By Loran
I’ve always been kind of skeptical of McFarlane’s toys. As a kid I owned a few of the Terminator 3 figures they did. They were very… okay. Their sculpts were fantastic, don’t get me wrong, but they would have either one of two problems: No joints or joints that just fell apart. I just feel that when your toy is called an “action figure,” and there isn’t much “action” it can do, well you’re doing it wrong. But then, they got the Halo license… and like Mega Bloks before it, this seemed to be the thing that redeemed them in my eyes, and in some of the eyes of the public, I think.
I made my first Halo Reach purchase the blue Spartan Mark V, for two reasons: 1. The Mark V is the most “basic” Spartan, and 2. It’s Caboose from Red vs. Blue. Seriously! In the current season his armor looks exactly like this. I really hope they end up doing more members of the cast, though I’d be content with just Doc, Lopez, and Donut. Maybe some of the Freelancers. Either way, it’s good to see one member of the cast get a toy, whether it was intentional or not.
Caboose (yes, I’ll be calling him that for the duration of the review) uses the standard buck body for most of the Reach Spartans. It’s a pretty decent body, but it still has a few flaws. The new hips aren’t as articulated as the Halo 3 ones were, but they look nice. I wish they went with a Marvel Legends-esque hip style. Also, what’s up with the hole in the waist? I imagine some armor piece is supposed to go there, but it just looks awkward going uncovered like that.
One major improvement over the Halo 3 figures is the joints themselves. Most of the hinge joints are now “clicky” joints with ridges. These are much less likely to break or shear. Only one of my Halo 3 figures actually broke; it was one of my 3 red EoDs and it was just his hand that broke off—a simple fix.
The articulation itself is pretty basic, really, though Caboose gets plenty of joints in his ankles and wrists. Unfortunately, even with all of the wrist joints he can’t hold his gun with both hands or reach for his knife (which is just a molded part of his chest, not an actual accessory), though I might chalk those up to the design of the suit.
The ankles need to be properly adjusted to get him to stand properly, but it’s much better to see that than fixed feet that won’t stand regardless of the position they’re in.
Caboose comes with a fairly basic pair of weapons: Assault Rifle and a frag grenade. What’s great about the grenade is it actually has a place to store: on a pair of pegs on his butt. It’s nice to see they had enough foresight to do that; made even better by the fact that he can reach for them. The rifle can store on a hole in his back.
The paint apps are also very nice. The small logos are very well-done, and the drybrushing works well on a figure of this type. I recently saw some of the Mega Bloks minifigures at Target that DIDN’T have the drybrushing and it just… didn’t work. They just looked like red blobs. Remember kids; drybrushing is good, but only when used in the right places.
The blue Spartan Mark V is, I imagine, average for a Halo Reach figure. He’s a good one to start off with, and a great buy if you’re a Red vs. Blue fan. Come into FPNYC and get everyone’s favorite Bluetard today!
