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 feel like I’m one of the five people that has played Resistance 2 for the PS3. Yeah, I know there’s more gamers out there that have played it, but compared to a game series like Halo or Gears of War it certainly doesn’t have the word of mouth or love that those games get. I happened to like it a lot. Sure there were things I didn’t like, so it really doesn’t rank among my beloved Halo, but I liked it nonetheless. Did I like it enough to want action figures based on it though? I’m not so sure.

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McFarlane Toys has announced that the anticipated Halo tie-in figures from the upcoming Halo Wars video game are due to hit retailers in February. Not all stores are going to get them, in fact their websites only list Toys ‘R’ Us, GameStop and Blockbuster as their current retail partners. The figures will come in packs of three 2 1/2″ scale figures that will be either be multicolored UNSC troops or Covenant bad asses.

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Gears of War 2 was one of my favorite games of last year, until Left 4 Dead and Fallout 3 took over my life. Still, I can burn away hours on Horde mode, the multiplayer extravaganza that has you and your friends mowing down wave after wave of enemies, very easily since it’s so friggen fun. This upcoming two character set from NECA captures the brutal fun found in chainsawing your enemies to death, something that happens quite often in the game:

Oh that’s some sweet sauce. These figures are part of series three which also include a new Marcus Fenix, a COG soldier, a Theron Palace Guard, a Grappler, and a Cyclops.

Personally, I still need to get Cole before my life is complete. Oh sweet Cole, you complete me.

Thanks to Kotaku

It’s hard to believe, but the company responsible for collectible table top games like Heroclix is gone. I know that this little bit of news hit this week and I realize that many of you probably had seen it already, I just wanted to put in my two cents.

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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 love the game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney for the Nintendo DS. While it’s not so much of a “game”, since most of your time is spent reading text, it’s amazingly fun. I haven’t been able to play any of the sequels, but they’re high on my priority list of games I need to play on the DS. I ran across these Phoenix Wright toys the other day and thought they looked pretty cool:

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I don’t “get” the whole vinyl toy craze and I don’t understand the love for the corporate attempts to cash in on the phenomena like Might Muggz, however any trendy vinyl toy that can bring out the creation of such wonderful Castle Crashers custom figures deserves the utmost respect in my book:

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After Jasman Toys announced that they would not be making a Halo energy sword for their laser tag type toy line there’s been a void in the hearts of Halo fans. If you’re a fan that was saddened by the lack of a energy sword in your life and you really, really need one… well there’s kind of one out there now. In the tradition of crappy sword makers making silly Klingon swords comes this thing:

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I recently ran across a posting on Capcom’s blog showing off a prototype action figure from the upcoming Bionic Commando game. Even though he’s the “new” version of the character and not the classic commando (notice the dreadlocks), he’s a pretty kick ass figure. I love the detailing on his super robot arm, that of course allows him to swing around like Spider-Man.

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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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If you wanted to get your grubby Cheetos stained hands on a racing stripe Strormtrooper (in some circles known as the Stormtrooper Commander), the details have finally emerged on where you can find him. When Star Wars: The Force Unleashed launches on midnight of September 15th, Gamestop will be selling him to those at the store. A priority will be given to those that have pre-ordered the game, so good luck getting your hands on one.

I’m a bit split on this guy. Stormtroopers are cool, but I don’t need him. I might have picked him up in stores, but seeing as how I’d have to jump through hopes to get the Commander I don’t think I’m ever going to own him now.

It’s also kind of funny to note that the Commander was first spotted in December of last year. Why did it take so long for him to be available for sale? Well, The Force Unleashed was very much leashed by several delays that screwed up the release schedule for all it’s tie-in products.

In case the last video game you played was Frogger, the Xbox 360 has a game available for download called Castle Crashers. Castle Crashers is like an old school beat-um-up, except that it’s got a unique modern style that’s pretty sweet. The makers of the game, Behemoth, has some figurines of the cute Castle Crashers knights along with one of the evil Barbarians.

At the time of writing this, the figures were already sold out at twenty bucks a pop. As neat as these things look I can’t imagine why they’d cost twenty bucks, unless they were eight inches tall or something. Aside from that, these things look fantastic.

Oh and if you’re wondering I don’t actually own the game, but I have played the demo and I’ve felt the enormous peer pressure from Poe Ghostal to buy the thing.

Thanks to: Topless Robot

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.