I first got to see the Kotobukiya Halo armor sets–the blue Mark VI armor and Master Chief Mark V armors–at the New York Toy Fair 2015 last Valentine’s Day. I’ve been wondering why we never saw any more armor sets announced after that, but I think the reason may be becoming clear: the Halo Kotobukiya armor sets are now 50% off and free shipping just two months after being released!

When I first got to see and understand what Koto was intending with their separate Halo ARTFX+ statue armors, I immediately knew that it was a risky venture that they were undertaking. Selling armor packs to customize figures without including a figure at a price-tag of $45 per pack definitely seemed dubious to me.

Even when McFarlane Toys was selling separate armor packs at $10-$12 for their Halo Reach figures, sales were sometimes sluggish. Armor you have to buy a whole other figure just to use is a tough sell. So when I saw Kotobukiya was doing the same thing at the start of their Halo line, I was skeptical.

Turns out that my skepticism was well-warranted–although the armors only hit United States retailers in November 2015, the sales have apparently been so poor on them that they’re already marked down to $21-$22 from their MSRP of $44.99 each. Ouch!

This is a real shame, as I own the armors (which I foolishly paid full-price for), and they look terrific on one of the blank Halo Spartan Statue bodies that are being sold for about $19 online.

With the sales on this armor being so bad, I think it’s very unlikely that we’ll see future Halo armors sold in this fashion from Kotobukiya (which may be why it’s been months and months without any new ARTFX+ Halo statues being announced). In fact, we haven’t seen a single new Halo statue solicited at all since the Athlon Spartan ARTFX+ Statue went up for sale in the fall. Hopefully this isn’t a portent that Koto is bringing their revived Halo line of statues to a quick and merciless end, but I fear that it does.

As it is only costing about $40 to purchase a Spartan armor pack and a blank Spartan figure body to put it on right now–less than the MSRP of just the armor itself–I highly recommend these Halo statues to anyone who’s been interested in testing out the line.

Buying an armor and a body to put it on is even cheaper than just buying the Kotobukiya Halo 4 Master Chief ARTFX+ statue at this point, despite that figure being marked down to $49 from $75. At these prices, these gorgeous Halo figure statues are a true steal.

All of the currently-released Kotobukiya Halo figures and armors are available online at a discounted price and free shipping now. I’ll post an update when the Red and Blue Spartan two-pack is discounted further, as that set is just stunning in-person and probably the best Koto Halo release to-date.

Who else out there has been purchasing these fantastic Kotobukiya Halo figures besides me? And if you’re not giving the ARTFX+ line a chance: why not?