HumerusCere
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HumerusCere's Stats
- 5Average Rating
- 15Helpfulness Votes
- 0Featured Reviews
- 1Review Count
- October 18, 2015First Review
- October 18, 2015Last Review
HumerusCere's Reviews
General Grievous™
General Grievous™
Posted:October 18, 2015
HumerusCere
Age:
19-24
years old
Customer Type:
LEGO Fan
Building Experience:
Expert LEGO builder
Overall:
5
/
5
The best CCBS set yet!
" Being one of my favorite Star Wars characters, General grievous' newest incarnation in Lego form was an instant buy as soon as I saw him.
I was surprised about his price point, the most expensive CCBS set since Hero Factory's Queen Beast, but once I had him all built on my desk, I figured why: Grievous is huge, at 32 cm height, or even a bit more if his legs are bent as little as possible, he stands out next to all other CCBS sets height wise.(Just how tall he is can be seen in the first submitted image, depicting him next to the minifigure size grievous he is based of and a standard minifigure sized Obi Wan Kenobi, both not included in this set.)
Another pleasant difference is his unique build, which utilizes two main torso pieces attached to each other, a clever and articulate able shoulder build (A feature we have not seen since bionicle's Maxilos and Spinax from 2007!) and legs which, though a bit thick for grievous skeletal look, provide friction and the stability to keep his entire body in a stable pose, even on only one leg. Even for Non-Star Wars-lovers, the set is worth taking a look into, since it features a lot of recolors of bone, armor, and decorative pieces in desirable colors such as the highly sought after Beige.
Regarding new pieces, Grievous doesn't stand out too much, delivering four smooth looking pieces of lower arm plates , a new print on his chest armor and, obviously, the head, which is nicely detailed and on-model for both the Clone Wars and Episode III versions of the character. The lightsabers, which are not exclusive to this set, are made of a reasonably tough rubber-ish plastic, assumedly to keep them safe for kids while playing, but they also have enough friction on each other to simulate the clashing of blades in the movies. A low new piece count is not necessarily a bad thing though, since it enables Lego to sell this impressive set at a reasonably low price point, at about 20 cents per part.
I was surprised about his price point, the most expensive CCBS set since Hero Factory's Queen Beast, but once I had him all built on my desk, I figured why: Grievous is huge, at 32 cm height, or even a bit more if his legs are bent as little as possible, he stands out next to all other CCBS sets height wise.(Just how tall he is can be seen in the first submitted image, depicting him next to the minifigure size grievous he is based of and a standard minifigure sized Obi Wan Kenobi, both not included in this set.)
Another pleasant difference is his unique build, which utilizes two main torso pieces attached to each other, a clever and articulate able shoulder build (A feature we have not seen since bionicle's Maxilos and Spinax from 2007!) and legs which, though a bit thick for grievous skeletal look, provide friction and the stability to keep his entire body in a stable pose, even on only one leg. Even for Non-Star Wars-lovers, the set is worth taking a look into, since it features a lot of recolors of bone, armor, and decorative pieces in desirable colors such as the highly sought after Beige.
Regarding new pieces, Grievous doesn't stand out too much, delivering four smooth looking pieces of lower arm plates , a new print on his chest armor and, obviously, the head, which is nicely detailed and on-model for both the Clone Wars and Episode III versions of the character. The lightsabers, which are not exclusive to this set, are made of a reasonably tough rubber-ish plastic, assumedly to keep them safe for kids while playing, but they also have enough friction on each other to simulate the clashing of blades in the movies. A low new piece count is not necessarily a bad thing though, since it enables Lego to sell this impressive set at a reasonably low price point, at about 20 cents per part.
Of course, no set is without it's flaws, though Grievous doesn't have too many. the lowest part of his legs, directly connected to his feet, is barely articulate, forcing his knee joint into a specific angle to have him pose. I can see how using two more bones on the front part of the foot (As suggested in second and third of the pictures to go with this review) could compromise stability after continued usage, but the play value of having such a vastly more expansive range of poses is just worth it to me. Another side note, not necessarily a flaw, about his feet is Lego's decision to give him three toes on the front, unlike all his movie and game depictions, which feature two. This is not real a flaw since the extra toe is easily detachable, and I would not complain about two free pieces. The next flaw of the set is the build of the arms. Compared to his complicated torso and leg build, they are a bit disappointing with the standard CCBS bone to bone with armor on top construction. They also seem a bit short, compared to the rest of grievous impressive body, though this is forgiven since this is the second largest CCBS bone piece at use, the largest of which would have been too big. When attached to each other through technic pins, which is one of the main play features of the set, their articulation is quite limited, especially in the hands which now become simple hinge joints, limiting lightsaber posability severely! His hands are the normal CCBS hands which have been around since Hero factory wave two (2011). They do not articulate at all, and really should be replaced as soon as possible. The last, and maybe most crucial flaw, are the inaccurate proportions to any of grievous' depictions in movies/series. As mentioned beforehand, his legs are a bit thick for the skeletal look, the arms are a bit short, the torso is gapped and the feet feature an extra toe. This might hinder the enjoyment of collectors that would want to buy the set for display purposes, though it doesn't affect children that would play with the set.
tl;dr
pros:
-good price per part ratio for a star wars set
-new parts/recolors
-solid design, very stable
-good playability for children
-clever build
-Impressive size, the tallest CCBS set available
-good price per part ratio for a star wars set
-new parts/recolors
-solid design, very stable
-good playability for children
-clever build
-Impressive size, the tallest CCBS set available
cons
-not completely accurate to Grievous' design proportion wise
-limited articulation in the foot/arms when attached to each other
-not completely accurate to Grievous' design proportion wise
-limited articulation in the foot/arms when attached to each other
Afterall, even though I've gone into pretty great detail about the set's flaws, I highly recommend it! It is my absolute favorite CCBS set released by Lego, and I would love to see more sets of similar size!
"
Images for this Review
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I would recommend this to a friend!
My Product Recommendations
Darth Vader™
(25)
From:
Germany
Age:
19-24
years old
Customer Type:
LEGO Fan
Building Experience:
Expert LEGO builder
Purchased For:
Self
Build Time:
40
mins
Play Experience (Optional):
4
/
5
Value for Money (Optional):
5
/
5
Level of Difficulty:
Easy
Very Easy
Very Challenging
I would recommend this to a friend!
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