McFarlane Toys Halo 4 Series 3 Spartan Thorne

The newest wave of the McFarlane Halo figures have dropped at my local Forbidden Planet and my first pick up from this newest set is Thorne.

The back of the packaging shows the other figures that are available in this latest wave.

It looks like I missed out on getting Jul 'Mdama sadly. I don't have any Covenant figures in this scale and it'd be nice to give my Spartans an enemy to fight.

Also available in this wave are Commander Palmer and a red Spartan Soldier. Sadly, Palmer is supposed to be a female character but having had one in my hand in store, it's a re-use of a male Spartan body in Palmer colours. A real shame as I'd have loved to have had her... I might still pick her up of course. The Spartan Soldier that comes in red seems to be pretty widely available here in the UK, but I believe it's a Walgreens exclusive in the US.

Right, let's get on with looking at Thorne himself.

Firstly the only accessory he comes with is an assault rifle. This is sculpted really nicely and painted in black with highlights in a metallic gun metal grey and a flat grey making the rifle look really good - especially when posed with Thorne.

Thorne himself is a really nice royal blue with silver highlights. There is also a very nice silver dry brushing over the figure giving his armour a battle worn and weathered look which I just love. The gold that has been used for the visor isn't very metallic but I think it works well for the figure - for me, it gives it a more realistic look. The paint on his hands is incredibly clean. His fingers have blue padded areas and there's a pad on the back of the hands which also has the silver dry brushing.

And as is standard with McFarlane Spartans - he has a peg hole in each leg that you can attach his rifle to.

The articulation is something I really like in these figures, mostly because they're ratchet joints and they feel good and secure. The head is on a ball and hinge joint meaning it can look up a little, down, left, right, and there's a nice neck pivot. the shoulders, elbows and wrists are all on a ball and hinge which gives for a good range of motion, but the elbows and shoulders are hindered by the armour. There's an ab crunch which let's you balance Thorne easier, but it doesn't give you a great range of motion.

The hips are a downer, kicking back and forth is about the best that Thorne can do. There's a ball and hinge at the knees and ankles, there's toe articulation and the toes also pivot.

I absolutely recommend this guy if you're a fan of Halo. I like the poses you can get him into, the colour of his armour and the paint apps, and he looks great with other Spartans.

There's been some anger against the price rise for the McFarlane figures, especially as these Halo figures come in a 5" scale, but I still think these figures give you good bang for your buck. And as these things never get re-released the secondary market prices are crazy, so yeah, grab them while you can!

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Karai Serpent

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this figure at the toy store as I was expecting to see Mikey Turflytle first (still waiting to find that figure!). So far this is the only Karai figure Playmates has given us in this new TMNT toy line despite her having been in the show from the beginning... Plenty has already been said about the lack of female action figures, better than how I could say it, but really Playmates?! We only get a Karai figure AFTER she's been mutated?! Not cool man.

Anyway, let's take a look at the figure out of it's packaging.

First thing you'll want to do is pop the tail on this figure to complete it. It's a very minor and simple piece of assembly.

Out of packaging Karai does not have her serpent head, she has her human head (see Playmates? You can sculpt it...)

Karai's human head is nicely done and includes her signature red eye makeup which is nice, she's got a good, but plain, hair sculpt and her eyes and lips are neatly painted. The overall sculpt is solid.

You also get her serpent head which places over her human head. The mouth is done in a sold red colour, and the eyes are pretty neatly done in a nice emerald green.

The head is on a ball joint so can be turned right around and tilted left, right, up (just a little) and down. And the serpent head covers it quite nicely.

As for the rest of the articulation? I'll make this quick: the arms move forward and back and there's a waist swivel.

Yeah.

I mean, you can move the tail, but the bottom of it is flat and hollow so looks unsightly and the figure can't really balance without it flat on the shelf.

As for the paint apps? That'll be just as quick. As I mentioned, the heads have some paint apps, the body though? Grey and purple. Nice sculpting of the scales, in her hands, and the torso, but with so little paint it's mostly lost and plain looking.

Surprisingly I don't hate this figure. I suppose it's fine for my purpse of display, and it's sturdy enough for play certainly, with so few many moving parts. But I struggled to get any real dynamic poses from here, and the paint? Man, a couple of things would have helped out greatly! A wash over the scales to bring out those nice details and a little paint to the snake hands and this thing would have at least looked a lot better.

But as we know, Playmates keep the cost of these figures down by minimising paint apps and articulation on the everyone but the 4 brothers.

Also, Playmates? A female Karai really would be great. Please.

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Halo Megabloks UNSC Fireteam Venom

I'd been thinking about picking up a Fireteam set from Megabloks for a while but I'd never seen one in a store so I'd just never got round to it. Then yesterday I found Crimson, Venom and Eagle. I could only afford one, so went for Venom, next time I'd like to grab Eagle, but I doubt I'll ever pick up Crimson - not too sure on the dark red colour.

