A couple weeks ago MEGA Brands unveiled the hotly-anticipated Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Mantis 97115 set on their official blog. Since then, I’ve been fervently hoping to be among the first to see the set in person at New York Comic Con 2012. Luck was on my side, as MEGA Brands did indeed deign to debut the set live to consumers at NYCC 2012. I was not disappointed, as the Mantis looks absolutely killer up-close!

The UNSC Mantis on display at the Javits Center in Manhattan may look a little bit plain at first, but that’s because it’s missing the production stickers that will be added to the set during manufacturing. As the UNSC Mantis is heavily featured as a major new addition to the gameplay in the “Halo 4” video game (both in Campaign and Multi-player modes), I definitely think this exoskeleton armor set is going to be one of the biggest hits of the Halo Mega Bloks 2013 lineup.

Unfortunately, the docking bay that comes with the set was not on-hand at the show, so I wasn’t able to get any hi-res photos of it. In addition, there was a solid wall behind the UNSC Mantis box, so I couldn’t get a photo of the back of the box and the set description as I was able to for the UNSC Cryo Bay and Forward Unto Dawn ship. However, the finished artwork for the front of the UNSC Mantis box was on display at NYCC 2012, and looks fantastic.

Also not on-hand at NYCC 2012 was the one figure accompanying the UNSC Mantis: the all-new Spartan Warrior figure. The UNSC Mantis 97115 will mark the debut of the Mega Bloks Spartan Warrior figure mold, painted in Spec Ops black for the set. The Spartan Warrior armor is a new armor permutation that will be featured in the multi-player mode of this fall’s “Halo 4” video game. We don’t get new Spartan Mega Bloks figure molds very often, so it’s great to get a brand new Spartan figure along with one of the most desirable Halo Mega Bloks sets of 2012.

The Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Mantis 97115 is scheduled to be released in December 2012/January 2013 with a retail price of $34.99, and is almost certain to be the hottest set in the winter series of Halo Mega Bloks sets. I’ll post a full review and photo gallery of the set once I receive it.