This year at Star Wars Celebration, Hasbro offered Darth Maul and Obi-Wan Kenobi in celebration of not only the convention, but the 20th Anniversary of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. The cardbacks are a special release and pay homage to the original cardbacks that were offered on the 3 3/4″ figures in 1999, which includes the Star Wars: Episode 1 artwork on the front, with images of the characters on the front, along with a description of him on the back with a movie still. The regular releases will have the Star Wars The Black Series 6″ standard cardbacks, and if you want these on this card, you’ll have to obtain the exclusive versions. The figures are the same on both cardbacks, including the accessories and “photo realistic” facial sculpts.
At this years Star Wars Celebration, Hasbro had some fantastic reveals for fans of the Original Trilogy, including the continuation of new Star Wars The Black Series, Archive and The Vintage Collection 3 3/4″ figures. It may be wise to check out the official Press Release, which includes details and images of the figures, as well as where to buy.
Thank you to Hasbro for providing their Darth Maul and Obi-Wan Kenobi Star Wars Celebration 2019 Exclusives for review.
Availability: April 2019 – Star Wars Celebration Chicago
The packaging of this years Star Wars Celebration exclusives is a throwback to the original cardbacks in 1999 to the 3 3/4″ figures in Hasbro’s Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace figures as we described above. This years convention packaging is not re-sealable, and you would need to cut around the bubble to take the figures out. We honestly didn’t want to open these because of the beautiful packaging, but we actually had too in order to review them. This is the only downside to an otherwise perfect package, and if you’re old enough to remember 1999 and the original movie toys, you will know how popular these figures were when they were originally released, at least for the first year or so before demand quickly died down.
Darth Maul was a new Sith character introduced in this film, and at the time he was the apprentice of Darth Sidious before he became Chancellor and Supreme ruler of the galaxy. In the film, there were a few different looks of the characters, which was also introduced in the toyline, which is now two decades ago, including the hood over his head, as well as his Jedi duel appearance, which is both offered in this release by Hasbro. The hood and the first layer of clothing are attached as one piece, and the head needs to be taken off to remove the outer clothing, which he wore on the planet Tatooine when he was following Jedi Master Qui-Gon and his apprentice, a young Obi-Wan Kenobi. Once removed, an additional head sculpt without the hood is in the package, and this gives him his Duel Jedi look as seen at the end of the film where he has a lightsaber duel and kills Qui-Gon, just before being sliced in half by Obi-Wan and believed to be dead until his re-appearance in The Clone Wars animated series, as well as Star Wars Rebels, where he attempted to teach Ezra Bridger the ways of the Sith. He was ultimately killed by an exiled Obi-Wan Kenobi back on the planet Tatooine.
Anyway, the figure is given the updated “photo realistic” look with some excellent facial paint applications with the red and black deco, and painted horns on this head. The body is cast in black, and includes soft plastic and fabric parts around his hips, along with nicely done textures and folds in the clothing throughout the design. The belt, gloves, and boots are painted in a glossy black finish, which is darker than the rest of the clothing.
Included is a duel blade lightsaber that can become two lightsabers, and the blades cannot be removed, as well as a removable and interchangeable heads, and binoculars.
His articulation includes a ball jointed head, ball hinged shoulders, swivel-hinged elbows, swivel-hinged wrists, ball jointed torso, ball jointed hips, swivel thighs, double-hinged knees, hinged and rocker ankles.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is also given an updated sculpt and features the “photo realistic” facial details that’s now given to all of Hasbro’s 6″ Star Wars and some 3 3/4″ The Vintage Collection figure offerings. The facial details are remarkable and is clearly an enhancement over anything previously offered. They even gave him textured hair with a paint wash on it, and the ponytail and long piece of hair going down his right shoulder. He is given his Jedi robes as seen in the film, that has sculpted textured, and the outer layers are made of a soft plastic. The belt around his waist has some nicely done attention to details and various paint applications, including a spot for him to plug his lightsaber into it for storage. The lightsaber blade cannot be removed, so you’d have to use the hilt from another figure to store it for movie accuracy.
The Jedi robes are painted in beige and he has brown boots with sculpted straps around the upper and lower parts. The belt has some great paint applications including metallic gold and silver, as well as its mostly brown and includes pouches.
Included with Obi-Wan is a lightsaber, and an extra set of interchangeable hands to re-create Jedi Force powers he used in the film.
His articulation includes a ball jointed head, ball hinged shoulders, swivel-hinged elbows, swivel-hinged wrists, ball jointed torso, ball jointed hips, swivel thighs, double-hinged knees, hinged and rocker ankles.
Overall, It’s been 20 years since Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace, and these characters (yes, even Jar Jar) are classics and some of these remains to be fan-favorites. These Darth Maul and Obi-Wan figures features great likenesses to the film, excellent updates to the earlier The Black Series releases, and excellent sculpting. If you can obtain these, make sure to keep them in the packaging and buy the retailer versions of these.
Purchase:
Additional Star Wars figures and regular packaged editions of these (it’s the same figure with different packaging) –
Megalopolis: City Of Collectibles
