Covenant Seraph: Set number 97015

Build Time: 20 minutes sorting, 45 minutes build. Total 1 hour, 5 minutes.

Set Piece count: 566
Minifigs, Weapons and Accessories: Gold Elite General with gold parts to make a Gold Elite Ultra, Blue Standard Elite, Blue Flight Elite; Focus Rifle, Needler, Needle Rifle? Could be the Plasma Launcher, not sure.
Special Features: Opening and Closing Cockpit hatch
Dimensions: Seraph H 3″ W 9″ L 18″ / Stand H 4.625″  W 3.25″ L 3.25″
Price/Value: $65US

The set has 566 pieces. All but about 5% of the pieces go to the seraph. It’s a fairly long set at a foot and a half long.  Though it’s not very tall. So if you have a large shelf space it may fit. I had to do some research on the game color of this starfighter. I thought it was more the wine color that the Revenant is. The model is close though in approximation of color. While I’m not a fan of the ship so much in the game, the MEGA Bloks model is excellent. The build time can be done in one sitting and there is much repetition to make it an easier build.

Now for what you really want, the pics:

Click on images to see a larger version.

The beautiful box art. Loving the new Master Chief Armor.

The contents of the box (so much grape purple!):

Pieces sorted (sorry for the drink containers in the corner. A man’s gotta drink!

The build begins:

Now that it’s complete we go to the stand:

The minifigs and weapons:

As with many MB sets there are stabilizing pieces to keep the model flat on your building surface. They are often a very different color from the rest of the model to easily identify. In this case yellow. Here are those bloks, plus the ones left over. (I was able to make a pseudo-mini Seraph from those bloks):

Summary: At $65US, this is a bit expensive for the set. Since the set includes 566 pieces,   I’d have put the cost at between $55-60US. I go by the general rule of 10 cents per piece. So $56.60 would have been the price I’d have liked to see. However, that being said, it’s a large set and for those who want some covie purple bloks to make customs from, this set has you covered.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 medals. The price is really the only drawback to this set. The model itself is great and the stnad really makes it pop off where ever you display it at.

Orbital Space Banshee: Set number 97010

Build Time: 5 minutes sorting, 15 minutes build. Total 20 minutes.

Set Piece count: 204
Minifigs, Weapons and Accessories: Silver Flight Elite w/Standard Elite head extra, Orange EVA Spartan; Rocket Launcher, Focus Rifle
Special Features: Opening and Closing Cockpit hatch, Turret pivots sideways and guns pivot up and down.
Dimensions: Banshee H 2.5″  W 8″  L 7.25″  / Turret H 2.5″  W 4.75″ L 4/75″ / Banshee Stand H 1.75″ W 1.25″ L 1.75″
Price/Value: $22US

The set has 204 pieces. Roughly 60% of the build goes to the Banshee while the rest to the turret. This is an AWESOME set. It is by far much better than any of the previous Banshee builds MEGA has done before. Those were regular Banshees while this is the Space version. I do hope that the regular version gets this treatment in the future. I’ll buy a few of them and turn my older versions into custom builds. I had a lot of fun building this set. Truth be told I wasn’t much a fan of the banshee before this. I thought I wanted the set purely for the UNSC turret that comes with it. However, after having built it, I have to say again that the Banshee is awesome. Sleek, bigger, sexier…er um ignore that last adjective… Check out the pics below for more discussion on the build.

Click on images to see a larger version.

The beautiful box art. Loving the new Master Chief Armor.

What you get inside:

The pieces sorted out. (I find it important to do this for all but the smallest sets.)

The turret in steps. One thing to note in the upper right corner is that step 6 incorrectly shows how the pieces go together. So pay attention to that step. It’s easy enough to figure out, but it doesn’t hurt to be warned ahead of time.

The Banshee starts to take shape:

Next comes the wing assembly:

The cockpit assembly and finished model:

This comes with a great little clear stand to place the Banshee on so it looks like it’s in flight or at least hovering:

The minifigs and the weapons in the set:

MEGA is great about giving us extra pieces. Here is what I had left:

I always try to make some sort of mini vehicle out of what’s left. If possible I try to make a small version of what the set is. Sometimes there just isn’t enough of the right parts to do so. That was the case here:

Summary: A great small set, with fast building time and great bloks to make an accurate build. This set is worth every bit of the $22 it asks for. I hope to get at least 3 more of the turrets for a diorama and one more of the banshee. So it anyone doesn’t want their turret from their set, e-mail me and let’s work something out: sal@halofanforlife.com

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 medals. This set really is worth the full 5 medals. From start to finish it is a great model.

I took this image into Adobe Illustrator to add the color dots that represent the “studs” of the bloks. Then I put it in Photoshop to fix the box’s perspective.

Here’s the original: 

Here is the fixed perspective with color studs:

Now for the “math.” Each dot represents a “stud” on the top of the bloks. Each fifth dot is a different color to make it easier to count. The height is calculated by plate size, not studs. (I didn’t show the control tower dots near the top right in this graphic)

Red+Yellow length of studs I counted at 85 approximately.
Blue+Green length of studs I counted at 21 approximately.
Orange+Purple height of plates I counted at 48 approximately.

I measured the length of studs. Each 2 stud blok measures 1.5cm. Each plate is 3mm high (not including the stud at the top)

So that means each distance is:
Length 85 studs=67cm=26.375 inches (inches are rounded up)
Width 21 studs=16.5cm=6.5 inches (inches are rounded up)
Height 48 plates high=16cm=6.3 inches (inches are rounded up)

Folks, this is a BIG set!. Also, bare in mind we can’t see all the bloks near the aft end of the set, so it could be even longer.

So again to put it in perspective:
Over 2 feet long by more than a half foot wide, by half foot tall(again approximate)

I got this pic from Spartanbloks.com.

The article and box art on SpartanBloks incorrectly titles it the Forward on to Dawn. As we know that ship (correctly names as the Forward Unto Dawn) is actually a MUCH smaller UNSC Frigate. The ship in this pic is clearly much closer to the UNSC Infinity. Compare it with this pic below:

The UNSC Infinity:

Here is the Forward Unto Dawn (not Forward on to Dawn):

Now, someone said to me it’s the Spirit of Fire. However, compare that ship with the Mega Bloks one:

Spirit of Fire:

You can clearly see the Mega Bloks ship is not the Spirit of Fire either. The fore section is much pointier and has a much lower section in the front.

The closest design the MEGA pic comes to is the UNSC Infinity. That makes total sense too as it’s THE ship of Halo 4.

Though, this box art says it’s a prototype. In a way I hope it is as the design isn’t quite right. Still, were it to remain unchanged, I’d still buy it as it just looks plain AWESOME!

Look at the bottom right corner of the box art and you can see that the top comes off. Likely that is to display a play area within the ship.

Finished product or not, I’m EXCITED about this set. I’ve been talking with a representative from Mega Brands for many months now about having a large starship line. Starting it off with the Infinity really sets it up nicely. We can only hope this ship DOES come to retail. Then maybe we’ll get ships like the Spirit of Fire, Forward Unto Dawn, Long Night of Solace and other various UNSC and Covenant capital class starships.

Here’s hoping this isn’t a hoax either. I’d be really bummed.