Review: 7656 General Grievous Starfighter

[Big Cam]

General Grievous is on the loose! The sleek lines of the droid general's personal starfighter hide its impressive firepower. Now you can build it yourself, straight out of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith! Features sliding cockpit, folding tail landing gear, lightsaber holder and flip-up laser cannons. Includes General Grievous minifigure with blaster and 4 lightsabers. Store the landing gear and lightsabers underneath the craft for flight!

BASIC INFORMATION:

Set Name: General Grievous Starfighter

Set Number: 7656

Number of Pieces: 232 LEGO box, 232 Peeron, 232 Brickset, 225 Bricklink

Minifigs: 1

Price: $20 USD

Theme: Star Wars

Year Released: 2007

RESOURCES:

(high res pics available here, also by clicking the image's in the review)

THE REVIEW:

The Box

Front:

I like this style of box, it's held together with little sticky tabs, so you don't have to tear the box at all to open it. I think this is a great scene; it really makes the set look fun. For pictures however, I do not like the bright star in the background. It looks like a flash spot on my picture

Side:

Full size portrait of the lone minifigure in the set. Although it is one of two sets that comes with General Grievous.

Back:

This is an excellent use of prime box space. LEGO shows the main functions of the ship, the alternate weapons for our minifig, as well as a bunch of sets to get you excited for that next purchase.

Instructions

Front:

Same image as the box, so not much more to say. Typical sized instructions for a $20 set. About the same size that a battle pack instruction booklet is.

Back:

What an awesome use of the back of the booklet, no advertising, just a sweet picture of your minifig, but wait, why would LEGO taunt us like this? I see four chrome lightsaber hilts, yet you receive no such thing, all hilts in this set are the dull grey that replaced the chrome hilts. Drats.

Random Page:

If by random you mean the parts list, then yes, by all means, I choose a random page. I figured this is the most useful.

Contents:

My content pics are always my favorite because they come out so good. I think it's all the parts, must be easier to focus on. There is a good selection of saber blades, along with lots and lots of tile pieces, and six lightsaber hilts. Excellent.

Minifigs

Front:

Four arms and only one, gun. Huh, seems like he's not utilizing his assets.

Back:

White, white, white, he kind of blends in doesn't he. I would have preferred him in a grey of some shade.

Alternate front:

If you pose him just right he sure does look like he should, but I have nothing but bad things to say about his design, read on to the totals section, I'll let LEGO have it there.

The Starfighter

Midbuild:

This midbuild picture shows all the tiles you get with this set, and sadly the majority of all these get covered up. So if you're a MOC'r this is a good set to have.

Midbuild 2:

This picture shows how much of the tile's are covered up by more ship. Sad really, but the final design is nice.

Right Side:

This set gives you twelve of the cheese slope pieces in brown. They look good on the ship, and remind me of vents, either way, they are fun pieces.

Left Side:

The final product of Grievous' ship. It is very sleek and identical on both sides.

Left Side Tail down:

This piece always seemed silly to me when I saw it in the movie, but LEGO did a good job of replicating it. The ship almost sits at the same height with the tail piece up or down.

Front:

Showing the dual engines and dual blasters on the front of the ship, and Grievous has a perfect view with no obstructions.

Rear:

The rear view has little to look at as it is only the cockpit, all engines and weapons are heavily placed on the front.

Underside:

What to do with all those lightsabers while hurling through space? I got it!

Top view:

Overall top view showing the proportions of the ship, I actually like the design, it's a nice change from the standard starfighter.

The Cockpit Closeup:

Poor old Grievous doesn't get any controls and honestly he barely fits in there. He does fit just right though, I guess he uses robot ESP to fly the ship.

The Cockpit slid open:

I have to say LEGO did a great job here. The cockpit glass slides forward in a pretty cool way to let old Grievous out. I think it's clever how the entire center of the ship slides forward with the glass.

The Cockpit slid open full

Here is a full shot so you can see how the center of the ship moved with the glass.

