General Grievous

While I admire the concept of the Exploding body General Grievous, the execution just kind of stinks.

It’s your standard size 3¾ figure, and he comes with a cape, blaster and rifle. The stand is not included, but I needed it to stand the figure up. Due to the odd shaped feet, It just won’t stand on its own. Even with the stand, the weight of the figure will pull it over after a period of time. The ankles just aren’t strong enough.

The sculpt on this toy is pretty good, and the cape is really nice.

To activate the “Exploding Action”, first you must remove the head. It is a ball joint, so it just pops off. Then, remove the cape and replace the head. There is a small button on the back of the figure that activates the toy, making it fall apart. Once apart, the toy is separated into the head, 2 chest parts, an inner chest piece, 2 arms, and a lower torso.

Unfortunately, once you remove the clear band from the packaging, General Grievous won’t stay together. I kept my clear rubber band, and I re-wrap the figure afterward. Most kids aren’t going to do this, and more than likely General Grievous’ parts are going to end up in the debris at the bottom of the toy box.

The fanboy in me also can’t help but notice that General Grievous didn’t explode in the movie; he just kind of fizzled out and died. Hasbro seems to do this a lot lately. You never saw the classic Kenner figures with accessories not seen in the movie. You never saw a Bib Fortuna with a Lightsaber. Maybe we were just spoiled?

Fortunately, most adult collectors won’t even take this out of the package, and they will never have to actually play with this substandard toy.