You won’t find many figures from the five point of articulation line reviewed here.  Along with a few of my like minded contemporaries, we have stood as self appointed Colonel Jessups standing on the wall guarding against a decline in quality in our beloved line.  Seeing the upcoming Black Series Ree Yees and Sergeant Doallyn (Brock Starsher) figures without ankle joints tells us the battle is not going well.  I will never praise Hasbro for reducing quality because I don’t want to encourage it.  Naturally Hasbro is going to look for ways to cut costs in their own self interest.  I’m not going to pat them on the back for doing so unless if benefits me as a consumer. 

Every once in a while, however, a figure from the five point of articulation line appears as if it might present value to my display.  In the case of the MS08 Utapau set, the General Grievous figure compelled me to evaluate it for that purpose.  Some of the Prequel Trilogy characters simply don’t lend themselves well to super articulation in the 3.75” scale.  The spindly Battle Droids are one such example.  The character (not figure) of General Grievous sports a hyper articulated body.  His insectile anatomy certainly sports more points of articulation than a human body.  If his cybernetic body were a physical reality, it would be a marvel of engineering even in the Star Wars universe.  This just doesn’t translate well to a super articulated 3.75” scale figure.  My Legacy Collection General Grievous will only stand when the legs are perfectly straight.  It will not stay standing in Grievous’ familiar crouch.  My Vintage Collection re-release of that same figure won’t stand at all and has been retired from my display.

So the question becomes how well would this figure integrate with my Vintage Collection quality figures.  I think it fits in well.  The sad truth about General Grievous is that he largely avoided the action in Revenge of the Sith except for that one time where for no reason he decided to engage Kenobi because it was dictated by the film’s running time.  He mostly stood by while letting his body guards handle the dirty work.  I would have been giddy if this figure could fold it’s arms behind its back while not fighting, but that’s not in its nature.  While donning the VC17 cape I think the figure integrates satisfactorily with VC18 MagnaGuard figures.  The “bone” of the face mask isn’t nearly as detailed as the Legacy Colllection figure, but I honestly think that Legacy Collection figure went overboard in that regard.  For right now I say that if you’re going to display Grievous engaging Kenobi, you need one of the two super articulated releases.  If you want to simply display Grievous standing in his semi-crouch, this Mission Series figure might be your best bet. 

The Kenobi figure form this set has no value to a modern display, so I won’t make any comments about the item as a collectible.  But I do have some commentary about its value as a toy.  I need to project back to my eight year old self.  My wife will tell you this isn’t much of a stretch.  There I am in my “school is for the fishes” t-shirt that I proudly acquired from one of the pavilion vendors at Hampton Beach.  Take THAT society.  As I sit there, cute as the dickens, there are two things I insist upon from my action figures.  One is that they stand without toppling.  I can’t set up a battle if a figure isn’t secure on its feet.  This figure certainly succeeds towards that end.  The second is that it can hold its weapon in a realistic manner.  There were many a vintage Kenner figure where the blaster grip was wider than the pre-posed grip of the figure’s hand.  This would cause the blaster to twist slightly sideways when the figure was equipped.  That drove me mad.  On this Kenobi figure, the grip of the hand is angled outward with no point of articulation to correct.  This means the figure can only defend saber attacks that come from its right.  That would irritate me as a kid.  This weapon posability is one of the reasons I embraced the swivel arm articulation on G.I. Joe figures when I was a youngster and Hasbro correctly heralded that feature with a prominent announcement on the package.  Now apparently extra articulation is the devil and it has been banished like asbestos. 

Based on the display value of the General Grievous figure alone, this set gets a 6 out of 10.

6/10 Bantha Skulls