Sunday, April 21, 2019

Action Figure Review: General Grievous from Star Wars: The Black Series Phase III by Hasbro

 While Hasbro has offered some deluxe releases in the Black Series for some time, last year they started offering some oversized retailer exclusive figures as deluxe releases, such as the Target exclusive Gamorrean Guard and Moloch. General Grievous is the first mainstream release to be numbered in the deluxe series and he's been hitting lots of online retailers and even a few brick and mortar stores as well (I've seen reports of the figure at Best Buy and GameStop). Considering he's one of the main villains of the Prequel Trilogy and the Clone Wars, Grievous is another character whose absence from the line has been incredibly conspicuous. We've finally got him, though, and it's clear that Hasbro has put some real effort into this release. Let's check out the deluxe release of General Grievous after the break...



 The Facts:

Height: 7 1/4ths inches

Articulation: Swivel/hinge feet, hinged ankles, double hinged knees, balljointed hips, balljointed mid-torso, balljointed shoulders, 4x swivel/hinge shoulders, 4x swivel biceps, 4x hinged elbows, 4x swivel forearms, balljointed neck, balljointed head.

Accessories: Four 2-piece lightsabers, 1 blaster, and cape.

Non-Scalper Price: $33 dollars
 The Positives:

* Grievous looks incredible. While Hasbro certainly has lots of experience in crafting 1/18th scaled figures of General Gievous but this is their first go in the Black Series and I think they did a fantastic job. While he's (mostly) not an organic character, Grievous has a rather complex, intricate body design with his long, slender limbs and multiple plates of armor over his body. The sculpting and paintwork is pretty nice, too. I owned the Vintage Collection Grievous and this version takes the greatness of that figure and just makes it a bit larger! Large and in charge, baby.

* The headsculpt is good. While the non-humanoid characters don't really utilize faceprinting in the same way as the humanoid figures, Grievious still looks to have the same level of care in his sculpt and paint applications. Those eyes are incredible! They look so realistic and piercing!

* Grievious' arms split in two, allowing for him to swing four lightsabers at once. Hasbro did a great job with the arms when they're split into two as each arm features multiple points of articulation and moves quite well. The articulation is tight and Grievous can wield all four of his lightsabers menacingly in any number of poses.

* General Grievous has great articulation over his full body, including true balljoints at his shoulders, hips, mid-torso, neck, and head. You can get him in so many poses! He can be a bit difficult to keep standing simply because of the spindly nature of his body but with a little work you'll be able to work him in any pose you'd like.



* There are lots of fine details on the body and lots of small paint hits to give the armored plates and the body some wear and tear.


* General Grievous includes his cape, which I think looks pretty good. It's not perfect but there's nothing wrong with it and it seems to be of a very high quality. The colors are spot on and he looks so incredible wearing it! Now he needs some of his Magnaguards to chill with him!

* Inside the cape are some very nice pockets (4 to be exact) where General Grievous can store his collection of captured Jedi lightsabers. They look really cool in here.


* Grevious includes his DT-57 "Annihilator" blaster pistol. Not only is this an incredibly cool sculpt but it also can be used by Obi-Wan to finish off General Grievious.


* Grievous includes four lightsabers, all having unique handles. Two are blue and they look nice. The handles fit very snugly in General Grievous's hands and feature excellent paintwork on the handles.


* And here are the two green lightsabers. Hasbro really improved the lightsaber blades here and they pop in and out much easier than on previous figures and feel much sturdier, too.
 The Negatives:

* Hasbro definitely put some thought into Grievious' arms as they do snap together and pull apart. Unfortunately, when they're together it is incredibly difficult to get the articulation to work properly and it is too easy to bend his limbs, putting some stress marks on the plastic. I definitely think Hasbro could have gone with interchangeable arms here as a better solution.
   Despite my thoughts on how General Grievious could have been a bet better with interchangeable arms, he is still a top of the line figure. Getting him hand you can definitely tell that Hasbro put more time into the development and fabrication of the figure. Great accessories, excellent articulation, solid soft good, and some top drawer paintwork and sculpting make this another standout in the Black Series which, let's be honest, has definitely been full of standouts lately. Hasbro keeps doing better and better with this line and General Grievous has been done proud. Now...about Count Dooku....



If you're looking for more General Grievous goodness, check out the Micro Machines General Grievous from the Droid Army Ambush set,  the very cool Hero Mashers General Grievous, and the Funko POP! #129 General Grievous.


