Awesome custom UNSC Infinity made of Mega Bloks

Goodwill Hunter (whom I’ve interview on the blog previously) has created yet another fantastic custom Mega Bloks set. This time it’s the UNSC Infinity. And it’s a BEAUT!

In his own words here is GWH’s description of the custom build along with his pics.

I used the last 3 weeks and bloks from a variety of sets, including the Forward Unto Dawn, to put together a custom build of the UNSC Infinity from Halo 4. It was a challenging but satisfying build, and a lot of fun to work on. It comes in at just under 3 feet including the antennae. I like how it turned out, but would enjoy hearing what others think.

unscinfinity01

unscinfinity02In terms of size, while the actual body of the Infinity build is longer than the FUD, the extra-long gun/antenna at the front of the FUD gives it the edge in overall length. unscinfinity03

unscinfinity04I used the tall wall pieces from the High Ground set to build the bottom center of the ship, which is why it is much more bare of detail compared to the rest of the ship. I used decals to make up for that, including the 4 white/blue rectangles on each side that are supposed to represent the hangar bays. unscinfinity06

unscinfinity07

unscinfinity08unscinfinity09The “UNSC INFINITY” signage was just printed on a laser printer and attached with double-sided tape. I was surprised at how well it blends with the plastic. unscinfinity10unscinfinity13

Regarding proportion, the two angled surfaces at the bottom front of the ship are a bit taller than I would have liked, but couldn’t find a way around that with the pieces I used for those parts….had to make a number of compromises in this build given the bloks I had available. spartanloungeAnd finally, the interior…just “raise the roof” and the “Spartan Lounge” is open all night!

I just hope that Cyan Spartan is paying attention as he reaches for his beer – one false move on Cortana and I’m sure the Chief will be willing to finish the fight!

/End GWH’s text.

I have to say this custom is beyond coolness. How and Why MEGA hasn’t hired him on, I don’t know. (Unless he really is a MEGA employee in disguise… Let the conspiracy begin, LOL.

Seriously, this is the best (and only) custom UNSC Infinity I’ve seen.  While slightly out of proportion, as he stated, for the bloks he had, it turned out GREAT! The only thing I’d like to see changed are the grates on the top front of the ship. If those would become solid tiles instead, that would just shoot it even further over the top. But that’s minor really. As a custom goes, you’d be hard pressed to beat his.

Great job!

-Sal

Toyfair video of Halo Mega Bloks toys!

I didn’t get the chance to go this year, so I was bumming. However, I found the link to his vid via a collector site and just had to post it.

Points to note during the video are:
• Light up sets with sound!
• The Pelican comes with Majestic squad (well, that’s what Annamarie the rep said. (Wow that’s awesome news)
• A first ever light up character, which I have to think is the Promethean Knight showing it’s skull face (can be seen at 4:30 in the vid).
• Commande Palmer fig. (Wow, it’s cool that MB is finally making named Spartans!)
• A neat build a ship theme that spans three sets. Individually the sets are a small set piece, together they build the Booster Frame from the Halo Legends cartoon.
• One of those minifigs is a Halo 4 Medic!! (As a side note, we can have fun with Conan O’Brien and Andy Richter here as they did voice-over in Halo 4 with these being the characters they were made to be)
• Four versions of the Cyclops Mech-Jungle, Desert, Arctic, Stealth
• Halo 4 grunts, Brute Stalker (YES), variant color Elites from Halo 4
• Hornet set with Vampire Hornet lights up and makes sounds. (I do wish the Hornet was made available by itself.) The Vampire again? Yikes, that ship is barely known and not ever in the FPS games. This is the only ship I questions being made again. (This would have been a better opportunity for the Anti-Air Wraith to have been made instead.)
• The new “Cobra” set lights up and “transforms” from vehicle to turret positions.
• Engineer Spartan (seen at 6:25)
• Several Promethean fig/armor sets (army building sets!)

All in all some great set coming out. And I do very much like that they are smaller sets. Makes it that much easier to collect for both kids and fans alike.

-Sal

Toy Review: Mega Bloks Covenant Spectre AMbush Set #97110

Covenant Spectre Ambush: Set number 97110

Technical Specifications:
Build Time: 10 minutes sorting, 30 build. Total 40 minutes.

