Tag Archives: halo

Apr 12 2024

Halo: Warthog and Master Chief by Jazwares

Halo and I have had our ups and downs together. I adored the first game and still think it’s one of the best games to ever launch with a console. I’ve played it through at least a dozen times, and I’m long overdue for a revisit. Halo 2 disappointed me, because I did not like the bait-and-switch that forced you to play half the game as a filthy Covenant. Halo 3 must have been pretty forgettable, because I have no memory of it. And I kind of liked Halo 4, which I think is at odds with most people. I have yet to play any of the other games, but I’m pretty sure I own all of them. With that preamble aside, I have a lot of nostalgia for the property and I like to pick up the toys now and then. The last one I checked out here was a surprisingly good and cheap 12-inch figure by Jazwares, and today I’m checking out their 4-inch scale Warthog with Master Chief.

To be honest, the only reason I bought this toy is because it turned up on Amazon at half-off and for fifteen bucks, I decided to give it a try. After it arrived and I played around with it for a short while, I was so impressed that I quickly ordered up a second while it was still on sale, so that should give you an idea where this review is going. The iconic vehicle comes in an enclosed box with a cut out to show the included figure, and boy does the art on the front of this box give me the feels. It’s kind of weird to have nostalgia for a game that was released when I was 23 years old, but I guess the older you get, the more that window of what’s nostalgic just opens wider and wider. One strange thing about the packaging is that you have to look really hard to find the manufacturer, and when you do, it’s listed as Wicked Cool Toys. And it turns out that WCT is a subsidiary of Jazwares, and I simply can’t understand why Jazwares wouldn’t want to stamp their name on a toy this good. Maybe it’s a licensing issue. Anyway, the Warthog comes out of the box nearly completely assembled. You just have to put the machine gun on the back, plug in the antenna, and load up the extra gas cans. Let’s take a look, and we’ll start with the Master Chief figure.

I don’t have any experience with this 4-inch line, so I wasn’t expecting much from a figure packed in with a vehicle. Suffice it to say I was pretty pleased when I got this little guy in hand and started playing around with him. The sculpt is decently detailed, albeit a bit soft, there’s a fair bit of dry brushing to give the olive green armor some weathering and character, as well as some black scoring where he took a hit on his chest. The exposed parts of the suit between the armor is all painted black, and naturally John-117 has his tiny 117 printed on his chest. There are some silver paint hits on some of the suit details and the visor is painted in a metallic gold finish. Chief comes with his trusty United Nations Space Command Battle Rifle, which can peg into his back or held and ready for action.

I think the articulation is what surprised me the most about this little Chief. He’s got rotating hinges in his shoulders, elbows, hips, and ankles. His neck is ball jointed and he’s got another under the chest. His wrists swivel and he’s got double hinged knees. I can get some great poses out of this fella and I absolutely love how he can even draw his rifle up to his shoulder to aim down the barrel. I’ve got plenty of 6-inch scale figures that can’t even do that! OK, let’s move on to the Warthog!

These days, I expect toy vehicles found at retail to be mostly hollow, cheap plastic, and have minimal paint apps. This Warthog is the complete opposite of all that. The build quality is fantastic and it has a nice heft to it, especially for a 4-inch scale vehicle. The detail in the sculpt is off the charts, with no expense spared at giving this war machine all the character it deserves. Sure, there’s the more obvious stuff like the vents, latches, hatches, stepping bars, and grab bars on the body, but then you’ve got the insane attention to detail in the undercarriage, where you can see the suspension straight through to the shock absorbers behind the wheels. There’s s non-functioning winch with a hook hanging off the front and you get some big beefy treads in the plastic tires. The deco is also superb, with plenty of dry brushing to simulate abrasions where the paint has rubbed down to the bare steel. You also get various UNSC tampos and emblems placed about the vehicles body. Overall, I think this vehicle looks more like a mid to higher grade model than it does a toy, and yet it’s rugged as all hell and rolls along great.

The machine gun can raise and lower, and it also rotates at the base, but it is very hard to turn it. I think they overdid it a bit with the friction to keep it in place. It’s actually easier to pull it out and pop it back in the direction you want it pointing. There’s a foot peg to help secure the figure to the base and a couple of handles for him to grab.

The four gas cans on the back are each removable, with one attaching flat against the rear tailgate and the other three tabbing in on their sides.

In addition to the gunner, the Warthog holds a driver and passenger in the front cabin and Master Chief fits in quite nicely despite his bulky armor.

When you consider that I don’t really collect Halo toys, that I only bought this one because it was on deep discount, and that I have a huge backlog of stuff that I do collect, it really says something that I bumped the Warthog up to the front of the review queue. I was just so impressed with this toy I wanted to give it it some recognition. Sure, a lot of the wow factor comes from getting it for $15, but even if I had paid twice (which I believe was the original MSRP), I would have been equally happy. It seems like when Hasbro releases something approaching this quality in their Star Wars Vintage Collection line it would be at least $50-60 and it might not even include a figure. Now… I may just have to pick up one of the figure packs so I can get this Warthog fully loaded!

Aug 25 2021

Halo: 12-inch Master Chief by Jazwares

I’ve had a bit of an unintentional video game theme going these last couple weeks. First it was Pac-Man, then The Witcher, and now Halo. Well, I wouldn’t read too much into it. I stumbled upon this figure for a crazy low price and decided to make it an impulse buy. Ages ago, I had that Joyride Master Chief figure, which was excellent, but did not survive a shelf-dive. Sadly, his leg exploded against the shock of the carpet, and he was beyond fixing. Sobbing, I turned to The Ebays to replace him, saw how much it was going for now, and gave that shit a big HECK, NO! But hey, now I’ve got The Chief back in the collection. Let’s see if this cheap sum’bitch is any good.

