Review: 10186 General Grievous

starstreak · May 5, 2009

This review will be on the 10186 General Grievous. Why yes, I do start all of my reviews with that line.

If someone asked me if I would buy a Lego set of a humanoid type figure out of Lego, I would've said no, I'm not into THAT kind of set. So here is what Lego did to throw me off. They made a Star Wars set, which I love to build. They made robot, which I would build. Then they combined both together and made an awesome, no.. it's beyond awesome. It's Be-awesome set of General Grievous! Yeah, yeah. I love the movie Bolt. Whats not to like. Mr. Grievous stands 18 inches high, has 4 arms. And has four light sabers. Who wouldn't want to wield four light sabers! So lets get on with the show.

Set Name: 10186 General Grievous

Theme: Star Wars

Released: 2008

Pieces: 1085

Price: $89.99 (I paid $29.98 and you can too if you order before it's too late from the lego store.)/22.67 EUR/20.17 GBP

Here are some quicklinks Bricklink, Brickset, and Lego S@H.

Wanna see some pictures? Let's start with the normal box arts and manuals! Most pictures are click-able for mind-blowing, did-I-really-need-to-see-it-THAT-big photos!

Box Front

Box rear

Instructions

Parts list

Sticker sheet

Features page

Bag of parts

Don't go blind with the colors. The "Pillow" is used to lower the sound of Lego moving around.

Here is the second drawer. This one has nothing to quiet the sound. Since this set has NO numbered bags, this should be a interesting build. I can see why they made it for 14+ for the age.

Hmm what's this doing in the box? Can you guess why there's a hood and a head? Did General Grievous eat a Jedi for lunch?? Maybe I'm just getting ahead of myself.

The Build

Oh so that's how they have 1000+ pieces. The stand used 64 of those 2x2 flat black pieces.

These are the leg stands. If the black shows up well enough, you can see how each leg is built.

Here is the completed plate. The underside has the round plate that allows it to rotate on the base.

As you can see from the above photos, the feet is actually built on the plate. Interesting idea. I guess that way the feet can still look like robotic bones without it being to fragile to hold the weight of the figure on it.

The legs and torso is now completed. As a whole, the figure really doesn't move, but it does look like that I could make him bend at the torso.

The center body is now complete. Here is the front of the body. Yes, I know it looks like back, but trust me on this.

Here is the back. Now if you think about it, they made it this way to hide the underside of the pieces and build on it so you can add things like the black spine you can see in the picture.

Now the body is added to the legs and you can see the "guts" attached to his body. Oh look what they used for the Jedi hood and head. Maybe it's supposed to be a heart?

Here you can see the white body armor and ribs. The white armor move up and to the side, while the ribs, shown open, folds down this way to show the inside of his body.

Close up of his head. The head can look up/down and left/right. If you squint, you can see his yellow eyes and even the "red" of skin under the white mask. When compared to the original, his "ears" seem too small. AND I think Lego could've gave extra black striping for his head now that I see a picture of him..

All that is needed is to add the arms on. So without further ado here are finished pictures.

Completed photos. Click to see full size.

Completed shot with Mr. Grievous holding his four light sabers. Pretty smart. They used little hooks on the sabers to attach them to his hands so they don't fall out.

Rear photo. Looks so simple. Can't tell that it was made up of over 1000+ parts!

Here is a view of him looking up. This photo looks better when viewed full size. Looks like a large spider pouncing on his prey.

Here is a close up view of his heart or guts or whatever you want to call his insides. Maybe he did eat a Jedi... Just kidding. Or not..

Oh yes, Lego was even kind enough to give two forms. One with two and one with his four. So with two hands, they added shoulder pauldrons.

Side profile with only two arms.

Here are the extras. Yes, that is a lot of parts, but per Bricklink, it seems correct.

Features

As mentioned above during the build, the head moves, the base rotates, his body opens to reveal his insides. It's supposed to be more of a static display then something to play with. So as it stands, it's not bad. I would've liked to see his head detailed a little more as his "ears" seem a little off for what it should look like, and he's missing his cape.

My rating:

Playability: 1 out of 5. It is pose able. That's it. It's a display.

Design: 4 out of 5. Well done. Just some minor things. Notably the "ears" and maybe his insides could've been done better.

Build experience: 3 out of 5. Easy to build. For 1000+ pieces, it was easy. I guess they rated it for ages 14+ because of the many small pieces, no numbered poly-bags and for having so many pieces.

Overall: 4 out of 5. At $89.99 I might have bought it because I think the way General Grievous is made is be-awesome, but Lego's version isn't worth that price. At $29.98 it's a must have for any Lego Star Wars fan to have.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

All smaller photos are click able for larger picture sizes! You can see all photos used here: 10186 General Grievous

darkrebellion · May 5, 2009

Great review :thumbup: . I also own this set but mine is still in the box :cry_sad: , I hope I can build it this week . I really like this set mainly cause it is something different of what we commonly receive. It has a great part selection and looks pretty cool in my opinion. Also I just want to point out that it seems like you put the "mounth" sectio of the head incorrect, I can be wrong thought :tongue: .