Considering all of the top-tier characters and vehicles being released in the Summer/Fall 2014 Halo Mega Bloks sets, it might surprise some people to hear that one of the hottest and hardest-to-find sets at retail is also among the smallest and cheapest. I finally ordered the Halo Mega Bloks UNSC All-Terrain Mongoose 97339 set online after missing it in stores for weeks. Of course, the biggest selling-point of this set isn’t the Mongoose–we’ve got loads of those. No, this set is hot because it comes with the first-ever Mega Bloks Halo Emile figure! Does Emile make it worth buying yet another Mega Bloks Mongoose?

The Right:

The Halo Mega Bloks 97339 UNSC All-Terrain Mongoose set retails for $9.99-$11.99 (depending on where you’re shopping), making it one of the three lowest-price Halo Mega Bloks vehicle sets of 2014 (with the other two being the previously-reviewed Halo Mega Bloks Rapid Attack Covenant Ghost and the Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Wombat).

The set includes just 82 pieces, and as such is a very fast and easy build. It took me about 10 minutes to fully assemble the Halo All-Terrain Mongoose Mega Bloks set, although I’m admittedly a very slow builder.

Building-wise, this is one of the simplest Mega Bloks Halo sets in quite some time. I didn’t make any mistakes during the build myself, which is really saying something. Any kid old enough to be playing with this set should have no problem whatsoever putting it together.

We’ve had a multitude of UNSC Mongoose Halo Mega Bloks vehicles over the years, so it’s a little difficult to get excited about a new one. Even so, I was ecstatic when I discovered that this set contained a whopping zero stickers–the headlights and UNSC logos on the All-Terrain UNSC Mongoose 97339 are all printed onto the actual bricks!

I absolutely detest stickers, so this is definitely a feature of the new Mongoose that I appreciate.

In addition, this Halo Mega Bloks UNSC All-Terrain Mongoose is different from its predecessors in that this is specifically the Halo Reach version of the Mongoose. Unless the standard Warthog, this version has no windshield and rear-view mirrors on the sides. Kudos to MEGA Brands for giving us an authentic Halo Reach Mongoose Mega Bloks vehicle with our Emile figure!

And speaking of Emile, MEGA Brands has well and truly outdone themselves with this Emile figure. This is most likely the single nicest Spartan figure ever in the Halo Mega Bloks line. Emile features seven different paint colors (black, dark grey, light grey, tan, red, gold, white), which I think might be a record for any Halo Mega Bloks Spartan figure.

If Emile’s “skull” print on the dome of his helmet turned out badly it could have ruined the figure. Thankfully, that’s not an issue–the skull deco actually looks fantastic, and is one of the best small details we’ve ever seen on a little Mega Bloks Halo action figure.

The Emile Halo Mega Bloks figure includes removable armor and the new super-articulated body (just like every other Spartan figure MEGA Brands is releasing from Summer 2014 and going forward). Emile includes both weapons that make sense for the character: a Tactical Shotgun and a Kukri knife. It was a given that Emile would include the Halo Reach Shotgun, but giving us Emile’s combat knife was really MEGA Brands going the extra mile with accessories.

I was pretty ho-hum on Emile when I played the Halo Reach video game. He felt like your usual hyper-aggressive, homicidal hero characters like Wolverine or Raphael, and that sort of character has never really clicked with me. Over the years, however, I’ve warmed up to Emile a lot (unlike Carter) and I’m psyched to get such a spectacular 2″ Emile action figure in Halo Mega Bloks form.

The Wrong:

As excellent as he is, the Mega Bloks Halo Emile figure falls just short of the lofty level of pure perfection. Why? Because MEGA Brands didn’t give us a new piece of shoulder armor that could holster the kukri knife.

If Emile’s shoulder armor was a unique tool that couldn’t be used anywhere else I would let this slide (honest), but it bugs me that MEGA Brands skipped tooling the Halo Reach Security shoulder armor with a spot for the knife to attach.

The Security Armor Shoulder with Sheathed Knife was a valid multiplayer armor, so there are loads of figures it could have been used on. Considering that MEGA Brands tooled tons of new armor for the Fall 2014 Halo Mega Bloks wave, I don’t see why they couldn’t have stuck in a functional piece of shoulder armor as well.

Alas, now it appears we’ll never have an accurate Mega Bloks Halo Reach Security Spartan.

In addition, the Mongoose feels really small and insignificant compared to the larger and more impressive Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Wombat I reviewed previously. The UNSC Logo on the actual toy isn’t printed as well as it is on the packaging, and the Mongoose itself just doesn’t “wow” me. The extra love in this set definitely went to Emile (which is fine with me, but does leave the All-Terrain Mongoose feeling a little unexceptional).

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

The Halo Mega Bloks UNSC All-Terrain Mongoose 97339 has been a tough set to track down at retail in many areas, but will be shipping for at least half a year. The Halo Mega Bloks Mongoose is also available online if you can’t find it in your area.

Overall: I teetered on the edge of giving this set an ‘A+’, but it falls just barely short of perfection. The UNSC All-Terrain Mongoose Mega Bloks vehicle itself isn’t quite perfect, and the Emile Mega Bloks figure is missing shoulder armor that can hold his kukri knife. That said, when those nitpicks are all I can come up with to complain about, you know MEGA Brands has done something right. In this case, it’s giving us one of the best-decorated Halo Mega Bloks figures ever in Emile (and his UNSC Mongoose accessory is just gravy). Highly recommended.

GRADE: A