General Grievous - TLC - Basic (BD 25)

Added: June 18th 2009
Category: Legacy Collection, The
Reviewer: Paul Harrison
Score:

Name: General Grievous
Collection: The Legacy Collection
Number: BD 25
Source: Revenge Of The Sith
Availability: December 2008
License: Hasbro

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A cyborg composed of melded metal and flesh, Grievous is one of the most chillingly effective military leaders in the Separatist’s army. He is a powerful and frightening presence in battle, exhibiting strategic ingenuity and flawless cunning.

Let’s be honest, we have all been waiting since 2005 to get a correctly scaled and hyper-articulated General Grievous action figure. All the Grievous figures to date have had some gimmicky action feature, fallen apart into multiple pieces, had flames shooting out of his eyes, or were desperate refreshed attempts by Hasbro to fit in better the rest of the latest action figure line. All those versions seemed to have fallen short in multiple ways. But the time has come and we can count ourselves blessed because we finally have received an almost definitive General Grievous action figure. You may feel perhaps that the word “almost” is either too harsh or too kind. But we are using it as a compliment. The only thing really keeping General Grievous from pure picture perfection would be the omission of a velvety soft-goods cape. This is his trademark accessory and we don’t know why it was ignored. (Actually, we do.) Tooling costs are becoming big stumbling blocks for our action figures. And to be honest, we would have rather seen shortcuts be made on a couple other figures instead if it would ensure that Grievous would get his cape. Despite this glaring flaw, General Grievous is one of the most spectacular action figures we have ever seen in the basic figure line. Mildly suffering from being a little too rubbery in spots (this affects his posability), Grievous is a testament to the talent Hasbro recruits to make their unprecedented action figure line better and better each year. You may be of a slightly different opinion here, but never have we seen such a fine execution of arms that split into four without looking too bulky or misshapen. Unfortunately, his hands have a little bit of trouble holding his accessories. In a time where technology can aid in designing parts that can hold weapons flawlessly, this is a bit of a set back. His arms are in complete proportion to his legs and his claw feet are detailed in a way that we cannot find words to express their awesome power. On top of the limbs being brilliantly crafted, Hasbro incorporated a marvelous paint application that gives them the required metallic look that they need. Just the overall attention to detail raises a new bar for action figure making and paint decoration. Additionally, his legs are designed so well and possess the most versatile capabilities that you will be able to pose him in an infinite amount of configurations. Clearly, this General Grievous figure is unbelievable and we are so thankful to have a figure of this magnificent magnitude in our collections. And the goodness doesn’t stop here.

General Grievous is a 100% all-new figure. The parts of his organic marbled coverings are actually separate pieces that have been glued into place (and while there is really no need for them not to be glued in place, they look fantastic). The marbling effect that Hasbro was able to achieve is stunning. It looks like real bone and the parts that are intended to be his metal make-up are also beautifully sculpted and contrast incredibly well against each other and brings home the point that Grievous is a “living” thing and not some freakishly assembled “droid Frankenstein”. There is appropriate shading where needed and is it quite impressive what details Hasbro transferred over into this small scale. While Grievous has additional living parts within his body cavity, not that much can be seen in the way of these internal structures, but we get enough of an idea. Specifically, the center of his chest is painted a green color and other than that, you don’t see much else. Grievous’ internal organs are designed more than fine for a figure of this size and caliber so in other words, it looks real and good enough. Depending on your sample, you may have minor head issues, as the eyes may have not been painted sharply enough, but these cases have been far and few between. His yellow eyes stand out from amongst the rest of his body and are luminous, ominous and intimidating. We do wish that the head sculpt was a tiny bit bigger so his eyes could be bigger. We think that Grievous’ eyes are one of the most important parts on his body that give him his personality, but due to the tiny nature of his head, some of this gets lost in translation. (But this loss is to a very small degree.) We wouldn’t go as far as saying that it is out of scale, but it does look the tiniest bit off to us. Grievous comes with two lightsabers (a blue one and a green one) and a droid blaster. While we know that he should have come with four lightsabers (if we are to be film specific) instead of two, Hasbro apparently needed to save on tooling costs again. We still would rather reserve our criticism for the missing cape first before worrying about extra lightsabers second. Hopefully Hasbro can reissue Grievous somewhere down the road (whether on a card back or a Battle Pack) and include a cape. Like we expressed earlier, this would perfect him. General Grievous is extremely tall and will tower over many of your action figures. This is a good thing since he is supposed to be much taller than the average action figure. And probably most importantly, this Grievous figure looks great when posed next to the 2008 TAC Obi-Wan Kenobi (08 01) figure (or any subsequent reissue of it). It totally looks authentic to the film and we love faithfulness to our films!

