Last week we broke the news of the exclusive Halo 4 downloadable content codes that will be packed in with McFarlane Toys’ Halo 4 Series 2 coming this summer. And while those Halo 4 exclusive unlockables are in fact a pretty big deal, the details of what Halo 4 DLC would come with each action figure also revealed something totally unexpected–an all new, previously unmentioned Halo 4 Series 2 Steel/Green Spartan CIO figure!

Halo fans were pretty disgruntled when the popular Thomas Lasky figure was cancelled from Halo 4 Series 2, dropping the character count for the series down to five figures. Well, Thomas Lasky isn’t back (and there’s no word at all about that figure being released at all), but a new sixth figure has jointed the lineup in the form of another new Halo 4 Spartan action figure: a Green/Steel CIO Spartan featuring the Halo 4 Spartan C.I.O. figure mold the debuts in Halo 4 Series 2.

I know a lot of people are going to be pretty angry about this Spartan CIO action figure getting released instead of Thomas Lasky, but I really don’t consider this an “either/or” situation. McFarlane Toys didn’t want to invest in the tooling for a Thomas Lasky figure that could have proved catastrophic sales-wise at retail, whereas stores will always take more Spartans. I don’t think the Steel & green Spartan C.I.O. figure took Lasky’s spot at all–I think Lasky was just not in the cards no matter what.

The Spartan C.I.O. (Steel/Green) action figure will come with the Halo 4 video game Bones Skin for the DMR unlockable DLC. I’m usually not real big on the Halo 4 weapons skins (as I’m not really a Halo 4 multiplayer afficionado), but the Bones DMR pattern is really, really cool. I’ll be buying this figure no matter what, and that’s one DLC code I know I’ll actually redeem.

One thing that we do know for sure is that this newly-revealed Spartan CIO (Green/Steel) figure will not be part of the standard McFarlane Toys Halo 4 Series 2 case assortment.

The breakdown for Halo 4 Series 2 cases of 8 figures is as follows:

(3) Master Chief with Cortana
(2) Spartan CIO [Purple]
(1) Storm Jackal
(1) Elite Ranger
(1) Spartan Scout [Orange]

Now, I’m not trying to contest that that is an absolutely god-awful case assortment with the Master Chief making up close to half of the case, but those are the official case ratios released by McFarlane Toys for Halo 4 Series 2, and the upcoming Steel & Green CIO Spartan isn’t there.

So where will this McFarlane Toys Spartan C.I.O. figure be showing up? Obviously it’s a store exclusive, and it won’t be part of a multipack (as it comes with a DLC code). The most realistic and likely place this Steel/Green Halo 4 CIO Spartan figure will show up is Gamestop. Gamestop has had an exclusive in every single series of Halo figures for years, and “Steel Spartans” are sort of their “thing”. Hopefully this won’t be another Powerup Rewards exclusive like the Red Spartan Warrior was, because if it is I will well and truly flip.

I’ll post an update regarding the availability of this store exclusive McFarlane Toys Halo 4 Series 2 Steel/Green Spartan CIO figure as soon as its eventual home retail store is revealed.