Toy Review: McFarlane Halo Micro Ops large carded sets

I saw these first at New York Toy Fair this year and immediately was excited for them. They are a fun small size in realistic detail. Great for building massive and small dioramas alike. They also are very affordable.

The large card sets seen here retail between $16-18 depending on store. I think it’s a fair price, not just for what you get, but the overall quality of what you get in something this small in scale.

Both “carded” pics are directly from McFarlane’s website, the loose shots are mine.

First up is the Falcon set: This set includes the Falcon, Carter (Noble 1), A crouching marine, and a Pilot. The Falcon has several moving parts that really make this a sweet set. Not only does the cockpit open to put the pilot in, but the rotors spin as well as swivel from top to front. Add to this the side gun mounts fully retract and are quite posable, considering their diminutive size. It might seems steep to pay $16-18 for this, however the detail is great and the moving parts really help to make up for any perceived shortcomings due to price.

Next is the High Ground Bunker set. I thought this a little strange at first but then when you couple it with the High Ground Gate and the very soon to be release High Ground Tower/Missle cannon, it really sells the whole thing. However, this set did have it’s drawback for me. The set comes with the Bunker in several pieces that you can choose to combine or not as you see fit. As well it has a Shade Turret in game accurate colors. For micro figs it has a Red Spartan, Marine, and strangely a Reach style grunt. I say strange because this set is depicted from Halo 3, not Reach and the grunts are completely different.

Be certain to check the bottom underside of the bubble as that is where the two connecting baseplates are. I almost threw away the bubble before realizing they were there.

In the above pic you may see where the front most piece of the bunker doesn’t quite fit well with the rest of the set. In order to make it flush, I had to tape it underneath. Also, these pieces are slightly flexible, which may mean you could have some sag over time. That remains to be seen though. The assembly of the bunker isn’t tight either. The little pegs on the baseplates don’t exactly fit right, but with some gentle nudging you can make them fit.

It may be a little hard to tell that the grunt I’m holding has peg holes so it can fit in the turret. The problem for me is that the legs weren’t evenly straight and the peg and holes were so darn small that I gave up after 5 minutes of trying to make the little guy fit. I’ll try again later, but this time I may use tweezers. The Shade is very nice. As you can see it can pivot up and down as well as rotate 360°.

These two sets start to border on expensive, so I hope in future waves the price doesn’t go up. The Falcon is a solid buy, while the Bunker set alone isn’t impressive. However, if you really want to make a High Ground diorama, then it’s a must buy. In my case I want to make a diorama, so…

-Sal

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About Sal

I’ve got tons of experience with Halo gaming and collecting. I feel I have something to offer to the greater Halo fan community. Posts along the way will be about tips and tricks in the games as well as collecting and many more Halo related things. I’ll also repost interesting articles from the official site, Halowaypoint.com, or from fellow Halo fan sites. As I continue this blog, I hope to help gamers who want advice on the games, as well as any collectors with regards to where to find collectibles as well as deals, coupons and so on. You can also follow me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/HaloFanForLife or Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/halofanforlife11. Welcome to my blog and I hope you’ll come back again and again. -Sal