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Name: General Grievous
Collection: Revenge Of The Sith
Number: N/A
Scale: 12 Inch Figures
Source: Revenge Of The Sith
Availability: April 2005
License: Hasbro
Part alien, part droid, General Grievous is the supreme commander of the droid armies and a brilliant military strategist for the Separatist forces. He hunts Jedi for sport and proudly displays their lightsabers around his belt as trophies of his conquest.
Each new episode of the Prequel Trilogy features a new villain. For The Phantom Menace, the film introduced us to Darth Maul. For Attack Of The Clones, we were introduced to Count Dooku. And for Revenge Of The Sith, Star Wars fans saw the first realistic interpretation of General Grievous. If you recall, the character was first introduced in Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars micro-series, and then evolved a bit before making its big-screen debut in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith. Although significantly prepared with reference materials and behind-the-scenes images to develop a top toy line, Hasbro ultimately did NOT have all of the final character concepts and references in-hand. The lack of this material prevented them from developing screen-accurate action figures both in the 3.75” basic figure line, as well as the 12 Inch Figures line. Most of the products that fell under the Revenge Of The Sith line look banner were accurate to the film, but others weren’t. General Grievous was one character that suffered as an action figure, because the final appearance, colors, and designs of the character changed quite a bit from the concept art. When it came time for Hasbro to produce General Grievous for the 12 Inch Figures line, they designed some of the details on the character that Lucasfilm changed in the final cut of the film. For example, General Grievous’ coloring went from off-white to a creamy light tan. And the character’s cape went from glistening silver to dark gray (both versions had a red lining).
Also of note, something got lost in translation for the toys in regards to General Grievous’ height. Both the action figures in the 3.75” line, as well as the 12 Inch Figure, are too short. Their scales are off by quite a bit. We don’t understand what happened here, because the character was noticeably taller than most other characters as portrayed in the Clone Wars micro-series. Hasbro had a point of reference to size their General Grievous action figures accurately. Again, we’re not sure what went wrong here. Unfortunately, the General Grievous 12 Inch Figure is too short for the line. It’s also too “thin” as well. General Grievous should be broader than this figure is when compared to the other 12 Inch Figures in the Revenge Of The Sith line. The figure is a bit stiff, although you can configure it in a variety of ways, thanks to its excellent lower body articulation. The upper body is not as wonderful, however. The arms split apart into two halves resulting in the ability to hold four lightsaber hilts or four fully lit lightsabers. But each half sits on a ball-socket joint and pop off rather easily if you’re not careful and bump it in the slightest. With patience, however, you can pose General Grievous in many ways with the included accessories. So we can’t fault Hasbro for this engineering. We are disappointed that they used weak, rubbery plastic to make the arms, and the bow easily when adding lightsabers to the hands. The rest of the figure is cast in a more rigid material which is excellent.
General Grievous comes with a beautiful silvery cape with the Kaleesh Warlord symbol emblazoned on the back of it. Hasbro also lined the interior with shiny red fabric. The cape isn’t accurate to the film, but it’s not far off either. Hasbro uses cheap fabric materials, as evidenced by their shimmer, and if they used a more quality fabric like cotton, they could have toned down the glare this included cape creates in the littlest bit of light. Also, Hasbro didn’t sew in any interior pockets in the red lining of the cape to stow the lightsaber hilts of General Grievous’ victims. We’re disappointed by this misstep, but it is what it is. There are two elastic loops at the collar edges of the cape, and you fasten them to two plugs on General Grievous’ body (the collar area), and the cape stays tightly in place. Hasbro developed this beautifully. We’re quite ecstatic that you can achieve so many different looks with General Grievous with and without the cape on the body. It’s a nice option to have here. We’re most disappointed that Hasbro didn’t include a B1 Battle Droid blaster with General Grievous. After all, that’s the weapon he uses right before his demise at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi. If you’re a patient collector, General Grievous can be situated in poses that look remarkable. Collectors who normally don’t purchase 12 Inch Figures may want to give General Grievous a chance in their collections. General Grievous is a cool offering for the Revenge Of The Sith line. We think you’ll find it has some merit.
Status: General Grievous is an all-new figure.
Articulation Count: 18 points (16 areas of articulation)
Articulation Details: swivel head (1), ball-jointed left shoulder (2), ball-jointed right shoulder (2), hinge-jointed left bicep (1), hinge-jointed right bicep (1), ball-socket upper left elbow (1), ball-socket lower left elbow (1), ball-socket upper right elbow (1), ball-socket lower right elbow (1), swivel waist (1), swivel left hip (1), swivel right hip (1), hinge-jointed left knee (1), hinge-jointed right knee (1), hinge-jointed left ankle (1), hinge-jointed right ankle (1)
Accessory Count: 9
Accessory Details: lightsaber hilt A, lightsaber blade A, lightsaber hilt B, lightsaber blade B, lightsaber hilt C, lightsaber blade C, lightsaber hilt D, lightsaber blade D, cape
Date Stamp: 2005
Assortment Number: 85401/85180
UPC: 653569013570
Retail: $19.99 USD
Market Value: Click here to check the latest prices based on listings.
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