For more figures from Star Wars: The Black Series, check out the following:
442nd Siege Battalion Clone Trooper, 212th Attack Battalion Utapau Trooper, Coruscant Guard ---(Phase II), and 501st Legion Clone Trooper 4 pack
4-LOM
Admiral Ackbar and First Order Officer
Admiral Piett
Ahsoka Tano 
AT-AT Pilot 
Battle Droid
Baze Malbus
C-3PO
C-3PO (Resistance Base) 
Captain Cassian Andor (Eadu) 
Captain Phasma
Captain Phasma (Quicksilver Baton)
Captain Poe Dameron
Chewbacca (Target Exclusive)
Chewbacca (The Force Awakens)
Chirrut Imwe 
Clone Captain Rex (HasCon Exclusive)
Clone Commander Gree
Clone Commander Wolffe 
Constable Zuvio
Darth Revan 
Darth Vader (Emperor's Wrath)
Death Star Trooper
Dengar
Dewback/ Sandtrooper
Director Krennic 
DJ (Canto Bight)
Dryden Vos
Elite Praetorian Guard
Elite Praetorian Guard (with Heavy Blade)
Enfys Nest's Swoop Bike/ Enfys Nest
Finn (First Order Disguise)
Finn (FN-2187)
Finn (Jakku)
First Order Flametrooper
First Order General Hux
First Order Snowtrooper
First Order Snowtrooper Officer
First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter
First Order Stormtrooper
First Order Stormtrooper Executioner 
First Order Stormtrooper (with Gear)
First Order TIE Fighter Pilot
Gamorrean Guard
General Leia Organa
General Veers
Grand Admiral Thrawn (SDCC Exclusive)
Grand Moff Tarkin 
Guardians of Evil 4-Pack
Guavian Enforcer
Han Solo (Exogorth Escape)
Han Solo (Solo)
Han Solo (The Force Awakens)
Hera Syndulla
Imperial AT-ACT Driver
Imperial Death Trooper
Imperial Death Trooper, Captain Cassian Andor, and Sergeant Jyn Erso (Jedha) 3 pack
Imperial Hovertank Pilot 
Imperial Jumptrooper
Imperial Patrol Trooper
Imperial Shock Trooper 
Imperial Royal Guard 
Inferno Squad Agent
Jaina Solo (Legends)
Jango Fett
K-2SO
Kanan Jarrus
Kylo Ren 
Kylo Ren (SDCC 2016)
Kylo Ren (The Last Jedi) 
Kylo Ren (Starkiller Base)
Kylo Ren (Throne Room) 
L3-37
Lando Calrissian (Solo)
Lando Calrissian (The Empire Strikes Back)
Lando Calrissian (Skiff Guard)
Luke Skywalker 
Luke Skywalker (Jedi Master) 
Luke Skywalker (Jedi Master)- Ahch-To Island
Maz Kanata 
Moloch
Obi-Wan Kenobi (Force Spirit)
Obi-Wan Kenobi (SDCC 2016) 
Padme Amidala
Phase 1 Clone Trooper Commander, Phase II Clone Trooper, Imperial Stormtrooper, and First Order ---Stormtrooper Officer four pack
Poe Dameron
Poe Dameron and First Order Riot Control Stormtrooper
Porgs 
Princess Leia (Bespin Escape)
Princess Leia Organa 
Princess Leia Organa (Hoth)
Qi'ra (Corellia)
Qui-Gon Jinn
R2-A3, R5-K6, and R2-F2
Range Trooper
Rebel Trooper
Red Squadron (R2-D2, R5-D8, and R2-X2)
Resistance Tech Rose
Resistance Trooper
Rey (Island Journey)
Rey (Jakku) & BB-8 
Rey (Jedi Training)
Rey (Jedi Training)- Crait
Rey (Starkiller Base) 
Rey's Speeder (Jakku)
Rio Durant
Sabine Wren
Sandtrooper Sergeant, Crimson Stormtrooper, Lieutenant OXIXO, and R2-Q5
Scarif Stormtrooper
Scarif Stormtrooper Squad Leader 
Sergeant Jyn Erso (Eadu)
Sergeant Jyn Erso (Jedha)
Snowtrooper 
Stormtrooper (Mimban)
Stormtrooper (With Blast Accessories)
Supreme Leader Snoke (Throne Room)
Tobias Beckett
Tusken Raider 
Val (Vandor)
Vice Admiral Holdo
X-34 Landspeeder & Luke Skywalker (SDCC Exclusive) 
X-Wing Pilot Asty 
Zuckuss

4 comments:

  1. The arm articulation makes for some awesome photos here. I can imagine him being useful for anyone who does photostories as well.

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    Replies
    1. It really does. I like that Hasbro really goes out of their way to do unique things with nearly every figure in this line. Grievous feels really well engineered, as if a lot of thought were put into him.

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  2. I was actually going to pass on him (I forgot to cancel my order at BBTS - $35 was a bit more than I really wanted to spend), but with him in hand, I'm quite pleased with him. For once, I actually like the soft goods (:P) and can get his cape to hang quite naturally. I agree, he should've come with swappable arms, but I only plan to display him wielding all four light sabers, so that's not too much of an issue for me.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, the cape is great. The soft goods on this line are probably about 60/40 for me. The jedi robes have looked good. The only two I can think of off hand that were misses were Holdo and the ANH Leia.

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