Here’s another TSC figure that doesn’t exactly stir my fancy as I write this review.  It was done to death around the time of this release.  It debuted as part of the sneak peak mini-line of 4 figures that were released just before the launch of the ROTS line.  It made several appearances in multipacks and other oddball sources along the way, and then as this (significant) repaint in 2006 as part of The Saga Collection.

The figure isn’t bad, it’s just not up to modern standards of articulation.  It sports ball joints at the neck, shoulders, and knees, along with swivel forearms, waist, and hips - no ankles, though.  Despite the lack of modern articulation, the figure still can be posed reasonably well.  He can wield his various weapons convincingly, and he can be put in a few nominal stances.

For accessories, Grievous comes with his blaster, a blue bladed lightsaber, an electro staff, and a plastic cape.  The blaster places him on Utapau, which is anachronistic, since the electrostaff places him on board the Invisible Hand.  The latter is accurate to the source material for this figure, based on the background image on the front of the card, as well as the text description on the back of the card.  The lightsaber would also place the figure incorrectly on Utapau, I suppose, although he of course had as many as 4 lightsabers at that point.

Grievous can grip the blaster and lightsaber well in one hand, while he can perform a THWG (two-handed weapon grip) with the electro staff.  The cape works well the the figure.  It is meant to plug into the two holes on the upper chest.  Your mileage may vary on your ability to execute this as planned, but it still looks good on the figure, even if the holes are showing.

Hasbro took the opportunity to provide an all new paint job over the original release, giving it a paler and more film-accurate look.  The original appeared modeled more like a skeleton, which is cool, but not correct.  The cape is also a completely different color scheme.

VC17 General Grievous should have been a more-or-less definitive release of this character, but Hasbro failed.  They tried to do a lot of interesting things with that one, but most of them were completely ruined by the horribly bendy plastic that was used.  It can’t stand, the limbs don’t stay connected properly, the hands don’t grip the weapons well, and…it’s just a frustrating effort.  This figure doesn’t have all the bells and whistles as the TVC version, and it certainly can’t hold 4 lightsabers, but it works well.  It stands solidly, and interacts nicely with the included accessories. 

If you took the awesome cloth cape from the VC17 figure and added it to this TSC version, you’d have a very nice, if under articulated, General Grievous that would work for most displays; at least until Hasbro issues a great update.  In the meantime, I’m actually going to score this as a 6.  That’s superior to the TVC version, which I gave a very disappointing 4.  Add the cloth cape and you could almost stretch this to a 7.  If it had ankles, it would be an easy 7, maybe even an 8.