I’ve been talking about the 2013 Halo Mega Bloks Cauldron Clash 97118 set for months for a reason, and that reason is that even without owning it yet, I could tell that this set was awesome. I finally got my Mega Bloks Halo 4 Cauldron Clash set in the mail earlier this week, and I couldn’t wait to put it together. The Halo Mega Bloks Cauldron Clash is an absolute can’t miss blockbuster set for Halo 4 fans (though it’s also one of the more frustrating builds I’ve done in years)…

The Right:

The big draw and main event of this set is the first Halo Mega Bloks Prometheans figures, so I’ll start the Cauldron Clash review with them. The Halo 4 Mega Bloks 2013 Cauldron Clash set contains all three types of Prometheans: Crawlers, a Watcher, and a Knight.

You get not one but two Promethean Crawlers figures in this set! Let me be frank: they’re not nearly, nearly as articulated or detailed as the McFarlane Halo 4 Crawler figure I reviewed last month. And you know what? These are tiny 2″ Mega Bloks Crawler figures–they shouldn’t be. What these Crawlers are, though, is fun.

The Mega Bloks Crawlers have five ball-jointed points of articulation (head and legs), and have one big advantage over the McFarlane ones: they can stand stably. The McFarlane Crawlers have a little bit too much articulation, and they end up crumpling over under their own weight as a result. Meanwhile, the Halo 4 Crawler Mega Bloks figures can easily support their own weight and look cool standing upright, running, or leaping.

Like the Crawlers, the Mega Bloks Promethean Watcher figure is a little under-detailed. The Watcher just looks like a blueish-gray blob–until you attach the rings that function as his wings, which make the whole figure really pop. The Watcher’s rings are molded in a great translucent orange color that adds a ton of appeal to this figure, and I think it’s worth mentioning that here MEGA Brands has one-upped the McFarlane Toys Halo 4 figures line again, as the McFarlane Watcher only has one ring and can’t fly at all!

Finally, we come to the big boss of all the Prometheans figures: the Promethean Knight! Standing in at about 3″ tall and massively bulky, the Halo 4 Knight is easily the largest Halo Mega Bloks figure ever and could beat down the Halo Mega Bloks Hunters with no problems at all! The Knight has the deadly Forerunner Scattershot attached to his arm, molded in eye-catching translucent orange.

As in the Halo 4 video game, the Mega Bloks Promethean Knight figure is able to store and release the Watcher from the carapace on his back! I wasn’t certain MEGA Brands would be able to implement this feature at all in such a small scale, but it ends up working perfectly. In fact, somehow this little Mega Bloks Knight holds the Watcher better than the McFarlane Halo 4 Knight deluxe action figure does!

As you’d expect, there are some UNSC forces to balance this set out. You get a tan and green Mega Bloks UNSC Marine (who looks a lot cooler than your standard Mega Bloks Marine), along with a green Spartan Soldier figure. This is the first time that a Mega Bloks Spartan Soldier has been released, and the figure completely captures the look and feel of the Spartan Soldier armor permutation. The figures come with the first release of two all-new Mega Bloks Halo guns: the Railgun and the DMR (Designated Marksman Rifle). The Halo Mega Bloks DMR has been particularly long-awaited, so rejoice!

Of course, there’s also a large playset here that consists of above 500 pieces. Can’t overlook that.

The actual Cauldron Clash buildable terrain portion of this set is based loosely off of a multiplayer map from the Halo 4 video game. In essence, the Cauldron Clash functions as a far more interesting take on a terrain for the the Halo Mega Bloks figures to fight on than the previous Battlescapes (although I did get some joy out of the Snowbound Battlescape).

Basically, the Cauldron Clash environment consists of a walkway, a huge spire, and a couple of ramps–all teetering over lava. Intimidating? Yeah, I think so too. The lava is comprised of a bunch of translucent orange and red blocks, and I have to say–they look terrific. The promotional photos made the lava bricks look solid, but the translucent coloration of them is far more eye-grabbing and aesthetically-pleasing.

And what Forerunner structure would be complete without a huge, towering spire? The spire at the end of the building on the Cauldron Clash is actually fairly involved, and its inclusion in this set really brings the Cauldron Clash together as a Forerunner structure and not just some Covenant ramps over lava or the like. As imposing as the tower is, though, it’s still nowhere near as humongous as the Halo Mega Bloks Covenant High Base I reviewed last year.

The Wrong:

As impressive as the Forerunner structure is that makes up the primary component of this set, it has one major shortcoming that you wouldn’t realize just by looking at it: it’s pretty unstable while being built. Dangerously so. The entire building is built upon two base plates that are held together by a mere couple of 4×1 and 2×1 bricks. The Cauldron Clash is a huge, heavy structure, and those few pieces continually weren’t enough to support the set during my build, resulting in the base plates break off and the whole set shattering repeatedly.

I lost over an hour in rebuilding because the base of the set exploded so many times, breaking apart the chunks above them. Out of desperation, I finally added extra bricks to the base plates to hold them together. I’m usually not one for cheating like that with a build, but at that point I was either going to get the Cauldron Clash 97118 to hold together or hurl it out the window. Cheating won out.

I’m not the greatest Mega Bloks builder in the world and I don’t claim to be, but I build a pretty big number of sets each year. So if I had severe problems holding this set together, most likely many of you will as well. Here’s my advice: build the Mega Bloks Halo 4 Cauldron Clash set on a completely hard surface like a wooden table, and don’t pick it up or move it ever until the set is completely finished. If at any time during the build you rupture the base plates, the entire terrain just falls apart completely.

The only other thing that bugs me about the Halo Mega Bloks Cauldron Clash set is the fact that the Spartan Soldier Mega Bloks figure has a pole that’s meant to hold him up as if he’s flying (as shown in all of the promotional photos of the set and on the box), yet the set includes no jetpack for the Spartan figure to wear. MEGA Brands has a preexisting jetpack already tooled up and released, so I don’t get why this Spartan is magically levitating when the jetpack could have been included. This set costs $45-$50 and already contains 518 pieces–was one more piece really going to hurt?

“Where Can I Buy It?!”
The Mega Bloks Halo 4 Cauldron Clash 97118 is the final one of the early 2013 Halo Mega Bloks sets to be released. I’ve heard a few isolated reports of these being found at Target, but as of writing the only place I’ve been able to find the set personally is online sources like BA Toys.

Overall: Other than the fact that I was ready to throw the playset into the wall and bust it into a million pieces out of frustration, this is a pretty superb set. And–spoiler alert–even though I haven’t posted the review for the UNSC Mantis yet, this is definitely my favorite Halo Mega Bloks set of early 2013 bar none. The Halo Mega Bloks Cauldron Clash environment is unique and compelling to look at, the Prometheans Mega Bloks figures are extraordinary, the UNSC guns (and Spartan Soldier figure) are all-new, and the completed set is simply tons of fun to play with. If you’re a Halo 4 Mega Bloks fan, this set is a total must-buy. Period.

GRADE: A