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<\/a>I don’t buy a lot of Star Wars toys, but I’ve always wanted a good toy of General Grievous. And although he’s had quite a few figures since his debut back in Episode III, none of them have really lived up to my expectations. I bought the Vintage Collection Grievous, hoping he would finally be the one I was waiting for.<\/p>\nI\u2019m a big fan of General Grievous, or at least the idea of him. An almost flawless tactician who is trained in the ways of the lightsaber and even uses his massive robotic body as a weapon. A lot of people didn\u2019t see this side of him because Grievous seems to have much more respect in the Expanded Universe than in his short lived asthmatic appearance in Episode III. But even with all this badassery going his way Grievous is ultimately Star Wars\u2019 Snidely Whiplash, an analog of the stereotypical silent movie era villain who would tie a damsel to a railroad track for a deed to her moisture farm. That\u2019s what I love most about him. You can almost hear him twisting his mustache when the deck is stacked in his favor, but when the tide turns he\u2019s the first one into the escape pod.<\/p>\n
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<\/center><\/p>\nGrievous can be found in the second wave of the new Star Wars Vintage Collection series. There have been quite a few Grievous figures in the past, but I\u2019ve never been totally happy with them. There\u2019s always been something missing. Sometimes it\u2019s that his arms don\u2019t separate, or maybe they don\u2019t combine, some don\u2019t have capes, some don\u2019t have lightsabers. One was even stuck in this strange crouching position. But when I saw this figure at my local Toys R Us, with its big beautiful cape and loads of articulation, I couldn\u2019t resist buying him. My only regret is not getting the Magna Guard that came in the same wave. My Grievous need someone to follow him around.<\/p>\n
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<\/center><\/p>\nSince Grievous\u2019 articulation impressed me so much, I\u2019ll start with that. His head and torso are ball jointed, which allows him the range to lean forward like he\u2019s normally seen when skulking around his command ship. His shoulders and ankles are both ball-hinged. The shoulder joints are split down the middle, allowing the front and back of each arm to move independently of each other. All four biceps, forearms, and wrists have swivel joints and each elbow is a hinge joint. This allows each arm to move and pose freely. Grievous\u2019 hips are swivel joints, but I really wish they were ball joints. It would have given his legs a little more range for those extreme poses. Last, his knees are double hinges, so he can basically squat like Spiderman. This figure has so much movement potential that it\u2019s hard to decide on what pose to pick.<\/p>\n
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<\/center><\/p>\nWhat does cut down on the posing is the type of plastic Hasbro used for this figure. While his upper and lower torso is hard plastic, his arms and legs are soft and gummy. It\u2019s not so horrible that he can\u2019t stand, but you aren\u2019t going to get too many dramatic poses out of him without some sort of prop or base. Some of the crazier poses you see in my review only stood for a second or two, just barely long enough to get the picture. Besides the fact that I\u2019m worried about his plastic degrading over time, I\u2019m also annoyed Hasbro didn\u2019t at least use stronger plastic on the legs. I don\u2019t mind the arms being a little bendy for posing, but the legs are where all the support needs to be, and this figure is too articulated to be sitting all the time.<\/p>\n
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