Toy Bender

McFarlane Toys keeps surprising me with their Halo line. In amongst all the things I don’t want to buy like the stupid Halo helmets, they sneak in something that just begs for my unemployed dollar. First there was the in-scale (to their line) Hunter and now they’ve got an in-scale Mongoose!

Better yet, I checked on Big Bad Toy Store (sponsor of the 2008 Joes for Tots contest!) and the Mongoose is only going to cost twenty bucks. Yeah it’s a small vehicle, but considering prices on toys these days it’s not too shabby. This is especially true for a toy that’s got some neat features like a folding rear seat so you can have some capture the flag action in toy form. Sweet.

I hadn’t heard that McFarlane was planning on making vehicles for the five their five inch Halo line. I’m thinking that the Mongoose and possibly the Covenant Ghost might see the light of day, but its hard to imagine that their are enough people buying these toys to support bigger vehicles at this point. Maybe a few years ago an in scale Warthog might have been feasible. Remember when those huge vehicles and accessories were coming out for twelve inch Joes? Perhaps in the right time something large for the Haloverse could have been a reality, but its doubtful to me that there would be one now. Then again maybe this is a test. Buy as many as you can Halo fans!

The Mongoose is due out in October, so maybe it will cash in on the release of the new Halo expansion game, Halo: ODST.

There have been a few McFarlane Halo figures announced over the last few weeks that have gotten me interested in the line again. The first, and most impressive, is the 8 inch scale Hunter figure. The Hunters were always a powerful foe in the Halo series and it’s great to see them get such an impressive debut in the McFarlane line.

Another great looking figure is Sgt. Johnson. Poor Sgt. Johnson… anyway, the most bad ass Sgt. in the Haloverse that strongly resembles a character found in Aliens will be out in October of this year.

Hopefully figures like this will lesson the pain that the announcement that Mega Blocks got the Halo license. And yes, I’ve been meaning to cover that for awhile now but then Toy Fair hit. Dang you Toy Fair and your rush of toy news!

I’ll admit it. I’m not really following the Halo 3 figures from McFarlane as closely as I once was. There’s a couple of reasons for this, with the biggest being that I don’t really play the game as much as I did. There’s also the fact that once I bought one Spartan, I didn’t really need any more. The hips looked really odd to me, like they’re too wide or something. Anyway, McFarlane has got a new figure in the line up that looks pretty wicked:

Hot damn, I never thought a regular Halo Marine could look so good.

I know that there’s people still going insane for this line, but for me it’s going to take a lot for me to actually make a purchase and this one looks like he’s worth it.

I can’t think of anything more pointless than owning a Guitar Hero action figure, but then again I’m more of a Rock Band kind of guy. Still, I’d never want an action figure derived from Rock band either. One really cool thing to come out of the Guitar Hero action figures from McFarlane Toys though, is the guitar accessories that you will be able to buy for them.

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According to Game Pro (ugh Game Pro), McFarlane Toys (oh look they posted it too) are going to be making some figures that tie into the upcoming Xbox 360 game, Halo Wars. In case you’re not hip on all the upcoming games, Halo Wars is a RTS game that takes place in the early era of the Covenant vs. Human conflict. If you still don’t know what I’m talking about, you need your nerd credentials revoked.

The figures McFarlane Toys are releasing are three 2.5 miniature soldiers due out Spring 2009. They’ll come in a series of four three packs. There’s no word on if they’ll be making any figures in their 5″ line that tie into the game. I sure hope they do, because if Johnny Lightning still holds the toy licenses to Halo 1 and 2, this would be the perfect loophole to getting around not being able to make a Halo 1 styled Master Chief.

Big Bad Toy Store has series four of McFarlane Toys Halo 3 line up for pre-order. The series contains a tan Elite, an active camo Arbiter (not pictured), Master Chief (with sniper rifle), a red Spartan Soldier EOD, and an olive Spartan Soldier Security.

