As anyone who reads this site regularly knows, I’ve got a thing for orange. So when I heard McFarlane Toys would be releasing their first Halo 4 Orange Spartan figure already as part of Halo 4 Series 1 Extended, I hit the roof (in a good way). Then when I found out the Orange Spartan Soldier was part of a ridiculously-expensive Halo 4 5-figure boxed set, I hit the roof again (in a bad way). There was never any chance I wasn’t going to buy the Halo 4 boxed set just to get the Spartan Soldier (orange) figure, but I was a little annoyed. $70 later, my first orange Halo 4 Spartan has come home…

The Right:

This is going to be a far shorter Halo toy review than usual because, well–I already reviewed this exact figure. Every single thing I said in my review about the blue Spartan Soldier from Halo 4 Series 1 Wave 2 applies here. The orange Spartan Soldier even has the same weapon–the Battle Rifle–as the standard-released blue Spartan Soldier does.

The one and only difference between the figures is that this release of the Spartan Soldier is painted orange. It isn’t the same orange as the dark Rust orange McFarlane favored in their Halo Reach line, but it’s also noticeably different from the Gold Spartans McFarlane released in Halo Reach Series 1. This orange is probably closest to the orange Spartan Hayabusa figure in McFarlane Toys Halo 3 Series 1, which is a nice, pure orange color (Trivia: the orange Spartan Hayabusa was McFarlane’s first orange Spartan action figure ever!).

This is the first time we’ve ever gotten an orange Spartan in the first series of a Halo McFarlane Toys line, so that’s pretty exciting for orange-lovers. Other than that, everything positive I liked about the blue Spartan Soldier stands–radically altered sculpt for the new armor permutation and great upper-body poseability.

The Wrong:

While I love that McFarlane Toys is “giving” us an orange Halo 4 Spartan so early on in the action figure line, what I don’t love is the execution. The exclusive orange Spartan Soldier’s paint job is the one and only thing that makes this 5-figure boxed set of repacks special, so you would think McFarlane Toys would have gone the extra mile to make sure that the orange Spartan was at least painted well. They didn’t.

Whereas the standard Spartan Soldier in Halo 4 Series 1 Extended could get away with some paint flaws due to being a dark blue figure, this bright orange Spartan absolutely can not. And man, is this orange Spartan figure full of paint flaws. It’s tough to see in photos, but in person this figure just does not look good. There’s orange paint splotched onto black, black running onto orange all over the place, and uneven lines of both orange and black bleeding over and covering silver… it’s just terrible. When the only thing your ridiculously expensive action figure 5-pack has going for it is the paint on a solitary figure, you just can’t slop it out like McFarlane Toys did here. Awful job.

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

As of writing, Amazon has this Halo 4 5-Figure Boxed Set on sale for $54.47 with no tax and free shipping. I paid $70 for the set and Toys R Us is charging an outrageous $80, so I’d be a total liar if I said I didn’t wait and buy the set on sale. I truly doubt this set will ever be sold any cheaper than this, so if you want the exclusive orange Spartan Soldier or the set as a whole, now’s the time to get it.

Overall: I absolutely hate doing it, but I can’t give an above-average grade to this Orange Spartan Soldier. I gave a ‘B’ to the blue Spartan Soldier in this wave, but that figure wasn’t held hostage in a $70 5-pack, and that blue Spartan Soldier wasn’t plagued by atrocious paint applications. I wanted this figure no matter what and I don’t exactly regret buying it, but I’m grudgingly going to have to fix a lot of the paintwork on this orange Spartan Soldier myself. If you can get a good deal on this Halo 4 5-Pack or you’re like me and absolutely must have every orange Spartan, you’re going to want this figure. Otherwise, this Halo 4 Orange Spartan Soldier can probably be skipped without having any regrets–you’re really not missing much.