Despite her status as the Master Chief’s partner and co-star of the four main Halo video games, there’s been relatively little Cortana merchandise released over the years. Even the McFarlane Halo figures collection, which is hundreds of figures deep, only included one Cortana figure in it–until now. With the blockbuster Halo 4 release, McFarlane Toys finally deigned to give collectors their first all-new Cortana figure in half a decade. But though this Halo 4 Cortana action figure is an improvement in some ways, in others she’s far worse…

The Right:

The best thing about this Cortana figure is clearly her accessories. First of all, Cortana includes a rare alternate hand (have we ever had one in the McFarlane Toys Halo line before?), which is molded permanently holding a holographic screen panel. The holographic screen is transparent and you can see the engineering blueprints for the Master Chief’s Halo 4 armor on it. It is an extremely cool item and one of my favorite accessories we’ve ever gotten in the Halo McFarlane Toys action figure line.

The holographic projector base Cortana comes with also looks great–it’s well-sculpted and even has some nice paint details on it. It doesn’t have the electronic light-up feature that the McFarlane Halo 3 Cortana figure’s base had, but the Halo 4 Cortana also isn’t entirely made from a plastic that’s meant to light up.

The original Halo 3 Cortana “action” figure by McFarlane Toys was essentially just a 4″ plastic statue. The articulation scheme on Cortana is… different… from what collectors like you and I have become accustomed to. She has 10 moving parts, which is like an anachronism compared to most modern figures, but it certainly beats the zero points of a Cortana statue, so this stays in the right (despite the fact that some of the cut joints like the upper-torso swivel are a little, uh, awkward). The whopping 10 points of articulation Cortana is packing include a swivel neck, hips, shoulders, biceps, elbows, and wrists. Again, not the greatest, but definitely a step above Cortana being a static figure.

The Wrong:

Cortana is an A.I. that can project herself either as a total hologram or a being of hard light. But one way or the other, she should still be somewhat translucent. That’s the way she is in the games, that’s the way her Halo 3 figure was, and that’s the way countless “holographic” Star Wars figures by Hasbro have been executed.

So you would think–you would just think–this Halo 4 Cortana would be completely see-through as well. She’s not. In fact, Cortana’s upper-body is totally opaque, which makes no sense whatsoever, since her legs are made from semi-transparent plastic. Thus, when you put her up to the light, for the most part the only thing that’s going to light up is her legs. When you’re making a $12-$14 5″ action figure with limited articulation, you can afford to at least choose appropriate plastic to produce the figure in. Cortana in totally opaque blue plastic above her waist simply looks wrong. She looks more like a Na’vi from Avatar than she does a holographic A.I.

Furthermore, the head sculpt for this Cortana just does not capture her personality well at all. Cortana doesn’t look snarky or angry or rampant or anything fitting for the character–she just looks bored. Considering all of the emotional story beats for Cortana in the Halo 4 video game, I can’t think of any expression that would be less suitable than this disinterested, bored-looking one.

The Ridiculous:

Even with years of sculpting and design advancements in the action figure world since their last Cortana figure, McFarlane Toys still stuck Cortana with an ancient swivel-neck joint. That wouldn’t condemn Cortana except for one small problem: with no ball-jointed head, she’s permanently looking down. Thanks to the swivel arm joints Cortana can finally reach out and touch the Master Chief’s face, but this Cortana figure can’t ever look him in the eyes while doing it–she can only stare down toward the Chief’s crotch instead. Seriously.

I understand the downwards-gazing sculpt is intended to make Cortana look natural looking down at her holographic screen accessory, but it also renders her unable to interact with any other figures in the Halo line (besides Grunts, Crawlers, and the low-flying Watchers, I guess).

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

Halo 4 Series 1 Extended has been hard to find at retail so far, and the only place I’ve seen her is Gamestop, where she’s packed at one-per-case. At the moment, the Halo 4 Cortana figure is available for $12.99 with no tax and free shipping from Amazon. Tough to beat that.

Overall: I genuinely was excited for a new and improved Cortana figure in scale with the rest of the McFarlane Toys Halo figures, but this Halo 4 Cortana ends up being a huge letdown. I hate the choice of opaque plastic used on her, the downwards-angle she’s permanently looking is extremely awkward, and her blasé facial expression doesn’t exactly scream with personality. I like that McFarlane tried to give us a better Cortana figure, and I love the accessories they gave her, but there are just too many design flaws with this figure. From an action figure line I’ve come to expect great things from, this Halo 4 Cortana figure is decidedly below-average and disappointing.

GRADE: C-