Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,093: General Grievous (Mission Series 2014)

GENERAL GRIEVOUS Movie-Style
2013 Darth Vader Lava Line Look Mission Series Utapau
Item No.: Asst. A5228 No. A5919
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #MS08
Includes: Lightsabers, Obi-Wan Kenobi figure
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $9.99
Availability: July 2014
Appearances: Revenge of the Sith

Bio: Obi-Wan Kenobi and General Grievous face off in an explosive duel on Utapau.  Their Lightsabers clash together again and again as they battle.  Grievous flees, fearing he may lose the fight, but Obi-Wan pursues him, determined to stop this powerful enemy once and for all. (Taken from the figure's cardback.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Entertainment Earth now!

Commentary: As someone who died almost immediately, General Grievous gets a lot of love.  Hasbro refuses to stop milking Revenge of the Sith's principal characters as they seem to get redone nearly every couple of years, plus Grievous had a lot of screen time in the last animated series.  As such, it makes sense a cheaper, kid-friendly but still very tall version of the cyborg general would get made eventually. At about 4 1/2-inches tall he's easily one of the biggest and most imposing figures in the line, towering over even Darth Vader.   He has 5 joints and no special features like splitting hands or anything like that.  Even more shocking, he doesn't have holes for foot pegs on display stands.   And this figure needs a display stand unless you keep him in his "sweet spot," and even then it seems it's only a matter of time before gravity causes his ankles to sag under his own weight and flop over.

The sculpt is good, and the deco is acceptable.   I have seen 4 samples up close and personal, most of which had wonky black eye paint.  The greys and ceramic colors on the body look good, as do the greens, yellows, and reds.   Unlike the perpetually wobbly super-articulated Grievous in 2008, this one seems more likely to stay standing in part due to the design and reduction in articulation.  Stiffer plastic for the legs would be helpful, but probably more fragile.  Even a display stand wouldn't help as the problem isn't the feet so much as it is the plastic sagging under his own weight - this can be reduced if his arms are at his sides and not forward.   I should note he's great at sitting, I got him to fit in the Hasbro 2008 General Grievous' Starfighter vehicle with no real problems.  Hasbro did a great job overall, but if you plan on displaying him on a shelf I suggest buying a small doll stand to prevent gravity from doing its dirty sinful business.

I would not say this is the best, or worst, or even most average Grievous.  In terms of pose and personality it's pretty decent - he towers over my other figures and his two lightsabers fit in his hands fairly well, although the right one is a little loose.  Since there is little in the way of articulation Hasbro can instead focus on sculpt, and they did a bang-up job.  I just wish they put a few extra bucks in improving the head paint masks, because a bad head on this figure looks positively silly.  When it's good, though, it's quite nice and the 2-pack looks wonderful when it's all sealed up too.

Collector's Notes: Target got these pretty early, so the good news is that they're out and about.  True story, someone at work once was on the phone and slipped and said "Genital Grievous." Hilarious.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,093: August 8, 2014