REVIEW: 75040 General Grievous’ Wheel Bike

[HandofBobb]

Ok folks, this is my first attempt at a review, so be gentle- constructive feedback will be appreciated.

75040 General Grievous’ Wheel Bike

Ok folks, I’m new around here, but I was pretty excited by this set, and I didn’t see any other reviews posted, so I figure I’d give it a shot. I’m a big Star Wars fan, and a big AFOL, though I don’t buy as many sets as I’d like. Not counting the occasional Troop Pack, this is my first set in some time, my last one being 2009’s Clone Wars Republic Attack Shuttle 8019-1.

I’ve always been a fan of General Grievous’ original characterization, in the old Tartakovsky Clone Wars, where he was basically evil Batman. Felt like he got nerfed quite a bit for Episode III, but at least he got some cool new toys, including this monowheel bike, and his starfighter, which was basically a space Batmobile. I got the original version of his fighter 7656, back in 2007- I felt they did a pretty good job of replicating the ship, but the original Grievous Minifig was pretty terrible. They released a new version (8095) in 2010 with a vastly improved minifig, but I didn’t feel they improved on the starfighter’s design enough for me to invest another $50 so soon- now that we’re back around to Ep III re-releases, maybe there will be a new version of his fighter that tempts me like the upcoming B-wing does. So I made do without the new Grievous, as I didn’t feel like paying the $15 or so he was running on the secondary market either. He was later re-relased in 9515 The Malevolence, but that set was outside my price range as well- so seeing the new version of him on the Wheel Bike in the 2014 wave got me really excited. I’m not gonna lie, he was the major factor in me buying this set, although the wheel bike itself if vastly improved from it’s 2005 version, 7255 General Grievous Chase. Although an updated Boga would have been nice, I’m kinda torn between missing him, and being happy this isn’t a $40-50 set. It was actually a nice surprise to get this as a $25 set- when the original preview pics came out, with no parts count on them, I was actually expecting it to run $30-35.

OK, enough preface, on to the review proper (Note that this is a post-assembly review, so there are some things missing, like a parts square and such)

75040 in the Lego Store

Official MSRP: $24.99

Parts Count: 261

Reccomended Ages: 7-12

Release Date: Feb 2014

Box Art (9/10):

The Box features the new 2014 Ep III frame, with the Star Wars logo in orange and an underlit Vader on a background of volcanic rock with some lava showing through- which, while dramatic, is slightly confusing- it’s obviously meant to evoke Mustafar, but then Vader is rather overdressed for his appearance there- but still, it looks cool, so I guess that works. The main image shows the model in a dynamic setting, with Grievous speeding off and Obi-Wan desperately clinging on to keep from being yanked off by Vader’s Force Grip- you think Grievous would just let go of the staff. It’s got all the usual text on the left hand side, above a separate image of the 2 minifigs included in the set, if you couldn’t work them out from the main image.

Back of the box mainly shows the bike in it’s walker mode, with a couple other shots showing off play features, such as the flick-fire missile, a hand rolling the bike along, and a shot ahowing that the legs deploy (which, again, I would hope you could work out from the other pics)- I’m not really sure what the smaller images on the right are meant to show.

The other sides of the box, with a couple of the images repeated, all the relevant copyright and other disclaimers, and a shot of Obi-Wan as the 1:1 figure on the top, sharing space with about a half-sized Grievous- I don’t really blame them for putting him there as he really is the star of this set.

As this is a post-mortem review, I don’t have any shots of the parts still in bags, but there were 3 numbered bags, a bag with all the parts for Grievous, and the large wheel was loose.

Unlike some larger sets, the box was pretty full, not a lot of empty space, though this did result in the instructions getting bent up a bit. Front of the instruction book echoes the front of the box

Instructions (9/10):

A random page- as you can see, everything is quite clear with a neutral background, like most other current instruction books.

The parts list from the back of the book

Last 2 pages show several of the minifigs is the 2014 wave all Pokemon-style (gotta catch ‘em All!), and the 2014 sets.

From what I can tell, it’s something of an inside joke on these forums to include a shot of this ugly kid’s screaming mug, so here you go:

Minifigs (10/10):

A brand new Obi Wan, and a slightly new Grievous- from what I can tell, there are 2 differences from the Clone Wars Grievous- his eyes are slightly less emphasized, and in this set, his upper and lower arms use the same piece, whereas the Clone Wars versions had 2 different paint apps.

The printing on Obi-Wan is nice and crisp with plenty of details, including the lower part of his shirt and his loincloth on the legs, which looks great from the front, but gives the impression of him wearing a thong from behind.

Here they are shown with my old 2k7 Grievous for comparison:

And a shot of the back details, along with Obi-Wan’s alternate expression:

As you can see, they didn’t skimp on the weapons selection included- all 4 lightsabers for Grievous, a Magna-Guard Staff, and a Blaster. Here they are laid out with the lightsabers from my 2k7 Grievous (in the grey handles)

Parts (10/10):

At 261 Parts for $25, it comes in under the general $0.10/ part rule, plus the bulk of the parts here are pretty interesting/useful, I could see myself picking up a couple more for parts.

Other than the Minifigs and weapons, the distinctive part in this set is a giant clear wheel:

In the parts breakdown, it’s listed as part 6053875, but since Trans Clear is apparently a new color for this part, that doesn’t bring anything up in Bricklink. A bit of poking around comes up with 88517: Wheel 75mm D. x 17mm Motorcycle, which, as it’s description implies, has mostly been used in some larger scale Technic and Bionicle/Hero Factory Motorcycles, and in 10227 UCS B-wing, 75016 Homing Spider Droid. And most recently in 70724 Ninja Copter from the 2014 Ninjago line.

