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!