Category Archives: Halo Collecting

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Mega Bloks Forward Unto Dawn set. Part 2 Aft body section and base.

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Okay, finally have another update on this project. This part see another 4 hours into the build.

I have to say this section of the ship is likely going to be the most FUN part of the four main sections to build. Reason? Because it contains the bridge of the ship as well as Master Chief’s cryo tube and Cortana on her plinth. SO….you may want to elect to rearrange what sections you build first if you want to finish on a more fun note. Not that the rest won’t be fun, just not as much as this part.

Okay, enough talking…I know you’re here for the purty pikchers…LOL

Thus begins the build. Here is the start of the aft section. It’s pretty solid.

The floor built over that.

Start of the walls.

More walls. Believe it or not, up to this point it took 1 1/2 hours to get this much done.

Here are the really cool detailed bridge components and some of the cryo bay greeblies.

Here they are inserted into their correct positions. They REALLY help to flesh out the interior play area of the model.

The front three panels.

The back three.

Sorry for the fuzzy shot here. Anyway, you can see how the panels fit batter here.

Looking into the interior from the front.

This little flip hatch is there to display Master Chief on the broken portion of the ship if you choose, or as shown, flip it up to close the door, so to speak. (I’ll be displaying mine as a whole ship, likely…er maybe…er oh okay I haven’t decided yet.

What’s really cool up to this point is you can just tell there are many details about the ship. Not just in the computer panels as shown already but in the “broken” portion shown above. With just a few pieces this area looks like it’s been broken apart.

Now for the underside.

More of the underside. Nice reverse sloping pieces here add to the contour of the ship. I especially like the longer slopes.

Here we see the three “bridging” areas that form the top part of the connecting sections to the “roof” of the ship (to be built later). Also note the ship is raised off the tabel by two large black stands. They are easy to remove should you wish to display the model hanging from the ceiling.

Here they are closer up, front, middle, and rear.

These engine nacelles are awesome! LARGE pieces with translucent blue turbines you put into them. REALLY cool. I may just work some lighting into these to make them glow. (That will be another project for this model done the line though.)

Looking down on the cryo bay with the Cryo tube, Master Chief and Cortana in place.

Another angle of the cryo bay. The Master Chief figure that comes with this set is much more detailed and has metallic paint. It’s NOT the same as the ones that come in the Halo 4 Warthog, not the separate Cryo Tube set. If you press down on Cortana, the base lights up form underneath to make it look like she is glowing. VERY cool feature!

So that’s section 1. Again this was 4 hours worth of building time. INclude the 5 hours to sort all the pieces and I’ve got 9 hours into this already. This is NOT a set I’d recommend rushing through. Take you time and have fun building.

Part three in a couple of days! (the roof section of the aft part of the ship as well as the side of the aft portion and the wings!)

So what do you think of it so far?
-Sal

Mega Bloks Forward Unto Dawn set. Part 1: Unboxing and sorting.

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Normally when I do a review for a Mega Bloks set, it’s all in one article. However, given the size of this set and the time it’s going to take to get it built, I thought I’d go a different route for this one. For the next several days until I get the set completed, I’m going to be posting articles detailing the build process of the amazing set.

Up first is the unbloxing (yes I meant to do that, LOL) and the sorting of all the pieces.

This box is massive. Note the handle on top of it. It’s needed believe me!

A shot of what’s on the back of the box.

As you can see from above, when you first open the box you are greeted to some very nice interior artwork as well as the THICK instruction manual.

When you lift out the manual these 4 shoesized boxes are underneath waiting to be taken out.

See, I told you the instruction manual is thick!

On the back of the manual you have this fantastic compilation artwork of recent sets. It’s almost identical to the larger poster that was given away at FanFest in Toronto earlier this year.

The above three pics show three of the boxes contents. LOTS and LOTS of bloks!

And finally for this part are the sorted pieces. I had to photoshop two photos together to get these all in one shot.

As you can see I like to be a bit organized. I stack the same pieces together 10 high with leftovers in a smaller stack. Also, note the orange tabs on the parts list. I do this with very large sets like this.  What I do is catalog the parts against the parts list to make sure I have the amount is specifies. By putting a tab down on the part it lets me know it’s been cataloged. There are two more pages of parts and I did this with those as well.

Already I’ve spent 5 hours on this and that was all just in the unboxing and sorting…

I’m loving it though!

Stay tuned for follow up articles showing the build in progress!

-Sal

Halo Mega Bloks Forward Unto Dawn set…

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Okay after a little ordeal I went through ordering this, I’ve finally received my set. Thanks to Toys R Us for fixing everything up correctly.

Over the course of the next several days, I’ll be posting a continuing article covering the build of this massive set. Pics of course will be included as I always do for reviews. Normally, I post one whole review per article like this, but given this set’s size and piece count one article just won’t do it justice.

Here’s a refresher of the set I’m talking about:

I’m going to have LOADS of pics for this one.

-Sal

Comparison shot of the Forward Unto Dawn Mega Bloks set with other large blok sets.

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First let me thank my friend Deinonychus for letting me repost his image.

Left to right we have:

Mega Bloks StarCraft II Battlecruiser
LEGO Star Wars Tantive IV
Mega Bloks Probuilder Aircraft Carrier
Mega Bloks Forward Unto Dawn
LEGO Star Destroyer

Also as you can see in the set a minifig laid on it’s back. This is one HUGE set. In comparison it stacks up nicely to other large building blok sets.

