Whew, I’ve been busy today. Finally got to take photos of my McFarlane Halo Anniversary Wave 2 figures, two box sets, and two Mega Bloks Drop Pod sets. I’ve got to edit the photos and finish writing the reviews. Expect those to roll out tomorrow.
As a preview, let’s just say McF needs to check China on their Quality Control (or lack thereof). But not all is ill with the McFarlane stuff. The Mega Bloks sets a excellent.
While I’m not so much a fan of the chopper, this set I’m very much looking forward to. For me the draw is the Brute Chieftain. It’s an awesome figure and quite large for a minifig. The helmet sports semi-soft plastic near the top to keep from breaking off as well as for child safety. Something I applaud Mega for thinking about. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a prototype of the Chieftain while at Toy Fair this year, and again can speak from first-hand that it’s an amazing figure.
Here’s the product shot followed by my prototype Cheiftain.
This set will retail for around $12 depending on store. The Chieftain is awesome, the gravity hammer is excellent, and the chopper completes the set nicely.
Here are four new sets slated for release later this year. While Fall is the release season, typically fall releases show up in mid-summer.
First up is one of the smaller packs. This should retail for about $5US. It includes the Air Assault spartan with what appears to be a Commando helmet or possibly the same helmet that came in the AA turret vs Rocket hog set from last year. With some extra weapons and YEAH! a BR, this set is worth the $5.
Next we have a gold Ascetic Elite set. Again a $5 set. It also comes with the standard Elite Minor helmet. Besides the Ascetic Elite, the real draw for me here is the Plasma Rifle. That weapon has only recently been introduced into the line, so the more I can get of it the better. The Needle Rifle is also a nice addition.
Up next is Cobalt Blue UNSC Armory set. Comes with the standard Mk V Spartan, CQB Spartan and the arms and helmet for the scout armor, as well as a Marine. This set should ring in around $11-12US. A good set, but the lack of a full fourth figure is a little disconcerting. About a year to a year and a half ago we used to get sets of four figures for $10. With the price raised by a dollar or two and half a figure missing or more, I just feel I’m missing something. The extra weapons are nice, and the armory stand is cool for extra pieces. However, for the money, I’d rather have a complete fourth figure.
Lastly we have a Silver Covenant Armory set. While I love the new style of grunts, since there are only two of them and one complete elite (standard), plus arms and helmet of an ascetic, I’m again feeling like something is missing. I understand the idea is to mix and match armor. I’l refer to my comments above about the extra money for less product. Also, I’m perplexed by the color choice here. When it comes to Covenant forces, I’d much prefer in-game colors, rather than “skittle” colors. Grunts come is typically orange, green, red, and purple armor colors. I’d like to see those before we get these odd color sets. Hopefully Mega will address that. As a note to Mega, I as well as others WILL buy more of the in-game colors to army build, rather than the off-color sets. The one thing to note with this particular set is the inclusion of the Focus Rifle. While it looks to be unpainted, it’s still a very welcomed addition to the Halo weapons line.
Again, look for these to come out mid-summer.
UNSC Desert Combat Unit: Set number 96958
Tech Specs
Build Time: 5 minutes including sorting
Set Piece count: 53
Price: $11.99 US
This set has 53 pieces, most of which pertain to the minifigs. The pieces for the armor crate/display are simple enough and repeated for other armor sets, but in different colors.
The minifigs included are two marines that are the same except the heads and a Spartan that you can customize to be an EVA or CQB or Scout.
I find myself wanting to get at least two more of this set so I can have one each of the spartans and along the way pick up some extra Marines. While I do not think this set is as good as the Crimson Covenant combat unit set, it’s still a very worthy purchase.
As with the covie set, I chose to go away from Mega’s build for the armor display and make a sort of crate instead. I’m not going to display the extra bits of armor. So, by building the crate, I have the pieces in a more compact area that can store easily.
The value of the set is good, but again not as great as the Covie set in my opinion. The reasoning is that we have already had marines, EVAs, and CQBs. Having just the head and arms of a Scout does not make up the difference in what use to be the purchase prices of 4 figures. So the value is good, but not great.
