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
This all terrain, all condition ride is Never Summer’s most popular and versatile model. For 2012/13, the Custom Flight Core has been modified to reduce weight and increase pop. The Carbon VXR Laminate Technology to the SL have been added to add powerful edge response and control. The lightweight RDS 2 Damping System provides the perfect balance of freeride vibration absorption and freestyle liveliness. Slightly setback for powder floatation but centered enough for spinning and carving, this one board quiver excels on hardpack, in the park, natural features and all around freeriding. The SL has set the standard for all mountain freestyle performance, versatility and durability. The Legacy (W sizes) are the wide version of Never Summer’s SL board.
Okay, so not officially, but Halo 4 modders have ported this over from Halo Reach. Man, WHY aren’t these official game types in Halo 4 instead of being mods? (Oh yeah, that’s right 343 didn’t create them…)
Regardless, I WANT to play them. CHeck out each vid below!
As soon as I can get my hands on the files, these WILL be part of my Halo Fan Friday League community nights!
As promised I will be asking at least one trivia question a day leading up to HaloFanForLife.com’s Two-year anniversary on the 24th of September. So stay tuned each day to HFFL for questions to win prizes!
Here is question #7:
What does the acronym ‘FOTUS’ mean? Bonus points if you can tell me in which game and where it is seen first.
To answer you must reply to this article. To reply, you must be a registered subscriber of the blog. During this 9 day trivia contest worth of questions, if you win once you may not enter again, until the final trivia question on the 24th for the big prize.
Okay folks, first to answer correctly gets a Halo Mega Bloks Convention Covert Ops Spartan Mk VI w/green visor (as seen here), as well as either another Halo Mega Bloks figure OR a McFarlane Avatar minifigure.
[UPDATE] The question has been correctly answred. The answer is “Fist Of The Unicorn” The ‘S’ isn’t directly stated as a word, though I’ve taken it to mean ‘Spartan.’ It’s actually first seen in Halo CE as a poster on the Pillar of Autumn. “Fist of the Unicorn” was a band on the Autumn. In Halo 4, FOTUS is an armor choice you can have if you got the code with the Halo 4 special edition XBOX.
Technical Specifications: Build Time: 20 minutes of sorting, 1 hour 30 minutes to build. Set Piece Count: 460 Minifigs: Yellow Mark VI Spartan w/Blue Visor, Red Elite, Brute Stalker Weapons: Brute Mauler, Plasma Rifle, Brute Spike Grenade, Battle Rifle Accessories: N/A Price: $42-45 depending on where you buy it from. Special Features: Rotating cannons, transforming platform (Cobra)
And on with the pics! (Click pics to make BIGGER) (Video Review at end of article)
The packaging is fantastic as always.
The back of the box shows off the set nicely and where it ‘transforms’ to a platform.
The contents of the box. Note there are two books of instructions as well as an addendum sheet.
The pieces sorted out.
Here’s the turret assembly that houses the batteries, lights and sounds. Again as with the Night Ops Gauss Hog that I previously reviewed, this comes with a detachable button/wire assembly.
The Shade turret in steps. This is actually turned around as the smaller post should be in the front. You’ll see in the video below that I modified the design a little to make this stand more upright. Other than that, the design of the Shade is very good. I like the MEGA has no problem with flipping pieces and showing the underside of their parts. In this case it definitely helped with accuracy when compared to the in-game model.
The Cobra starts to take shape.
Here is the combination of the cockpit with the upper portion of the Cobra.
The rear axle assembly. You’ll see later how this transforms positions.
The front axle assemblies.
The turret is assembled. What I like about this is that the button to activate the sounds and lights is hidden by the rear flap on the turret. Click that down and boom, electronics!
The Cobra completed. When you have the gun barrels on the outside as shown, they light up as yellow. Move them in to the middle and they light up as blue. (See video for that demonstration) But we’re not done yet!
Top and bottom views.
Side front and back views.
Here’s the sticker sheet. I almost never add stickers to my sets. I always worry that they’ll eventually peel off.
Here are the weapons/grenades included. Starting from top left going clockwise: Brute Mauler, Plasma Rifle, Battle Rifle, Spike Grenade.
Now on to the minifigs!
A yellow Mark VI spartan with a cool Blue visor.
My favorite color is red, so I love the candy apple red of this Elite!
This Brute Stalker is fantastic! Sculpt is exceptional and the paint application is near perfect!
Next I show how the vehicle looks when transformed to a stationary platform:
The only minor complaint here is that you have to remove the back “legs” of the vehicle and reposition them instead of them just rotating into position. Still, that’s minor and the legs hold up well whether in hidden or full view. Note how the rear wheels pivot and rotate into a flat position!
Rotate the turret out of the way to open the cockpit to add your Spartan!
As always there are leftover pieces. Plenty here! So what did I do? I made a mini Cobra, a Covenant Battery pack, and a shoulder mounted Gauss Cannon!
The turret even swivels on my mini-Cobra!
The shoulder mounted Gauss cannon being held by the Spartan. I can’t imagine an ODST or Marine being able to do this!
Summary:The build time is not fast, but not long either and can easily be done in one sitting. The addition of the Brute Stalker minifig (my favorite in this set) is VERY welcomed. Hopefully MEAG puts this figure out again. I’m hoping as a black version. Also as the same or very similar blue version in a future minifig packet series. The Shade turret is VERY good. Sounds and lights really make the Cobra pop with ACTION! For the piece count you get a great vehicle. Even though it’s not a mainstream vehicle from the 1st person shooter games of Halo, I highly recommend getting this set. Halo Wars had some great vehicles and I’m VERY happy that MEGA continues to dive back into that game for some cool new building sets.
Overall Rating:I give this set 10 out for 10 medals. It gets that for the value, minifigs, and electronics.
If you like the vid, please give it a like on Youtube.
This is an extremely cool and detailed Needler replica. The sculpt and paint are fantastic. The fact that it has electronics as well just puts this prop WAY over the top awesome!
Here’s a vid of the needler being made into blueprints via Adobe Illustrator:
And finally the commissioning of the prop:
To read the full article with lots of more pics of the build, go here.
Though it will set you back a cool $500 US.
