General Grievous

Part alien, part droid, General Grievous is a frightening figure to meet on the battlefield. He is a nightmare of lethal precision as his multiple arms fire blasters and wield lightsabers as skillfully as any Jedi. A brilliant military strategist, Grievous crafts the droid army into a destructive tidal wave that pours across the galaxy, leaving ruins in its wake. He is untouched by any compassion or scruples; crouched in a combat stance over his opponent, he shows no doubt or mercy, just the pure conviction in his own superiority as he delivers the decisive blow. A ruthless hunter of Jedi, the general proudly wears his victims' lightsabers as trophies on his belt, a macabre testament to his many victories. So unlike a lot of these Unleashed figures' remarkably long biographies, General Grievous hasn't undergone any kind of character development between the time this figure was released (2005) and the time we're reviewing it (whatever year this is in today-times): he was a scary angry threat when he was introduced, and he's a scary angry threat now. Even revealing his backstory didn't change anything. There's a Black Series Grievous now, but 20 years ago the only way to get Star Wars toys that were more than 4" scale was in this line. Seeing familiar characters larger, with more detail, was a sheer revelation! One worth paying $14.99 for. For the first time, you could make out all the little details of his robot body, or truly appreciate the shapes of the armor covering it. Like, did you know that while the faceplate of his helmet (or is that technically his actual head?) is smooth, the back has layered plates that overlap each other as though they slide down into place? I certainly didn't, but this toy's sculpt shows it all off. There isn't a ton to talk about with the paint - it's mostly just creamy white armor over the dark grey robot body beneath. There's a little bit of reddish-brown airbrushing on all four forearms and the mouth/chin area of the face, and his totally-not-Darth-Maul-you-guys-we-swear eyes are painted well. There's a plate on the chest that's done in a very shiny metallic green, which would be a lot more eye-catching if it weren't painted on a part of the body that's facing downward and thus unlikely to ever get much light to reflect off it. In the movie that was a clear piece, filled qith green liquid to support his surviving organs, but that would have been much more comlicated to deco than just doing metallic paint on a solid surface. General Grievous has no articulation, of course, but at least the pose they gave him is pretty cool: he's clinging to a wall like he just jumped there from somewhere else, and is about to spring off again, leaping all around the room to confuse his enemies. That's more of a Clone wars Grievous than a Revenge of the Sith Grievous, since all he really did in live-action was stalk around coughing, scuttle like a bug one time, or do his evil windmill impression. He's armed with a blaster rifle and two lightsabers - one blue, one green. The photo on the back of the card shows him holding the upper lightsaber normally, so both blades were pointing the same direction, but on the final figure he's holding it backwards, which makes for a more compact display. All the Unleashed figures came with display bases, and since we already told you Grievous is clinging to the wall, you can probably guess that his is a wall. It's basically just a trapezoid, leaning back slightly to counter-balance the weight of the figure hanging off its front, but it's been sculpted with the sort of meaningless tech shapes you'd expect to see in Star Wars. This could be a passageway in a ship, a hall in a building, whatever. Metal pegs in the figure's feet fit into holes in the wall, and his empty right hand can clutch the top of it. For something that can't move, Unleashed General Grievous is surprisingly dynamic. Obviously a little more playability would be welcome - swappable weapons or something - but until the Black Series version came out, this really was the best one you could get. -- 01/10/26 What's the best direction to hold your lightsaber? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.