Also new this set is a 1x1 Round Tile with a new decoration on it, some kind of readout/dial, but different from the current 98138pb010 Gague with red pointer. It’s listed in the parts breakdown as 6057870

Aside from the new wheel and tile, interesting parts include a bunch of 1x2 Grilles in Metallic Silver, a Pair of 3x3 triangular pieces and a bunch of cheese wedges in Sand Blue, 8 of the Ninjago talons in dark metallic gray, 2 trans dark pink jewels, and all the lightsaber handles. Spare parts included the usual handful of Technic bits and cheese wedges, a second copy of the new dial, and 1 extra lightsaber handle in each light bley and metallic silver.

Assembly (8/10):

Unfortunately, there’s a fair amount of repetition in the build, but I’m not really sure how it could be avoided, so I’m not gonna mark it down too harshly.

Bag 1 includes the bulk of the wheel itself, and mostly consists of repeating this build 12 times:

The rest of the parts in bag 1 are the main axle and a couple of Technic bushings

Bag 2 assembles the 2 sidecar parts

The sets one flick missile goes on the right sidecar, just beside the dual blaster cannon, and uses a technic rod at the back to launch it, which works decently. I think it looks a bit weird to use the same trans orange cone on the missile facing the opposite direction from the ones on the tips of the cannons right next to it.

Bag 3 consists of the small back assembly and the 4 legs, which are identical

I would almost count all the Technic pins with studs on the ends as padding the parts count, but I feel I’m already getting a good deal on parts, so I let it slide. One minor detail is that, due to how the Ninjago talons are used for the feet, the bike can’t really balance on 2 legs, as it did in a couple of shots in the film- then again, the original jackhammer feet couldn’t do that either.

Assembled, in bike mode it’s a bit back-heavy, but again, not really sure that’s avoidable.

Grievous is mounted in the bike by way of a folding handlebar plate that his feet attach to, it works alright, other than the total lack of visible controls- maybe he’s connected to it via Bluetooth? I would’ve added 1x2 Plate w/Handle 2540 and a Droid Arm holding a handlebar piece to the base. Also, I wonder why the plate mounting the new dial piece has the vertical clip and not the horizontal one, so the dial could actually face the pilot?

Since the seating arrangement it custom made for Grievous, it’s a little goofy for other figs:

Even old Grievous’s legs aren’t quite up to the task…

Rather ironically, the Friends minidoll seems to be the next best fit:

Overall: 46/50

I’d Highly recommend this set to anyone who might be interested, it’s got great parts and is a neat vehicle when built. While it might not be entirely accurate to the movie, it’s still a vast improvement over the previous version, and most of the changes are for playability. While the color scheme should be more light gray and tan, I kind of like the dark gray/black as it matches Grievous’ Starfighter much more closely.

Here’s a comparison shot of it next to the Super Secret Police hummer from Super Cycle Chase, as you can see, it stacks up pretty favorably.

Just what exactly has Olivia been up to in her workshop?

[arc]

Welcome to EB! Great review for especially for a first try! the set is looking pretty good, definitely an an improvement over the last one, although boga would've been nice, although that would probably drive the price up.

[Brickmamba]

Thanks for the review, the set fails to recreate the movie scene by forgoing the boga, this is disappointing and even more so considering it was included in the older set.

[Brickadeer]

Thanks for the review

I like the set.

A brand new Obi Wan, and a slightly new Grievous- from what I can tell, there are 2 differences from the Clone Wars Grievous- his eyes are slightly less emphasized, and in this set, his upper and lower arms use the same piece, whereas the Clone Wars versions had 2 different paint apps.

The major change is that Lego has begun to use 2d prints to create (3d) depth effects. So if you look at the eyes from a small distance, as on your photos, the pupils seem to be located in the head, not on the face.

Another example is the regular 212th trooper in 75036: from a small distance, the grey printing on the "cheeks" of the helmets is interpreted as "shade" and not a property of the surface, resulting in a similar depth-effect.

[Lobot]

Thanks for the review HandofBobb, I'm quite tempted to grab this set if I can find it at a small discount!

And....

[zero1312]

Nice Review!!! I have the set too, but during the build I noticed the General was missing one arm.

[rollermonkey]

I was this close to picking this up the other night, but opted for Bad Cop's car... Looks like I'll be hitting the LEGO store again, because the new Grievous looks pretty fantastic. (And the wheel bike isn't bad either.)

Is the Boga the lizard that Obi Wan rides?

[arc]

Is the Boga the lizard that Obi Wan rides?

yes it is. Would have liked to see it included, oh well.

[Fritzy]

Love the Olivia cameo. :P

[Sir Brickalot]

Great review! Loving this set, but a Boga would be the icing on the cake. Great review again!

[Csacsa234]

Thanks for the review I quite like this set but I don't know if I should pass it up. The figs are great and the wheel-bike turned out very good, but that big part on the back which connects the 2 sides is very ugly.

[sithewok]

Really tempted to pick this set up and your review makes it even harder to say no. Nice pictures and write-up. I cracked up at Olivia.

[Hrafnblod]

Just a note (because I've seen a few reviews of this set mention the 'dial' and the lack of controls): that dial -is- the control panel.

[Brickfan]

Nice Review! Although, I might still hold off on this set as I am not a big Grievous fan.

[Delta62]

nice review. Ive been procrastinating on wheather to get one or not. mostly because of the price range but now i might just pick one up. I dont have grievious or obi wan mini figs.

[darthzane321]

nice review really like the set for obi wan :classic: :thumbup:

[meowmachine]

This is a nice concise review.