TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

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Alternate Mode:

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Box Art:

Detective Barricade's review: General Grievous

Name: General Grievous/Soulless One
Function: N/A
Sub-Group: Star Wars Transformers Crossovers

General Grievous has fought many enemies in the Clone Wars, but none has been so difficult to defeat as Obi-Wan Kenobi. Every duel has ended with Grievous on the run and the Jedi still alive. Piloting his starfighter, Grievous launches an all-out attack against Obi-Wan then morphs into mech mode to defeat the Jedi once and for all!

Sometimes, when in between waves of the more mainstream Transformer lines, it’s hard to ignore curiosity. At least for me it is. So, I bought a Star Wars crossovers figure. The one this review is about, in fact. Did my curiosity pay off? Read on and find out...

Alternate Mode:

This version of Grievous is based on his personal starfighter seen in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the Soulless One. There’s a little bit of the mech mode peering out from underneath, in the form of the waist and part of the thighs. But other than that, it looks pretty close to what it’s supposed to, with retractable landing “feet” and opening cockpit to stick a PVC pilot into. It’s even got a cannon on the underside! It’s mostly dark grey in this mode, with some gold and bronze details. A slight problem is that the front doesn’t close quite seamlessly, if you’re the sort who’s bugged by this.

It includes a pair of light sabers, one green and one blue, that can store in the engines on the sides. The cannon mentioned earlier detaches and fires the end off as a missile. Sadly for some, the toy doesn’t include a pilot. Personally, I don’t really care too much about that.

Mech Mode:

Transforming General Grievous to mech mode is easy without being too easy. Basically, just open the hull, flip the engine things up, and pull all of this up. Rotate the back half 180 degrees, open the rear section, and unfold the robot. The back kibble locks on the back a bit like a cape, which I think is much better than it flopping uselessly.

In mech mode, General Grievous looks absolutely sinister. The head is spot on to the “real” Grievous’ own, even down to the reptilian eyes! Unlike many figures from this line, it’s quite stable, and doesn’t have massive amounts of kibble to contend with. It has a whopping total of 25 points of articulation, with five points in each arm, and seven points in each leg! That’s a lot for any Transformer. I’m a little saddened that the gun doesn’t fit into the figure’s hand very well. But I’m more than happy that it can hold the light sabers very tightly. The only new colors in mech mode are dark silver and pearl white. This gives it even more of a “skeletal” appearance, fitting the Separatist leader.

Overall, General Grievous is great. A cool alt mode, and a fairly poseable mech mode. The more recent figures of this line seem to be able to do better than the first waves did. At least, that’s the impression I’m getting from this toy.

Marks out of ten for the following:
Transformation: 4 Pretty easy.
Durability: 9 Most of what can pop off doesn’t easily.
Fun: 9 VAST improvement over the first version of Grievous!
Price: 8 A little more than a Deluxe.
Overall: 9 One of the best Star Wars crossovers out of the entire line. Go get it! Now!