-Sal

Halo Mega Bloks series 6 minifigures! and a surprise!!

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I revealed on Friday the figures to come in series 6 of Halo Mega Bloks single pack figures on the blog.

Halo Mega Bloks series 6 minifigures!

Now they’ve been spotted at retail. Here are pics from francandco.imgur.com showing each figure and a bonus!

Besides the regular figs, you could be lucky enough to find the “Mountain Dew” Elite. Or translucent lime green Elite. So far it’s been found to be with the Tan Marine. So happy hunting.

I REALLY want that Elite. I’m a HUGE fan of translucent toys. This one will look particularly good. Um…if anyone finds this, could you help me out…LOL.

Anyway…these minifigs are really a good deal. They are in my opinion the BEST minifigures out there. FAR better than Lego. Heck Mega’s figures even beat out many of the larger scale figures from other toy lines as far as articulation goes. Even the sculpt on these minifigs is better than most larger toys and certain best in the mini scale.

Given their affordability, I highly suggest picking some up!

-Sal

Halo Mega Bloks series 6 minifigures!

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As some of you know I LOVE collecting Halo toys. Mega Bloks is one of the top two licensees I collect (the other being McFarlane).

Mega Bloks has some incredible Halo toys out there. Every few months they come out with a new series of collectible minifigures. These are blind packaging, though you do see at least what consists of the wave on the outside of the packet.

These retail for around $3-3.50 US depending on where you get them from.

Series 6 has now been revealed, take a look:

For this series we get:

Grunt: Okay, this is essentially the same as the one we got in series 5. I’m not complaining though. I LOVE building up small armies of the little guys.
Purple EOD Spartan: I like the armor, and the color is fantastic. I’m not normally a purple person, but for these minifigs it’s a good color.
Yellow Mark V [b] Spartan: This mold of the minifig has only been available in the +$100 Sabre Countdown set. So to be able to get it here is great! Especially if you want to make a custom default Noble 6 by painting him.
Tan Marine w/masked face: Again, another good army builder. With the recent tan armory sets released, this minifig will help to augment those troops.
Jackal: WHOLLY MOLY! I’m SO glad and excited this minifig is being made available. I’ve wanted to build up a small army of these for awhile. I may ask for your help in finding this one folks. I’m trying to build up an army of 30. I already have 10 from previous sets…
Cyan Elite (yes, cyan, not blue): Again, a good color and sought after by Halo Mega Bloks collectors. Nice to have elites to build up too.
Stealth EVA: OMG, this is one I’m very much looking forward to having. I LOVE this shark-skin color. This color has only been previously available in Toys R Us exclusive sets. So, to be able to add to that squad with a single pack figure is a great addition!
Crimson “Not-Jorge” Spartan: Previously available as “Not-Jorge” in the Spade vs Skirmisher set and the Flood Siege set as the stealth color, the Crimson version is a VERY welcome redux. I’m a fan of the color anyway, so this is a no-brainer pick up for me.

Also, be on the lookout for certain other extremely rare minifigs not shown on the packaging. For instance in the previous series we had a translucent Red, translucent blue, and translucent “smoke” spartans in the series, though not pictured on the packaging.

Rumor has it there will be a translucent Purple Elite… I LOVE translucent toys. Just seeing how the are made and come together is something I’ve always found VERY cool.

Are you a Halo Mega Bloks fan?

-Sal

I was a featured guest on Dust and Echoes Podcast, take a listen.

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DAE: Episode 27

I’m about halfway through. We talk about Forward Unto Dawn, the reviews and graphic novels I do for those episodes, Halo 4, Halo toys and a bit more.

I always enjoy doing podcasts. Quite like a talk show, but much more casual.

Please hop on over to their site at the link above and them come on back and let me know what you thought of it. Replies are always welcome!

-Sal

HaloFanForLife Forward Unto Dawn contest…

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Okay folks, I’ve got an easy contest in the works. Stay tuned later for the specifics of the contest.

You MUST be a registered subscriber of the BLOG (not Twitter or Facebook) to win.

The prize will be a Halo McFarlane Master Chief (as seen in Forward Unto Dawn)

Here’s a pic from the McFarlane site:

Yes, I know it says from “The Package” which was an episode in the Halo Legends cartoon. However, it is the same armor as seen in Forward Unto Dawn.

Shipping will be free to those in the lower 48 states. If the winner is outside of this area, the will need to pay for shipping. (Sorry folks, I’m a bit crunched so I need to ask that of you) If the winner chooses not accept the prize on that condition, then I may award the prize to the second person who answers the contest question correct. You must be 18 or older to enter.

Again, look for the contest question later today…

-Sal (HFFL)

McFarlane Halo Master Chief Vs. Hunter resin statue (limited to 500)!

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Forward-Unto-Dawn-Resin-Statue.html

Okay folks, want to own what is surely to become a holy grail of Halo collecting? This resin statue is up for sale at the link above for $225. You won’t get charged right now for it. (But will about a week before shipping which should be around the first week of December)

Only 500 total will be made. So this is VERY limited.

This isn’t plastic. It’s SOLID. The resin statue is a whopping 14lbs. Shipping is free. (Thank goodness as a 14lbs anything would cost a lot in shipping-I guess they took that into account when pricing the statue.)

If you do get it, shoot some pics my way, PLEASE. I’ll feature them on the blog. I unfortunately won’t be able to afford this beauty. Super SADFACE… 🙁

-Sal (HFFL)