Earlier this month the Toys R Us website created the listing on their official website for the Halo Mega Bloks Jungle Strike Cyclops 97006 and Desert Strike Cyclops 97007 sets. While the sets weren’t in-stock yet online, that was all the tip-off collectors needed to start stalking their local Toys R Us brick and mortar stores, awaiting the impending arrival of the Halo Mega Bloks Cyclops sets.

Having hit up my local Toys R Us about a thousand times in the past week, the Cyclops sets finally turned up tonight! My Toys R Us was freshly stocked with three sets each of the Mega Bloks Halo Jungle Strike Cyclops and Desert Strike Cylops sets.

This was my first time having the opportunity to see the Halo Cyclops mech in person, and I was definitely a little surprised by its size. I knew the Cyclops was tiny in comparison to the Mantis, but it’s another thing seeing it on the shelf. I took some scale photos next to the Halo Mega Bloks Drop Pods so everyone could see exactly how the Cyclops sizes up.

Toys R Us stores had these two Cyclops sets as a first-release exclusive at a price point of $16.99 (though some “premium” Toys R Us stores do charge more for some reason), but both sets will be available through online retailers and at other stores as the summer goes on. If you want these sets, head on over to Toys R Us–they’ve been sighted now all the way from the west coast in California to my eastern coast in Massachusetts!

Let’s face it: the 2012-2013 McFarlane Toys’ Halo lineup of action figures and collectibles has sort of been a flop. The Halo Universe figure line was cancelled, the Halo Micro Ops line of miniature vehicles and playsets was essentially dead on arrival, the Halo 4 toy line has been on hold since last winter, and stores have even been ordering Halo Mega Bloks sets gingerly. It has not been a good year to be a Halo collector.

But today, Microsoft assured the future viability of Halo as a franchise and merchandise juggernaut with the announcement of a live-action Halo TV series, created in partnership with 343 industries and the great Steven Spielberg! The series is coming to XBox One as “a premium television series”. No further details were released about the series or precisely what “premium television series” means, but make no mistake–the announcement of a live-action Halo Television Series–by Steven Spielberg no less–is a big freaking deal.

There are no additional specifics announced at this time as to when “Halo The Television Series” will premiere or what the content of the show will be about, but you can ‘Like’ Halo Toy News on Facebook if you’d like details sent directly to your Facebook Newsfeed as and when they become available.

MEGA Brands creates an all-new Mega Bloks Halo battle poster image for their packaging and instruction booklets each year, so it’s no shock that there’s a new one this year. Now are any of the Halo Mega Bloks sets seen in this image a big surprise–every single set seen in the image has been previously seen by reporters at the New York Toy Fair 2013. I’ve written articles on each and every one of the summer/fall Halo Mega Bloks 2013 sets, but I always get a charge out of seeing what kind of cool battlefield image MEGA Brands puts together each year.

Included in the poster are almost every single Halo Mega Bloks set released in 2013–from old favorites like the UNSC Mantis and Covenant Spectre, to hotly-anticipated vehicles like the Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Cobra, Covenant Vampire, and UNSC Pelican Gunship! If you look closely, you can even spot all four different versions of the UNSC Cyclops mech!

MEGA Brands previously showed off a very neat-looking sketch draft of the Halo Mega Bloks Summer lineup promotional image, which looks almost as exciting as the finished poster! I sort of wish MEGA Brands would sell full-size poster prints of these battle images–I’d love some Halo Mega Bloks artwork to hang on my wall!

But what I’m going to love even more is the impending arrival of the Halo Mega Bloks Summer 2013 lineup! If you’re looking to order these new Halo Mega Bloks sets and get them long before your local stores do, BA Toys has them all up for pre-order now. It won’t be long now until building the Halo world out of Mega Bloks can begin anew! Stay tuned, Halo collectors!

The Right:

As I’ve said a few times now on this site, I don’t play Halo multiplayer (unless it’s Halo Wars). So I don’t have any emotional connection to the Sarah Palmer character, as she’s only seen in a couple short cut-scenes in the Halo 4 campaign. That said, I love the Spartan Scout armor permutation, I love female Spartans, and more importantly, my wife loves female Spartans. So it was a foregone certainty that this Halo 4 Play Arts Kai Sarah Palmer figure was coming home.

