Covenant Wraith: Set number 97014

Build Time: 25 minutes sorting, 55 minutes build. Total 1 hour, 20 minutes.

Set Piece count: 637
Minifigs, Weapons and Accessories: Gold Standard Elite, Gold Ascetic Elite, Green EOD Spartan with parts for a Scout Spartan; Rocket launcher, Plasma Launcher
Special Features: Opening and Closing Plasma Cannon hatch/Cannon, Turret pivots 360°.
Dimensions: Wraith H 4-5″ (cannon sealed/open and extended) W 8.25″ L 8.75″ / Forerunner structure H 4.75″ W 3.5″ L 2.5″
Price/Value: $45US

The set has 637 pieces. To say this is an upgrade would be to diminish what is a truly fantastic set. The color for one makes this much closer to game accurate. The beautiful curvature of the replacement bloks makes this set look closer to the game model, while still having that familiar blok look. The cannon assembly is what really rocks in this set. The housing area of the cannon has been redone and so much for the better. I was impressed when I first saw this at New York Toy Fair, but I MUCH more impressed having now built it myself. The addition of the gold elites is great. With the gold elites from Seraph set you can build up a nice squad of Goldies. Need to have another elite to make the ultra, buy the drop pod that has the gold elite.

Okay so now for those pics (sorry no pics of the minifigs for now-pic didn’t turn out so well)

Click on images to see a larger version.

The box art. I can’t say enough how well the packaging looks for this line. It just keeps getting better with each iteration.

The contents:

All the pieces sorted out:

The build:

Take note in this next pic the way the curved piece fits together (insert). If you make a mistake here, you can fix it, but don’t be in a rush to pull out that pin, less you break it. Work it out gently. (TWSS)

Just look at that cannon and housing assembly. AWESOME!!!

The “wings”:

The finished model sans stickers:

A nice amount of leftover pieces:

Hey look a mini wraith from those pieces, sort of…:

The exquisite Forerunner structure. BTW, this one can be coupled with the Battlescape III set to make a larger structure.

Summary: While I liked the original MEGA Bloks Wraith set, this one is far and above better. New curved bloks, better in-game color, gold elites, green EOD and a mini set in the Forerunner structure. The price is actually VERY well priced. For a set of 637 pieces you might expect to pay close to $60. Instead it’s $15 less than that. A VERY good buy. That makes up for what I thought was a little bit of overpricing on two of the other new sets. So if you buy all 4 sets; wraith, seraph, space banshee, warthog; you definitely get your monies worth of bloks and Halo goodness.

Job well done MEGA!

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 medals. Great build, awesome color…I could repeat myself even more here. Just go and get one, or three.

-HFFL

Warthog Resistance: Set number 97011

Build Time: 7 minutes sorting, 23 minutes build. Total 30 minutes.

Set Piece count: 285
Minifigs, Weapons and Accessories: Two NEW Green Mark VII Spartans!, Red Elite (new Halo 4 mold); Sticky pistol (NEW weapon), Assault Rifle, Carbine, Spartan Laser; weapons pod (NEW!)
Special Features: 4-wheel independent suspension, rotating and pivoting machine gin turret
Dimensions: Warthog H 4″ W 3″ L 7.25″ / Forerunner Structure H 4.5″ W 5.5″ L 5.5″
Price/Value: $33US

The set has 285 pieces. Roughly 75% are for the Warthog, with the rest for the Forerunner set piece. This new Warthog for Halo 4 is just plain amazing. For those who have other incarnations of Mega Bloks Warthogs, you’ll find the build similar in most respect, but there are some significant differences. The addition of the guardrails and gas cans just elevates the new warthog design to a more realistic level that we’ve not seen before. The Spartans in the set are AWESOME! Now we can say we have a Master Chief minifig! The Elite is very cool. I love this new more devilish look to the Elites. And we now get the first ever weapons drop pod!

Okay, okay, I know you didn’t read the above and went straight for the pics!

Click on images to see a larger version.

The box art:

Box Contents:

Sorting pieces (always good to do, IMO):

The build begins:

The finished warthog sans stickers (I don’t like to put stickers on the models. I always worry about them peeling off…)

Minifigs and weapons:

The weapons drop pod:

Leftover pieces:

What I made with those:

The sweet Forerunner structure:

Summary: A great set, with fast build time. The price is a little much for the set. With the piece count coming in at 285, this set should have been priced closer to $30. However, it’s only $3 more than that, so it’s close. There are some new parts here that I’m sure MEGA has to recoup the cost of. Those guardrail parts in particular as they can’t really be used on anything else but the warthog. (I expect we’ll see a Gauss and Rocket version of this later). The addition of the Forerunner structure is cool. It’s like you’re getting two sets in one. I hope we get more of those baseplates in upcoming sets. They really add some unseen punch to sets.

Overall Rating: 4.75 out of 5 medals. Oh so close, but for the couple of dollars I think it’s over priced. Still, is it worth getting? You bet your a…

-HFFL

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.