Review: 75112 General Grievous
Posted by CapnRex101,
The largest of the six Star Wars Battle Figures is also the best in my opinion: 75112 General Grievous. I was delighted with this figure when images were first revealed and it is even more impressive in person, measuring over 30cm in height, even when hunched over!
The skeletal appearance of the general is eminently suited to CCBS construction, so it is not at all surprising that he was chosen as one of the first characters to be recreated in this form. I think the combination of dark ball joint elements and tan panels looks absolutely fantastic, with an impressive level of accuracy considering the fact that only one new piece was created for this figure: Grievous' unique mask. It almost goes without saying that the mask looks absolutely brilliant as well.
Since he is the largest Battle Figure yet released, in terms of piece count and size, it is only to be expected that 75112 General Grievous is also the most expensive. The set is priced at £29.99 or $34.99, a very reasonable cost given the sheer weight and quality of the model, which is tall enough to dominate just about any Star Wars or Constraction display.
The Build
Construction begins with the upper torso structure which has a standard CCBS torso element at its centre but consists predominantly of smaller ball jointed segments surrounding the core. These fill out the torso a great deal and form the curved shape of General Grievous' spine as well as providing a firm base on which to mount the heavy arm modules and the head. The entire assembly is adjustable so permits an incredible range of articulation.
The legs are the next section to be built. Although their construction is initially fairly basic it soon becomes more complicated as multiple struts are required to provide enough strength to support the bulk of the body. Additional reinforcement is required at the hips where a pair of extra beams are used behind the main joint. These do not interfere with the appearance or articulation of the model at all but strengthen it enormously. The resultant leg assemblies are easily sturdy enough to bear the weight of the torso and look great, particularly once the shin, knee and thigh plates are added.
Once the legs have been joined to the torso all that is left to assemble are the arms and the head. These are by far the simplest sections to build but also include some instances of nice parts use, particularly around the shoulders which consist of two kinds of chest plates mounted in opposite directions. The placement of the unique head component is a nice way to finish off a very enjoyable build.
The Completed Model
As soon as construction is complete the enormity of this figure becomes apparent. It measures well over 30cm in height, even when hunched over and dwarfs the minifigure version of General Grievous, as you can clearly see in the image below! It therefore scales very well with other figures in the range, 75109 Obi-Wan Kenobi especially, so you can display them together in a variety of action poses, which is exactly what I intend to do.
The feet are one of the simpler sections of the model but they look great nevertheless and are perfect for picking your way across a battlefield having won another victory for the CIS. Each claw is adjustable so you can create some grabbing poses which is very useful as General Grievous has a tendency to throw around any Clone Troopers who cross his path using his arms and legs. Unfortunately 75108 Clone Commander Cody is currently the only such trooper available so he was the unlucky one in this case.
Panels of various sizes are used to cover some of the mechanical detailing on Grievous' legs but most of it is left exposed. I have criticised other sets for leaving too much of the skeletal frame visible but I think it works perfectly in this case as the general's legs are only partially covered in the film and TV shows. The range of articulation on the legs is excellent with joints at the claws, ankles, knees and hips, while the knee plates can also be moved to follow the motion of the legs. The only slight fault I have found is that the twin ankle beams required to support the weight of the figure restrict the movement here, but that is easily rectified as you can cheat by disconnecting one of the joints just as I have to pose the figure in the photo below.
As you can see General Grievous is so enormous that I could not photograph him in any dynamic poses indoors, so had to take him outside instead. Hopefully you can see in these images that the range of articulation is splendid, even allowing you to recreate some of the unorthodox lightsaber duelling techniques witnessed on Hypori in Star Wars: Clone Wars, the original animated series from 2003. With some careful balancing you can display the figure in a variety of truly spectacular ways!
Four lightsabers are included, two with blue blades and two with green, just like in the movie. These can be fitted into his hands whether or not they are fully divided into four separate arms, although it looks slightly awkward when they are together as the hilt seems very long. You can always leave the pommel off is you want to display the figure with the arms together, which looks much better in my opinion.
The ability to join the arms together is a welcome feature but it greatly restricts poseability and they look a little wider than they should. I will definitely be displaying my figure with the arms split into four, but it is nice to have the option of showing only two if you want to.
