Original Review by Chris 9/26/14

This Pre-Cyborg Grievous figure has a fairly shocking reveal.  When you remove the bone war mask, it reveals that Grievous is….BALD.  He’s bald, Jerry, BALD.  Clearly, had the Republic known this one fact they could have used it as a smear campaign against the General which would have caused him to lose the faith of the troops.  Bald people inspire no sense of leadership.  Grievous, or Qymaen jai Sheelal as he was known when he was fully organic, should have falsified some insurance papers to get a prescription for Dimoxinil.  His secretary Karl would have taken care of the rest.  The fact that Grievous was hiding this secret shame under his cybernetic face plate explains why he was such a tail tucking coward in Revenge of the Sith until that one time when he wasn’t for no good reason.

So the TAC era was all sunshine and puppy dogs, right?  (raspberry noise) Nope.  The card art was great.  The character selection was mostly brilliant.  The coins became an obsessively collected item compelling some to buy figures they didn’t care about just for the coin (raises hand).  The figures themselves weren’t always that great, however, as is the case with this Pre-Cyborg Grievous.  Before I jump into the criticisms, I’m going to say that this is a decent looking figure that you should have in your collection.  It’s nicely detailed and will look decent enough standing on your shelf. I love the fact that the included sword interacts with a working sheath sculpted onto the plastic cape. It’s always a big selling point to me when extra accessories can be stored with the figure instead of being lost or effectively lost in trays and trays of extra accessories.  Did I tell you my Darth Krayt’s second saber has been lost to the unforgivable Magic Carpet of Disappearing Accessories?  I tried sacrificing a few of those weapon locker extra guns in exchange for it’s return, but it knew that my “extras” are a token sacrifice. 

Where the figure misses is in the limited articulation and the posing.  The legs, which feel a tad rubbery, only feature ball jointed knees.  The lack of ankles makes engaging the knee articulation effectively unusable.  It took five minutes of “woosah” patience to get the figure to balance in the sixth picture where the articulation on both knees is engaged. [Editor’s Note:  The gallery has been updated, so this reference no longer applies.] There is no long term display viability for that pose without the assistance of a stand.  Also the wide stance, which cannot be corrected, is reminiscent of the POTF2 era and even causes the left foot to sit on its edge.  The net result is that my sample has a permanent lean to the left for which I can’t seem to compensate via the provided articulation.

The leg articulation is a minor gripe compared to the arms. The arms feature ball jointed shoulders, but only a single forearm swivel for each limb.  The only result of that articulation point is that it can rotate the hands.  It does not allow for any movement of the lower arm inward and outward.  Another upper arm swivel to account for that would have done wonders for this figure, but sadly that wasn’t provided.  This means that even though Pre-Cyborg Grievous has a rifle for an accessory, it can not hold the rifle in both hands.  Unless we’re lead to believe that Qymaen jai Sheelal had such incredible forearm strength that he could hold a long gun straight out in one hand and still shoot it accurately, this results in a silly pose.  We all know that only vintage Kenner Snowtroopers had such strength.  In 2007, we were too far along in the evolution of action figures for this to be acceptable. Again this is a nice looking figure, and it definitely has a place in your collection, but it could have been better.  Unfortunately if you don’t already have one, this is a highly collectible piece due in part to the limited distribution of the TAC Expanded Universe wave.  Even loose samples fetch a healthy secondary market premium.  6 out of 10.

Updated Review by Bret 10/3/19

This is another great looking figure that deserves to be in your collection. It’s not a concept figure, but is sourced from comic art that depicts him prior to his being “saved” by Dooku.  It is, nevertheless, and obscure source, but very striking, nonetheless.  The face underneath the more familiar looking battle mask is pretty awesome and unlike anything else in the Star Wars universe.  And, as Chris pointed out, he’s bald.  The figure is impressive in size and stature, and really stands out in a shelf display.  It doesn’t really have any companion pieces, but it does still deserve to be in your collection. 

The articulation is terrible.  No ankles, and straight swivel elbows that effectively act as de facto wrist swivels.  Even cut swivel elbows would have been more versatile, and that’s no saying much.  If Hasbro is going to do swivel elbows (WHICH THEY SHOULD NOT) then they might as well make an angled cut so at least they serve some limited purpose.  These are nearly useless.

The removable mask, the sword and sheath, and the rifle, are nice accessories that kick the figure up a notch.  Despite the articulation flaws, the size, sculpt, and accesoories make this a reasonably successful figure that you should own.  6/10.