So I’m off to see The Rise of Skywalker today as it’s just released on 19/12/19 here in the UK and I have been so far disappointed with the films. I’ve noticed when looking back at my collection my childhood one was predominantly Prequel era. Now this was because I grew up watching each Star Wars film 1-3 in cinema and saw 456 on VHS. As I became a teenager Star Wars still continued in my life and my collection grew gradually but I really got back into it in my adult years and my Original Trilogy collection is enough to rival my childhood Prequel Figure collection now. I have not had the same resurgence with the new films and felt often let down in places so I will have to see how I find “the final instalment of the Skywalker saga” funny I thought we already finished it in 2005...

Moving on: so I’ve been working on a number of Star Wars projects and dioramas but haven’t gotten around to posting any. I was going through my photos and found a neat one I had taken and thought you know what it is time. At last we shall reveal ourselves to the Jedi, at last we have revenge.

I own pretty much every Darth Maul Figure and have always felt the character never got a definitive version. Most people are happy with the VC Maul but I find that he is still lacking, with grey skin instead of black, still a short bladed double blade like every Darth Maul aside from Darth Maul Sith Lord (the fist one I ever owned), a glossy shiny black robe, horrible soft goods, idk what it is with Hasbro and their awful black robe style bar a few that have solid black cloaks like Vader Death Star interrogation and some sith robes in packs, that horrible wrist attachment which he wore in 1 scene and was provided in the sith accessory pack in 1999 so just buy that instead and the horns still clunky and the face tattoos? Oh the face tattoos why can’t they get them right.

So I took the torso of the masters of the dark side 2 pack and the lower arms and wrists of the VC Maul as well as his legs and the belt and soft goods kilt (let’s call it) from my first Maul Figure. The lightsaber from a modern Maul but not a broken one and I used heat to put 2 holes into the blade exits then stuck in 2 Vader blades from his ROTS Figure for the right length of blade and a decent colour and then took the head from a rubbish Maul but the lower jaw of the VC Maul and sculpted the difference then stuck horns on from the VC but trimmed them and painted the whole head with screen accurate tattoos which was mind numbingly painful and voila. I finished him a year ago but only started a Naboo Dio 4-5 months ago so hence why I have now updated pics. As with all small figures it lols great in person so it’s hard to capture him well. I also repainted his eyes using gold and orange and red and black to make them glisten and stand out and it’s a vast improvement. As a kid all I wanted was a menacing looking Maul, mouth shut, consistent paint, double lightsaber the right size and super articulated so he could be posed however he needed to. An issue of the VC compared to mine is the robe with my custom choice of torso he looks robe like and accurate and broader, whilst the VC looks skinny bunched up and that plastic shine just ruins him.

I don’t know when I will finish my diorama. Basically I’ve been working for a number of months on a Naboo Diorama based off the films and the Battlefront games from the mid 2000s. It was a natural but huge stepping stone progression from my Queen Apailana custom and a very costly one as I’ve had to buy multiples Theed and Theed hangar playsets and various parts and lights to even get to where these images are from. Don’t expect anything too soon, but for basic Star Wars figures I have tonnes I haven’t posted because I felt they weren’t full customs just headswaps or basic stuff, but might post as a bundle who knows.

ANYWAY Thanks for having a look at my Uktimate Darth Maul custom, as I said before in my Galdalf the White custom with toy companies like Hasbro and Toybiz who released wave upon waves of figures even if the same character over and over with slight variations, you can cobble together your perfect version of a character with that method of owning each figure and combining an element from each.