Toy Review: Diamond Select 7-Inch Star Wars Figures Wave 1

In Diamond Select‘s initial press release announcing 7-inch Star Wars figures, they stated that fans had been clamoring for figures in this scale for a while. Hard to know just how large a groundswell actually existed, but fans who heavily collect McFarlane and NECA can now display a couple of characters in the same scale. Actually, they could before — Disney Stores previously made an exclusive line of 7-inch Star Wars figures. However, their diecast metal composition limited the articulation, and actor likenesses got softer by necessity. Disney presumably wanted a better level of Star Wars 7-inch figures as store exclusives, and Diamond obliged. And not only that: Diamond upped their game with these figures, which are significantly better than much of their recent output. (Which wasn’t bad to begin with.)

Granted, they’re starting with two where the actor likeness doesn’t much matter: Boba Fett and Darth Maul. Few folks look too hard at a Maul figure to determine how exactly it looks like young Ray Park, and this iteration of Boba never takes his helmet off. And Maul may be all black-clad, which brings some ease to the color palette, but Boba Fett generally has one of the most elaborate paint schemes in any given Star Wars line.

That may explain why these figures seem lacking in extras compared to a lot of Diamond Select figures. No diorama bases, no build-a-thing, no alternate heads — but they do include extra hands and blast effects. Did the premium detailing cost extra? Maybe.

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Diamond based this Maul figure on the Duel of the Fates scene from The Phantom Menace. Diamond doesn’t generally do “soft goods” like a cloth cape, so don’t expect a hooded robe or cloth skirt. (Rather, expect a whole new hooded sculpt somewhere down the line.) The skirt instead comprises four flexible segments, so he can pose dynamically.

Articulation for Maul is as follows. Limited, ratcheting ball-jointed neck. Disc-and-pin ball-jointed shoulders, elbows, wrists. Ball mid-torso. Cut waist under skirt. Ball hips. Upper-thigh cuts. Double hinge knees, and hinge-and-rocker ankles.  On our Maul figure, purchased through the Disney store as no review samples were available, the right thigh-cut came super-loose out of the package. But a little superglue in the joint with a lot of twisting while it dried did the trick and fixed it up.

Maul includes alternate swirly blades for a dynamic “spin” appearance, and the saber splits in the middle, connected by a removable white pin. Besides that he comes with a green “deflected blast” effect, that makes the whole thing look unintentionally Christmassy.

Diamond has emphasized that these figures do not scale with Hasbro’s Black Series. Here’s the proof:

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They do, however, work well with McFarlane, NECA, and older DC Direct.

Boba Fett seems to have the same articulation as Maul, with the possible exception of the waist cut. (His toros ball joint being lower down, it’s hard to tell for sure.) The rocket pack is permanently attached and hard plastic, so even though the rocket looks a little bent, it does not bend back easily. Jet blast effects can come off, as can a laser shot effect attached to his gun’s barrel. And yes, the viewfinder moves up and down, just like Cobb Vanth used it. His neck ball joint moves more smoothly than Maul’s — it feels like a pure ball-and-socket connection.

Fett’s paint job is exceptional, with silver wear and tear marks all over, along with metallic shoe tips and green soles. No sign of slop anywhere, and signature details like the helmet scoring and mythosaur pauldron look as they should. This is the Return of the Jedi version with red gauntlets.

The figure, however, does feature a couple minor issues, the sorts of things a company new to the license might not have reckoned on immediately. Fett’s right arm features tubes that plug into his red gauntlet, but they only properly connect if his arm is posed ramrod-straight, which is an unnatural pose.

Want to pose him holding his gun as he normally does? Those hoses pop out. It’s an awkward detail that mainly nitpickers will focus on.

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Meanwhile, a flame effect slots between gauntlet and wrist on his left hand. Looks like it would burn his fingers too, but hey, space physics. Alternate trigger finger hands allow Boba to get ambidextrous.

One other minor issue with Boba Fett is that the hinge on his right angle is restricted, and keeps his right leg at a backward lean. It’s not an obstruction that can easily get cut off with a hobby knife, either. It’s part and parcel of the ankle sculpt. So standing him upright requires compensation, with a forward lean or his other leg back.

Those quibbles aside, these are the best looking Diamond Select action figures to come down the pipe in a long time. The small stuff seems like more a case of first-time Star Wars figure sculptors trying to problem-solve things that other toy companies figured out before. For anyone who wants Jedi, Sith, and bounty hunters to fight Batman, Alien, Predator, or horror icons, these aim to please, and ought to do so. Star Wars is maybe the biggest action figure brand of all time, and cannot be messed up. Thankfully, these do not fail.

Check out even more images in the gallery below.

Recommended Purchase: LEGO Star Wars: The Mandalorian The Razor Crest

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