I have literally waited my entire Halo fandom life to own action figures of Spartans from the Halo novels. Yes, these figures of Frederic-104 and Kelly-087 may be based on their appearance in the animated “Halo Legends: The Package”, but those characters were created first in Eric Nylund’s Halo novels–the very first Halo media of any kind I ever partook of. So just by making this Halo Legends The Package 3-Pack, McFarlane Toys has already won my undying love. Of course, it certainly helps that the Spartans action figures in this set are outstanding…

The Right:

I think I’m in a long-term state of shock that I actually own action figures of Spartans Fred and Kelly. I genuinely thought there was no chance that any expanded-universe Spartans from the novels would ever see the light of day in plastic form, but McFarlane Toys has come through for fans of Halo characters outside the video games, and I am eternally grateful. Thanks, McFarlane Toys!

The Halo Legends The Package three-pack consists of action figures of Spartans the Master Chief, Frederic-104, and Kelly-087. I won’t be talking about the Master Chief figure here, as I raved about that figure in-depth last year.

I was pretty stunned by how much I liked last year’s singles release of The Package Master Chief–in fact, he ended up being one of my favorite Halo figures of 2012. So I wouldn’t have minded terribly if McFarlane Toys had just repainted that mold twice more for the other Spartans. They didn’t do that–instead, Fred got a handful of newly-designed parts and Kelly got a totally fresh sculpt all her own.

I clearly didn’t pay enough attention during “The Package”, because I honestly thought that Frederic-104 was just a palette swap of Master Chief in that Halo cartoon. In actuality, Fred has some different features from the Master Chief that really differentiate Fred from the Chief and make his figure stand out.

Fred’s helmet is completely different from the Master Chief’s and looks very cool, but the highlight of the figure is actually his shoulder armor. Fred comes with a pair of combat knives that can really be sheathed and removed from his shoulder armor! The feature puts Fred well above and beyond what I expected to be a simple repaint of the Master Chief, and makes him one of my favorite Spartans released in quite a while. In addition, the glossy blue paint on Frederic has been applied masterfully and looks downright fantastic. Beautiful figure all-around.

Maybe I’m jaded by my years of collecting, but I honestly thought McFarlane Toys might just paint a Master Chief body white, stick an EVA helmet on it, and call it Kelly. That would’ve been an atrocity, but what McFarlane Toys actually gave us is better than anything I’d hoped for for Kelly.

Kelly has a very sleek and slimmed-down body, which seems a little strange at first for a Spartan. However, running is Kelly’s “thing”, and it makes a lot more sense for her to be able to sprint in this lighter armor than the usual tank-like Spartan armor. The high heels-like feet are a little weird, but otherwise this Kelly-087 Spartan figure is all-around excellent.

When I saw the assortment of weapons that came with this Halo Legends Spartan three-pack, I thought I’d fallen down the rabbit hole into some sort of Halo figures Wonderland. I can count on no hands the number of times McFarlane Toys has given us more than two weapons for any Halo figure–ever–so seeing such an arsenal come with the Halo Legends The Package boxed set is pretty stunning. The weapons are primarily the ones from the Halo 3 line and they have their problems (which I’ll be discussing momentarily), but it sure is great to see McFarlane Toys giving us a well-deserved helping of extra weapons and guns for a change.

The Wrong:

While I appreciate all of the hard work that went into sculpting new parts for the Kelly-087 action figure, I sure wish McFarlane Toys had run some more tests to make sure her hands and arms were compatible with her weapons. While she can grip her designated shotgun tightly with one hand, her arms don’t have the range of motion to comfortably or easily hold the shotgun with both hands. In fact, Kelly isn’t especially good at holding almost any of the weapons–most of them have handles that are either two thick or too flimsy to fit into her hands.

That brings us to the Frederic-104 action figure and his combat knives. As badass as these knives are and as incredible as they look sheathed in Fred’s shoulder-pads, they’re functionally useless to him. The handles are much, much too thin for Fred to hold them, and they constantly fall out of his hands. Ironically, the Kelly-087 figure can hold the knives tightly, and as such I’ve taken up having her wield them. As she’s the fastest Spartan, I can totally see Kelly assassinating Covenant soldiers stealthily with the combat knives.

Also, given that this set comes with more accessories than any McFarlane Halo figure set I can remember (ever), it sure would be nice if the Master Chief or Fred could store their weapons on their backs. While the Kelly Spartan figure has the standard peg-hole in her back and thus can carry her shotgun or whatnot that way, both the Frederic-104 and Master Chief figures lack any kind of peg-hole on their backs.

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

I bought my Halo Legends The Package Three-Pack for $32 with free shipping and no tax on Amazon. I’d be shocked to see the set for cheaper in any store, and it arrived literally a day and a half after I ordered it, so that certainly seems like the best source of this set to me.

Overall: It might sound like I nagged about this Halo Legends The Package Spartans three-pack a lot, but I actually love this set. There are some design flaws with the accessories that bring the set down slightly–the weapons aren’t perfect fits for each of the Spartans and there’s no storage for them on Fred or the Master Chief’s back. However, the paint, articulation, sculpting, and even sturdiness of all three Spartans is impeccable. This McFarlane Toys set certainly has a few drawbacks, but I’m so overjoyed to have these fantastic Kelly and Fred Spartan figures that this Seth’s shortcomings seem like a complete afterthought. If you’re a fan of the Halo novels or Halo Legends, you must buy this Halo Legends The Package three-pack–you definitely won’t regret it.

GRADE: A-