General Grievous - ROTS - Deluxe

Part alien, part droid, General Grievous is the supreme commander of the droid armies and mastermind of the Separatist attacks. Trained in lightsaber combat, he uses his four arms with deadly skill in battle.

There are some Star Wars action figures that require a digestion period. Time is often needed to develop some honest and true appreciation and only by savoring it can one make an informed judgment on just how good (or how bad it is). We feel that really applies to 2005’s ROTS General Grievous Deluxe figure. Let us be straight with you. We abhorred most of the offerings in this line. There were a few exceptions to this rule, but for the most part this line was geared to introduce new and very young Star Wars viewers to the franchise so action figures in this collection were riddled with the silliest action features imagined. Obviously kids will need something to play with so this line was geared to offer them just that. There were many basic figure released of General Grievous in the Revenge Of The Sith basic figure lineup, but perhaps some overlooked one of the better offerings in the Deluxe line. Clearly this General Grievous action figure is far from perfect, but it has a few charming traits that we have to share with you.

General Grievous, while ironically screen inaccurate, has an impressive paint job. He is definitely the wrong color, but we found it acceptable to pretend that this could be a version of General Grievous from somewhere within the Expanded Universe or as a stretch, what he looked like after catching on fire courtesy of Obi-Wan Kenobi. But it’s important to note just how excellently the paint operations have been applied here on this figure. He comes with an impressive 13 points of articulation. That is pretty significant for a Deluxe action figure for this line as compared to others that have a lot less. Sadly, General Grievous does come with an action feature. By pressing down his head you activate the “secret” 4-arm lightsaber attack. It does what it’s supposed to do, but frankly is unremarkable and borderline boring. While he does come with plenty of articulation, many of the points have inhibited movement by its very design. For example, it looks like he has two ball-jointed shoulders, but they’re just swivel. And his elbows are only hinge-jointed (one plane of direction).

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the figure is the screen inaccurate grappling hook launcher and grappling hook projectile – obviously meant to represent the scene in which General Grievous escapes the clutches of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi on the Invisible Hand. Clearly it wasn’t seen in Episode III in the same fashion, but it adds the play value this Deluxe figure should have. Again, save these types of features for the corresponding accessories and make those action figures “normal” please! As a display piece, General Grievous looks rather fantastic. He comes with a molded cape that fits like a glove around his body and affixes to two holes around his “collar bone” area. And he can hold the four lightsabers he comes with better than any version in the basic figure collection. We also have to comment on how nicely the lighsabers have been made. The blades are very clear and the hilts are wonderfully decorated with fine details. It’s a shame Hasbro doesn’t use these sculpts more often. So there you have it. This isn’t a definitive version of General Grievous, but he does look pretty darn good.