[trebleshot]

Intro
Darth Maul's only entry in the Star Wars Crossovers line (nee Star Wars Transformers), he turns from his signature ship into a somewhat-close approximation to his humanoid form.

After passing on him several times during his initial release in 2006, I finally picked up his repackaged version for $11 at Walmart the other day. The only difference between that one and the 2012 release is that the older one came with a mini-Maul to pilot the ship. Overall, he's not that bad of a figure considering the line he comes from.

But he does have some design choices that leave me puzzled.

Alternate Mode (Sith Infiltrator)
Not much to say about this mode, other than it's fairly accurate to the ship design. Maul's saber halves act as spring-loaded missiles that fit inside holes near the wing tips. They can be launched/fired by pressing a button on the side of each wing in between the hinged parts.

The cockpit opens to reveal a single seat, which was original for the min-Maul, but now seems kind of useless (unless you have some old Micro Machines or SWTF people to put in there). Other than that, not much to say about this mode.

"Mech" Mode
His transformation is pretty easy and most will figure it out without even glancing at the instructions. Since his lightsaber is in two pieces for the missile launching gimmick, Maul's hands have been molded so he can hold both lightsaber halves in one and and mimic his double-bladed saber.

Also, the missile launchers/wings end up on his back in mech mode, so they work really well as storage and pretty much stay out of sight when not in use.

His head sculpt is more organic looking, as opposed to the robot look of most of line, but still has sculpted details that clearly identify it as a robot. For example, his famous horns are now knobs or electrodes

Articulation
He has a swivel neck, universal shoulders, bicep swivels, double-hinged elbows, hinged wrists, waist swivel, swivel hips (forward/back only), thigh swivels (just above knees), single-hinged knees, and rocker ankles.

Most of these points are only there because of the transformation scheme (wrist & waist hinges, rocker ankles) and it would have been nice if they could have added in a few more (like ball-joint wrists and better hips) to give him more flexibility for better poses.

Also, the waist joint is hindered by the way the nose cone of the ship folds up onto his back in between the wings. The nose cone is attached to the bottom half of the mech mode while the wings on on the top half, so moving the waist joint causes the nose cone to bump against the wings.

Overall
As I said, he's not the worst figure in the line, but certainly not the best. Until the Class I version comes out, he's pretty much your only choice for this character in the line. I don't think he's worth the $17 USD that he retails for (or even the $15 he retailed for back in 2006), but at the $11 I got him on sale for, he's ok. Final rating: 7/10

[Jason Abbadon]

The little Maul figure in the first release is interesting- do they all have tint figures that match their ships and cockpits?

Do the Marvel versions have tiny figs?

[trebleshot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jason Abbadon

The little Maul figure in the first release is interesting- do they all have tint figures that match their ships and cockpits?

No, only the first couple of waves back when it was just Star Wars Transformers. After that, they dropped the mini pilots and re-branded the entire line as Crossovers.

And while they help sell the alt mode, they're kind of silly in mech mode and can sometimes interfere with the transformation. For example, Maul's head shares the same area as the ship's cockpit. If the mini pilot is in there, it can be tricky to get both halves of the chest piece closed unless you get the pilot to sit just right because of the way the mech head is deployed.

Quote:

Do the Marvel versions have tiny figs?

The Marvel ones have never had mini pilots, as they were designed after the re-branding.