One of the first things we did with this Halo 4 Play Arts Sarah Palmer figure was compare her to the Halo Reach Kat Play Arts figure. Yikes. Square-Enix has come a long way in a few short years. Kat looks like a chunky block of action figure in comparison, whereas Sarah Palmer looks like an honest-to-god human being. It’s scary just how much the Halo Play Arts Kai figures have evolved in a couple years.

My wife decided to one-up me by taking Sarah Palmer outside and taking some photos with the figure–and man, does Sarah Palmer look realistic. I feel like in some of these photos Sarah Palmer looks like she really is real. The appearance of this figure is just straight-up amazing.

In case you were wondering–No, Square-Enix didn’t cheap out on the sculpting or deco for the back of this Halo Play Arts Kai figure either. All 360 degrees of Sarah Palmer look great (no, I don’t mean it that way), and Square-Enix hit little details of the Spartan Scout armor like the huge shoulder armor dead-on. There’s even an extra little connector piece to allow the Railgun to attach perfectly to the back of the Halo 4 Play Arts Kai Spartan-IV Sarah Palmer figure.

As seen in the Halo 4 video game, Sarah Palmer isn’t nearly as beefy as the male Spartan-IVs are. My wife argues that Square-Enix made the Sarah Palmer Play Arts figure too thinned-down in comparison to the bulkiness of the Halo 4 Play Arts Kai Spartan Warrior, but I’m on the fence about that. Scale-wise, I think Palmer is pretty close to what we see of her in-game.

Sarah Palmer comes with two weapons. One is the Magnum that came with the Halo 4 Play Arts Kai Spartan Warrior figure. It looks just as good if not better with Sarah Palmer, as Palmer actually uses a Magnum in-game. And yes, the Magnum does still have a peg molded into it permanently. And yes, I’ll be complaining about that at length in a bit–and then some.

The other–and far more exciting–gun that comes with the Sarah Palmer Halo 4 Play Arts Kai figure is the Railgun. Barring the tiny little Halo Mega Bloks Railgun, this is the first time we’ve seen the Halo 4 Railgun in toy form. The Railgun is a large and difficult weapon to replicate, but I think Square-Enix has achieved that goal admirable. The sculpting is superb with tons of little rivets and details, and there’s plenty of deco and paint weathering to keep the Railgun looking realistic.

The packaging for the Square-Enix Play Arts Kai Sarah Palmer figure is the same fine book-like style of the other Halo 4 Play Arts action figures I’ve been reviewing. I posted a ton of shots of the packaging in the Sarah Palmer unboxing article I wrote last week, so consult that if you want to comprehensively see the packaging for Sarah Palmer. I think the art on the box could be lightened up somewhat, but the packaging is still some of the best on the market.

The Wrong:

First off, as we’ve seen in the Halo 4 video game, Sarah Palmer is the only Spartan IV skilled enough to dual-wield. So it would have been nice if this figure was capable of doing so, but Square-Enix only gave us one Magnum. For a ~$70 action figure, I think they could have afforded that extra piece of plastic.

Of course, I doubt that it’s a cost-cutting strategy that Square-Enix left out the second Magnum. No, I’m near-certain that they only gave us one Magnum because of the accursed peg molded into the left side of the Magnum mold. See, in order for Sarah Palmer to be able to attach a Magnum to each of her legs accurately, Square-Enix would have had to create a whole new Magnum mold with the peg permanently attached on the other side. And that was clearly not in the cards. Were it not for the ridiculous, illogical pegs permanently molded into all the Halo 4 Play Arts Kai guns this wouldn’t be an issue. Thanks, Square-Enix.

While comparing Sarah Palmer to my wife’s Halo Reach Play Arts Kat figure, I realized something else unwelcome. While the Square-Enix Sarah Palmer Play Arts Kai figure looks worlds more realistic, the rubbery plastic used on her feels far less durable and stable than that used on Kat. Combined with Sarah Palmer’s tiny feet, this can make it a little difficult to pose properly. The plastic used for the Halo Reach Play Arts Kai figures feels a lot less loose and is easier to work with.

Finally, I’m not 100% sold on the Play Arts Sarah Palmer figure being completely authentic to Palmer’s appearance in the Halo 4 video game. I feel like Square-Enix rounded Sarah Palmer’s chest armor more than it is in the game (I don’t think I need to explain why they would do that to any guy reading this), while making her armor a shade too grey and not enough silver-white. Are these deal breakers? Nope–but they don’t seem quite right to me, and I wanted to be sure to mention them.

