Halo MegaBloks Series 7 Blind Bag Minifigures

Out shopping today, I found a box of series 7 Halo Megabloks minifigs. I grabbed 5 bags.

In this wave, the character sheet tells us that we can get:

UNSC Spartan Mark VI (common)
Covenant Grunt (common)
Flood Combat Form (common)
Covenant Grunt (common)
Covenant Grunt Spec Ops (common)
UNSC Marine - 2 different styles, both common
Covenant Elite Zealot (common)
Covenant Elite Commando (common)
UNSC ODST (common)
UNSC Spartan CQB (rare)
UNSC Mark VI (rare)
UNSC Spartan Scout (rare)
Covenant Brute Jump Pack (rare)
UNSC Spartan EOD (rare)
UNSC Spartan Security (ultra rare)

So let's go ahead and start with the bad, which is this guy

I was delighted to pull the ultra rare UNSC Spartan Security figure. Except it came minus an arm. And when I tried to put the one arm on that I did get the joint was brittle and snapped (sadly not the first time this has happened with a Halo Megabloks figure for me).

So I was down to 4 figures instead of 5. Damn.

But on we go, and next up, I pulled 2 common figures

The covenant grunt and UNSC Marine. Both solid little figures and good for army building.

And the next 2 figures I pulled were both rare, so that was a nice surprise

The Covenant Brute Jump Pack in that nice red colour which I think is very cool, and the UNSC Spartan CQB in the dark and light grey - both great looking figures.

Disappointed in the Spartan Security fig, but happy with the other 4!

Go Figure!

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!

Go Figure!

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!

Go Figure!

Custom McFarlane Halo Anniversary Spartan Mk VI

So as I said earlier, I decided to give my spare white Mk VI Spartan a new lick of paint. This is what I started with

Standard white and blue Spartan Mk VI armour. Pretty cool in and of itself but as I had one, I wanted to make a different look.

I started my custom by changing him from white to yellow

I then went ahead and painted the metallic blue sections white so that I could then in turn paint them red

I then added some brown paint to the boots so it looked as though he'd been going through terrain. I did this by given the figure a dry brush of brown paint so that it looked like it had been scuffed and dried in. I also put some paint on a tooth brush so that I could give it a spatter effect up over his legs - front and back.

Finally I gave him a wash using Citadel Shade from Games Workshop to give him a dirty worn and weathered look

Overall I'm really happy with how he turned out and I've now got a new Spartan!

Here's a side by side with my vanilla Mk VI

And a couple more close up shots

Hope you liked checking out my custom! I had a lot of fun doing it, even though it was just a simple paint job!