Other than the Didact, this figure is my favorite in this series.

I give you the Storm Jackal.

This figure comes with the ‘Engage’ Carbine skin. Once again the slender packaging is nice and really highlights the figure without any wasted space.

As you can see in the above pic, the Jackal is still just as lithe as it’s always been, even with the redesign of the head and armor. An amazing amount of detail has been poured into this figure.

The Carbine included is a vibrant metallic purple as you see above. Additional blue paint adds to the detail of the weapon.

Here you can see the amazing amount of detail put into the skin of the Jackal. Not only do the arms/shoulders show a ton of scaly bumps, but the neck is just littered with them which adds to the authenticity of the figure. Add the behind the jaw pouches and added mouth detail and it almost looks like it’s alive.

Above you can see the back fins have been well defined and even have lines sculpted in to show varying parts of armor. The two-toned look of the armor is well done. No complaints at all on the paint application here!

The leg detailing is great and just look at those toes!

This is the only one of the figures in this wave to include a figure stand. I DO wish they all came with one, regardless of character. It can’t be expensive to add in and would really help with posing the figures.

Finally, here you can see the figure’s articulation. Again amazing as all the rest are in this series. However, I think this one just LOOKS better than the rest for that articulation. I had to think why and figured it out. It’s not encumbered by as much armor as the rest in this series. So in that respect it is rewarded with greater range of motion in it’s articulation.

There are two minor things I’d have liked to see done better. Unless my eyes deceive me, the blue paint on the armor should be darker. That’s one I can easily over look though.

The other is the think spaghetti-like tooth bristles of it’s head and elbow ‘hair’. I’d have liked to have seen these done thinner and end more in a point than a rounded end. Again though, these do not detract significantly from the figure for me.

I absolutely recommend this figure. Even if you’re not a fan of the redesign by 343, which isn’t McFarlane’s fault, the figure itself is superb as a toy.

This gets a 9.75 out of 10 from me. Just the hair bristles…

Price for this ranges between $13-16 depending on where you get it from.

-Sal

The following is one of my favorite from the McFarlane Halo 4 series 2 wave of action figures.

It’s the Elite Ranger!

As with the other figures in this series, the Elite Ranger comes in a nice compact ‘sleeve’ package. This one however is a little bigger from to back as the Elite is bulkier than the Spartans and Jackal from this series.

Note the ‘Chill’ weapon skin for your storm rifle. This series seems to have a pattern of blues and purples for it’s weapons skins. I think this skin looks great on the storm rifle.

Here’s the elite in orthogonal views. Very sturdy figure. You do have to take a minute to position it right as the center of gravity for this figure is different from the spartan figures.

The Beam rifle (and flipped) is just awesome. Detailing is great, sculpt is spot on, color choice is fantastic.

Above shows the detail of the Elite Ranger’s arm and back. A ton of detail here. The space suit it wears has these intricate patterns on it that McFarlane captured nicely.

The dorsal ‘fins’ are perfect. Note the jump jets attached to the arms, shoulders, top middle back as well as one on the butt. Additional detail as in the greens and yellow graphics really add to this figure.

Here are some shots of the head and upper back. Again the detail is amazing. Squint and you may just be able to see the Elite’s eyes in the visor (near the bottom of it).

The leg details are just as good as the rest of the figure’s details. Once again jump jets are prominent on the figure, here on it’s knees.

The articulation of this figure is on par with the spartans.

The Beam Rifle is a bit heavy and my figure’s wrist joint on it’s holding hand is loose. So I can’t pose mine with the weapon in one hand without it drooping. Good thing though that this is a two-handed weapon anyway.

The color for the Elite’s suite is excellent.

It’s a great figure and one I HIGHLY recommend if you like campaign figures. Hopefully now we can get the regular Storm Elite.

I give this a 10 out of 10!

The figure runs between $13-16 depending on where you get it from. It’s worth every penny, IMO.

-Sal

Here’s another of the multiplayer spartan figures form this wave.

Slender packaging that shows the figure off nicely. As you can see it also includes an armor code. This for the ‘Ruin’ skin. This skin is actually similar to the ‘Toxic’ skin that comes with the Scout figure. Again, you need not use the colors shown. These are just the ones that are chosen to highlight the skin.

The sculpt is the same as that of the Walgreen’s exclusive CIO from this wave. The difference is in the paint. This one comes with a vibrant purple color.

As with the Scout, my only complaint here is that it didn’t come as either the team red or blue color instead. Given how scarce the series are between one another, I’m not sure if we’ll see every iteration of spartan armor from Halo 4. So in the meantime, I’d prefer them as either red or blue teams.

The DMR is nicely detailed and of course the peg is removable.

As always, McFarlane’s Halo figures have fantastic Articulation, as seen above.

The sculpt is fantastic, as expected.

Depending on your like of this color, you may want it or not. It’s a nice color, but again, not knowing if we’ll get every armor permutation, I’d prefer red or blue instead.

I give this fig a 8.5 of 10. It would have scored higher for me if it would have had a ‘skin’ as the Walgreen’s exclusive did, or at least have been red or blue.

-Sal

This long awaited series is now out and can be found at several major retailers, most notably Toys R Us and Walgreens.

This review details the Orange Spartan Scout figure from series 2 of the Halo 4 action figures by McFarlane Toys.

I’m glad to see that all of the figs come in this slender packaging. No waster space here and less impact on the environment. Kudos to McFarlane for that!

