A new Halo Mega Bloks Signature Series set comes but once a year, and that once a year has come at last! While the previous Signature Series Mega Bloks Halo sets have been never-before-done vehicles (such as the UNSC Infinity, UNSC Mammoth and Covenant Scarab), this time out MEGA Brands decided to recreate a specific scene from the beloved “Halo 3: ODST” video game instead. Hope you love Pelicans (and who doesn’t?), because the Halo Mega Bloks NMPD Pelican Air Base set has now landed exclusively at Toys R Us stores!

I make it no secret that I prefer the ODST video game to any of the Halo games featuring the Master Chief, so it won’t come as a big surprise that I was totally jazzed when it was confirmed that this year’s Halo Signature Series set was going to be based on Halo 3: ODST.

Specifically, this set is meant to recreate the NMPD HQ (Campaign Level 7) portion of the game, wherein the ODST squad tries to defend a downed NMPD Pelican from an armada of Covenant ships (and poor Romeo almost gets exploded by a Brute Chieftain’s Gravity Hammer). This is a pretty memorable stage, so I think it’s as strong a choice as any to build a special limited edition set around.

The central aspect of the set is (of course) a police-colored NMPD Pelican vehicle. This is the third iteration of the Pelican that we’ve seen in Mega Bloks form, and while the most significant difference is the color scheme, there are some minor build revisions to the actual Pelican itself as well.

The set also contains a pretty humongous “NMPD Air Base”, which is essentially just a big landing pad, a ramp and a catwalk. It’s not game-accurate, but the look and feel is close enough for me. I really like it.

It is a tad disappointing that such an ultra-expensive set includes only four figures–and only one that’s an absolute must-have unique character. The four figures that come with the NMPD Pelican set are an ODST Mickey figure (!!!), a Covenant Brute Chieftain, an NMPD Pilot and an NMPD Officer.

Yes, that’s right–if you want to complete your Halo Mega Bloks ODST Squad, you’re going to have to buy this $180 set. Ouch! On the bright side, Mickey does look really well-done. And unlike the McFarlane Toys Mickey ODST figure, I suspect this one won’t crumple to pieces due to abysmal quality control.

We get a very nice arsenal of weapons with this set, with the bounty including a Gravity Hammer, two Shotguns, two Assault Rifles, two different types of Rocket Launchers, an M6D Pistol and a Sniper Rifle.

It’s an overall solid bounty, though it is sort of sad that in a Collector’s set of this size and cost, we still have to deal with unpainted weapons. And speaking of cost…

Now we come to the deal breaker of this set for many folks: the price. MEGA Brands tends to release cheaper sets than the LEGO Group, who I consider ten cents per piece to be the target value for. Well, in this case, we’re going to have to accept basically the same target from MEGA.

The Mega Bloks Halo NMPD Pelican Air Base contains 1,792 pieces at an MSRP of $179.99. That’s a lot for a set centered on a Pelican, considering the previously-released Pelicans have been under a hundred dollars each.

Given that the NMPD theme has sold sluggishly at retail and this set has an eighty-dollar bump over previous UNSC Pelican sets, I feel a bit dubious about this set’s chances of succeeding at retail at full price. I guess we’ll have to wait and see with this one.

While this is clearly the weakest and least original Halo Mega Bloks Signature Series set thus far, I still like it quite a bit, so I’ll be picking one up once there’s a worthwhile sale or coupon for this Toys R Us exclusive set.

The NMPD Pelican Air Base Mega Bloks set is now arriving in Toys R Us stores, and should continue to ship at least through the holidays. I’ll post an update here and to the Halo Toy News Facebook and Twitter pages when (and if) Toys R Us decides to give us a good discount sale on the set. Stay tuned.

What do you think of the fourth Halo Mega Bloks Signature Series set? Will you be recreating this epic scene from Halo: ODST, or is your collection not in need of a $180 police-themed Pelican set?