The 12 Days of Halo Toy Reviews: Day 2; Mattel Master Chief figure

This is the second of 12 consecutive days of Halo Toy Reviews. Over the course of those days, I’ll be reviewing Halo Mega Bloks, Mattel Halo figures, Prop weapons and more. 

logo-mattel

Technical Specifications:
Articulation:
• Ball Joint Head
• Ball Joint Shoulders
• Hinged Elbows
• Ball Joint Wrists
• Swivel Torso
• Partial Ball Joint hips
• Double Hinge Knees
• Ball Joint Ankles
Accessories: Assault Rifle, Energy Sword
Additional Contents:
• Instruction sheet showing how to put the armor on
• 2 small pins to attach weapons to figure
Cost: $15-18 (US) depending on where you buy it at retail
Availability: Mass Retail (I got mine from Toys R Us, on sale for $12!)

And on with the pics! (Click pics to make BIGGER)

So here we have it. Mattel picked up the license that McFarlane left. And I have ot say, from what I’ve seen so far, I’m pretty happy with it.

The package design is good. Plenty of Forerunner graphics all over it. A large window on the front of the box allows you to see the contents quite well. The back of the box shows you the figure with none of it’s armor on. As well, it shows the other figures in this series. Something NEW to Halo action figure collecting is the “build-a-figure” theme. This is something that has been happening with other franchise line for quite some time now. I’m very happy to see it come to Halo. In this series, if you buy one each of the figures, you will have a piece from each that when put together will make a Promethean Crawler!mt-master-chief-fig-boxHere is a closer up view of the armorless Chief.mt-master-chief-fig-back-box-detail

When you open up the box, there is a plastic tray that slides right out. Here it is shown with everything in the box with exception to the instruction sheet. Each piece of armor is relatively close to the area on which you put it on the figure.mt-master-chief-fig-contents

Here’s the instruction sheet.mt-master-chief-fig-instructions

To put the forearm armor on, you have to first remove the hand. NOTE: It takes a little effort to pop the hand off. Don’t try to force this too hard as there is a small joint at the wrist. I’m concerned that this might break. It hasn’t happened to me yet and as of this writing, I’ve opened up 3 of the Mattel figures. So just be careful. After you slide the forearm armor on, it takes a little force to get the hand to go back in all the way. The shoulder armor fits partially around the upper arm and has a small pin on the inside of it that inserts into the upper arm. See the red circle in the graphic below.mt-master-chief-fig-top-armor

Next up is the leg armor. The thigh armor similarly to the shoulder armor wraps around and has a pin that goes into a hole. This might take a couple of tries to get it on right. As the hole is hidden from view when putting the thigh armor on, you’ll have to move the piece around slightly until you feel the pin insert int the hole. The shin armor is in two pieces, front and back. Once again, a pin for each into a hole. When properly placed, there is no gap between the pieces. The pic below shows the thigh armor not all the way snapped together.mt-master-chief-fig-bottom-armor

The “butt-plate” is a simple push in with one pin. Do take care as this may pop off during play.mt-master-chief-fig-butt-plate

After this, you slide the foot armor on. The pic I took wasn’t that great, so I elected to not include it. It is pretty easy to slide the foot armor on. Work from front to back, popping on the heel of the foot into the armor. Just like you would a real shoe.

Here is the Assault Rifle. Really nicely painted. The hole just above and to the right of the trigger hole is where one of the pins (included in a small bag within the box) goes. This if you choose to store the AR on Master Chief’s back.mt-master-chief-fig-ar

Chief holding onto the AR. Yes, as you can see, he can hold it with both hands quite easily!
mt-master-chief-fig-ar2

Next up, the Energy Sword. This has a good amount of translucency to it, with exception to the handle, as it should be. The right side of the graphic below shows the thickness of the sword.
mt-master-chief-fig-energy-sword

To allow Chief to better hold the Energy Sword, Mattel included an extra right hand with the fingers split two to each side. A REALLY good addition to this figure as it can hold the sword well.mt-master-chief-fig-split-hand