Overall Rating: 8.5 out of 10 medals.
And now onto the pics:
The minifigs:
The crate takes form and my final version of it:
And the set as a whole:
Again this is a good set. Certainly if you’re building a desert scene these will fit in nicely. In fact they fit in very well with the recent Wal*Mart exclusive set that had tan marines and a spartan. So this is a nice way to bolster that squad.
-HFFL
Crimson Covenant Combat Unit: Set number 96959
Tech Specs
Build Time: 5 minutes including sorting.
Set Piece count: 47
Price: $11.99 US
This set is marked as having 47 pieces, many of which are tied up in the minifigs themselves. It’s a simple set with one glorious minifig among the others.
The pieces for the armor crate/display are simple enough and repeated for other armor sets, but in different colors.
The minifigs included are two grunts, one of which with the two pronged methane tank and the other the normal tapered tank. They are of the new larger grunt design and look fantastic.
The real prize of this set however is the Elite, or rather the Honor Guard Elite pieces. You can take a non-descript Red Elite and make him a pseudo Flight elite by switching heads, or as most of you will likely do if you get the set, make him into the most awesome Honor Guard Elite. I have to say that Mega really hit this one out of the park. The Honor Guard is very well done and begs to have a second one next to it for extra guard duty.
The value of this set is actually pretty good considering you get the two grunts in the new larger style, and the Elite with the extra Flight helmet and Honor Guard pieces, not to mention the Armor crate/display pieces.
I really encourage those who like to army build to get this set and in multiples. Even if army building is not your thing, this set is nearly worth it alone for the Elite Honor Guard and I wouldn’t pass it up. It’s definitely going to be a hard to find set in the future.
Overall Rating: 10 out of 10 medals.
Now here are some pics from the set:
The grunts:
The armor crate (though I chose to go off plan here and make it my way instead):
And finally the creme de la creme of the set, the Elite Honor Guard:
Target is running a 50% off coupon for all Mega Bloks (including Halo). You can find the coupon in your Sunday paper.
If however you want to order online, you can do that too and I have the coupon code for you: TGT8AJVK Now, I did this and it gave an error, but when you continue with the purchase it DOES take half off.
I bought a Pelican online and saved nearly $40. I’ll now be going to my local store to get a UNSC Elephant and save almost $60 there. Woot! It’s like getting the Pelican for free in essence after buying the Elephant. If you’ve though about buying Mega Bloks Halo stuff before, NOW is the time to do it. The coupon is only good until the end of this month.
-HFFL
I was able to get this via eBay. I do not often look to eBay for new toys. However, given the dubious nature of stocking for Walgreen’s stores and the likelyhood that this figure is going to be extremely hard to find, plus all the wasted time and especially gas looking for it, I opted to take a hit and get it on eBay before it becomes much harder to get and more expensive.
That said, I’m happy with this figure, though I think there is a little bit TOO much “dirt” on it. You’ll see what I mean in a moment. First let’s look at the figure carded:
Standard card, nothing to denote this is an exclusive on the front. Then again, since I got this from eBay, if there are any Walgreen’s stickers they were removed before I got it.
Now here we can see in the composite view shot the dirty look to the figure I was talking about, along with a close-up shot:
Here’s a good look at the Target Locator included, close-up in four views:
Finally a friend asked me to post the UPC of the figure for easier reference when going to Walgreens to explain to the workers there what they were looking for. So I’m happy to oblige.
Now as far as the figure itself, it uses the standard multiplayer base figure. All of the armor parts have been released before, but in different colors. What makes this fairly unique is that it’s White (albeit dirty white), and it’s one of the view that has a visor color other than gold. Since it’s an exclusive, I HIGHLY suggest if you see it at Walgreens to pick it up immediately. I doubt you’ll see it again. As well, and again I don’t push this often, if you see it on eBay for a price you’re willing to pay, get it.