Straightaway, this release reminds me of those cheap 12-inch figures that Hasbro has done for Star Wars and Marvel. They’re sometimes referred to as Shampoo Bottle Figures, I guess because they’re hollow and cheap, and feel like the novelty themed recepticals that you might find containing kids shampoo. Most of those are terrible, some are OK, but this one looked a little better. But make no mistake, cheap this figure is! I got him off Amazon for $11, although I think the MSRP is around $20. And yes, that is about twice as much as Hasbro’s Shampoo Bottle Figures, so maybe it’s not fair comparison. The packaging is consists of a very long and narrow window box, that’s barely big enough to contain his Spartan might, but is otherwise serviceable. There’s a J-hook so he can hang from a peg, but I’ve never seen this guy in the Toy Aisles around here.

Out of the box, this figure actually impresses me. Now, let’s qualify that a bit, because my expectations were pretty low. The sculpt is excellent. Sure he’s got some unsightly seams, but they’re not any worse than any number of other figures on the market these days. And all the detail in the armor is certainly there. The plates have panel lines, and all the little bits and bobs that I remember seeing from the last time I played a Halo game, albeit that was probably five years ago. The green looks a bit bright under the studio lights, but in hand under normal lighting it looks fine. The undersuit is black with some texturing, and you actually get some silver dry brushing on the armor to signify wear and tear. It actually looks about on par with the stuff Hasbro was doing on their Transformers Siege figures. Take that how you want, but I think it looks fine. If I’m going to nitpick anything here, I don’t remember Master Chief having such small feet, but I’m really reaching for something to complain about.

The helmet also looks pretty good, with more of those silver abraisions on the green finish. The gold paint used for his visor looks excellent. I should also note that while the figure is hollow and not all that hefty, it doesn’t feel like junk either. And there ya go, Jazwares! Feel free to use that as a pull quote for the box!

What surprised me the most about this guy was his articulation. I was expecting retro five points of articulation, like Hasbro’s big bois, but this guy actually has rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees, and swivels in the wrists, and in the neck. He’s fun to play with, although give me a little articulation and I just want more. He would have been amazing if they sprang for a waist swivel and some ankle tilts. Still, what’s here is great, and he has a pretty decent balance.

Master Chief comes with one accessory and that’s his trusty assault rifle. Sadly, the weapon is not as impressive as the figure. The big fail for me was having it silver. Jazwares may have been trying to add a little more color to the package, but I would have much rather they left it black, and it would have saved them some money too. It’s fairly well detailed, even if the sculpt is very soft. It fits perfectly into his right hand, and it even has a peg that allows Master Chief to carry it on his back.

There have been plenty of good Master Chief figures on the market over the years, so if you’re looking for a nice collectible you can sure do a lot better than this guy. But, if you’re looking for a big, rugged Master Chief toy to knock around and have some fun with, I think you could do a lot worse than this guy. Hell, if Hasbro’s 12-inchers were more like this in terms of quality and articulation, I’d probably actually own some of those. Jazwares has a few other Halo figures in this line, but Master Chief is enough for me. He was definitely worth the $11 I paid for him, and hell, I’d even go so far as to recommend him at $20.

Dec 22 2010

Halo: Series 2 Mini Figures by Mega Bloks

It’s bad enough that I’ve resolved to buy more Lego sets next year, but it’s hard for me to walk down the toy aisles without hearing Megabloks’ Halo sets calling to me too. Now, I’m not a big Halo fanatic. I loved the original game and spent a ridiculous amount of time playing it, but I was really put off by Halo 2, so much so that I haven’t been back to the franchise since. Still, these sets seem to capture the vehicles and weapons really well and they look like they’d be a hell of a lot of fun to build. But this week is all about stocking stuffers, so I grabbed a couple of these little Mini Figures to check them out.

Like the Lego Mini Figures, these guys come in little printed cellophane style baggies. They’re blind packed, which means you have no idea what you’re getting until you tear it open and dump it out. I think that prospect is a little less vexing here, since you can build armies of these guys, and it doesn’t matter so much if you get a lot of any particular figure. Unlike the Lego mini-figures, though, the Megabloks guys come assembled and ready for action. Of course, their arms, legs and head are all attached by ball joints so you can feel free to pull them apart. Each figure comes with a black block/stand and a weapon. They also come with a sheet showing you the different figures available and which ones are common, rare, or ultra-rare.

I was really hoping for the green UMSC pilot, but I had no such luck. Instead I wound up with a purple Covenant Brute and a pink Hayabusa Spartan. The Spartan is supposed to be rare (or is that TEH RAREZZZ!!!11?) so good on me, I guess? The Brute is listed as common. I know the Brute from the game, but I have no idea what the Spartan is supposed to be. It is indeed pink and it comes with a katana style sword. The sculpting on these figures is surprisingly good for their size and their paint apps are pretty good.

The articulation is pretty solid for such tiny figures. You get the aforementioned ball joints in the neck, shoulders and hips and you get hinged elbows and knees.

I don’t have much more to say about this pair. For some reason, these don’t seem like as solid a deal as the Lego minifigs, but then we’re only talking fitty cents more, and these are mostly army builders. It’s tough for me to really judge them without having some of the vehicles for them to interact with. Still, not a bad thing to find in one’s stocking and overall I’d say they’re really well done.