As you can see from the back of the packaging this set comes with 5 Spartans, a small terrain piece, and a small armoury of weapons.

Let's look at the terrain first.

I quite like this for what it is. I especially like the purple alien plant life and the sand bag pieces piled up as a piece of cover.

You also get a weapons pod with this set:

This is quite a plain, kind of dark olive green piece that is smooth and rounded as though it was shot from above as a reinforcement pod. It also opens up and can store a gun, the grenades etc

The weapons in this pack are many and in total (including grenades) you get 13 weapons! Let's look at these:

The weapons included in this set are:

5 x Frag Grenades
Assault Rifle
M6C Socom Pistol
Tactical Shotgun
LMG
SMG
Railgun
Battle Rifle
Rocket Launcher

Obviously these Spartans are out to inflict some serious damage!

Talking of which...

From left to right we've got the Aviator, Scout, Gungnir, Oceanic, and Enforcer. These minifigs are all the new style of Megabloks Spartans that include the interchangeable armour and the improved articulation. I love the armour on these guys too, that poisonous (or even... Venomous!!) green is a killer look on a Fireteam like this.

The set also gives you a clear flight stand so you can have a Spartan jumping through the air into battle in this set.

I liked this set a lot more than I was expecting. I really like the terrain piece even though it's small, because once you get the Spartans set up on it, it looks great.

If you see this set in store for the recommended retail price I recommend it. It bolsters your ranks of Spartan and UNSC forces and gives you 5 of the new super poseable minifigures. I've seen this go for silly money on eBay and even Amazon here in the UK, and it's not worth double the price.

Go Figure!

Halo Megabloks Metallic Series ODST Drop Pod and Minifigure

I had no idea that Megabloks were releasing more of the drop pods, but this time with the new super poseable minifigures. I have the metallic blue ODST from the last series so I went for the gold instead. Also available are 2 metallic Elites - one in purple and one in blue - I'm hoping I'll be able to grab those soon.

On opening up the dirty gold drop pod, which itself is nicely detailed, you get the display stand, backpack, SMG weapon and , of course, the figure itself.

My only issue with these toys are the price. Considering it's just one minifig that you get I feel as though you're really just paying for the pod itself.

Anyway, let's have a look at this guy:

I like the colour of him even though he's not exactly gold, he's more of a burnt copper, it is a cool look though. And I really do love these new super poseable figures.

From the back he looks good too, I especially like the backpack.

Overall, I'm happy to have this guy added to my metallic ODST team (I've called my team "Raptor Squad" on account of the teeth painted on their helmets) and depending on how I feel, I might just go ahead and pick up the blue ODST too. I'll be sure to post those Elites if I manage to get my paws on them!

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The Simpsons Lego Series 2 Blind Bag Minifigures

I am struggling to walk by these in stores now. I must get a grip on myself!! I picked up another 3 blind bags from series 2 of The Simpsons Lego minifig blind bags, and I'll be honest, I cheated with one. I felt it first to get an idea of who it was. It was very obvious as to who it was I could feel so I went ahead an bought that one as I didn't have her yet. I'm sure you can all guess who it was that I pulled out first.

Marge looks great and goes very nicely with Homer. Glad to have her in a "night out" outfit, now I need the standard Marge from series 1! Marge is dolled up with lipstick, earrings, a purse and flowers.

Next up I got

a Hans Moleman double!!

Never mind, onto number 3!

Professor Frink, Professor Frink, he makes you laugh he makes you think!

Very happy with the good professor, he's a favourite of mine for sure. I especially love his little clear plactic piece of equipment filled with a mysterious green substance!

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The Simpsons Lego Series 1 Blind Bag Minifigures

So just a super quick post as I just grabbed one bag the other day and as I only have two of the series 1 minifigs at the moment I figured my chances would be ok. And thankfully, they were!

I got me a Milhouse van Houten! Excellent. He even comes with a copy of Biclops comic - us glasses wearers have got to stick together! I seem to be really be filling out Springfield Elementary what with all the kids I've got from these blind bags so far!

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Lego Series 13 Blind Bag Minifigures

Over the past couple of days I've picked up 5 blind bags of Series 13 Lego minifigs. I gave the initial few I got a good few months ago to my nephew as he's a big Lego fan, so I lost the joiner, space trooper and snake charmer. So I was looking to replenish this wave for me.

So first up was:

The awesome space trooper with different face prints on each side of his head. Really glad to have him back. He has an air of Halo about him which I dig.

Secondly I pulled

Aw come on!!

OK. Third...

Another hot dog guy double.. Annoying!

Fourth must be better...

Not cool. That's another double for me - the disco diva.

So far, 1 from 4. That's an incredibly poor ratio. Let's hope for something a little better for my fifth and final bag.

Fantastic! The archaeologist! 2 things: I always wanted to be an archaeologist when I was a kid, and secondly, it's excellent to see women represented by Lego in such cool jobs!

I only need a few more to complete this wave, but I might have to go to eBay if I really want them, that way there's no chance of doubles!!

Go Figure!