Review: Star Wars Black Series Rook Kast from Maul: Shadow Lord
- Mephitsu
- 4 hours ago
- 6 min read
"Since you claimed the throne of Mandalore, I have followed you without question”
Maul made his triumphant return to the Star Wars Universe in 2026 with a new animated series, Maul: Shadow Lord, continuing his story from The Clone Wars and bridging the gap until his brief cameo in Solo and his eventual final appearances in Star Wars: Rebels. A four-figure wave of Star Wars Black Series figures was unveiled for the first season, and these were shipped in July 2026. The wave features Maul himself along with Rook Kast, the Eleventh Brother Inquisitor, and Devon Izara.
The Shadow Lord collection for the Galaxy Collection was assigned another red tone, a brighter version than that used on Andor and Attack of the Clones, but still very similar. The focus colour is applied over the black box in terms of the numbering and character details as well as on the side artwork.
Rook Kast is number 02 in the collection; her artwork connects to that of Maul on her left and the Eleventh Brother on the right. The artwork features Kast with her blaster out in front of her, and in the background, her Mandalorian Kom'rk Class fighter transport in the background. The image is used again on the back of the box with a short piece of text that positions the premise of the show rather than the character, and this same text is used on all the Wave 1 figures. It is worth noting that for some reason, Rook Kast's box art colouring seems out of line with the other Shadow Lord figures, the artwork sitting a little darker and with a more sepia tone.
Inside the packaging, Rook Kast is packed into the usual inner tray which then sits in a cardboard backing tray that uses the same red accent colour, embedded with a further image of her Gauntlet Fighter ship in the background.
Rook Kast is making her debut in the Black Series despite making appearances on screen in The Clone Wars. She is an entirely new sculpt, replicating her unique Mandalorian armour with its burgundy armoured components over a dark grey and black undersuit. The armour is sleeker than that of Bo-Katan or Koska Reeves, and while this does give Rook Kast a slimmer profile, this is still realistic in style rather than a direct replication of her animated character.
The armour features pauldrons, applied with the black icon of the hand of the Shadow Collective on the right-hand side and what appears to be the coiled veix symbol of House Kast on the left-hand side. Around the waist is a longer skirt section which includes a fan design with black inserts and grey protective panels at either side. The legs are black and grey with red knee armour and red shin armour with black boots.
Further paint detail to enhance the armour is applied on the chest strap clamps and around the back on the jetpack. The jetpack itself is not removable, and is slimmer than the usual format with a wider profile and smaller rocket sections. It is painted in black, red, and with silver sections.
Rook Kast arrives in the box unmasked with a brand new sculpted head. She is voiced in Shadow Lord by Vanessa Marshal, but the likeness does not lean into this to translate the head sculpt to a live-action setting and instead creates an interpretation of what Rook Kast might look like if cast directly based on her Clone Wars and Shadow Lord looks. She is extremely pale-skinned, with a shock of purple hair and photoreal application on the eyes, the eye makeup and the lips creating a stark contrast of dark makeup against the lighter skin tone. Likenesses on figures translated from animation are always hard to judge. Rook Kast is certainly recogniseable, but perhaps looks a little younger than maybe she should be, and she does lose some of her prominent angular features we see on the show.
Kast comes with her helmet, but in order to keep the shape of both the helmet and the hairstyle, Hasbro has been unable to make this a removable helmet, so it is included as a swap-out head option. The way it's designed still allows the helmet to be used as an accessory held under Kast’s arm, or it can be swapped out with the unmasked head by way of an extended neck peg and ball joint.
The helmet is angular, coming to a more prominent point at the front. The visor is painted black and is shaped in the same way as Bo-Katan with the Nightowl lines. The helmet includes red and grey markings across the top, paying homage to Maul and the Shadow Collective. Around the visor is weathering and wear in a grey finish that also extends around the side, giving a worn look. This is particularly effective, but then is out of line with the armour, which is presented clean and undamaged.
Rook Kast comes with her pair of WESTAR-35 blaster pistols. While these are similar to other releases, they do appear to be new, as they each now incorporate a very short stubby peg and are handed right and left to correspond with sockets on the belt. This holstering option is not particularly good, nowhere near as good as what we often see on Jedi figures for their lightsabers. On the figure we purchased, one side just about locked in place, but the right-hand blaster seemed to be too short on the peg to hold in place.
When not holstered, the blasters fit in Rook Kast’s hands where a trigger finger drops into place ready for the weapons to be fired or cradled ready for battle.
Articulation is formatted as per the current layout with 17 points in total, with two lost by the removal of the thigh swivels, which enhances the aesthetics and does away with that older issue where the two different sides of the thigh sometimes came in variant colours or finishes. The legs use ankle rockers and a rotating knee joint for posing alongside the usual hip joint; there is even mobility on the knee armour, which can be moved and aligned correctly when the knee is moved. Rook Kast is stable once posed with tight joints. She can kneel - just - with the skirt section sitting just high enough to not impede the pose, but the knee bend is not quite enough for a true kneel, more of a sideways lean as though sliding into a firing position.
The chest has a ball joint tucked in at the waist with limited movement. The arms include butterfly shoulders, rotating elbows and wrist pivots and have a good range of movement for firing positions, or more generic poses including holding her helmet. The twin joint neck gives a reasonable amount of rotation and tilt, but with the upper ball joint sitting so high this is less than we might normally expect.
Overall, Rook Kast is a faithful replication of the character we see in Maul: Shadow Lord, converted more or less to a realistic style although perhaps still not quite bringing with it the angular features of Kast, who is given a more rounded and marginally younger face sculpt. The armour is a nice variation in both design and colour to the Night Owls or Covenant we’ve seen plenty of over the years thanks to The Mandalorian. I accept the helmet being an alternative head rather than removable to maintain the proportions of both, but I do feel the holstering solution for the blasters is pretty poor in execution.
While there is potentially Mando-fatigue out there for collectors, the different styling of Rook Kast and her alignment to Maul and his Shadow Collective should serve her well, and I can’t wait to expand the Shadow Collective further, having Maul and Rook Kast joined later this year with the recently announced figures of Icarus and Kebris, the Super Commando.
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About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...
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