Set Piece count: 183
Minifigs: Ascetic Elite (White); Honor Guard Elite (White); Marine full goggles/mask (Mix Green/Tan)
Weapons: Focus Rifle, Plasma Rifle, Pistol, Missile Pod
Accessories:
 Sandbag
Special Features: Opening/Closing hatch, multiple double joints, swivel turret, detachable Missile Pod (can attach to figure’s hands with “L” hook pins.
Price/Value: $23 US

The price is okay for the piece count. I go by the average 10 cents per piece, so by that rule the set should have been around $18.50. However, it needs to be noted that there are a few NEW pieces/molds here. Names the Spectre’s hatch and the missile pod. I hope it’s not the last we see of the pod and my gut says it won’t be. Anyway, Mega needs to account for those new molds. So a slight price increase isn’t bad. Especially when we get the uber cool Honor Guard. So it doesn’t come in white in the game. That really doesn’t matter. It’s a GREAT fig. Besides, I’m going to say this one is the head of the Honor Guards. The marine while utilizing same molds has a unique paint appplication. And I LOVE it! I hope to see more marines like this in the future.

Okay, enough of me talking, onto the pics!

Box Front

Box Front

Box Back

Box Back

Box detail showing characters.

Box detail showing characters.

Box contents

Box contents

Contents of the big bag in upper left of previous pic.

Contents of the big bag in upper left of previous pic.

Pieces all sorted out.

Pieces all sorted out.

Marine's last stand.

Marine’s last stand.

Missile pod attached to post

Missile pod attached to post

First few build steps of the Spectre

First few build steps of the Spectre

Next few build steps of the Spectre

Next few build steps of the Spectre

In the above pic we see some nice curved pieces. I especially like the pre-printed pieces. I hate applying stickers and always worry they will fall off. So, I don’t normally apply them. Having pre-printed pieces saves me that worry. Thanks Mega!

Near the end of the build steps of the Spectre

Near the end of the build steps of the Spectre

Though this is a small vehicle (smaller than I thought it would be), it has a nice aesthetic. I really like the wine color of the bloks. Just like it’s Revenant cousin.

Final build steps of the Spectre

Final build steps of the Spectre

Normally building blok sets ignore the underside of vehicles. Not this set. I’m VERY happy Mega paid attention here and did the bottom justice. Those bottom rounded pads look great and slide along a smooth surface nicely. (well not that I play with mine, I heard this…um yeah, that’s what I’m going to go with here…)

MB Spectre Marine holding missile pod
Missile pod detached from mount. It can be attached to the Marine via “L” hook pins.

Left over pieces and what I made from them.

Left over pieces and what I made from them.

 

Summary: This set is fun little set. It’s a quick build, so you can get your Covies attacking the UNSC quickly! (Or display it like I do-again I don’t play with my sets….) The missile pod and accompanying Marine are fantastic extras to this set and help to justify the cost. At $23 it’s a good value. Again with some new molded parts, I don’t mind the cost at all. This is the one vehicle from Halo 2 that I really wanted, so I’m VERY happy Mega made it. The Honor Guard is just and awesome figure and it’s nice to have another Ascetic Elite.

Overall Rating: 9.5 out of 10 medals. Other than I think it should have been a little bigger, this set nails the blok version of the Spectre very nicely. This vehicle is fairly obscure and again I’m happily surprised it was made. While not an iconic vehicle, it has a lot of play value to it. I definitely suggest getting it, especially if you like vehicles from Halo and wants some Covenant variance.

-Sal

Toy Review: Mega Bloks UNSC Mantis Set #97115

MB grey logo

 

I have been waiting a long time to get this since I first heard it was in production around late September/Early October. Then when I saw it in person at New York Comicon last year I just KNEW I wanted this set.

Okay, so there were some snags in this set, which I’ll go over, but stick through til the end. I promise the set won’t disappoint.

UNSC Mantis: Set number 97115

Technical Specifications:
Build Time: 20 minutes sorting, 1 hour build. Total 1 hour 20 minutes.

Set Piece count: 443
Minifigs: Spartan Warrior (Steel)
Weapons: SAW
Accessories:
 N/A
Special Features: Opening/Closing top hatch, multiple double joints
Price/Value: $35 US

The price is pretty good for the piece count. I was missing several parts when I checked the pieces against the parts list. Still, I proceeded to put the set together, knowing I’d be calling Mega Brands on Monday to have the missing parts set to me.

Normally that alone would really put me off to a set. However, since I had seen this in person, I knew the set was going to be a fun build regardless of the missing parts.

Without further ado, here is the pictorial review with commentary (click the pics to make bigger).

