Ebony Maw was released as part of the first wave of Avengers figures for Avengers Endgame in Spring 2019. He comes with the left leg of the Armoured Thanos Build-a-Figure.
Packaging 4/5
The Ebony Maw packaging is badged using an Avengers Infinity War logo, but retains the same design and colouring as the rest of the Endgame wave. The backing card is a pale blue, emblazoned with the Avengers "A" logo. The same logo sits on the top of the box. The side artwork, in a blue hue, is particularly menacing.
On the back of the box we see the 2019 amendment of showing an image of the character from the movie and not a promotional image of the figure. To the side of this sits a short piece of text and underneath this a checklist for the Build-a-Figure.
"The dangerous assassin Ebony Maw puts his powers of persuasion to sinister use in the service of the evil Thanos"
Paint & Sculpt 2/5
Straight out of the box there is something off about the head sculpt on Ebony Maw and this is disappointing considering this is not a figure they've released ahead of any movie using concept art. It is also someway short of the prototype we saw last year.
There are two key factors for me. The first is the brow area which is not pronounced enough nor painted with sufficient shadow. The other factor is the hair which is missing when viewed from the front, and only represented from the back by a very small area of sculpted hair in the same colour tone as the head. This throws the look of the head considerably.
The Maw's body is well proportioned sculpted with a textured tunic and gold trim painted down the front of the body. The grey is perhaps too light and could do with being darker. Maw stands a good head higher than a basic human figure like Captain america. Whether this is accurate is down to interpretation of what we see on screen. For me the Maw figure is actually a touch too tall and should be shorter than Proxima Midnight and with his head coming up to the top of Thanos' chest area - although that could just as easily mean Thanos and Proxima are too short.
Accessories N/A
There are no accessories included for Maw. While I appreciate he used very little on screen, some clever FX pieces to represent his needles that he uses to torture Doctor Strange.
The other obvious miss is an alternative right hand in the "shhhh" pose we see him use.
Articulation 4/5
Maw, for such a tall figure, is really well articulated with 18 points of articulation in total
Head - ball joint with pivot
Body - torso ball joint
Arms - ball joint shoulders, bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, pivot wrist
Legs - ball joint hips, thigh swivel, single joint knee, ankle rocker
The arms, long and slim as they are, allow for some expressive poses including being able to touch his own head. This does however add to the disappointment of not getting the "shhh" hand pose. I would be careful of the elbows which are quite slim and therefore prone to breaking.
Legs are fully mobile, with the rubberised skirt moving with the legs. Maw stands well enough.
Summary
The Black Order figures to date have been quite disappointing for fans. With Corvus Glaive a US exclusive and no official UK release - and Proxima and Cull Obsidian not being screen accurate and based on concepts - it is a shame that with all the screen references for Ebony Maw we didn't get a better looking figure. Darkening the brow and adding sculpted hair would significantly change the shape and look of the head and improve the figure significantly.
Thankfully the articulation and box art does pull a point back for the figure and I I score the Avengers 2019 Wave 1 Ebony Maw figure an average 3 out of 5.