Guns Up:

Here you see how the guns can move up so you can shoot enemies above you. Not totally useful, but I still like it. It adds more posing options for display.

Guns Down:

Finally the guns down and the final shot, overall, it's a good looking ship.

Extra pieces:

An extra arm for Grievous since you know one will eventually break, and then some random single stud pieces along with a technic pin or two.

Totals:

Design: 10/10 The cockpit piece is great, I love how the entire center portion of the ship slides forward with the cockpit glass.. I really like the design, and of course it resembles the movie version which is always important. The lightsaber holder on the bottom is convenient for storing the lightsabers, but not for playability.

Parts: 10/10 If you bought this and never put it together, I think you'd still have gotten a great deal. With the multiple lightsabers, and tiles, I think it's a great buy JUST for the parts.

Build: 8/10 It goes together pretty smoothly, and it is very sturdy, except for the lightsaber holder. They tend to fall off if you play too aggressively or forget they are there. The cockpit piece is a little tricky, it actually took me two tries to egt it in right, but once you do, it works great.

Minifigs: 6/10 A) You only get one. B) He's not that impressive. C) You know his arms are eventually going to break like the battle droids. D) His legs are like battle droids, so he can't really walk, he just stands there. With all that said, I actually dislike this minifig, I think he has very little playability, he's only good for posing.

Playability: 9/10 For the swoosh factor, it gets a nine alone, then you also have to look at the ease that the cockpit opens and stays in place, GREAT job LEGO. The lightsabers constantly falling off are what prevented this set from getting a ten.

Price: 10/10 For what you get and what you pay, I think it's spot on. Usually I'd complain about the minifig count but the parts list makes up for it.

Totals: 53/60 Not to bad, the only real downside here is the minifig. I guess it also depends on who is doing the review. General Grievous just doesn't do it for me, but his ship certainly does. It looks great, it plays great, and functions great. Plus all those lightsabers, how can you go wrong?

[Front]

Great review and pictures of this neat set. I like the design and the colours used. Might have to open the set I have and build it myself :-)

[KimT]

Stunningly good review Big Cam.

This is a great set and I really like that Grievous minifig.

[Big Cam]

Stunningly good review Big Cam.

This is a great set and I really like that Grievous minifig.

Thanks for the compliment.

For as much as I initially hated him, I am starting to realize that I don't play anyway, I only display my stuff, so why should I care if he doesn't pose very well.

Oh well, it's a great set and I'm glad I bought it.

Edited October 1, 2009 by Big Cam

[def]

Great review... So-so set. I was really looking forward to this, but I wasn't blown away. A single minifig, average parts. The only memorable part for me was the cockpit technique and the tiling which looks nice.

They fetch a pretty penny though, I imported some and got double my money for them. People need a Grievous mini-fig.

[Big Cam]

Wow, I just checked bricklink and the no cape version found in this set goes for $16.00

I had no idea, i would have stocked up when I originally bought this one.

I think the caped version in the other set is a slightly different color minifigure, and he goes for $20.00

Dang.

[Clone OPatra]

I think the caped version in the other set is a slightly different color minifigure, and he goes for $20.00

Really, is the one you have not just plain white? The caped version was just the standard LEGO white color, I've got him.

Great review!

[WhiteFang]

I have given up on this set, before I have read your review, and after reading it, I feel even more regretted of not buying this set when it was on sales.

And if a review like this can make me have second thoughts of my decision, you have indeed done a great job about it.

Thanks for sharing this review with us.

[RileyC]

I glad I didnt buy this set if the rumour is true that we get another one next year. I like the design of this ship especially the tan and brown tiling they did. What put me off about buying this set when I could was that Grievous didnt have a cape like the one in 7255 General Grievous Chase. I really dont get why they added a slideable cockpit. Sure it gives the set some playability but I really dont mind taking the whole window off to get inside like 7669 Anakin's Jedi Starfighter.

Great review and I really like your pictures

[Big Cam]

Really, is the one you have not just plain white? The caped version was just the standard LEGO white color, I've got him.

Great review!

