Pre-Cyborg Grievous To General Grievous - SW [SOTDS] - Legacy Of The Dark Side

One of the most standout waves in the history of Star Wars collecting was wave 5 of the 30 (77-07) line. Affectionately referred to as the Expanded Universe wave, it really should have been called a “mixed” wave because it including figures from Return Of The Jedi, Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars and well as various characters from the EU. One figure in particular grabbed the attention of collectors all over and it was the Pre-Cyborg Grievous figure. This wave of figures did not have a long shelf life and some of them began demanding a high premium almost from the get go. And Pre-Cyborg Grievous was one of these figures. For years, collectors have been asking/pleading/begging Hasbro to rerelease this figure and they finally listened and including him in the Legacy Of The Dark Side Toys R Us exclusive two-packs. One of the better sets in these various two-packs, it brought the hard to find figure in revised packaging and also with a mate.

We are quite honestly surprised that there has been such a demand for this version of General Grievous. We are of the opinion that the figure failed almost right out of the packaging. Between the wide stances of his legs to the lack of any real usable articulation, the figure was only made worse by the poor gimmick of a removable helmet. The conceptual design of this Kaleesh warlord is actually a very striking character. And it’s one version we really wanted to see immortalized into an action figure. Unfortunately it’s just not this version. Why Hasbro decided to make a wonky (and disproportionate) removable face mask and distort his stature is really beyond our comprehension. We’d say an all-new sculpt is needed (and this character deserves an accurate rework). Instead of a removable mask we’d much rather see interchangeable heads; one with the bone mask on (non-removable) and the other revealing his organic face. The figure is a straight repack of the 2007 figure and we are unable to find any paint job differences at all.

Hasbro also includes the General Grievous we’re more familiar with from Episode III into this set. General Grievous is a straight repack of 2008’s TLC General Grievous (BD 25) figure. Again, this figure is a straight repack with little to no variances in the paint job. He comes outfitted with two lightsabers (just like the 2008 basic figure) and other than that there is not too much else to inform. This Pre-Cyborg Grievous To General Grievous set may be the most sought after because collectors will be buying this for a chance at the Pre-Cyborg Grievous figure. And if you must have it, then this is your second best chance to secure it for your collection. (We prefer the one with the coin obviously, but aftermarket value has made this an unattainable purchase for so many people.) Admittedly, we are drawn to the packaging on this set. It’s nothing special, but it does look pretty cool. You do get a super-articulated movie version of Grievous as well as a much sought after EU take on him too. So, it’s a winner of a set overall.