As you can see in the pic this figure comes with an armor code for the Scout, titled ‘Toxic’. It’s a neat skin. You do not have to use the colors as shown and thus can create a different look with the skin by using different colors.

This is one of the few Spartans McFarlane has done that deviates from the normal ‘Legendary’ visor. That is to say copper color. Instead it has a silver color. No doubt this choice was made due to the already prevalent orange color of the spartan itself.

It comes with a Sticky Detonator. The peg attached is removable. If you don’t want to pose the figure holding the weapon, you can easily stow it on the hole on the side of the leg.

The above shots show some of the great details on this figure. Not only is the sculpt excellent, but note the ‘UNSC’ on the chest piece as well as the wing/sword symbol. Both nice extra touches of detail. The armored glove as you can see shows paint detailing nicely on each finger.

Finally we have the articulation for this figure which is standard for most of McFarlane’s Halo Spartans. That is to say a LOT!

This is a great figure. My only complaint is that I’d have preferred this to be Commander Palmer instead of a non-descript Orange colored Spartan. Barring that, make it either team red or blue.

Still, it works as a Grifball Spartan and again, the detailed sculpt and extra paint apps make this a quality figure.

I give this a 9 of 10. Again, preferring this had been Palmer instead.

-Sal

 Here’s the Didact without his helmet. I’m SO glad McFarlane has given US the choice of showing the Didact with his helmet off or as seen below, off.

The Didact is GINORMOUS in comparison to Master Chief!

Here are the armor and weapon skins that you will get should you buy the Didact figure.

Mine is on the way! I’ll review it when it comes in!!

-Sal

Fast on the heels of the CIO spartan review comes this Master Chief toy review. A logn wait between series 1 and 2 is worth it!

On with the review (click to make pics bigger):

The slim packaging is a great idea. For one it saves on cardboard which saves on trees being used, plus excess garbage. Good for the environment! The Cortana microfig is display nicely with it’s own graphic. It’s a really nice bonus with the Master Chief figure.

As with the other figures in this wave this one comes with a code. Here is the ‘Riptide’ skin for the Assault Rifle. I like this skin as well.  Given that bonus skins via the Champions Bundle cost money, these being bonuses for no additional cost on top of the figure is VERY welcome indeed!

Master Chief in orthogonal views. This one compared to the one from the cryo tube is MUCH cleaner. In fact I think it’s even better than the one that came in series one of the Halo 4 figures. Not just for it’s clean paint application, but also considering the weapon skin code AND the Cortana microfig. You definitely get your monies worth from this figure!

The railgun with the MC fig is well done. Weathered AND has small UNSC and UNSC bird emblems on it! Now THAT is detail folks! The peg in the middle is removable and is there if you want to stow the weapon on Chief’s back.

A little tough for me to get in focus, here is the Cortana micro figure. This is just FANTASTIC! Not only is the sculpt great, the paint application on such a small figure is OUT OF THE PARK Awesome!!!

What’s great about the Cortana micro figure is that it DOES come out of the ‘puck-like’ stand. Now I will say BE CAREFUL doing this. It is a small figure. While slightly flexible, you don’t want to break it.

You can see more of the detail that went into this figure above.

Finally, Master Chief holding Cortana in his hand. It seems purposeful that Cortana was made to pop out of the stand for Chief to hold. This pic shows more of the detail of Cortana.

McFarlane REALLY nailed this toy. Not only is Chief FANTASTIC, but the Cortana minifig is amazeballs!

I HIGHLY recommend getting this, even if you have the series 1 Chief figure. Again, you get the code, plus the Cortana Micro figure.

This gets a STRONG 10 of 10 from me!

-Sal

It’s been a long time coming for series 2 of the Halo 4 figures by McFarlane. Thankfully that wait is over and this series is hitting retailer shelves.

My friend ‘StunkPK‘ and his son (and a member of my gaming group) TheBigCheese320 found some of these at their local Walgreens. They were kind enough to pick up this figure as well as the Master Chief figure from this series for me. (Master Chief review coming shortly after this review).

On with the review (click to make pics bigger):

I’m not sure if this series will all be in the slim packaging as seen above. I kind of hope so. The wider packaging takes up shelf space, which means less room for more Halo toys. I like this design anyway. The back of the packaging as well as the front of the card are the same for all of the figures.

This particular figure is the ONLY exclusive to series 2 and is found at Walgreens. What separates this figure from the regular purple CIO in this wave (and for that matter any of the Halo 4 figures to date) is that is has one of the ‘skins’ on it. I like this figure even more so for that. Though it would be impractical to get every spartan with every skin, I’m glad that McFarlane has given us at least this one (to start).

All of the figures in series 2 come with a code. The codes are either for a weapon skin or armor skin. As you can see above this one comes with the “Bones” DMR skin. It’s pretty cool in-game.

Here is the figure out of the package in orthogonal views. Again, you can see the great sculpting here. Paint application is fantastic.

The DMR that comes with this is very well sculpted and also has good paint application. That little peg in the middle is if you want to stow the weapon on the Spartan’s back. It is removable.

Finally we see here (apologies for the bit of fuzziness in the pic) we see the articulation of the figure. It’s LOADED with articulation! This is one of McFarlane Toys strong points when it comes to Halo action figures.

While this was a long wait between series 1 and 2, it’s been worth it. Glad to have the bonus weapon skin and very glad that there were no issues with paint application, articulation and sculpt.

I give this figure a 10 or 10!

-Sal