Halo Toy Review: Mega Construx “A New Dawn” Blind Bag Series

mega-construx-logo

The “A New Dawn” series is the latest wave of blind bagged figures from Mega. Today we take a look at each one, along with the VERY special UNSC Frigate micro ship!

Mega Construx “Battle for the Ark” Blind Bag Series

Technical Specifications:
Build Time: 1 minutes building each figure, 2 minutes sort/build time total for micro ship.
Set Piece Count: varies by figure
Minifigures: Yellow-Orange Recon SpartanPink Spartan Mark VI, Blue Spartan Mark VI, UNSC Marine (green/tan), Turquoise armored Brute Minor, Orange Grunt Minor, Active Camo Rogue Spartan, UNSC Frigate (micro build)
Accessories: Shotgun, Battle Rifle, Magnum, Assault Rifle, Brute Spike, Needler, Active Camo Carbine
Special Features: Removable Armor
Cost: $3-3.50 US (Mass Retail) (ONE figure per pack OR the 37 pieces for the ship build)


Here are the 7 figures and 1 micro ship that come with this series. This sheet can be found in all the blind bags, except the micro ship, which includes it’s own sheet of instructions. You’ll see that further on down in the review.

Note that the Active Camo Rogue Spartan and Orange Grunt Minor are considered “Rare” figures, the Frigate is the “Ultra Rare” and the rest are “Common“.

Let’s take a look at the individual figures, shall we?
Oh, before I go forward, each individual action shot of the figure and weapon accessory included are directly from Mega’s website. It’s their computer generated model and not the actual figure/weapon, so colors may vary slightly. My pics reflect the retail figures under normal lighting, while the Mega pics are computer generated and enhanced for optimum viewing.

Yellow-Orange Recon Spartan

I like this color as it’s the color of the Grifball holder as well as one of the colors of my favorite hometown sports teams. That it’s Recon is even better.

The Recon comes with a standard Shotgun.

Pink Mark VI Spartan

I love this hot pink Spartan Mark VI (Gen 1) figure! It’s not often we get a pink figure, though thankfully, that’s changed for the better in the last couple of months.

A standard Battle Rifle comes with this figure.

Blue Mark VI Spartan

The blue armor of this Mark VI is metallic. SHINY!

It comes with a magnum.

UNSC Marine

My favorite figure from the “A New Dawn” series is by FAR this UNSC Marine! It’s an army building figure for certain. The green armor is metallic. The helmet’s color is a slightly different shade of green. I do wish this came with a back pack as we haven’t seen the standard one of those in quite some time. Otherwise, this is a STELLAR figure!!!

The Assault Rifle is brandished by this figure.

Turquoise Brute Minor

We’ve seen variants of this figure, most notably in the Brute Lance set. Though those came with shoulder armor, which I find a little strange that this blind bag series figure didn’t.

The rare Brute Spiker makes a welcome appearance with the Brute.

Orange Grunt Minor

Oh yes!!!! I have been waiting for this figure for a LONG time! We haven’t had the Orange Triangular methane tank Grunt Minor since it’s inception way WAY back in 2009. This is an army builder for sure. A side note. There is another one of these coming soon that will have light purple skin AND a removable breath mask!

You get a regular Needler with the grunt.

Active Camo Rogue Spartan

I’m always happy to have another translucent figure added to my collection. Yep, you long time readers know that for sure! Though do note the difference in “color” of the Mega computer shot above and my actual figure below.

Also note, the Carbine that comes with the figure isn’t as shiny metallic as this computer shot below.

Now to the absolute GEM of the “A New Dawn” blind bag series.
A micro UNSC Frigate! (I say it’s the “Forward Unto Dawn” for my own collection.)
The Frigate comes with 37 pieces, including the stand. It’s a very quick build.
I’m surprised with the accuracy of this micro build, given the small size and limited parts to make it. It’s awesome!
I’ve included the instruction sheet (direct from Mega’s website) below so you can see how it’s built as well as the parts list. All of the parts are now standard and can be found in other Mega sets. Though perhaps not in these colors.

Let’s do an ever so short series of build shots here.
In the blind bag that contains the Frigate, you get a different instruction sheet, as shown above as well as a bag of parts and some loose parts. Be careful when you open this blind bag as the parts are small and potentially easy to lose.

Here are the pieces sorted out. I had no extra parts.

There are very few steps to this build. This 3-step shot makes it even fewer.
Top: Main Hull
Middle: Bridge, Forward, Port and Starboard sections
Bottom: “Wings”, Engines and Antennae

After this you build the 3-piece stand.

Here’s the Frigate in orthogonal views. I chose to remove the tall clear rod so I could get tight close in ortho views for this series of pics.

Three-quarter views show more detail and help bring to life the epicness of this micro build! The top portion shows the tall rod in the position that Mega suggests. The bottom portions shows the position I put it in. (Just one peg backwards.) I think it looks better the  way I have it and seems weighted better as well.

Now, before I show you the full “A New Dawn” series all together, let me show you something VERY cool about the inclusion of the Frigate in this series!

You can indeed insert it into the belly hold of the UNSC Infinity set!!!

Here’s a close-up shot of it! It fits in quite well. I used the translucent left over stabilizing pieces from the Infinity set to help secure the dawn in the belly hold.

And finally, here’s a shot showing the Frigate (with stand) right over top of the Infinity for scale. Yes, the Infinity set is THAT BIG!!! The scale between the two ships is relatively accurate.

Okay…finally the group shot! I’d say the Covenant are quite outnumbered here.

Do I recommend it?  Absolutely! The Marine and Grunt as great for army builders. The UNSC Frigate is fantastic at it’s scale. If you’re a fan of Red Vs Blue, the Mark VI spartans will definitely have extra appeal for you.

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

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.You can donate via PayPal to [email protected]. Or just click the paypal link at the right on the main page of the site.  It’s much appreciated and helps ensure that HFFL stays registered/active on the internet. Thank You.

-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