Box Front

Box Front

 

Box Back

Box Back

Box Contents

Box Contents

Contents of big bag from previous pic upper left

Contents of big bag from previous pic upper left

The pieces are sorted

The pieces are sorted

Upper body being put together

Upper body being put together

Top hatch assembly

Top hatch assembly

MB UNSC Mantis Upper body-missing part

The upper body is complete except for a missing part. I’ll make note of that in a later pic.

Machine Gun arm assembly

Machine Gun arm assembly

Rocket Launcher arm assembly

Rocket Launcher arm assembly

This arm is missing two parts. Again, I’ll make note of the in the next pic.

MB UNSC Mantis Completed upper body missing parts 3

The circled areas denote where there is a missing part.
• Upper-missing 2X1 reverse slope on the rocket launcher arm
• Middle-missing 2X1 modified double round piece
• Lower-missing “T” piece. This one was a bit critical as not having it makes the arm very unstable. It comes off way to easy without this piece.

MB UNSC Mantis leg steps

Leg Assembly

Leg final assembly

Leg final assembly

The legs were the same build (just mirrored), so I’m only showing one leg here.

Lower body assembly-missing 3 parts.

Lower body assembly-missing 3 parts.

I made a slight error building this section. Top row second pic shows 2 elbow plates in the wrong postion. I fixed that in the lower first pic.

The parts missing are:
• Upper left-missing pin
• bottom row second pic-Missing small 1×1 slope
• bottom row second pic-Missing small 2×2 “wing” This is hard to see due to other piece built on top of where it should be.

Large section assembly

Large section assembly

Final Assembly

Final Assembly

Sorry for the blurry shot here. Some better ones are to follow.

So at this point, I was missing 6 parts. Nothing too major, but the “T” and pin parts are fairly important to the stability of the Mech.

Now on to the Docking Station.

Docking Station build steps

Docking Station build steps

Docking Station Final Assembly

Docking Station Final Assembly

Final set shot.

Final set shot.

Now this looks good, however, I’m just not satisfied with the docking station. There is nothing like this in-game. So I took the dock apart and remade it with the left over parts. Speaking of…

MB UNSC Mantis leftover pieces

Left over pieces

Missing parts list

Missing parts list

Damaged bag

Damaged bag

Here I found the culprit of the missing pieces. Looks like this bag was crimped at the wrong place as there seems to be a burn mark (top circle). The bottom circle denotes a tear in the bag before the parts were removed. Makes sense as I had some loose parts in the box. I thought they might have just been extra. Turns out they weren’t.

Redux Docking Station

Redux Docking Station

MB UNSC Mantis Redux docking station final

And here is the set finalized with the docking stations redone and the computer station added to, plus the minifig. I like this set up better.

Summary: This set is fantastic. Having to deal with missing parts really put a damper on things. But I got through it and hope to get those missing parts soon after the order for them is made. The Mantis itself is superb. I love the details and the joint system for this set is by far better than any previous jointed sett to date. The loading dock was really not needed, though it’s nice to have for set dressing. Getting rid of that though, the price could have been knocked down $5-7 and I’d have been perfectly fine with that. Since we did get the loading dock, I wanted to make it something closer to what is in game (aboard the UNSC Infinity). The minifig is awesome as they usually are.

Overall Rating: 9.5 out of 10 medals. It would have hit 10 of 10 if not for the missing parts and the docking station not being necessary. Still, it’s a FANTASTIC set and one I HIGHLY recommend! In fact I’m planning on getting multiples when I can get them on sale.

There will be 4 Halo toy reviews tomorrow/Monday!

My dear wife was kind enough to pick up the Mega Bloks Mantis and Spectre for me as well as two sets of Halo minimates.

I’m going to work hard to get the reviews all done tomorrow. If not they’ll be complete by Monday. Woot, it’s going to be a fun Halo day for me tomorrow!

Besides those reviews, I’m finishing up Spartan Ops ep 9 comic book and working on a couple of other articles.

-Sal

Halo Toy Review: Mega Bloks Cauldron Clash

MB grey logo

Alright, here we go!

I’m SO happy to have been able to get this set. It’s FANTASTIC!

The minifigs alone are practically worth it. A Promethean Knight, Watcher, 2 crawlers, UNSC Marine, and a Spartan Soldier. WOOT, it’s a ready made Firefight!

Cauldron Clash: Set number 97118

Technical Specifications:
Build Time: 20 minutes sorting, 1 hour 15 minutes build. Total 1 hour 35 minutes.