The head and torso are the only sections to include any printing. The upper chest plate shows General Grievous' gut sack peeking through the gap between panels while the lower half is fitted with a skeletal panel representing his mechanical ribs. This design looks excellent but it would have been even better had the gut sack actually been hidden behind the upper panel, perhaps recreated using a mini sack element in trans-neon green. The head more than makes up for this though as its shape and colour scheme is absolutely perfect. Every detail of Grievous' intimidating mask is faithfully recreated here and his yellow eyes look just as menacing as they should.
Overall
I expected to like this Battle Figure but never anticipated just how fantastic it would be! The scale of the model is absolutely incredible, as is the level of detail included from the brilliantly accurate head all the way down to the clawed feet. Admittedly, some liberties have been taken with regard to how closely sections of the model resemble the character in the film, but these are hardly noticeable when you have the figure on display, such is the intricacy of the model.
I wholeheartedly recommend 75112 General Grievous to every LEGO Star Wars fan, whether or not you have any experience with Constraction sets. This is a great advertisement for a building system which I was not familiar with and I am certain it will draw many more fans to established CCBS themes.
This set is definitely the surprise package of the year so far in my opinion. I had little interest in the Star Wars Battle Figures range at this time last month; now I cannot wait to see what will be on offer next!
Thanks to the CEE Team for sending us a copy of the set to review.
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31 comments on this article
This is the only one of the Battle Figures I purchased and absolutely love it. Way bigger than I ever expected and one of my favorite Lego products in years. Glad you enjoyed it as well
This was my Force Friday purchase along with Cody. Your review is great and spot on! Grevious is HUGE, and so posable. I have built a couple hero factory and bionicle sets, and this one blows them all away. CCBS that was fun to build? Really it was!
This one has me sold on the Constraction figures, and I cannot wait to see who'll join the First Order Trooper in the next wave!
C'mon Sabine!!!
If something like this came out when I was into Bionicle waaay back in 2001 I would've been one ecstatic child. Now I have to spend my money wisely and so I try to stay away from anything that doesn't involve bricks. I am quite surprised at how popular these build-able figures are though.
Can Grievous' hands rotate 360? I cant quite tell, but it looks like the arm armor is in the way.
It's true that connected arms have less articulation, but they are still SUPRISINGLY posable. Too bad you didn't include any photos of poses with his arms together.
You can also make light saber staffs, and other kinds of light sabers which is REALLY fun.
Any chance you can post a picture alongside 10186?
Why does Brickset keep calling these "Battle Figures"? They're called Buildable Figures.
Anyway, this figures looks great and I look forward to getting it some day.
This review is spot on and Grievous is huge and looks great. I love the new light saber pieces for MOCing and the tan technic panel farings (Part 11946 side A and B) on the legs are great. It has 4 total to right and 2 left.
This is the best constraction set ever made! I would love to hear of better ones.
@SprinkleOtter - Yes they can, although they do require some slight adjustment from time to time as the armour can obstruct the rotation.
@aidenmoyles10 - I don't own 10186 unfortunately.
@Okay - Officially they are called' Battle Figures' in product catalogues and online.
I found my dad present.
I've ordered all 6 figures for Force Friday and absolutely agree with this review! Grievous and Obi-Wan are my favorites by far, which incidentally makes for a spectacular dueling display. I'm hoping for more figures released next year.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/miies80/21326636146/in/album-72157658496567302/
Woohoo! I can just picture him dueling Master Kit Fisto, like in the Clone Wars. I don't think he would make a good CCBS figure though.
Great review! For now, this is the only buildable figure I'm buying, and I'm currently waiting for my order to ship (backordered, sadly didn't get to it before it sold out), so hopefully it won't be that long. I had a VIP discount and free shipping, so I figured it'd be worth the wait. Does anyone know how long it usually takes for backordered items to ship? The last time I had that happen was 2012 so I'm not too sure if anything's changed on that front.
I knew I wanted this set as soon as I saw previews of it and was really pleased to see it in my local Toys R us, I had a voucher taking a fiver off so was really pleased to have this to build while the Mrs. Watched X factor, shame I found a mis moulded piece ten minutes in and had to give up. The main spine section looked like one of the hip joints had melted! I thought this poor quality control was unusual for Lego. Luckily it was swapped for a new set the following day and an hour later I had a foot tall representation of one of my favourite Starwars characters. What a superb model - highly recommended.
impressive size. looks like a good build.
I wish he had his cloak, that would be just amazing, but...
^SHuN23 is right.
If they can supply Obi Won with his cloak, why not Grievous?
^I'd assume it'd likely be too big since the Grievous model is pretty huge, and likely they'd never use it again. Not to mention it'd likely up the price.
