GENERAL GRIEVOUS Galactic Heroes
Revenge of the Sith Galactic Heroes
Item No.: Asst. 85208 No. 85400
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Obi-Wan Kenobi companion figure (in 2-pack) or appears in the Jedi vs. Sith 10-figure set
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $4.99-$19.99
Availability: March 2005-2007 (on and off)
Appearances: Revenge of the Sith

Bio: General Grievous led the Confederacy to victory over the Galactic Republic in many battles, and personally ordered the death of billions, causing countless citizens across the galaxy to fear him, and personally orchestrated the attack on Coruscant. Grievous was trained personally by Darth Tyranus in lightsaber combat, and became extremely skilled in the art. (Stolen from Wookieepedia.)

Image: Adam Pawlus' "heroes" shelf.

Commentary: While so far he hasn't proven to be quite the breakout character of a Jango Fett or a Darth Maul, General Grievous has been a consistent seller and now excites fans in Galactic Heroes form, mostly because fans can't find it at retail as of late. (More on that below.) The figure captures the look of the character as seen in a lot of early toys and artwork, which is to say a figure that isn't necessarily colored completely properly, nor is it sculpted like we were used to seeing in the movie. (Hunch backed, with four arms, etc.) No-- because here, he has his blaster and a green lightsaber, which makes for a great toy but a fairly crappy authentic recreation of the good General. Thankfully, that was the point-- since Hasbro can fudge the details on these tiny figures, we don't have to hold it to the same scrutiny as the other toys the Rhode Island toymaker cranks out from year to year.

His deco is about as close as you might want-- he has the "boney" colored armor, rather than the white to light grey coloration we've seen in the cartoons and most of the toys since 2006. With a red lining, his grey cape looks pretty close to most of the plastic versions of the character and definitely seems close enough for my liking. When Hasbro rereleases this figure (and you know they will), the figure could probably stand to benefit from being given the same colors as the 2006 Grievous repaint in the basic action figure line, just to make it stand out and be a little more movie-ish. Heck, give him a blue lightsaber too. My sample of the figure has stood well these many months, and seems like it would be a fairly solid toy to give your kids who may be prone to rough treatment of their toys. As long as they aren't going out of their way to snap it to pieces, it seems like another solid design which should provide months if not years of fun to its owner.

Collector's Notes: A surprising thing about the Playskool/Heroes line is that figures tend to be in and out of circulation quite a bit-- toys in this line have been cycled in and out of production since 2002. It turns out Grievous, at press time, is currently an "out" and the figure shot up on eBay. You can get the figure loose (of course), in a 2-pack with Obi-Wan Kenobi, or in the Jedi vs. Sith "Scene" set which is packed with great figures like Clone Troopers (purple and red), Kit Fisto, Mace Windu, Emperor Palpatine, Yoda, Anakin Skywalker, and Count Dooku. If you find it in the gift set for $30 or so, you should totally get one. Otherwise, it's probably in your best interests to wait a bit.

Day 611: January 7, 2008