Set Piece count: 518
Minifigs: Promethean Knight; Watcher; 2 Crawlers (standard); Green Spartan Warrior; Marine w/white helmet/goggles
Weapons: Railgun, DMR; detachable Scattershot and Forerunner sword from Knight 
Accessories:
 N/A
Special Features: 3 ramps can slightly swing up and down, though only meant to be in the down position.
Price/Value: $45 US

The price is good for the piece count, though there are a lot of smaller parts, especially clear orange and red. No complaints from me though, I LOVE transparent toys and those certainly fall within the realm of it, for me.

Normally I would include pics you can click on to make bigger. However, since I upgraded my WordPress, there is a kink that won’t allow me to upload new pics. While that’s being addressed, I’m still going to link to the images, however, they will be on my Flickr account temporarily, until the above issue is resolved.

Stick through the entire build in photos as there is a special custom of this set at the end.
Now on to the pics!

Box Front

Great art as always. Only issue is it’s a mirror image of how the set is actually built.

Box Contents

Contents of big bag from upper left in previous pic.

The pieces sorted out.

The Promethean Knight unassembled

Watcher unassembled

The base of the set in a few steps.

The center bridge being added.

Bridge trap assembly

Center Ramps added.

Side Ramp added.

Bridge “block” added.

This isn’t in game. It’s a little something extra added by Mega Bloks.

The tower.

I found this part of the build to be fun. Though there is some repetition at the top black bloks, it’s a very nice design. I really like that it is tall. That’s something Forerunner design is known for.

The completed main set sans figures.

Green Spartan Warrior w/Railgun

It’s neat how the set includes the clear parts to make it seem like the Spartan is using a jet pack. Too bad it doesn’t actually come with a jet pack. Maybe that will be in a future set. Still, it looks cool.

The two crawlers, shown in different poses.

These crawlers are awesome! While only having 5 points of articulation (one at each hip and one at the head), it’s plenty. The legs are just slightly soft so as to allow it enough give in the knees that they won’t break easily. (Of course if you try to force them into certain positions, they will break, so don’t force them…)

UNSC Marine

I’m impressed with the amount of paint apps on this figure. It looks like the in-game character at this scale. Well done Mega!

Promethean Knight and Watcher

The Knight is the real GEM of this set. Mind you there are a lot of other good points to the set, but this, IMO, is the BEST of them. Not only dos it have awesome articulation (shoulders, elbows on big arms, the extra set of arms, hips, knee, and head), but it also has room for the Watcher in the back AND the Knight’s back opens up just like in the game. WOW! Mega knocked this figure OUT OF THE PARK! The Watcher is cool in it’s own right as it’s top and bottom wings can also pivot. That’s something I didn’t expect.

The completed set w/minifigs.

Now that is a very cool set!

The leftover pieces after the build.

But wait!!!

I had an idea for this set from the first time I saw it. I just knew I could find a way to add it to one of the standard battlescape bases and make it stand out even more. So, I set out to do just that, and I’d say I succeeded. The following is the process of customizing the above set to fit onto the battlescape with LIMITED customization. In fact MOST of the set remains intact as Mega had intended, just a little bit of switching parts around.

As with any custom I make, I do my best to make the custom from ONLY the parts in that set so there is no need to buy other sets to make the custom. Other than the actual battlescape base itself, ALL of the rest of the pieces are from the Cauldron Clash set. SO without further ado, here is the custom:

Set in basic disassembly

As you can see at this point, the set is still rather intact. I’ve removed the base ground plates and the transparent orange and red pieces form the baseplates.

The NEW underside of the main platform.

Views of the platform on the battlescape.

This was my first go at the repositioning of the legs of the platform. It works okay, but isn’t quite stable enough on the baseplate, so I fix that later.

The new longer main center ramp.

For this section, I simply moved the original center ramp further down and connected the lower ramp to the main bridge first. The 2X6 dark grey plate that connects those two ramps was taken from the dark grey pieces that were underneath the ramp originally.

The parts leftover…

These were the additional parts leftover after the custom.

The set now on the Battlescape.

As you can see the side ramp is completely intact. As is the tower. Even the lower platform is intact as is from the directions. I just turned it 180 horizontally to fit on the battlescape.

Revised underside of main platform.

As I mentioned, the first go at the platform is okay, but I wanted more stability. So I added 2 2×6 plates and 2 2×2 plates and took off 1 each of the 2×2 rounded bloks from the two legs pictured. This gave the platform MUCH more stability. Again, those parts are from the set itself so no additional sets needed for this modification.

The final pieces left over.

On the left were the pieces I already had left from the original build. On the right are the additional pieces after the custom build. I’ll likely find a way to incorporate the transparent pieces for an extra lava-like appearance.