I, uh, didn't know they had those animals on Requiem...

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

I paid about $64 shipped for my Halo 4 Play Arts Kai figure from Amazon. If you can find her cheaper all the more power to you, but I practically live on the Internet and I’ve not seen her a penny cheaper than that yet.

Overall: I was very careful when writing about the flaws in this Halo 4 Play Arts Kai Sarah Palmer figure, as I wanted to be truthful, but I also didn’t want to be the jackass who rained on everyone’s parade. Is this Sarah Palmer figure perfect? No, not really. Her plastic isn’t as sturdy as some of the older Halo Play Arts figures, the design of the figure isn’t completely authentic (at least not in my opinion), and she could really use a second Magnum–without a peg molded into it. But these are all little deficiencies, which are only slightly nick away from what is otherwise one phenomenal action figure. From the superb paint deco to the intricate sculpting to the sheer awesomeness of the Railgun, this Play Arts Kai Halo 4 Sarah Palmer figure is an absolute winner. If you like the character, you owe it to yourself to buy this figure before it’s sold out–there will never be a better Halo 4 Sarah Palmer action figure made than this one.

GRADE: A-

I’ve felt the lure of sixth-scale figures more than once over the years, but I’ve only recently started to succumb to their allure of the Hot Toys Avengers and Iron Man 1/6 scale figure lines. With Hot Toys being the “hot” thing to collect right now, it was only a matter of time until someone put out some high-end Halo sixth-scale figures. And that someone is ThreeA Toys, one of the most renowned and respected toy companies in the world.

It’s taken close to a year since the Three A Toys Halo Carter figure was put up for order, but he’s finally arriving in stores this month. Featuring a rubber suit, magnetized shoulder armor, and fiber-optic integrated lights on his helmet and armor, this ThreeA Toys Carter figure is the most advanced Halo figure ever made.

I was feeling like I was in a bit of a bind, as I feel responsible for featuring every new Halo figure released as much as possible on this blog. At the same time, I had no intent of purchasing a 13.5″ Carter Spartan-III figure. Of all the named Spartans in the Halo universe, I hate Carter the most. I thought he was a boring and ineffectual leader in Halo: Reach, and I had no interest in laying down a good chunk of my monthly income to review a Carter figure.

Luckily, The Daytime Ninja came to the rescue by letting me know that he’d received and reviewed the 1/6 ThreeA Toys Carter figure. I typically don’t like to post links to other people’s reviews on this site, but what I like even less is dropping $200+ on a Halo sixth-scale figure of a character I outright hate. Luckily, Gavin’s reviews on The Daytime Ninja blog are some of my favorites, and I trust his opinions enough to pass them on. Gavin gave the 1/6 Carter a glowing review, and you can check out his blog to read about it in full.

If you’re looking to add the ThreeA Toys Halo Commander Carter 1/6th scale figure to your own collection, BigBadToyStore has it in-stock right now. Or if you want free shipping, Amazon has a few left for a couple dollars more.

What are your thoughts on Carter, Halo collectors? Will you be adding him to your collections, or is $200+ for a Halo figure just too expensive?

The Sarah Palmer box looks much the same as the previous two Halo 4 Play Arts Kai boxes that Square-Enix has put out. That’s both good and bad. I typically love window-box packaging like this, but I feel like the Halo 4 Play Arts Kai boxes in particular make it very difficult to see the figure inside the bubble.

Even so, I still appreciate the extensive amount of text that Square-Enix manages to fit on the inside box-flap–if you didn’t already know who Sarah Palmer was or what a Railgun is, you sure will after reading the generous crash course that Square-Enix has prepared for you!

Like the Halo 4 Master Chief and Spartan Warrior Play Arts Kai figures I reviewed in the winter, Sarah Palmer comes with another ginormous figure stand made of plastic and metal. I don’t use these stands, but if you want one, it’s there.

A big selling point for this Spartan IV Sarah Palmer figure is the primary weapon she comes packed with: the Railgun. As you’d expect from a $70 figure’s accessory, the Railgun looks exquisitely sculpted and detailed. We’ve gotten the Railgun before in the Halo Mega Bloks line, but the Mega Bloks Railgun is obviously pretty pathetic in comparison to this one.

