McFarlane: Halo 3 Spartans ( Seeing Red ? )

Here comes the Spartans in their Mjolnir Armor, RED TEAM, in all their glory!
Very apt too considering Singapore's Birthday has just been celebrated!
Happy 44th Birthday Singapore!


after a much delayed posting of these Halo Spartans in Mark VI Mjolnir Armor, here they are. Blogger has been glitchy of late, with random disappearances of the toolbar, making it hard to navigate, link and do up usual posts...



'' If it's a war they want, we'd give em' WAR!!!''



i've previously done an in-depth review of this figure which you can find HERE

And like i've said time and time again, the paint application is superb for a toy its size and price, though i feel strongly that the materials used could've been improved for it to be a superior figure to the toys Hasbro has been churning. (Hasbro's are expensive, god awful sculpts at times, and those figures actually degrade over time due to the soft plastic that they use, leading me to feel hasbro, a once leading brand in toys, to be a ''HAS BEEN'' )


em' spartans and their brethren in boxes!!!



NEXT UP will be Raziel from the Legacy of Kain series: Soul Reaver, one of my all time favourites in terms of narrative storyline for a video game.

Halo 3: ODST ( New upcoming 2009 video game )

A headsup to all HALO fans out there, on the upcoming scheduled for fall of 2009 release, Halo 3 ODST.

The superintendent

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"Although the gameplay of Halo 3: ODST bears a strong resemblance to previous Halo games, the player does not assume the role of Master Chief as in the main Halo trilogy, but rather a lone UNSC soldier in the city of New Mombasa, Kenya.

Since the ODST does not possess Master Chief's superhuman abilities and armor, he is more vulnerable to weapons fire, thus forcing the player to act more cautiously. While the game is not focused on stealth gameplay, some elements of stealth will be incorporated. It will also include open world gameplay.

The main objective of ODST is to lead the soldier through the ruins of Mombasa and discover what happened to his missing teammates. After finding a piece of evidence left behind—a sniper rifle hanging on a lampost, for example—a flashback is triggered and the player assumes the role of the missing soldier.." - wikipedia.org

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The main character of the game is an unnamed member of the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODST for short, also known as Helljumpers) referred to as The "Rookie".

ODSTs often deploy in small, one-man Human Entry Vehicles (HEVs), launched from spaceships in the upper atmosphere. During the game, The "Rookie" is separated from his four teammates (Romeo, Dutch, Buck, and Mickey) and must find out what happens to them with the guidance of a city maintenance AI known as the Superintendent

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All New Hero


All New Campaign

Equally awesome as ever.

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pretty hyped up about this videogames, seems pretty apparent despite the economic downturn there's pretty much a load of good things to keep a lookout for, HOT TOYS' predator, Terminator Salvation, and HALO 3 ODST!!!!

You can view the official site, and watch the brand new teaser trailer, here. Now off to consider the financial option of expanding my collection of halo figures with some ODSTs...

McFarlane 12' inch Master Chief Halo 3

My own Christmas Haul. From CSC, toys invasion...

Honestly felt that this figure by far, for an action figure, is one helluava score. Excellent pain application with the textures applied to the surface making the Spartan mark VI armor look realistic. The plasma battle scorches, marres and dents.

HOWEVER, it was marred by some of Mcfarlane's recurring problems, whilst the previous problem of cheap plastic was fixed to a certain extent this round, the prevalent problem of extremely stiff joints still stay. Which made posing and knowing which joints are articulated rather hard...because ( not sure if its a good or bad thing ) the joints are pretty hard to discern thanks to Mcfarlane's better sculpting and molding, unlike most other toys which employ a standard point for ball joints etc.. Mcfarlane's joints are somewhat deviant. With some joints totally strange...

But as long as they do their part on articulation i'd try not to burn it down...A thing to note is the material used for this figure is much more solid and sturdier, adding to the weight. The shoulder armor is removable for future releases of variants of helmets and shoulder armor.

A major err to my dismay is the weak joints at the right hand, where the fingers are articulated. Mcfarlane has obvious tried to add plus points by making the fingers jointed/ pin jointed. However the problem of random occuring stiff joints has made articulating hard, and one may accidentally apply too much force..breaking the fingers...

but all in all, still an awesome and appealing figure to add to your collection if you're a halo fan. Apart from its finger joint weakness and stiff joints, this is one not to miss.

Last week's Haul: Halo 3

It's a tad' late for the Halo 3 hype, but with dirt cheap prices, you can't say no. Was checking out Takashimaya when i found these going off at clearance prices. I got 4 of these little red men at $8.00 apiece, 2 EVA and 2 Mark VI, all red. Originally, i had 2 halo 3 figures, one master chief and the other a red mark VI, cost me around 19.90 each at day of release, but since then as you can see, the prices have fallen to dirt cheap.

Dirt cheap prices.

EVA spartan soldier RED.

EVA spartan in packaging background

Freshly removed from box. - not a fan of the twisty wires.

Background.

The two i opened.

HALT!

To be honest, i'm not a fan of the halo 3 figures despite being a halo 3 fan. I previously encountered problems with my halo 3 figure on purchasing my first two. With the master chief figure having a terribly weak jointed wrists. This is so because the entire production line for Halo 3, made by mcfarlane, suffers from what i would call the cheap plastic syndrome.

Yes, plastic is cheap, but this plastic is CHEAPER than CHEAP.

Why so, unlike the previous lines of halo combat evolved and halo 2, microsoft gave the production rights from Joyride studios to Mcfarlane in hopes that they would produce a better grade of toys with better articulation.

I was pretty satisfied with my Halo 2 figure ( master chief with flood creature), as it was made out of very durable plastic, or something i would dub as the 'solid plastic'. It feels real solid and heavy, and the joints won't suffer as you pose it in any way you wish ( within the joint limits of course ).

However, this standard and quality is gone when Mcfarlane took over, though the articulation of the toys greatly improved, the paintwork and scuplting improved tremendously, the plastic used was cheaper and was somewhat flimsy. Each joint had to be handled carefully as you could literally FEEL THE JOINTS BEND WITH EACH TURN. i understand stiff joints. but stiff joints and ball bearings combined with weak plastic is a every toy collector's greatest nightmare. Trying to strike a realistic pose in itself was a challenge, nay, a FEAT!

in simple, you have fantastic articulation with great ball bearings, but with the weak plastic which makes up the entire toy, moving this ball bearings strains and breaks these parts of plastic. Enough said.

All in all, i'm terribly dissapointed with mcfarlane's release of halo 3 figures. Not that they weren't good aesthetically. Its functionally where it flops. An action figure which looks great, with zero playbility.

still prefer joyride studios' halo 1 & 2 figures.