General Grievous - ROTS - Collectible Figure And Cup

General Grievous is pursued by Obi-Wan Kenobi on the planet Utapau. Part alien and part droid, Grievous is the ruthless military commander of the droid armies. As Obi-Wan closes in, Grievous escapes in his custom-designed wheel bike, but the determined Jedi tracks him down and engages him in an explosive battle.

After a surprisingly successful run in the Star Wars “Saga” [Phase III] lineup, Hasbro offered TARGET a trio of exclusive Collectible Figure And Cup sets to open up the Revenge Of The Sith line at product launch (in April 2005). Three previously released action figures (Clone Trooper (III 6), General Grievous (1 of 4) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (III 1)) rounded out the new Revenge Of The Sith versions of this line and collectors were eager to scoop them up to add them to their collection of five previous releases. What surprised collectors initially is that three sets were intended to be released as part of The Original Trilogy Collection (Boba Fett, Han Solo, and Yoda), but were all canceled. Now Hasbro has skipped over this “wave 2” and added three Revenge Of The Sith specific glasses as the next wave instead. (It makes total sense.) (Editor’s Note: Two more waves of the TARGET exclusive Collectible Figure And Cup set s were release throughout 2005 and were all Original Trilogy based. The canceled sets released in Revenge Of The Sith packaging.) General Grievous is part of the first trio of sets for the Revenge Of The Sith line, and both the figure and cup are nicely done. It’s a truly collectible package here.

As Episode III rapidly approached, Hasbro began transitioning their toy line in January 2005 to set the stage for the Revenge Of The Sith product line. Immediately after the wrap up of the 2004/2005 The Original Trilogy Collection, Hasbro released four Sneak Preview basic figures to retail. One of these figures was General Grievous. It is this figure that is utilized for the Collectible Figure And Cup line. This figure is noteworthy because it represents the first time this character was an action figure (animated or realistic style). And it is a decent sculpt and representation of the character. Although we received a good taste of him at the end of the Volume 1 of Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars, getting him in realistic style was a real treat. It made us pine for what he would do in Revenge Of The Sith. The General Grievous (1 of 4) Sneak Preview figure is a great first effort by Hasbro, but in an age of desiring premium articulation, you may be left wanting more. We know we did. But his lack of articulation doesn’t take away from what Hasbro accomplished with authenticity in this action figure. Slightly repainted, General Grievous is nearly identical to the Sneak Preview version and has a couple of differences in the deco. It’s the same figure.

General Grievous in realistic form has been represented well here. The sculpt is dynamic, even though General Grievous is a little too short for a Kaleesh warlord. But that perhaps isn’t the only problem he has. Some aesthetics and some details are not perfect, like the outer color of his cape, or the area around his organic body parts. There are still some great points with General Grievous too. Hasbro opted to include a plastic-molded cape here, and it attaches to the figure via two holes in his chest that accept two tiny plugs on the cape. What’s surprising is how closely and tightly these prongs work to keep the cape in place. We’re impressed. It’s such a simple concept, but it exceeds expectations here. General Grievous comes with a single blue lightsaber that separates into a hilt and a blade. The two-part lightsaber wasn’t necessary for this release because General Grievous keeps the hilts in pockets on the inside of his cape, something that hasn’t been worked into the sculpt here. The first version of this General Grievous figures looked a little bit too dirty in our opinion, and now this version appears to have more muted deco for a wash. The included cup is beautiful. It focused on Utapau and included General Grievous in addition to his MagnaGuard. You’ll also find his wheel bike in the background as well. It’s a great set.