And just as I said above, Chief is holding the sword one-handed. There is no droop of the arm, which happens with other action figure franchises. So a great job here by Mattel toy designers.mt-master-chief-fig-energy-sword2

Here are the two pins I eluded to above. One is slightly smaller than the other. For this figure though, You’ll really only use the longer one, which fits into the AR/Back of Chief. The smaller one CAN be used for the sword. However, as that is normally kept on the thigh, and the sword is drawn as opposed to closed down, it doesn’t fit there correctly. Besides, would YOU want an activated energy sword attached to your leg? I sure wouldn’t, LOL.mt-master-chief-fig-weapon-pins

The Crawler piece you get with the Chief figure is a portion of the body. As I review the other Mattel Halo figures in this series, you will see the other parts. At the completion of the Mattel reviews, I’ll show the crawler put together.mt-master-chief-fig-crawler-piece

Orthogonal views of Chief.mt-master-chief-fig-ortho

A few detail shots. The back thrusters are detailed VERY well. On the chest there is indeed the braille “117” dots. Now one thing I’m still not sure about is the thin red line on Chief’s Upper thigh.mt-master-chief-fig-detail

Now to the articulation!

Mattel’s Halo action figures have a very good amount of articulation to them. The graphic below better demostrates where and what kind of articulation there is with the figure.mt-master-chief-fig-articulation

You can get the figure into some good poses. Here Chief looks like he might have just kicked a soccer ball. Or maybe a Grunt, who knows? mt-master-chief-fig-pose

Ah, now HERE is the Grunt kicking Chief! Ha ha!! Yes indeed, with a little patience, you can pose the figure on one leg. It takes some balancing but can be done as evidence by the pic above and below.mt-master-chief-fig-pose2

Finally, I wanted to get Chief into his now iconic Halo 4 Cover art pose. I positioned the figure from memory, so I’m a little off here. But as you can see by the pose picture and the actual Halo 4 art work, I’m close and the figure can replicate the pose quite well!!! mt-master-chief-fig-h4-cvr-posehalo_4_cover_art

Evaluation
Sculpt: Very well done. The only issue I have, is with the thigh armor pieces. They do not completely wrap around the thigh, so there is a gap at the inner thigh. 9 of 10 medals.
Articulation: This figure has articulation that for the first batch of Mattel Halo figures is quite good. Hip articulation is a little limited. 10 of 10 medals.
Paint Application: The paint is good here. Not too much beyond the greens and black, with a tinge of red. The only small issue to this is that the armor looks like plastic and not durable metallic armor. Maybe down the line, Mattel can mix some kind of metallic paint or sheen coating in with the plastic to punch it up a little. Still, this is really minor with me as this is after all, a TOY! The AR has a very nice art deco to it. 9 of 10 medals.
Accessories: Once again, that AR is really nice. Definitely glad we got an Energy Sword so early in Mattel’s run with the license! 10 out of 10 medals
Playability: Standard playability. It can be pose in many positions. Pretty durable, just take care not to lose armor pieces. I suggest glueing them into place. But of course, that is your decision. 10 of 10 medals.
Overall: 48 medals out of a total 50 medals.

Do I recommend this product? YES! For the first of the Mattel Halo Action Figures, they did an EXCELLENT job manufacturing a Master Chief figure. 

I was a little concerned about anotehr toy company taking over after McFarlane Toys. After all, McF had the license for years and made many excellnt figures in that time. I can say with confidence that the license is in good hands with Mattel. They are after all a toy company. Some worries that other people had about the sculpt of the figures, didn’t pan out, which is a good thing. I’m really happy with the sculpting here.

And with that, the first Mattel Halo action figure review is complete. Of course, look for more of these over the next couple of days and then from there as new series of figures comes out.

If you have any questions about this set that I didn’t cover in the review, please feel free to ask me. Either reply below or e-mail me at [email protected]

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think of the review. If you get this yourself, please let me know your thoughts on it too!

If this review gives you an informed decision on whether to purchase the toy or not, please consider a small donation (50 cents) to the blog. It’s much appreciated and helps ensure that HFFL stays registered/active on the internet. Thank You.

-Sal

This entry was posted in Mattel by Sal. Bookmark the permalink.

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