This assortment may not be as exciting as previous waves, since it looks like we’re getting down to Master Chief/Spartan variants a plenty. It is nice to see a sniper rifle, but I don’t feel like buying another figure for only one gun that i want.

Hopefully there will be more variation in the figures down the line, but aside from variations on enemies there’s not a lot of characters in Halo 3 that hasn’t been made already. I’m not sure how deep McFarlane Toys can go into the Halo character well outside of Halo 3, considering the fact that the last time I checked Johnny Lightning still had the toy license for the first two games.

If you bought any of the McFarlane Halo 3 figures and were wondering what you could get for the points that each figure comes with, McFarlane Toys recently revealed all:

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In a move that wasn’t really surprising to me, McFarlane Toys has announced that they are canceling their original toy lines. That means that their Dragons, Legend of the Blade Hunters and Warriors of the Zodiac are dead.

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McFarlane Toys has revealed their exclusives for the 2008 San Diego Comic Con and I’ve got them here. Hurray! or something.

SPARTAN SOLDIER EVA “HELLSPARTAN”

This is the figure that both Halo fans and Spawn geeks are going to need as this version of a Spartan soldier is painted to look like McFarlane’s money making machine. Gotta love the skull on the belt.

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Online toy retailer Big Bad Toy Store recently put up wave three of the Halo 3 action figures from McFarlane Toys, allowing us all a good look at the figures. Here they are in all their McGlory:

Brute Chieftain Weapon Class

What makes him a “Weapon Class” Brute? He comes with two weapons as opposed to a gravity hammer. If you want a Spiker grenade for your Master Chief then here you go. By the way, I love those things. They are so damn useful against idiots who run around in Ghosts.

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You’ve probably no doubt realized that it’s a super slow week for toy news. In order to overcome this drought I’ve got two noteworthy contests.

The first is from Mezco Toys who have the Heroes license. If you’re a Heroes fan and want to score a set of their test shot figures (there’s only five in existence), then all you have to do is dress up like your favorite Heroes character, take a picture of yourself, and then send it to heroes-contest@the-owi.com.

You know, this contest might be a little more effective if the Heroes characters were a little more distinct. Aside from the cheerleader when she wears her cheerleader outfit, they’re just a bunch of people dressed up like… regular people. Here’s to hoping it’s an excuse to see a bunch of hot chicks dressed up like cheerleaders and not forty year-old beast men dressed like Hiro.

Moving from TV to video games, McFarlane Toys is giving away a full set of their Halo 3 series 1 figures. All you have to do to enter is to go to this page and then fill out some basic info. They have two sets available, so good luck because I’m winning one.

Update Boy, I am a fool. I forgot all about Poe Ghostal’s caption the pic contest were you can win a Hulkbuster Iron man figure. I won the last contest and got my prize in the mail, so it’s not an impossible win if I could do it.

Just a quick update for you all to let you know that I personally saw some of the McFarlane Halo 3 figures for sale this weekend. No not at a retail store, but at a booth at the San Francisco Wondercon. Like an idiot I didn’t take a picture, but trust me the picture of the figures in the box suffices since there really wasn’t anything to see that hasn’t been put on the internet yet.

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While checking out Unleaded Logic’s site the other day, I noticed he had posted images of Halo figures in their packages. I hadn’t seen this posted on any of my usual sites so I thought I’d share the picks here for those who are obsessed with all things Halo.

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Halo fans, if you want some more Halo toy news I don’t have a whole lot, but I can point you towards McFarlane’s website where they posted some new pictures of Halo figures that will be on our way someday. Or you can just check them out here. Yeah, I’d like that.

Master Chief 2

Master Chief is locked and loaded with a shotgun and a… damn what is that on his back? A Spartan Laser? First one of you to tell me what that is gets… nothing but my respect. But isn’t that what you really want anyway?

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McFarlane Toys revealed this last week (or so) their version of the Arbiter from the mega popular, sweet ass, you should be dead if you haven’t heard of it yet, Halo 3.

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