Much like in the Halo 4 video game, the toy Forerunner enemies are the second to appear, following the more-familiar Covenant foes. One of three main types of Forerunners present in Halo 4, the Promethean Watcher is a highly-troublesome support unit that make the Promethean Knights far more threatening and dangerous. With the Halo 4 deluxe boxed Knight on the horizon, having a Watcher figure available for it to launch was a must. And this McFarlane Toys Watcher action figure definitely will fulfill the role of looking good and fitting into the Knight smoothly. But beyond that, well… it’s not exactly the best Halo figure around…

The Right:

The first wave of Halo 4 action figures was strangely devoid of Forerunners, so it’s good to see two of the main branches of Prometheans join the fight in figure form not too long after Halo 4’s release. The Watchers aren’t the most popular Forerunner AIs, nor were they going to be easy to engineer in toy form, so I commend McFarlane on at least trying to tackle them so quickly.

Initially I had my concerns that the Forerunner Watcher figures might be low on articulation (or have none at all like Guilty Spark 343 did), but it turns out there are quite a few moving parts integrated into this figure. 9 moving appendages and parts won’t exactly strike fear into Hasbro’s Marvel Legends toy line, but for what the Watcher is, it’s pretty lavish.

For such small figures, the Promethean Watchers could have been severely lacking in paint applications, but McFarlane’s paint department did their usual admirable job here. The silver paint brushed on looks close enough to metal to give the Halo Watcher action figure a touch of realism, and the yellow accents on the figure have been masterfully applied.

Also, while I utterly loathe the flight stand the Watcher comes with (and I’ll be discussing this at length in a bit), I really appreciate the hidden stand on the bottom of the ring that can be flipped down, enabling the Watcher to “stand” without using the flight stand. I don’t know why the Watcher would ever just be sitting on the ground, but at least the option is there and well-hidden.

The Wrong:

I have an extremely hard time justifying this little Forerunner Watcher figure as a single-packed, $12-$14 action figure. As nice as the paint and hidden articulation are, this Watcher is a tiny figurine and only includes one inadequate accessory (which I’ll be lambasting shortly). This Halo 4 Watcher just doesn’t feel like it’s worth the cash it costs–I genuinely think that McFarlane Toys should’ve just raised the price of the Promethean Knight by a few dollars and packed it in there.

Furthermore, I think it’s really cheap and unacceptable that McFarlane designed this to be a Watcher figure in a non-standard form. When you think of the Watchers you encountered playing the Halo 4 video game, you think of the ones with two rings functioning as “wings” and flying around. I really don’t think anyone was wishing for a Watcher figure with one big merged ring behind its back.

The Ridiculous:

The Watcher’s sole accessory is a clear, circular piece of plastic that’s meant to be a flight stand. Since the Halo 4 Watchers can fly, that makes complete sense on paper. What doesn’t make sense is the actual execution of this supposed flight stand.

The flight stand enables the Watcher to hover a whopping two inches–yes, two inches–off of the ground. Now, while this is about the perfect height for the Master Chief to give the Watcher a good, stiff kick without having to overextend his leg, it is not an appropriate height for the usual high-flying Watcher to be hanging out at.

I certainly prefer having a clear plastic flight stand to the ridiculous metal poles that McFarlane stuck into the Halo Universe Guilty-Spark 343 and Sentinel figures, but at least those Forerunner AIs had the sense to stay off the ground so that they didn’t have to worry about getting stepped on by a Spartan IV. The inability of this figure to even attempt to fly above any other Halo 4 figure without some sort of custom additions falls squarely into the realm of ridiculous.

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

The Halo 4 Promethean Watcher figure is part of the Halo 4 Series 1 Wave 2 of figures by McFarlane Toys that have thus far been very poorly distributed. Gamestop stores have received these figures at a short-packed one-per-tray, but I haven’t seen them at other brick-and-mortar stores. The best source for the Halo 4 Watcher so far is probably Amazon, which has consistently had the figure available for $11.99 with free shipping and no tax.

Overall: To me, this McFarlane Halo 4 Watcher figure seems live a highly-detailed yet rushed, poorly-executed action figure that simply doesn’t merit its $12-$14 price tag. The fact that McFarlane Toys couldn’t budget in a taller, better-designed flight stand to accompany such a tiny figure is ludicrous, and strongly hurts the playability and display value of the Watcher. In addition, I hate that they chose to give the Watcher only one merged ring behind its back instead of the commonly-seen two wings for the flying form. The paint deco and articulation on the Watcher figure are actually very nice, but I don’t think that makes up for the design issues of this figure. I’m looking forward to being able to insert this Watcher figure into the upcoming deluxe Halo 4 Promethean Knight figure, but otherwise I’m a little underwhelmed by this addition to what is ordinarily an exceptional toy line by McFarlane Toys. The Halo 4 Watcher action figure isn’t all that it could be, but it’s the only Watcher being released in this scale for a while, so you’ll probably want it anyway.

GRADE: C