I'm debating between getting this and Vader. Which do you recommend? They'd be used mostly for display.
I'm sorry, but I don't see it... I don't like the simplicity of this series of characters.
In 2000-2002, there was a series of Technic Star Wars characters (Pit Droid, Battle Droid, Super Battle Droid, Destroyer Droid, R2D2, C3PO, Darth Vader, Storm Trooper & Jango Fett). I own them all and they are great!
Since this topic is about General Grievous; UCS set 10186 is just pure awsomeness!
Just my 5 cents worth :-)
The irony behind this article currently having 66 likes is strong here... ;P
Wow, spectacular! I like your idea with the 'gut sack'!
Definitely a must buy for me.
I bought one and built it last night and I'm blown away by it. I've only had a passing acquaintance with CCBS in sets like the Exo Suit, Hulk Buster and Metal Beard so constructing this was quite a challenge and quite an eye-opener.
I think it's definitely the best of the 6 figures (coming from a die-hard prequel trilogy hater!) but where do they go from here in the next wave? A stormtrooper? Boba Fett? Man, they'll all pale in comparison to Greivous. Even Darth Vader (which I also bought) looks lame next to this.
Just bought mine. I think the Constraction style lends itself best to mechanical figures like Vader and the meaner types of droid, and is OK for humanoid figures in armour. Now I need to build a couple of MagnaGuard battle figures (is that the right name) to keep Obi Wan busy. I wonder how I will design the heads. Of course all three figures will need capes as well.
Undoubtedly the perfect character for the Constraction style.
Now he just needs a cape...
Great review! I'm a bit biased though. I really like what you said at the end about drawing more people into CCBS. That's one of the things that I was really excited about when I first heard about this. I also said "well it's about damned time." CCBS Star Wars seemed like a no brainer once lego showed they were willing and able to pimp out the system to other themes beyond Hero Factory. Good thing Disney straightened out that business with Hasbro to get the rights for Lego to build figures. This makes me a very happy Bio-MOCer. It looks like these are already selling well to, so that'll potentially mean a second wave. I think they put just a few too many of the "good eggs" in one basket with this set, because with Luke, Vader and Grievous, who else is really left to support a second wave that's going to do as well as this one? Han Solo, Yoda and Boba Fett are the only characters I can really think of. A big CCBS Chewie would be pretty darn cool though as that'd mean lots of brown.
@3rdeye88: Well, the second wave seems like it's going to focus on new characters from The Force Awakens. After that, besides the original trilogy characters you mentioned, I think there are a number of prequel/Clone Wars characters that could possibly be featured, such as Darth Maul or the various types of battle droid (this current wave focuses strictly on named characters, but the next wave includes a generic First Order Stormtrooper, which really opens the floodgates for new ideas).
Anyway, this set is definitely incredibly creative, and a great parts pack! At the same time, it's not one of my own personal favorites. I think the upper part of the torso could have been managed in some way that was more authentic. John Ho, who designed the Jango, Luke, Vader, and Cody buildable figures, posted his own MOC rendition of the character here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/iced_coffee/21087613008/
I know this has been mentioned before, but this is not an original concept. An almost identical idea achieved support on Cuusoo a few years back, but was rejected.
http://rebrick.lego.com/en-US/bookmark/kockamania-hu-mdash-ultrabuild--via-http---rebelbricks-tumblr-com--/ik74xz
^At that time it was not possible for LEGO to release Star Wars action figures, buildable or otherwise, due to licensing conflicts with Hasbro. Evidently that has changed, perhaps as a result of Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm. Of course, even if that LEGO Ideas project were proposed today, it would stand zero chance of success, because it requires new molds for the head sculpts
And that idea was not "almost identical" — in fact, they have almost no similarities besides being based on the same building system and featuring unique head sculpts based on the movie characters. The Ideas project's figures are much smaller and more simplistic and cartoony, similar to the DC Super Heroes constraction sets which inspired it.
This is not meant as a strike against the builder, who was designing these sets based on what seemed most viable at the time. But to assume LEGO took the idea of Star Wars buildable action figures from this builder or copied this builder's designs ignores how incredibly obvious the idea of buildable Star Wars action figures is, and how different the final sets are from this builder's concepts.
^ Some suspicious activity regarding Ideas and certain Cuusoo projects has arisen. Lego's limitations at the time the action figures were proposed might allot them some leniency, but other projects, most notably Portal 2, raise some unfavorable questions about Ideas...