Daily Archives: 05/01/2012

Toy Review: McFarlane Halo Anniversary series 2 Guilty Spark/Sentinel

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McFarlane’s Halo Anniversary Series 2 has hit and I’m happy to bring to you my reviews of the figures.

The Sentinel features the following articulation:

•  Ball Joint Head
•  Hinge Shoulders
•  Hinge “Elbows”
•  Hinge “Wrists”
•  Lower “Mandible” hinge joint

Guilty Spark feature only the eyeball turning to reveal a red eye, as it’s sole articulation.

Pricepoint: $11-15 US depending on store

The Pros and Cons:
Pro: These have been long wanted “figures” from many fans. While not really much for articulation, Guilty Spark plays such an important role to the original trilogy that it was almost a must that it be made. The Sentinels were at times allies and foes during the games and make for great forerunner army builders.
Con: Guilty Spark is relatively plain. Even though you can spin the eye to it’s red position, that’s the only thing that turns red, whereas in the game more of it’s blue lighted lines turned red. That is near impossible to do on a toy such as this, so it’s easy to overlook it. Though i do plan on doing my own custom red version. The Sentinel has me a little disappointed. If the arms lined up right, I’d have been extremely happy with it. However, as you can see from the pic below, they were misaligned at the forearm and wrist joints. This made it look like it was damaged, rather than a pristine construct of forerunner design. I do wish McFarlane could do more about Chinese quality control on these. If this had been packaged differently, it may have gotten into consumers hands in better condition.

I bought 4 of these so I could have extra sentinels. Unfortunately only one of the four was good, while the other three all suffered from some misalignment in the upper arms.

As such, my overall impression of this pack is not favorable. They are both figures I very much wanted, but the outcome left something to be desired. Sculpt wise they are great. How the sentinel was constructed, not so much.

The UNSC emblem part is the other wing. Not much to say about that.

From here on the rest of the wave gets better, thankfully. So I’m able to “suffer” the two figures I wasn’t as impressed with.

Now for the pics of this set:

-HFFL

Toy Review: McFarlane Halo Anniversary series 2 – White Multiplayer Spartan

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McFarlane’s Halo Anniversary Series 2 has hit and I’m happy to bring to you my reviews of the figures.

The White Multiplayer Spartan features the following articulation:

•  Ball Joint Head
•  Ball Joint Shoulders
•  2-part swivel Elbows
•  Ball joint wrists
•  Limited Ball joint Torso
•  Ball Joint Hips
•  2-part swivel Knees
•  Ball Joint Feet

Pricepoint: $11-15 US depending on store

The Pros and Cons:
Pro: Is one of if not the first color variation that Joyride made during it’s tenure as the Halo action figure license holder. So this variation is a nod/throwback to that. As a white base color it lends itself well to custom paint jobs.
Con: Really an unnecessary figure. If you weren’t into collecting Halo figures back then, the color variant really means nothing.

My particular feeling towards this figure is “meh.” I bought it solely for the UNSC part to complete the Shield. Unfortunately, once I got it, I had even more buyers remorse. As you can see in the photo below, one of the legs near the waist has a HUGE black mark on it. It really detracts from the figure for me. I know McFarlane can’t really regulate Quality Control when the figs are being manufactured in China. Still, I as a consumer shouldn’t have to explain this either. Mind you I did buy mine from an online site that I use frequently. Had I bought this in store, I’d have looked over the figure to make sure the paint was good. In this case, I’d have passed on this particular fig.

The UNSC emblem part as you can see also has a shoddy paint job. So needless to say, my overall feeling toward this figure is very disappointed. Had it not had the UNSC part, I likely would have passed on it.

One thing I wish McFarlane Toys would focus more on is campaign figures, meaning specific characters. If they are to do multiplayer figs, then make them in the typical team Red and team Blue colors and from there only a rare few other colors, like Master Chief Green, Steel, and white. yes, this was a white figure, but it has smudgy metallic blue markings on it.

Thankfully, this was one of two out of the five figs from this wave that I wasn’t as impressed with. The other one isn’t bad, but it has it’s drawbacks, which you’ll see in another upcoming review. For now the pics:

The figure comes with a Battle Rifle, which is always welcomed. Note the black mark on the leg, visible in the two most left views in the pic below. One other thing I didn’t mention above was that this figure was so horribly posed in the package that it cam out bow legged and I tried to fix that. You can see in the right most view that the lower portion of the one leg is grossly aligned.

Note that the figure comes with a frag grenade and a wing piece of the UNSC emblem. AS you can see by the one I got, the paint was horribly misprinted. Sigh.

Now, all my problems with this figure aside, if you find one with a good paint job, should you get it? Well, that depends on if you want to complete the UNSC emblem or not. Or, if you have a feeling of nostalgia towards the Joyride figures. As I mentioned above, this would have been one figure I’d have passed on. That’s saying something too as I collecting very near everything McFarlane Halo.

