This Celebration Chicago (2019) exclusive Darth Maul features a 6” scale homage to the original Episode I card to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the The Phantom Menace. The card features a chromium appearance similar to the comic book cover fad of the nineties, and the poorly received CommTech chip is not present. The figure itself is identical to the Darth Maul figure that will be released in the Black Series Archive line later in the year.

Note:  A second head is present in the bubble, located between the feet of the figure, obscured by the 20th Anniversary sticker.

The original 3.75” version of this figure (shown above in the comparison shot) is what got me into collecting.  After hearing about the aftermath of Midnight Madness on the radio when I was stationed in El Paso, I had to stop by Toys R Us during lunch just to check it out, for old time’s sake.  The store, even at lunch time, looked like a tornado had hit.  I thought it would be neat to buy a Darth Maul figure just for kicks.  I couldn’t find one.  Later I went to another store, and still no luck.  I did however, see a Darth Vader POTF2 figure, which I didn’t even know was a thing at the time.  I had no idea that Star Wars figures had come back in the mid 90’s.  So I got that along with an Emperor.  Because, you know, I needed to get all the Sith.  After a few more weeks, still no Maul, but TRU had a BOGO sale (or something like that), and in a momentary lapse of reason, I bought every Episode 1 figure (except Maul).  That was it.  I was done.  I got all the vehicles and sets.  And I joined ebay and started to backfill my collection with earlier POTF2 stuff that I had completely missed.  Finally, about a month after midnight madness, I finally found a Darth Maul.  He wasn’t my first figure as a collector, but the hunt for that figure was what made me an obsessive collector.  For that, it will always be special to me.

The one thing I noted about this retro look is that the 6” figure sports the robes he wore on Tatooine (and in the Naboo reveal).  But the original Darth Maul figure didn’t have the outer robes, so the look here is completely different. I get that the BS6 robes are removable, so you basically get a two-fer, and that’s great as far as the loose figure is concerned.  There’s no disputing that it looks awesome as a figure, but I can’t help but feel it’s a very slight miss with regard to the nostalgia impact.

Overall, this is a great looking presentation by Hasbro, and along with Obi-Wan Kenobi, make for a great retro offering.

A huge thank you to Litzky PR for sending us this sample.