TBS #04 Review:  Chris - 2021

This is a repack of the VC96 - Darth Malgus figure (linked above).

As you can see form the fourth picture, I went to pose the figure immediately after opening it.  I tried to bend the figure’s left knee and the lower leg snapped off with almost no pressure.  It seriously surprised me how easily it broke. It was similar to breaking a model piece off of the plastic tree. I didn’t have time to pivot to another figure for this morning, so I figured I would just use the VC96 figure for the gallery.  I went to bend the left knee of the VC96 figure AND THE SAME THING HAPPENED.  I broke both my Darth Malgus figures in the span of five minutes.  I hate Bantha Skull.  I then decided to simply super glue the lower leg back on the Black Series figure to salvage it for a few photos, but managed to get more glue on my hands and the figure’s lower leg than the broken knee.  This lead to my final pivot:  images 10 through 25 are from Bret’s photo gallery of the VC96 - Darth Malgus figure.

The main difference between this figure and the original release is with the paint applications on the face.  The eyes look a little more precise, but the scarring on the head loses all subtlety.  It looks like a hyperactive kid ate a dozen pixie sticks and went to town on the head with a gray sharpie.  The Vintage Collection release edges out this Black Series re-release.

And now I’m back in the market for a loose Darth Malgus figure.

VC96 Review:  Bret - 2018

I wasn’t much into EU, but I have to say, the comic packs and other EU-sourced figures are some of the most fun that Hasbro has offered.  I never asked for any EU figures, except an occasional video game character.  In this case, I never played the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG.  My only exposure to the character were the game trailers, this figure, and the insane 1:1 scale Sideshow statue.  While researching this figure for the gallery, Chris re-introduced me to the cut scenes that he referenced in his review over 6 years ago.  He’s not kidding:

Thanks, Chris!  He said I’d be thoroughly depressed that this Star Wars is basically the opposite of what Disney gave us, and he’s correct.  So we’re shutting down Bantha Skull and joining the Peace Corps.
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Okay, I just Googled “Peace Corps” and it seems like a lot of work, so we’re back to Bantha Skull.  Sorry for the lack of content over the past 2 seconds. 

Anyway, just to clarify the timeline here, the events of the fan-favorite Knights of the Old Republic, or KOTOR, (the source for the recently reviewed Bastila Shan figure) take place around 4000 BBY.  Approximately 300+ years later, you get The Old Republic, or TOR.  Hasbro went a little TOR happy in the waning days of TVC back in 2012 by giving us 3 figures from this source.  Since I never played TOR, I really had no connection to these figures, but all of them are pretty cool.  We’ll get to the others (Shae Vizla and Republic Trooper) when we update their galleries and reviews a bit later.

This Darth Malgus figure is impressive.  No doubt Hasbro tried to recreate the strength and power of Malgus, as he is seen in TOR.  He is apparently regarded by Palpatine, some 3600 years later, as one of the ablest and most powerful Sith lords in history.  This figure is large and muscular, without looking like the He-Man-ish early POTF2 figures.  As Chris points out, Hasbro may have sacrificed some posability in order to get this bulkiness across.  The super-articulation is fairly standard, allowing the figure to make some decent poses, even though some movement is hindered by the sculpt. But as with all Jedi and Sith, we should expect more modern figures to have full ball-jointed hips, and also perhaps the wrists and waist.  The sculpt is quite amazing, with a tremendous amount of detail on the armor and fabric parts of the outfit.  The removable shoulder/chest armor allows you to access and remove the inner soft goods robes, should you have interest in that. 

Malgus comes with an actual cloak, so the otherwise perfect VC87 Luke Skywalker should be jealous.  The hood falls flat against the figure’s back, but can be raised to cover the head, even if it is a bit voluminous.  The cape stays on the shoulders with the implementation of a wirey insert at the top, which can conform to the neck/shoulder area and stay put, for the most part. Malgus comes with a lightsaber and unlit hilt.  The saber design is unique, as Chris compared it to a tuning fork.  Nevertheless, it is accurate to the source, and Malgus grips it well.  Unfortunately, a THWG is nearly impossible. It can be done, just a bit, but it’s not that natural.  This is because the barrel chest hinders the upper arms from coming together towards the front of the figure. 

There’s not much to complain about, other than that maybe collectors would have preferred Hasbro give this TVC slot to a more prominent character from the films.  Even though I didn’t play TOR, I really like this figure, and I’m glad Hasbro branched out and made it.  It’s a quality figure, and deserves consideration to be in your collection if you don’t have it already.  Although there could be some improvements made to the figure, it would not be necessary for Hasbro to take any action on this character.  I’ll agree with the rating of 8 out of 10.