Master Chief and the Spartans - Action Figure Reviews

Support AE! Buy Collectibles Here:

Series

Halo 3, 1

Craftsmanship

- Fantastic poseability

- Pretty good stability

- Seems to get all the details right

- Weapons aren’t useable across the other figures

Playability:

- Small parts that can be lost easily

- Wrist joints susceptible to snapping

- Seems to be to scale with the other Halo 3 figures

Newsletter

Be notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter sent out twice weekly.

Enter E-Mail Address Below:

Master Chief and the Spartans (Halo 3)

master chief and the spartans

Though he was designed as a digital character, Master Chief is tailor-made for the world of action figures. His MJOLNIR battle armor hides most of the articulation, he totes a variety of different weapons (at least in the games), and his enemies are all aliens bent on his destruction. Strip away the games, but create a universe and mythology around the action figures, and they’d still be cool.

Master Chief is no stranger to action figure land – previously, now-defunct Joyride Studios’ Halo and Halo 2 efforts made quite an impression on this reviewer,

Advertisement

especially the jump between the Halo and Halo 2 figures. McFarlane’s version of Master Chief and the Spartans – watch for their hit single, I’ve Got a Plasma Grenade for You – are a lot smaller than Joyride’s version.

They also lack the ability to swap weapons with the other figures in the line. One of the

Advertisement

cooler aspects of the Joyride line was that each figure came with two or three weapons, both human and Covenant. From the sniper rifle to the needler to the flame thrower, there was no problem swapping weapons. McFarlane’s version comes packed with a battle rifle and a grenade. That’s it – and that goes for all the figures in the picture above. They also come packed with a couple of short pegs: one plugs into the back, one into the thigh. When Master Chief isn’t holding the rifle it can be installed on his back, and the grenade plugs into the peg on his thigh.

The size of these figures is also quite a bit smaller than Joyride’s but equal, if not more, points of articulation – either way, there’s a huge range of mobility. On their official site, McFarlane notes 18 points of articulation, which also includes ball-jointed toes and torso joint. It makes manipulating Master Chief and the Spartans into “kinetic” poses is quite easy – these figures are even balanced enough to stay standing in most poses.

red spartan

We didn't receive any of the red Spartan variants, but as you can see, there's not much difference other than the color and the head on the right Spartan.

Halo fans will want to have these figures on display, because they pretty nice looking figures and they do the source material justice. Though I don’t appreciate the smaller size, the more discerning gamer – the legendary ones with non-gamer friends, possibly girlfriends, and almost impossibly, married with kids – can tuck these figures on a discreet shelf or stand and a couple by your computer monitor without attracting any attention. The other positive of measuring in at 5” tall, is that whole dioramas can be constructed without taking up too much shelf space.

Keeping on a shelf will also keep Master Chief and the Spartans in one piece, because if you have kids around these figures will get played with and there are enough concerns with the durability of the figures to warrant keeping them away from the kids. The most obvious concern is that the rifle and grenade (along with the pegs) can go missing because they’re small. And one look at the spindly wrists should be enough to lead you to the conclusion that the wrists are at risk of snapping under rough play. Hell, I worried about snapping them just putting the rifle in his hands!

If there was more compatibility with the rest of the line and more weapons, I wouldn’t have a problem recommending Master Chief and the Spartans to people that don’t really know about Halo but like good action figures. As it is, there are more than a few Halo fans out there that should just snap these figures up.

- Omni

(April 1, 2008)


PC \| Gamecube \| DS \| Wii \| PlayStation 2 \| PlayStation 3 \| PSP \| Xbox \| Xbox 360
News \| Reviews \| Previews \| Features \| Classics \| Goodies \| Anime \| Forums