Probably to be the most popular action figure in this wave, General Grievous deserves the attention he will get from kids and collectors. We don’t expect him to last long on the shelves and complete sell through will be expected. We recommend not waiting for him. It is amazing to us how much more impressive an action figure may look to us simply due to the fact that Hasbro cranked out so many other inferior versions for such a long time. Apparently, Hasbro has recycled the old figures enough to warrant costing out this beautiful brand new sculpt. It has been a long time, but it was worth the wait. If time is required to make thing age (in a bad way) so that new and better can be created, then more power to that! Grievous isn’t the only figure that benefits from an upgrade. Many of the other Episode III characters in this wave look fantastic as well. Characters from Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith are really getting their day in the sun. A “Revenge Of The Sith” wave seems to come to us multiple times a year for the last few years. Since the film is so rich with characters, we are thrilled that Hasbro shows this film more and more love by the release of constant great waves of figures. Also, when Hasbro does decide to concentrate on figures from Episode III, they clearly perform their due diligence well to make sure that everything is in place before releasing final products to the public. (They try to get everything right now the first time.) For the most part, the characters stray very little (if at all) from their appearance in the film and as stringent and perfectionist collectors, this is very considerate and grows our passion for the line even stronger. There have been infrequent 'bombs" and some surprising omissions still (our yet-to-be-made figures), but General Grievous is a “no brainer” for even the most discriminating of collectors. General Grievous is everything you want him to be and we are confident you will feel similarly. We highly suggest you pick yours up. While we do expect this figure to resurface in future collections or get repacked down the road or in some other capacity, now is the time to enjoy him and replace him with your very inaccurate and outdated early action figure versions. This one is a tremendous improvement. There is room to grow, but we're sure Hasbro has great plans with this sculpt.

Collector Notes

General Grievous

Status: General Grievous is an all-new figure.

Articulation Count: 33 points (26 areas of articulation)

Articulation Details: ball-socket head (1), ball-jointed left shoulder (2), ball-jointed right shoulder (2), hinge-jointed front left arm half (1), hinge-jointed rear left arm half (1), hinge-jointed front right arm half (1), hinge-jointed rear right arm half (1), swivel front left bicep (1), swivel rear left bicep (1), swivel front right bicep (1), swivel rear right bicep (1), hinge-jointed front left elbow (1), hinge-jointed rear left elbow (1), hinge-jointed front right elbow (1), hinge-jointed rear right elbow (1), swivel front left forearm (1), swivel rear left forearm (1), swivel front right forearm (1), swivel rear right forearm (1), ball-jointed torso (2), swivel left hip (1), swivel right hip (1), double hinge-jointed left knee (2), double hinge-jointed right knee (2), ball-jointed left ankle (2), ball-jointed right ankle (2)

Accessory Count: 6

Accessory Details: droid blaster, lightsaber (blue), lightsaber (green), removable collar, removable left chest plate, removable right chest plate

Original Droid Factory/Build A Droid Part: MB-RA-7 head

Date Stamp: 2008

Assortment Number: 87820/87535

UPC: 653569342182

Retail: $7.99 USD

Market Value: Click here to check the latest prices based on Click here to check the market value on eBay! listings.





General Grievous

The Legacy Collection Wave 4

Stass Allie (BD 23)

Commander Faie (BD 24)

General Grievous (BD 25)

Bail Organa (BD 26)

Breha Organa (BD 27)

FX-6 (BD 28)

Clone Trooper (327th Star Corps) (BD 29)

MB-RA-7 (Build A Droid)



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