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Review |
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| Sculpt: |
| Former Jedi who becomes the Sith Lord apprentice to Darth Revan, as seen in the popular game STAR WARS: KINIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC. Malak was a large, brutish Padawan who fought in the Mandalorian Wars under Jedi Master Revan. The two of them chased Mandalorian marauders into the Unknown Regions of the galaxy. There, they were corrupted by the Dark Side, and returned to the Republic to wage war as leaders of a new Sith armada. Darth Malak, while training in lightsaber combat with Darth Revan, took a near-fatal blow to the head from Revan's saber. The strike sliced off most of Malak's lower jaw, but he survived the injuries and donned a protective metal prosthetic jaw and collar. When Revan renounced the Sith and returned to the Jedi Order, Malak became the Sith Master. He took an apprentice, Darth Bandon, but was eventually defeated in combat by the redeemed Revan. This all-new sculpt captures Darth Malak rather well. The removable jaw shield is somewhat bulky, and the cape is a bit too long. The most disappointing aspect, though, is that it's terribly out of scale: Darth Malak was two meters tall, but the figure is actually shorter than the Darth Malak figure. It rates a 7.5 out of 10. |
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| Paint: |
| Darth Malak seemed to prefer crimson tones to the ebony sported by most Sith. His head and hands are molded in a pale gray, with a light flesh wash applied to bring out detail. Silver paint applications to his scalp represent tattoos. His eyes are white, with brown lashes, blue irises, and black pupils. His exposed jaw and inner mouth has dark crimson, bone white, and light blue apps. His jaw prosthesis is molded in silver, with no paint apps. His collar and cape are molded in black, with a silver app to the metal collar. His arms, torso, pelvis, and legs are molded in a brick red. His torso has yellow paint decos to his chestplate armor. His boots are painted black. His belt and sash are molded in black, with silver, metallic red, and black paint apps. His lightsaber is molded in translucent red, with silver and black paint decos. His lightsaber hilt is molded in silver, and has black paint apps. (The molded silver isn't a very good match for the painted silver.) 8/10. |
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| Articulation: |
| Malak's shoulders, and knees are ball-jointed. His neck, waist, wrists, and hips have standard planer-cut joints. His elbows are angle-cut joints. Ball-jointed elbows and ankles would have really made this figure superb. Two heads, one with the metal jaw, and one without, would've been preferable to the bulky, removable jaw shield: 7/10. |
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| Accessories: |
| Darth Malak comes with his lightsaber, lightsaber hilt, removable metal jaw, and a character-specific collectible coin: 8/10. |
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| Packaging: |
| The new 30th Anniversary Collection card uses stylized "painted" imagery of the characters on the individual cards, with the new STAR WARS logo in stark white and cut in on an angle. It's a design that initially had collectors divided: you either loved the new look or hated it! The film each figure comes from is at the bottom right edge of the card, while the character's number in the collection is on the blister insert. Darth Malak is figure number 35, and he's from the "Expanded Universe." The cardback features the same promotional art of Malak from KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC as the front, and has text that explains the character's role in it and a "Character Profile": 8.5/10 |
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| Availability: |
| As of this writing, the figure has been appearing at retail for three months, and is also available from various online sources. It's one of the hottest figures of the EU-centric wave 5, and sells out almost immediately. Many collectors have still not managed to find this one at retail: 5/10. |
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| Conclusion: |
| In the wake of the Darth Revan figure, it isn't surprising that Darth Malak got produced, too. While both figures aren't quite as good as they could've been, Malak's undersized body and bulky metal jaw, combined with limited articulation and poor distribution, really compromise this figure. Darth Mini-Me ends up with a lackluster rating of 7.3/10. |
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