Jeff's (sithlord0498) Review of the Target Exclusive Demise of Grievous

FIGURE SPECIFICATIONS

 10 Points of Articulation:  ball-jointed head/shoulders/knees, swivel forearms/mid-torso/hips

 Accessories:  Grievous’ blaster and electrostaff

Packaging:  UGH-style card with specially-made cardback and clamshell

 SCULPT – 4 out of 5 

General Grievous (“Demise of Grievous”) is a 95% straight rehash of the Sneak Preview version.  The only difference I could see is also the one I didn’t notice right away.  This Grievous sports the damaged arms and severed fingers lost in battle with Obi-Wan.  It’s a nice touch by Hasbro, and I’m surprised to see that they paid that much attention to detail on a re-used mold.  But then again, for $13 it’s the least they could’ve done.

 The flames are the stand-out feature of this figure’s sculpt.  It’s easy to see that Hasbro created a figure that looks like a freeze-frame of Grievous at the peak of his destruction.  The flames are molded in a translucent plastic with orange and yellow hues painted on the majority of it.  The result is an excellent balance of paint application and translucency…probably as realistic as it can get in this medium and scale.  The only downside is that the torso fire is not removable (unless you dismantle the figure of course), but then again why would you really need to do that?

As for the figure, it’s a passable sculpt…especially for a basic 3.75 inch-scale action figure.  More texture in the armor would have been a nice touch, but it doesn’t detract from the figure too much.

 The biggest criticism I have with the sculpt is the choice of plastic used for key areas such as the hands and feet.  It is far too rubbery and soft.  Unfortunately, this is a more common occurrence nowadays with the Hasbro line, and it’s an unnecessary shame that this cost-cutting maneuver was used with an over-priced figure.

  PAINT APPLICATION – 3.5 out of 5 

The paint application on Grievous is both good and bad.  The flames are unbelievably good and very cool to look at, and it helps bolster this figure’s overall paint app rating (because the body itself certainly doesn’t).  There’s really not too much more to be said that I haven’t already said above.  The orange wash on strategic parts of the armor do a fair attempt at simulating the reflection of the flames, but the paint is caked on too heavily and therefore loses a portion of its effect.

As I hinted above, this figure truly falters on the paint application with the body itself.  With some very minor variations, this is a two-color figure: bone-white on the armor and dark gray for everything else.  However, this is not General Grievous’ color scheme in the movie.  His armor was much more textured and weathered, a fact that Hasbro took into account with the sneak preview figure.  That being said…there’s no excuse for the apparently lazy paint application here. 

ARTICULATION – 3.5 out of 5 

Ankle articulation.  It has none, and that’s the big problem.  Considering the other ten points of articulation that it does have, faulting the figure for missing this almost seems petty.  However, the figure sorely lacks because of this exclusion.  Ankle articulation would’ve gone a long way toward giving the figure better stability (it still can easily tip over).  Hasbro dropped the ball here, and the result is a General Grievous that is unsteady.  Yeah, his cinematic counterpart wasn’t too steady on his feet either during this scene, but he also wasn’t going to hop out of the screen and sit on a shelf for long periods of time either. 

That significant detraction aside, the rest of the figure has pretty good articulation.  The ball-joints provide a good range of motion, and the swivel joints work well in conjunction with them.  Also, the articulation allows you to make the necessary adjustments to shift the figure’s center of gravity and improve his stability to a certain degree. 

A final note on articulation: the weapons do not fit snugly into the hands at all.  At first, I was very disappointed…until I finally saw the battle-damaged fingers.  Taking that movie-accurate feature into account, it’s clear that this particular figure should not be able to hold anything very well at all.  Maybe this was an intentional feature.  Maybe it was another design goof.  Either way, the fact remains that this “flaw” works well here, and therefore I will not fault it at all for it.

 ACCESSORIES – 4.5 out of 5

 The blaster is the same one that was included with the Sneak Preview Grievous (the recent Battle of Coruscant version actually has a shinier, less detailed blaster…so kudos to Hasbro for not recycling that one), and the electrostaff is recycled from the Magnaguard figure.  The eye flames could technically be considered an accessory as well since they are removable (they plug into the eye sockets).

 A near-perfect score for the accessories may seem rather surprising given the fact that there are only two (or three depending on how you view the flames).  But this is a very, very scene-specific figure, so what else could Hasbro really have included?

 I was and still am not a fan of throwing in accessories just for the sake of padding out the figure.  A recent example that immediately comes to mind is the missile-firing radar tower included with the ROTS Clone Pilot.  Why?  It was never associated with the character.  It is simply accessory fodder.  (And for the record, it would’ve made more sense to include a gunship turret with that figure…)

 All that being said, Grievous comes with exactly what is needed to re-enact the scene.  The only thing keeping this from being a perfect five is that Hasbro failed to include a scene-specific base as well (part of the platform floor would’ve been killer!!).

 “FUN FACTOR” – 3 out of 5 

There’s not much you can do with this figure beyond posing him as either a statuesque figure or in a “Demise of Grievous” diorama (likely you’ll need a figure stand to support the figure in such a scene).  The fire around the waist is designed to remain on the figure, and the paint deco is specifically geared toward complementing the flames…so using him in other diorama scenes isn’t possible.

 COST VALUE – 1 out of 5 

This figure is at the ridiculously overpriced level of $12.99 plus sales tax.  The fact that Hasbro and Target are charging consumers $13 for an action figure really magnifies how detrimental certain features are.  For this price, there should be ankle articulation, a more accurate paint deco on the figure’s body, and sturdier plastic that won’t warp in higher temperatures.

 OVERALL RATING/VALUE – 3.25 out of 5 

Shortcomings and flaws aside, this is a solid attempt at a $6.99 basic action figure.  Unfortunately, that’s not the case here, so I can’t in good conscience recommend that anyone buys this figure at its regular price…unless you are a huge Grievous fan.  Even then, it’s a stretch.

 Bottom line: worth every penny at $6-7, but a rip-off at $13.  If you can, snag him on clearance if he pegwarms for that long.

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