A white spartan of any armor configuration is desired as it is the easiest to custom paint. Though with this one’s exclusivity, I’d think twice about it.
-HFFL
Two new Die Cast sets coming soon from Mega Bloks Die-cast line:
Battle Set: Scorpion/Covenant Sniper tower
and
Battle Set: Wraith/Pelican
These are not official names. However I will endeavor to find that out as soon as possible.
In the mean time feast your eyes on these cool sets to come. (Product subject to change before release):
No word on cost either. Assuming the Wraith set is $20, then this battle set will be a lot more given the size of the Pelican. Hopefully not more than $40 though. The Scorpion/Tower set should be more than $30 given the small size of the tower. We’ll see though.
The Mega Bloks Halo Toymation contest has been over for awhile. Now we get to see one of the prizes awarded to the winners. It’s a Master Chief Helmet set on a base. Not quite to scale, but still totally awesome.
I would so TOTALLY get one of these if it came in Master Chief Green with the visor being gold.
Hmm, maybe they will consider it. Even without the majority of the base it would be uber cool to have.
McFarlane’s Halo Reach Series 6 has hit and I’m happy to bring to you my reviews of the mass retail figures. I’ll post the exclusives figures reviews as I get them.
First here are all 5 of the mass retail figures:
There are also three other figures in this wave. Those are exclusive. There is a Red Recon (Target Exclusive), Orange Hazop (Toy R Us Exclusive), and the White JFO (Walgreen’s Exclusive <—strangely enough)
Here is the card back and front (with bubble cut off):
All of the figures in this wave have the same articulation (with exceptions to follow):
• Ball Joint Head
• Ball Joint Shoulders
• 2-part swivel Elbows (Except the Sabre pilot and Kat’s right arm, which only have the normal elbow swivel
• Ball joint wrists
• Limited Ball joint Torso
• Ball Joint Hips
• 2-part swivel Knees
• Ball Joint Feet
Other points of interest:
• Removable Helmet for the Brute and Elite only (Sabre Pilot mask can be removed with a knife easily)
• Jun’s and the Sabre Pilots “neckwear” can be removed.
• Brute’s Jaw opens and closes (and shown in pic below)
The following a composition shots and detailed shots of each figure.
The Pros and Cons of Each figures:
• Sabre Pilot:
Pros: Good Sculpt matches up nicely with marines from Reach.
Cons: Should have had ball joint elbows instead of just a swivel joint.
• Kat:
Pros: Excellent sculpt, Pain Application is good. They cyan really pops off the armor.
Cons: As with the Sabre pilot, I’d liked to have seen full ball joint elbows for both, not just the left arm
• Jun
Pros: Excellent Sculpt. Paint application is very nice here.
Cons: Face expression could have been better. a little bland here. Still I’d rather have this than some striking pose that would look out of place elsewhere.
• Elite Zealot
Pros: Great sculpt. Good color match to in-game Elite, yeah a concussion rifle!
Cons: Hard to pose. Legs just can’t seem to support the figure very well. It took me a good 5 minutes to pose him for the pics above. This seems to plague most of the Elite figures though.
• Brute
Pros: Wow, fantastic sculpt. For some reason I have a strong opinion about the Brutes. McFarlane really exceeds with these guys, in my opinion. Detail is amazing. I love that the jaw opens and closes.
Cons: Has a hard time holding an all too small Spiker. In fact the trigger loop broke on mine when I tried to fit the hand onto the weapon.
Some great Pros here with minor Cons. Really this is an EXCELLENT wave to get. With Jun and Kat we get the rest of Noble squad unhelmeted as seen in the game. (Oh I wish we’d have seen Emile…)
Army builders can delight in the Sabre Pilot, Elite and Brute. I highly recommend getting each figure in the wave. Don’t forget to look for the exclusives too!
Here’s the wave uncarded together to get a sense of scale:
The biggest and smallest of these:
“I sense something, a presence I’ve not felt since…”
“I have you now!”
I hope you enjoyed the pics and write-up. If so, please feel free to post a reply.
-HFFL