Just looking at the Sarah Palmer figure–and that’s all that I’ve done so far–she looks like another fine entry into what’s quickly becoming my choice for the best Halo figure line. While her armor isn’t as “flashy” as the Spartan Warrior’s metallic blue paint, the shiny silver paint on Sarah Palmer looks a whole lot more realistic.

Depending how much I like this figure once I’ve had an opportunity to play with her, Sarah Palmer could legitimately surpass the blue Spartan Warrior as my favorite Halo 4 Play Art Kai figure.

I’ll post a full review and photo gallery of the Square-Enix Halo 4 Sarah Palmer Play Arts Kai action figure next week, once I’ve had a chance to do more with her than take her out of the box. If you’re looking to pick up a Sarah Palmer of your own, she was sold out at Amazon earlier this week, but they have more in now for under $65 shipped.

Although these figures weren’t expected to be released stateside until May 2013, both the Red Spartan Soldier and Spartan Sarah Palmer started to turn up on ebay early this month. I legitimately didn’t think we’d see them for several more weeks in the United States, but apparently Square-Enix’s shipping is faster than I thought!

I have a confession to make: I didn’t play much of Halo 4 Spartan Ops. I’m not into online multiplayer, and playing the missions with just my wife was, well… boring. So I don’t have the attachment to Spartan Sarah Palmer that a lot of fans who played through Spartan Ops entirely seem to. Sarah Palmer’s large role in the Halo 4 video game’s campaign and Spartan Ops modes have made her the most-wanted Halo 4 action figure yet to be produced.

While it doesn’t appear that a McFarlane Halo 4 Sarah Palmer figure is in the works for 2013 (if ever), Square-Enix has come through with a Play Arts Kai Sarah Palmer figure that looks like a true work of art.

Along with Sarah Palmer, this second series of Halo 4 Play Arts Kai figures includes a red Spartan Soldier. I’ve been pretty cold toward the Spartan Soldier armor permutation thus far (even the McFarlane Spartan Soldier in my beloved orange), as I felt like the armor looked a bit silly.

Well, with this Play Arts Kai Halo 4 Spartan Soldier, I take it all back! Square-Enix has done a phenomenal job of making a so-so armor design look absolutely incredible. My wallet hates me for it, but I’m down for another $60 generic Spartan.

The other thing I really dig about Halo 4 Play Arts Kai Series 2 is the guns! Gone are the boring Assault Rifle and Battle Rifle that we got with the Master Chief and Spartan Warrior in Halo 4 Series 1. This time we’re getting two all-new and spectacular Halo 4 guns: the Railgun (with Sarah Palmer) and the Forerunner Suppressor (with the Spartan Soldier)! Each figure will also come with a Magnum, a figure display stand, and alternate hands.

I pre-ordered both figures and will be reviewing both in the next few weeks, after I’ve had some extensive time to spend with each of them. Both the red Spartan Soldier and Sarah Palmer Halo 4 Play Arts Kai figures are now in-stock and ready to ship from Amazon.com with free shipping. Both figures seem to be selling strongly (with Sarah Palmer sales looking to be particular fast), so place your orders soon if you want to get in on the initial shipment of either figure!

I hope you’ve been saving up your money, Halo collectors (I wish I had been), because MEGA Brands has a fortune’s worth of new Halo Mega Bloks items set to ship out this summer! In total, MEGA Brands has 18 new Halo Mega Bloks sets (plus the Halo Mega Bloks Series 7 figures) due to come out this summer! In case you’re having trouble remembering the multitude of sets being released and what exactly is in each one, be sure to check out the Full Summer 2013 Halo Mega Bloks Lineup News Summary post I made a few months ago.

