Before I begin this review, I should perhaps remind everyone that I am the Darth Maul guy around here. I’ve been obsessed with the character, who definitely survived his bisection at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi, since the first trailer for The Phantom Menace.  You guys should probably give me a corresponding nickname like “Maul Guy” or “T-Bone” or “Tuna”.  I recall watching that trailer on a loop at what I remember as an FAO Schwartz mall store in Florida, but you know how fallible memories are.  I was probably at a Chalmer’s Big & Tall in Spokane.  What I do know is that my reaction was immediately mixed.  My excitement for Maul was tempered by my concerns over you-know-who.  Once I saw the movie, both my hopes and fears were confirmed.  Unfortunately, the compelling character, Darth Maul, was barely in the movie, and that other stuff was front and center.  This left fans wanting more, and Dave Filoni, at George Lucas’s urging, answered the bell by bring Maul back to The Clone Wars cartoon.

I really like the concept of a “Sith attack dog”.  At the time of The Phantom Menace, this was a hugely refreshing concept. Maul wasn’t a dazzling Force user.  He just deployed some basic telekinesis.  There were no Dark Side staples like Force Chokes or Force Lightning.  The threat of Maul stemmed entirely from his prowess as an expert acrobatic swordsman.  It’s really good stuff.  In Episode I, the character was portrayed as more of a primal force of nature than a sentient being.  In terms of movie villains, Maul was more Jason Voorhees than Hans Gruber.  The Clone Wars Whitwer Maul is a little more rounded of a character, while still retaining the saber skills of Park’s Maul.  I personally prefer that Episode I portrayal and wish that was retained, but it’s difficult to have that type of character anchor a show.  I would kill for a pre-TPM anthology film, Darth Maul:  Sith Assassin, where the titular character only has ten speaking lines or less, but I digress.

Obviously, as being sourced to Season 7 of The Clone Wars, this Darth Maul (Mandalore) adopts the corresponding aesthetic, to include a neutral head sculpt that more closely tracks to the Witwer Maul.  We almost always champion neutral head sculpts here over scene-locked head sculpts as they offer more display versatility, but we also have to consider this figure’s “job” as part of that.  Its counterpart is the outstanding VC202 - Ahsoka Tano (Mandalore) figure with the intent of recreating their climatic lightsaber battle.  With that in mind, I wish this headsculpt adopted the furrowed brow from the VC86 - Darth Maul.  Don’t get me wrong.  This headsculpt is far superior to that somewhat goofy VC86 head sculpt.  I just wish the more aggressive expression had been retained.

As far as this figure’s ability to recreate dynamic dueling poses, it utterly blows that VC86 figure out of the water.  Side note:  that VC86 - Darth Maul honestly kind of stinks, and Hasbro would be well justified in investing some new tooling dollars to create a definitive Episode I Maul.  It would sell like Boba Fett.  Back on the topic of this VC201 - Darth Maul (Mandalore) figure, it has the necessary articulation to strike all the required combat stances, to include the beloved rocker ankles.  It was a delight to pose it for the photography.  One issue that has been creeping up lately manifested on my sample.  The joints took some effort to free up initially to the point that I was worried about breakage.  Hasbro, are you that sure the factories are using the correct low friction plastic for the joints?

This is a 9 out of 10 figure.  It falls just short of perfection because of a trio of issues with the head sculpt and corresponding paint applications:  1) the neutral expression looks a little too contemplative for the character, 2) the paint applications are a little sloppy, and 3) the head doesn’t have tremendous range of motion which precludes the figure from striking some of Maul’s patented predatory stares at his adversary.  Despite that, this figure is absolutely definitive and a must own.