-HFFL

McFarlane Halo Anniversary series 2 wave.

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Before I get to each figures review I wanted to quickly post the wave as a whole and the buildable UNSC Emblem that comes with them if you get the whole wave.

The card back is the same for each, so I’ll post it once here. Only change is the UPC from figure to figure.

-HFFL

Toy Review: Mega Bloks Flood Pod Elite Combat Form

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Flood Pod Elite Combat Form: Set number 96929
Tech Specs
Build Time: 2 minutes including sorting
Set Piece count: 26
Price: $11.99 US

The minifigs included are two flood infection forms, one purple elite minor, and the arm and head of an elite flood form.

This is a good set if you want to do a little army building, especially of those little flood infection forms. I am missing one of the little clear pegs to attach it to the clear base, but I’ll get that from Mega through their customer service line.

The value of the set is good, almost great, IMO. The only two things I would have changed to this set were the color choice of the elite to be the correct blue in-game color, and a different weapon for the Elite. Why Mega insists on a plasma pistol for the Elite, I don’t know. At the least it should have a plasma rifle. That’s a small knock though, nothing huge.

Overall Rating: 8.5 out of 10 medals. It would have scored more if it had been game correct in color, as well as the plasma rifle instead of the pistol.

And now onto the pic:

Just one, however, it’s a composite of everything in the set.

It really is a nice set. Though I’m tired of the pods, this one is so very different from the rest that it’s a welcome addition to the collection. The flood infection forms add value to the set, as do the flood extra parts for the Elite.

If you’re a fan of the pods or Flood, this is a must have set.

-HFFL

Toy Review: Mega Bloks Covenant Drop Pod Elite Ultra

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Covenant Drop Pod Elite Ultra: Set number 96928
Tech Specs
Build Time: 2 minutes including sorting
Set Piece count: 24
Price: $9.99-11.99 US

This set has 24 pieces.

The minifig included a Silver Ultra Elite. It’s a fantastic figure and I wish Mega would release it in more sets. I find myself wanting to get a couple more of this set. Plus there are arms, chest and a head of the Ascetic Elite if you choose to switch armor. I personally prefer the Ultra much more.

The set is fairly standard fair for a drop pod set. One figure, a couple of weapons and the pod and bonus armor. While I like the pods, I do think they are to the point of saturation now. I kind of hope Mega is done with the pod sets after these releases.

The value of the set is good ok, though I’d have like another full figure or more weapons not often released, like the plasma rifle.

Overall Rating: 8 out of 10 medals. It would have been higher, but again, I’m getting a bit saturated with the pods and would prefer more minifigs and/or weapons.

And now onto the pics:

Finally the Ultra Elite:

For me the Ultra is the real draw here. Typically these show up in groups of 4 in Firefight, so I’d like to have that many sets. However, given the cost of the set itself and I not wanting more pods, I can’t justify buying multiples.

Still, I highly recommend getting this set if you like pods, or Elites, or both.

-HFFL

Master Chief to die at the end of the Forerunner trilogy?

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I really don’t want to see him die. I’d prefer if he were to personally train a successor. Then that successor would take over where he left off. It could be that MC would be able to communicate to the successor via comlink or AI.

At some point, it the franchise goes past this trilogy, MC is going to have to take a back seat. But why kill him.

Take a look at Batman Beyond for instance. Bruce Wayne is no longer Batman, yet he still is in charge. He trains a young man to become the new Batman and through him we get to continue the adventures of Batman, even though it’s not Bruce Wayne at the forefront.

It’s already been publicly stated that there will be a young soldier who is inspired by MC. That soldier is on the Infinity and eventually becomes a leader. I suspect that this solider will be MC’s successor. (Not replacement, noone can truly replace the Chief)

Gawd, what if Chief is cloned and becomes an AI? Would he then have more of a relationship with Cortana (who I’m assuming will find a way to beat rampancy). The AI Chief could then escort the successor on mission. So we’d still have chief to a point, just not as a playable character, unless in some virtual AI mission.

-HFFL

Wishlist: Halo 4 Spartan Ops missions

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Now that we have it confirmed that Firefight is not coming back, I for one hope some of the Spartan Ops missions emulate Firefight, at least to a point. Instead of just shooting wave after wave of enemies, do somewhat like Mass Effect 3 has and add in mini objectives. In that game you have to defend an area for a period of time, or disable 4 different beacons and the like.

Beyond this, I’d like to see some character driven missions. Though we will be playing a nameless spartans, I’d like to see some interaction with other characters from Halo.
A mission with/for the Arbiter to quell unrest among close colonies of Humans and Covenant.
Various missions dealing with the resurgence of colony militants, one of which being the father of one of the Spartan IIIs from Glasslands.
A mission to save Master Chief wouldn’t that be epic.

Spartan Ops is still so new and not fully realized by we fans that there is so much potential for great gameplay here. It’s one new aspect of Halo 4 I’m looking forward to most.

-HFFL