, Hasbro has done much better Darth Mauls over the years, so this figure is essentially obsolete.  If you own it, good.  If you don’t, you can keep it moving without a second glance.  3/10 for having almost useless articulation.