Covenant Wraith: Set number 97014
Build Time: 25 minutes sorting, 55 minutes build. Total 1 hour, 20 minutes.
Set Piece count: 637
Minifigs, Weapons and Accessories: Gold Standard Elite, Gold Ascetic Elite, Green EOD Spartan with parts for a Scout Spartan; Rocket launcher, Plasma Launcher
Special Features: Opening and Closing Plasma Cannon hatch/Cannon, Turret pivots 360°.
Dimensions: Wraith H 4-5″ (cannon sealed/open and extended) W 8.25″ L 8.75″ / Forerunner structure H 4.75″ W 3.5″ L 2.5″
Price/Value: $45US
The set has 637 pieces. To say this is an upgrade would be to diminish what is a truly fantastic set. The color for one makes this much closer to game accurate. The beautiful curvature of the replacement bloks makes this set look closer to the game model, while still having that familiar blok look. The cannon assembly is what really rocks in this set. The housing area of the cannon has been redone and so much for the better. I was impressed when I first saw this at New York Toy Fair, but I MUCH more impressed having now built it myself. The addition of the gold elites is great. With the gold elites from Seraph set you can build up a nice squad of Goldies. Need to have another elite to make the ultra, buy the drop pod that has the gold elite.
Okay so now for those pics (sorry no pics of the minifigs for now-pic didn’t turn out so well)
Click on images to see a larger version.
The box art. I can’t say enough how well the packaging looks for this line. It just keeps getting better with each iteration.
The contents:
All the pieces sorted out:
The build:
Take note in this next pic the way the curved piece fits together (insert). If you make a mistake here, you can fix it, but don’t be in a rush to pull out that pin, less you break it. Work it out gently. (TWSS)
Just look at that cannon and housing assembly. AWESOME!!!
The “wings”:
The finished model sans stickers:
A nice amount of leftover pieces:
Hey look a mini wraith from those pieces, sort of…:
The exquisite Forerunner structure. BTW, this one can be coupled with the Battlescape III set to make a larger structure.
Summary: While I liked the original MEGA Bloks Wraith set, this one is far and above better. New curved bloks, better in-game color, gold elites, green EOD and a mini set in the Forerunner structure. The price is actually VERY well priced. For a set of 637 pieces you might expect to pay close to $60. Instead it’s $15 less than that. A VERY good buy. That makes up for what I thought was a little bit of overpricing on two of the other new sets. So if you buy all 4 sets; wraith, seraph, space banshee, warthog; you definitely get your monies worth of bloks and Halo goodness.
Job well done MEGA!
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 medals. Great build, awesome color…I could repeat myself even more here. Just go and get one, or three.
-HFFL