Sculpt--4/5
I basically wanted this figure for the metal lightsaber hilt, but found that the figure itself is not that bad at all. Maul's outfit is nicely detailed with some nice texture work on his surcoat and tunic. He is a bit preposed, but thankfully has some nice articulation to create many variations of his basic pose. Maul's headsculpt has exceeded my expectations, as I wasn't too impressed with the way it looked in the prototype photos. It is a good likeness, and sculpt-wise is flawless.

Articulation--4.5/5
Maul has 14 points of articulation: neck, shoulders, bicep-cuts, wrist-cuts, waist, hips, knee-cuts, and ankle-cuts. It's actually 13 points since the right bicep-cut is worthless and barely moves. Still, it's a phenomenal number of articulation points for such a small figure and is in my opinion, what makes the figure great. The leg articulation is reminiscent of the Rebel Fleet Trooper's knee articulation except that Maul uses the knee and ankle cuts to create the same affect. Twist Maul's calves and boots around to have his knees bent at a sharper angle. You can also tweak the ankle-cuts to get slight variations. With all the leg articulation, you can make Darth Maul "kneel before his master". Maul's right arm is a bit disappointing. It is so straight that you can't do much with it pose-wise. I would have loved to see an angled bicep-cut so we could vary the how straight his arm is. Most likely this was not possible because of Maul's action feature.

Features--3.5/5
Maul has lightsaber battle action. There are two thumbwheels on Maul's back. One moves his right arm up and down, while the other twists his wrist so he can twirl his lightsaber like a baton. I don't mind the wrist action, but the arm action is overkill for me. It's pretty hard to move the thumbwheel that moves the arm and the fact that moving the arm manually is not that difficult makes this feature kinda worthless.

Maul also has a Force-attract right hand. The magnet is strong, but is it strong enough? That all depends on how you use the wrist-twirling action feature. If you like spinning his wrist fast, then chances are the lightsaber will fly out of Maul's hand. It's fine if you're just making small motions with the action feature though.

Accessories--2/5
What can I say? I'm disappointed. The metal lightsaber hilt is cool, but the length of the blades are appallingly short. With removable blades, there's no excuse not to have full length blades (before, a full length double-bladed lightsaber would have been hard to fit in the packaging). The only excuse left is that Hasbro is cheap. The blades are the same size as the hilt, and that ain't right!

You also get a probe droid--the same type that Maul uses to locate Qui-Gon on Tatooine. The droid is alright I suppose but is a bit boring. It has almost no paint ops (only the antennae is painted).

Paint--3/5
I would have given this category a four if Hasbro had finished the paint job. They forgot to paint Maul's teeth, which to me is a very big part of Maul's look and character. With the teeth unpainted, it's hard to tell his mouth is even open and diminishes his mean, badass glare. Other than that fatal flaw, everything is painted very well. The probe droid could use some paint, but since I'm not going to be using it much, it doesn't matter.

Overall--3.5/5
If you're a Darth Maul fan, then this is a must buy. It's got great articulation, a good likeness and is a fresh look at one of the coolest Star Wars villains around. The unpainted teeth bothers me to no end, as do the short lightsaber blades, but the figure was a worthy purchase because of the unique articulation and metal lightsaber hilt. If you're not a fan of Expanded Universe stuff, then this may not be your type of figure, since this outfit never appears on-screen.