Oh, no mine is plain white. The caped version on bricklink looks so much darker. If they are the same white, I can't believe that a cape fetches $4. Weird.

I have given up on this set, before I have read your review, and after reading it, I feel even more regretted of not buying this set when it was on sales.

And if a review like this can make me have second thoughts of my decision, you have indeed done a great job about it.

Thanks for sharing this review with us.

Oh boy, thank you very much.

I glad I didnt buy this set if the rumour is true that we get another one next year. I like the design of this ship especially the tan and brown tiling they did. What put me off about buying this set when I could was that Grievous didnt have a cape like the one in 7255 General Grievous Chase. I really dont get why they added a slideable cockpit. Sure it gives the set some playability but I really dont mind taking the whole window off to get inside like 7669 Anakin's Jedi Starfighter.

Great review and I really like your pictures

I think it makes all the differance in the world. If you had to pry off the galls everytime, well how realistic is that?

[BlueDragonZ]

Its a nice set but the only problem i found was the laser canons falls off quite easily after several movements on them. The grievous minifigure is awesome and the lightsaber handle makes a great addition as well. Sad that i sold it..

[Big Cam]

Its a nice set but the only problem i found was the laser canons falls off quite easily after several movements on them. The grievous minifigure is awesome and the lightsaber handle makes a great addition as well. Sad that i sold it..

Welcome to Eurobricks, I'm honored that your first post was in my thread.

I am a collector/display guys o I don't play much but I hadn't noticed the cannon issue, granted I only moved them a few times for pictures, it's good to have additional insight on the reviews.

[Nerd Commander]

I like the ship... kinda

the general grevious minifig is pathetic... well, maybe not. not worth buying. too expensive

[commdr_neyo]

I think the ship is really good, and I don't think Lego needed to make a new version.

The grievous looks also good, I think he might even look better than the CW one.

And now on to te review It's great! The pictures are of a good quality, and nice bright.

I needed to get more sets back in 2007

[Walter Kovacs]

Nice review, Big Cam.

I like the Grevious minifig. He looks oh so menacing when holding those four lightsabers. If I remember right, the Grevious Chase set only included two?

What really sold me on the set was the sliding cockpit. I saw that on the box and knew I had to have this set to find out how it worked. When I opened it and saw the lightsaber holder, I fell in love.

Then I got a second starfighter as a gift. Now I have the best of both worlds, one for display and one for parts

[prateek]

Great review. I love this set, but as you said, the fig is garbagio

[Big Cam]

What really sold me on the set was the sliding cockpit. I saw that on the box and knew I had to have this set to find out how it worked. When I opened it and saw the lightsaber holder, I fell in love.

Funny Funny story. I didn't even realize that's how the cockpit worked and I hated it, and rated it really low in the RA, then Clone O'Patra basically e-slapped me, and I figured it, out. It was hilarious, you know when something is really obvious to everyone except one person. I was that person.

[Brickus]

This is one of my favourite fighters, the sliding mechanism was great at the time, I'm so glad I purchased this set when I did.

[CommanderFox]

A surperb review Big Cam!

Im glad your back reviewing sets!

This is one nice set, I love the GG fig and the parts are a nice selection. The overall designe isn't that bad aswell.

Thanks for the review!

CommanderFox

[lightningtiger]

Hey 'Big Cam' you've done it again.......another great review that is !

I own one of these and have MOD it a while back - hey I should post my MOD's - thanks also for the wake up call !

That slide feature is one of the best things about this set.

Again thanks 'Big Cam' and I'm a conformist! !

[Big Cam]

Hey 'Big Cam' you've done it again.......another great review that is !

I own one of these and have MOD it a while back - hey I should post my MOD's - thanks also for the wake up call !

That slide feature is one of the best things about this set.

Again thanks 'Big Cam' and I'm a conformist! !

Haha thanks, but the majority of my reviews were done in my student days in the academy. If you want to see any of my other reviews, they are all in my sig, in order that I did them as well. Except the Indie review, he's by himself.