It looks like the sets are going to be divided up across June and July shipping dates, with the estimated schedule being as follows…

June 2013 Halo Mega Bloks:

Covenant Weapon Pack
UNSC Weapons Pack
Forerunner Weapons Pack
UNSC C&C Console (Build-A-Booster Frame Set)
Forerunner Terminal (Build-A-Booster Frame Set)
UNSC Hangar Deck (Build-A-Booster Frame Set)
Brute Battle Pack Combat Unit
ODST Battle Pack Combat Unit
UNSC Siege Bike
ONI Light Assault VTOL
Arctic Cyclops
Stealth Attack Cyclops
Desert Strike Cyclops
Jungle Strike Cyclops

July 2013 Halo Mega Bloks:

UNSC Night Ops Gausshog (with Lights & Sounds)
UNSC Anti-Armor Cobra (with Lights & Sounds)
UNSC Hornet vs. Covenant Vampire (with Lights & Sounds)
UNSC Pelican Gunship (with Lights & Sounds)

Remember, these June/July shipping dates are the dates that the sets will be released from online retailer BA Toys. They get everything first, so these sets will take an additional 1-2 months to hit regular retail outlets. I order all my Halo Mega Bloks online from BA Toys, which is how I’m able to post full reviews and photo galleries within a few days of the first sighting of every set, so obviously I highly recommend them as a retailer.

Which of these Summer 2013 sets are you most excited for, Halo fans?

I was pretty astonished when I went into my local Target Saturday morning and saw that every Halo toy in the store had had a red clearance sticker applied to it. This is very similar to the current sale on Amazon with $8 Grunt Storms, $7 Cortanas and Watchers, and so forth. Want McFarlane Halo 4 figures for 8 dollars instead of 12 dollars? You’re in luck. Hoping to get that cool (pun intended) Cryo Tube with frozen Master Chief for 17 bucks? You’re in. Need a few more Halo Micro Ops sets to complete your diorama, and want to pay about 5 dollars each? Your needs, too, have been met.

If you’re looking to get McFarlane Halo 4 Crawlers and Watchers figures for cheap, this is definitely an effective sale for army-building. And that goes double for the Halo Micro Ops set, which many said were always overpriced to begin with. And hey, if you didn’t pick up the awesome “Halo Legends: The Package” three-pack, well, now’s your chance–and for cheap, too!

There is, of course, a negative light to this sale as well, which is this: Target is getting rid of all of their McFarlane Toys Halo products. With no new McFarlane Halo toys scheduled to be released until fall, that means that Target is essentially eliminating their Halo section completely. Will Halo reclaim its space on the pegs in a few months time, when new product is eventually released? We can only hope.

While clearance sales like this one are great for getting deals and picking up items you otherwise might not be able to afford, they also speak very ill of the overall health of the Halo McFarlane Toys brand, and bode poorly for the future longevity of the Halo toy lines in stores.

What do you think about this huge Halo clearance, collectors? Are you going to be picking up any Halo items from Target at these rock-bottom prices?

Is the Jackal Storm figure (or its prototype) looking cool enough to add to your collection?

From the moment I saw the drastically-redesigned Jackals in screenshots of the Halo 4 video game, I knew I wanted an action figure of one (which isn’t exactly a revelation–I want an action figure of pretty much everything). When the lineup for Halo 4 Series 2 by McFarlane Toys leaked out last fall, I figured I’d have him by Christmas. It didn’t work out that way.

As it turned out, McFarlane Halo 4 Series 2 was pushed back to September 2013, and we didn’t see any actual figure prototypes until around the New York Toy Fair 2013 in February. So yeah, it’s been a little bit of a wait. But now we can see the McFarlane Toys Halo 4 Storm Jackal figure in all of its unpainted prototype glory!

At first I was feeling really encouraged by these images. In the past Halo Jackal figures have traditionally had a (really) hard time standing up. I thought that this redesigned Halo 4 Storm Jackal action figure might be more stable, but then I realized that in the photographs he’s being held up by a box. Now, that doesn’t mean the finished Jackal Storm figures will necessarily need extra support to stand up, but looking at the prototype definitely doesn’t make me confident that it will be able to stand up unassisted.

I love the new Jackal Halo 4 heads. The reptilian, crocodile-looking Jackal heads look far more terror-inducing than their old “chicken-faced” heads ever did. The final product Storm Jackals figures that appear in stores won’t include an energy shield, but will include the Halo 4 redesign of the Covenant Carbine gun.

If you want to try to win the Halo 4 Series 2 Storm Jackal, you can check it out over on ebay right now. And if you’re waiting for the finished, painted product, you can pre-order it now (or any other figure from Halo 4 Series 2) for delivery when it’s released in just a few months.

What do you think of this new Storm Jackal figure prototype, Halo fans? Is this the best Jackal action figure ever, or are you missing the bird-like pre-Halo 4 Jackals?