Blog subscriber J. Chad Day sent me an e-mail saying he had photos and a written review for the new Flood Invasion set. He wanted to know if I’d like to show his review on HFFL. I’m happy to do so. When I get this set, I’ll do my own review as well. In the meantime, enjoy Chad’s review. BTW, Chad gave me permission to retouch his photos as well as add the HFFL watermark to them. As always, my commentary will be included in BLUE.

Halo Mega Bloks Set # 97430 Flood Invasion by J. Chad Day
MSRP $39.99
Piece Count 265

HFFL: The obligatory box and content shots.

This set briefly showed up on Walmart.com last weekend. It was priced at $39.99 so I snapped it up. It quickly disappeared from the web site after that. I was not expecting to get it until the middle of August, but it showed up today. Below is my review.

Mini Figures and Weapons

This set comes with a total of 17 figures, this includes the 10 infection forms.

HFFL:  Depending on how you count the infection forms, that’s a pretty darn good amount of figs. To me three are roughly equivalent to a mini figure. The two marines are the new “super pose able” figures with removable armor.

HFFL: I’m curious why these aren’t in the traditional green/tan or camp colors? When I get this set myself, I’ll likely use these marines as ONI Operatives.I will say that the infection forms and the marines have a much more rubbery feel to them than any of the of the other figures I have ever come across. The only other new set I have is the Flame Hog and I do not recall those figures being so rubbery. To me it does not detract from the set it is just something I noticed. I also found there is a bad paint job on the dark brown combat form, dark brown tank form and one of the infection forms (see pictures.).

HFFL: I like the new Flood Tank form. It’s a decent size. The only thing is that gap between the big arm and the shoulder. The figure most people are probably excited for is the Active Camo flood combat form. It is a nice looking figure that anybody will be happy to add to their active camo collection.

HFFL: YES! As many of you know, I love see-through toys. An active camp Elite Combat Form is an EXCELLENT addition. I can’t wait to get my hands on this set!
The mold appears to be identical to the regular combat form.

HFFL: Indeed they are. I like that there is even more “skin” color showing through with this Elite flood fig.Two new figures are Flood Tank form. I believe this is the first release of the tank form ever for Mega Bloks. They did a nice job. As I mentioned early the dark brown one tank form has a bad paint job, hopefully this is fixed in future batches.

HFFL: Yes, this is the first set to have the Tank Flood Form. As for the paint, smudges, those won’t bother me too much. I think they are purposely there to break up the monotony of an all brown or cream colored figure. The tank forms uses a 2×2 brick hole for one foot and a single round hole for the other. They appear to be the same mold, just different colors.

HFFL: Don’t let the pic’s perspective above fool you. These are in fact the same mold, just different colors.The two marines included are nice. They do not include leg armor but have removable chest and shoulder armor. Interesting thing to me is that the chest armor is one molded piece that covers the front and the back instead of two separate pieces like the Spartans. They do have the new super posable arms.

HFFL: Hmm, I too find it odd that these Marines didn’t have thigh armor. I wonder why those were left out? Is anyone else thinking Agent Locke from “Halo: Nightfall” for the one Marine fig? Could be an easy custom!

Weapons include a black pistol, black flame thrower, black shotgun, purple plasma rife, Black mounted  machine gun and finally a active camo needler. All of these weapons have no paint detail on them, but personally I am happy they are black instead of the normal gray I tend to get.

HFFL: While I prefer painted weapons as they look more accurate, I agree that if they are to be one solid color, that black is the way to go.

The Ghost

First off, let me say when I started building the Ghost I immediately could feel a difference the the brick quality. The pieces felt different and they went together with a satisfying CLICK that I have not gotten from any other Mega Bloks Halo set. Now, I only have the Gen 1 Ghost and it is packed away so I could not do any comparison photos, but they have come a long way in the design of the Ghost since that one.  The level of detail in this Ghost amazes me. It special molded pieces for the front guns and adjustable foot pedals are completely different than my other Ghost.

HFFL: Heh, that Ghost Flood part is funky. It’s not canon, but it is pretty cool. I suspect there is going to be someone out there who will use it to make some sort of odd Flood form.One thing I like is the “Flood” piece is removable with out dissembling the Ghost. I like the purple color it almost has a pearlescent sheen to it, though I do notice a slight shade difference, like some of the pieces might be old.

The Wall

As with the Ghost I immediately noticed a better quality in the bricks than previous sets. I did not find any piece that appeared to be old. The wall was a quick simple build. I like the little details they put in, such as the fusion coil “conveyer belt”, safety rails and overhead walk way. It also includes large sandbags, a first for a Halo set, I believe.

HFFL: This set structure will go VERY nicely with the previous Floodgate set. Same colors, relative same set-up. Now if we only had some some stairs to get to the upper walkways. Hmm, I was lucky enough to acquire two extra of the structures from the old set. I know I have some brown pieces too…Okay, I;m going to challenge myself to make a larger Floodgate diorama with this set and the other structures I have. Man, I can’t wait for this to hit locally! The inclusion of the many larger sandbags is welcome. I won’t use them in this diorama, but certainly will in others.

Overall

This was a quick build taking around 30 minutes, that includes stopping to type out my thoughts. I have never much cared for “set pieces” and have always leaned towards collecting the figures and vehicles but I like this one. I can see it being good for diorama builders and stop motion people. I imagine most people will buy this set for the new Tank form and the Active Camo Combat form.

HFFL: Raises Hand on that last sentence! LOL

I like the large number of infection forms they included with this set. I see this being a popular set to buy for collectors and kids alike. I hope in future batches they fix the paint errors on some of the flood figures, who knows maybe I got the only bad set. I would recommend this set as a buy for the variety of figures and the flood ghost, because come on who doesn’t want a flood ghost.

HFFL: I concur, this set will likely be popular. Army building collectors will love it for it’s many flood figures. Having 10 infection forms alone makes it a good buy for army builders. And yeah, a Flood Ghost! Never thought I’d see something like this come out. It’s a small gamble on MEGA’s part. In this case though, I think it’s a safe bet.

This is still my commentary, I’m just saving your eyes from all of the blue…
Let’s breakdown the cost vs value of this set.
$40 for the set.
4 regular sized figures (2 marines, 2 elite infected) = $12-14 (@ $3-3.50 each)
1 Flood carrier form – even though it has less articulation, the size of it and the fact that it can hold infection forms makes it worth the same at least to me in comparison to regular sized figures. So another $3-3.50
2 Larger figures (Tank forms) – $5 each. Consider that these are close to normal action figure size in many other toy lines. Those sized figures go for even more these days, so $5 is certainly fair to value these Tank Forms at.
10 Infection forms – Since I said above that I consider 3 of these to be about a full figure, with that one left over, let’s call it an even three figures. So value wise they are worth $1 each. Total $10

Now before we get to the value of the structure piece, let’s go over how much the previous add up to. Given the slight variance of costs these figures alone account for between $35-$37.50. That leaves us with $2.50-$5 to account for.

So moving on to the structure then. Is it worth $2.50 to $5? You betcha!

I’d be a little surprised if this set sticks around long enough for it to go on sale.

I totally agree with Chad here. This set looks worth it for the retail price. It has loads of varied figures and a nice set structure to place them by. So even though I personally do not have this set yet, I highly recommend getting it. Don’t wait either, buy it when you see it!

-Sal