Review 7656 General Grievous´ Starfighter

[Navy Trooper Fenson]

Name: 7656 General Grievous´ Starfighter

Theme: Star Wars

Subtheme: 30th Anniversary / Episode 3 Revenge of the Sith

Year: 2007

Pieces: 232

Minifigs: one droid

Price: 24.99 to 26.99 Euro, 19.99 US Dollars

Resources: Brickset Peeron

After adding the new 2009 summer jewels to my collection, I looked a little closer to my other sets and my eye fell upon this nice little fighter from the new SW trilogy. I really wonder why LEGO didn t give this set a place in the big world of The Clone Wars merchandising. It appears regulary in the TV show and is beside the Utapau Chase our only set with General Grievous, one of the most interesting villians from The Clone Wars. Well, we will never know...

BOX

The box shows our popular villian, General Grievous, flying with his own starfighter, the Soulless One. The General stands in a little bubble and shows of his lightsaber collection. Picture taken from S@H because I lost the box.

INSTRUCTIONS

The instructions have the same size as every 20 to 27 bucks set.

A random instruction page from the middle of the book.

The last few pages show a little diorama from a battle between clones and droids from the then-new battlepacks.

The last page shows a little collage.

FIGURES / WEAPONS

We only get one figure for our Grievous starfighter, Grievous himself. He is the exact same fig like from the Utapau Chase set, but has no cape. The set doesn t really has many pieces, so they could have added a cape. weapons that are included are four green and blue lightsabers on a weapon rack and a blaster.

Grievous with all his four arms

Grievous� back

Grievous, showing of his sabers while standing at the weapon rack.

Grievous with one saber.

BUILDINGS:

Belbullab-22 Starfighter Soulless One

The Soulless One was Grievous� personal ship as General of the droid army of the Confederacy. It was flown many times since the beginning of the war on Geonosis, where it was seen by the Republic Commando Delta Squad, and on several getaways on Skytop Station and the Malevolence. Grievous planned to escape with the starfighter from Utapau, but was suddenly killed by Obi-Wan Kenobi in a fight on the landing plattform, who stole the ship and used it in his time in exile.

The ship is well designed and bears similiarities with the movie version. Things like the Droid Carrier slopes and cannons could have been thought out better, but the ship is a great reincarnation of the fighter.

The models wings can be easily detatched.

The rear shows small fin that can be adjusted.

In the movie, the fin goes a bit into the cockpit and doesn t fold unter the ship. The fighter is on the exact same height, regardless how the fin is folded. I doesn t look good when it goes under the cockpit. I miss a little coverage for this part, but this would have needed a few new parts. I can live without using this function, so it s not so bad.

The front wings have two laser cannons which are well designed for the ship (look how they look in the movie. I don t think it is possible to build them detailed in a minifig-sized set), but I find it ridiculous how the lasers can swivel from front to behind. Like the Magna Guard fighter, it is to unrealistic.

The wings have brown cheese slopes for detailing, but I don t really get why they are there.I guess they wanted to have more than only dark grey and black for the colors, but the brown isn t really prominently placed.

Picture from the brown/tan pattern. My favourite piece from the design.

The cockpit has an interesting opening-technique. The front part moves forward, so that the cockpit window makes a gap for the fig to board the model. The gap is small, but the figure fits through, also it is much easier to just take the window away.

Front part goes forward.

The seat is a 2x3 brick with slope and two studs. Not very comfortable, but I don t think a cyborg cares for corellian leather like the droids from 7678 Droid Gunship. Unfortunately, the set did not come with a control panel or levers for the cockpit.

LEGO shows how they care for the cyborg general with advising the instruction-following buyer to let him sit on his gun.

I prefer putting the gun between his arms, because he seems to have to do nothing for making the ship fly.

The underside shows nothing special. The weapon rack goes there.

Complete set:

The Final Verdict

Design: 9/10 I really miss at least one lever for Grievous to pull or a ticker of controls. Maybe with a hologram projector, like in the scene, where Bail Organa contacted Kenobi in this fighter. All other design-flaws are forgiveable.

Build: 10/10 Ordinary build without any problems. Very little technic this time (only the wings).

Playability: 9/10 For a lone ship perfect and the backward-cannons could be usefull in a chase.

Minifigures: 7/10 Grievous is a great fig, but he really needs a cape. He looks alittle nude this way. Also LEGO could have included a Magna Guard in this set or at least Obi-Wan for adding more playability.

Price: 9/10 I miss the cape from 7255 Grievous Chase. Otherwise it is excellent.

Overall: 44/50 or 8,8/10

I recommend the fighter to every separatist, starfighter-lover and anybody who has no Grievous.

Edited August 17, 2009 by KimT
indexed

[Destroydacre]

After adding the new 2009 summer jewels to my collection, I looked a little closer to my other sets and my eye fell upon this nice little fighter from the new SW trilogy. I really wonder why LEGO didn t give this set a place in the big world of The Clone Wars merchandising. It appears regulary in the TV show and is beside the Utapau Chase our only set with General Grievous, one of the most interesting villians from The Clone Wars. Well, we will never know...

This set was released in 2007, and the Clone Wars line didn't launch until 2008, which would explain why this was not designated as a CW set.

Very nice review. I picked two of these up just to get a couple more Grievouses and to up my lightsaber count. Unfortunately I didn't really pay attention and didn't realize until after I opened one that the lightsabers weren't chrome. I wasn't too pleased about that. The second is still MISB somewhere around here. A decent ship, but most people would get this for Grievious, I think.

[Fumoffu]

Good review and I totally agree with you about the lack of s cape. I can live with just Grievious in this set. Its a tidy set ... that is quite valuable now. Destroydacre that MISB set you got will be worth a fair bit more than this set's RRP now.

[Skipper 24]

Great review . My favourite bit is the tan/brown pattern too. Shame the Grevious didn't come with the cape that he had in the Utapau chase set. As for the sliding cockpit I believe you can slide it a bit further forward than you did in your pics. Unless I've built mine wrong?

[Big Cam]

Great review, great angles, and pics, you nailed all the right pieces. This is actually the first set I bought after getting back into LEGO's after a 10 year absence.

[JCC1004]

My brother has one and I don't I love the alternating tan and brown tiles. My only complaint is that the ship isn't wide enough.

[Pellaeon]

Thanks for the great review. It seems like a pretty decent set; I'd love to see a CW version of it, maybe replacing the dark bley with that metallic silver we see all over the Agents line.

I hope we at least get a nice CW version of Grievous next year, maybe with some color on him this time around. This version is decent, but pales in comparison to the Magna Guard figures... I'm sure the General would hate to be upstaged by his guards!