Maris Brood was one of the stranger characters in The Force Unleashed.  She had fled Order 66 and was found by Shaak Ti, who felt that she was conflicted and in danger of slipping to the Dark Side.  Shaak Ti took on Maris Brood as her apprentice, and together, they went into hiding on the planet Felucia.  There, they worked with the Force-sensitive local population, flora, and fauna to create a haven of the Light side.  Eventually, Vader discovered that Shaak Ti was alive and on Felucia, and sent Starkiller to take her down.  When he arrived, Shaak Ti, fearing that Brood was still vulnerable to the influence of the Dark Side, convinced Brood to go into hiding and help keep the locals safe.  Starkiller faced off against Shaak Ti, and defeated her.  With her death, the planet slipped to the Dark Side, and Brood, seeking revenge, along with it.  Later, Bail Organa arrived on the planet to find Shaak Ti, unaware of her death.  Brood took him prisoner, which lured Starkiller back to Felucia for a rescue (as part of Vader’s ruse of luring all the Rebel leaders together).  Starkiller defeated Brood, but after she begged for her life, he let her go.  Organa, having experienced Anakin Skywalker’s fall, felt that it was a bad move to let Maris live. 

Another The Force Unleashed review following Tuesday’s Juno Eclispse entry, we’ve got Maris Brood today.  The figure is sculpted in a somewhat pre-posed manner.  She’s got her hips jutting out, and her legs are in a bit of wide stance, with one leg slightly forward.  She has full super articulation, minus the knees.  You know what that means?  She might as well have no articulation from the waist down.  The hips and ankles are largely rendered moot without the necessary knees to get the proper dynamism for a Jedi/Sith warrior.  Even still, you should be able to coax a little bit of posability out of the lower body, but it’s a frustratingly small amount.  The figure will stand sturdily, which is a minimum requirement. 

The upper body is fully articulated, with ball jointed elbows, shoulders, and neck, along with swivel waist and wrists (actually, forearms).  Despite the lack of more modern extras like ball jointed waist and wrists, the upper body can display a lot of dynamism.  Maris can achieve a THWG (two handed weapon grip) when holding one of her lightsabers in the traditional manner.  Otherwise, she wields both of her lightsabers with ease, although the hands can have a bit of a loose grip.  The sabers are crafted with hilts fashioned similarly to side-handle batons, and the figure can hold them in any number of ways.

The face sculpt doesn’t really look much like the video game model, but it’s not a big deal since it’s not live action.  The paint applications on my sample aren’t perfect, but they’re certainly not terrible.  The version in the gallery is of the more accurate grey-skinned release, while Hasbro had also put out a run of inaccurate flesh-toned figures.  The hair on the figure is sculpted well, but it does inhibit the movement of the neck joint.  Although it’s not readily apparent because of her hairstyling, Hasbro did successfully sculpt the horns indicative of the Zabrak species.

It’s a nice looking figure, although the slightly preposed sculpt and lack of knees really hold it back and would normally be enough to drop the score below the baseline 7.  Another nice touch would have been to include two unlit hilts that could attach to her belt.  All of these detractions considered, it’s still a cool looking figure from a well-loved source, so it earns a somewhat subjective bonus point.  Overall, the figure gets a 7/10.