The FINAL Custom!

Alternative view.

Finally, I took the battlescape apart (only takes a few small screws). From there I painted ONLY the green part to look like a lava flow going under the bridge and ramp.

I think this looks pretty darn good if I don’t say so myself…er, wait, I just did, LOL.

Summary: This is a great set. The minifigs are fantastic in sculpt and articulation. Mega did an amazing job of scaling the characters down to minifig scale and still get the details in them. The structure itself is cool and definitely one that I plan on getting extras of to make a much larger Forerunner lava base. The sorting and build time is fast and can be done in one sitting. At $45, it’s a decent price. Though when built may seem just slightly lacking. Fret not as you DO have a lot of extra pieces left over and can add to the lava (as you can see from my left over pieces).

Overall Rating: 9.5 out of 10 medals. Maybe a few dollars less or another Knight and this set would have got the perfect 10 from me. Still, it’s definitely worth getting and I HIGHLY recommend it!

To view larger pics from this review, please check out my flickr account.

UPDATE I’ve added on the left over pieces to make a new ramp, terminal and lava flow. See below!

Add-on ramp. It includes a hinge.

Add-on terminal. You would access this from the “ground level.”

The lava flow now has the orange and red translucent bloks over it to add more color.

The full customs with the three new add-ons using up all of the left-over pieces.

alt final add-on view

-Sal

 

Custom UNSC Broadsword made of Mega Bloks!

My friend “Goodwill Hunter” (whom I’ve previously interviewed on the blog), has posted a brilliant custom UNSC Broadsword over on SpartanBloks. I highly recommend checking out the thread for more pic of this great custom.

Now hopefully Mega Bloks will take notice and make the Broadsword a reality as a building set. (Hmm, maybe news at this year’s New York Toy Fair???)

-Sal

Halo Mega Bloks series 6 minifigs!

I love collecting these little minfigs. This particular wave brings more translucent figures to market. In particular is a lime green translucent elite. I can’t be certain, but I think someone at Mega Bloks made that with me in mind as I LOVE lime green AND translucent figures.

So without further ado, here are the figures from this wave.

The front of the minifig packet:

 

Here’s the insert that shows all the figs, minus the “secret” translucent figs:

What I like about this wave of figures is that there is something in it for every kid/collector. You’ve got army builders in the Marine, Jackals, Grunts and even that very cool shade of Blue elite. You’ve also got several Spartans, of which the always cool Grenadier version and now the Mark V [b] version, only previously available in the Countdown set (which cost $100). Like wise there are those awesome translucent figures if you like the hunt for rare minifigs.

Kudos to Mega Bloks for yet another fun wave to collect. Hopefully I can find some more Jackals. I need a few squads of them…

-Sal

A look a Halo Mega Bloks “Cauldron Clash”

As show in the above pic, the set contains 518 pieces. This likely will mean it will retail at most place for between $45-55US. The set itself is based off the Spartan Ops mission “Core” (Episode 1-Chapter 5). I first saw this at New York Comicon back in October. It’s a mid-large set space wise and comes with 5 1/2 minifigs. I saw 5 1/2 due to the watcher. Though, it itself might qualify as a full minifig depending on articulation. I for one hope at least the ring wings rotate in some fashion. The Watcher comes with a clear display stand to make it appear as if it’s flying.

Here’s a look at the set outside of the box from a flipped angle.

The other figures are of note. We get TWO Crawlers. These are the plain kind, though Mega will undoubtedly make the sniper and/or Alpha Crawler. Personally I hope at least for the Alpha Crawler as I want to see it with those cool hard light spikes on it’s back.

We also get a new style Marine of the Halo 4 variety. I hope to build up an army of these. The spartan included is the “Soldier” version in green. I dig it. It looks great in minifig size and it includes a clear stand to pose as if using a jetpack.

The minifig though that is the BIG draw of this whole set is the Promethean Knight. It’s HUGE! Bigger than a Mega Bloks Hunter AND it fits the Watcher in it’s back.

The playset part of the set is neat. Lots of Forerunner structure to play/display around. As well, the set contains a few good tan baseplates as well as plenty of lava like plates.

For the money, the set looks good. I’m going to wait for sales to get mutliples of this. This is one set that I can see buying several of. The actual base area of the “Core” level is quite large.

One thing I really appreciate about this set is the Mega Bloks gave us a version of each Promethean in the set. A Knight, Crawlers, and a Watcher! Now to look for Commander/Battlewagon Knights in future sets.

So do you plan on buying this set? Multiples of it?

-Sal