Pre-Cyborg Grievous - TAC - Basic (30 36)

A fearless warrior, Grievous is one of the greatest military soldiers of his people. As is the Kaleesh custom, he wears, during combat, a bone mask passed down to him from his ancestors. His outstanding military record catches the attention of the Banking Clan, who want to use his expertise for their growing Separatist movement.

Qymaen jai Sheelal? What the heck? Yes, this is how our "beloved" General Grievous started out life in the Star Wars universe (after the fact of course). Actually a very cool character himself, the concept art of Qymaen jai Sheelal during the Huk war displays a pretty magnificent are ultimately cool look for the future Separatist leader fighting off Jedi in the Clone Wars. And as much as we adore that early look for Grievous, we can’t say we love the action figure interpretation as much. Cast as Pre-Cyborg Grievous in the 30 (77-07) line, the figure makes as well as misses the mark equally and we feel compelled to express how Hasbro should have approached some details on characters like this. Extremely tall and foreboding, Pre-Cyborg Grievous will be one of the tallest action figures your collections will see, and this of course is a great thing. And Hasbro painted him beautifully, almost exactly to what the concept art shows. But they made some rather unfortunate decisions for this action figure that have "grievously" hurt the aesthetics of the figure. Pre-Cyborg Grievous is an action figure that we really wanted to unconditionally love, but we just can’t overlook some of the mistakes Hasbro made on him. We think that the time is now to make a statement that less is more, especially in the case of Qymaen jai Sheelal, or Pre-Cyborg Grievous to the layperson. But what does "less" exactly entail?

Pre-Cyborg Grievous is an action figure that should have not had a removable helmet/face covering. It tremendously effects what the actual look of the face should be. You can’t see the piercing yellow eyes through the eye holes, the face portion (bone mask) is too wide and it just doesn’t do faithful justice to the character in the concept art at all. We would have suggested two separately sculpted portraits that included one of his alien head and one with the mask already covering his face (non-removable). This would have looked so much better, and to be honest, we don't find the portrait of his alien being that intimidating or fearsome. Instead of looking imposing, he looks more like some disgruntled employees we know. The mask, if done right, would have given Grievous a mystery. The effect that a removable mask has on Grievous is akin to the effect that a removable helmet has on Boba Fett. Once the mystery is gone and you can put a face to a name, the "power" of the figure gets sadly diminished. He has an abnormally wide stance that doesn’t work for us. Grievous also lacks in other ways. Thankfully, he has wide feet which give him some support to stand upright, but you will only be able to attain one pose in which his legs spread, which looks quite silly. He is outfitted with a cape and harness and rifle. And he has a cool sword that fits into the sheath lying across his back perfectly well. The overall paint job on him is fantastic, especially in his midsection where there appears to be layers of coloring that really bring him to life. He is a bit too shiny in spots and we’re not entirely sure why the light catches this so strongly as opposed to other figures in the line. It is a bit noticeable and slightly bothersome. Still, if you can get past the poorly designed bone mask you should be happy with this figure.

A Kaleesh warlord, Grievous is a fearless warrior and one of the greatest military masterminds of all his species. This plays into the canon of his back story and what we see in the film as to why he was chosen as general of the Separatist army. Recruited by the Banking Clan, General Grievous’ imposing size allows him to be an effective leader to crush the Republic stronghold on the universe. We really wish he was as effective as an action figure in the 30 (77-07). Part of the hard-to-find (what is now referred to as the) EU3, Pre-Cyborg Grievous along with Darth Revan and Darth Malak have proven to become quite a difficulty to locate at retail despite shipping as much as the rest of the figures in the wave. But we suspect it won’t be long before Hasbro makes them available again to us. (Editor’s Note: Pre-Cyborg Grievous has been re-released in the “Shadow Of The Dark Side” line as part of The Legacy Of The Dark Side two-packs. We expect that Malak and Revan will be next whether in this series or Saga Legends.) Pre-Cyborg Grievous is a nice addition to the 30 (77-07) line and we’re assuming that most of you are fine with him since he sold so well at retail, but we think Hasbro can afford to improve him a bit more before we can call this version of him definitive. We will just have to wait and see if this comes to pass or not.