Amongst the multitude of hotly-anticipated Halo Mega Bloks sets shown at Toy Fair 2013 last month was one little vehicle that no one seemed to have a clue what to make of. Guesses and speculation as to the identity of that vehicle ran rampant, but thanks an E-Mail sent out by MEGA Brands, we now know for sure exactly what that vehicle was. As it turns out, MEGA Brands is launching a brand-new sub-line of Halo Mega Bloks is summer/fall 2013: ONI REAP-X…

As the story goes, The UNSC Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) has a subdivison called the REAP-X (Reverse Engineering and Prototyping–Xenotechnology) department. This department develops new vehicles and technology by reverse-engineering alien tech. Basically, the reason no one has ever seen or heard about these UNSC ONI REAP-X vehicles before is that these vehicles are so top-secret that they don’t appear in any of the Halo video games, nor are they mentioned in the Halo novels. *cough*

Really, though, I’m okay with MEGA Brands making up some new vehicles and concepts at this point. There really aren’t any small Halo vehicles that haven’t been created in Halo Mega Bloks form now, so cool original designs with new figures included seems like an acceptable way to go.

Though this new line of sets was just announced by MEA Brands officially, we actually saw the first of the Halo Mega Bloks ONI REAP-X vehicles on display at Toy Fair 2013 in New York City in February–at the time, we just didn’t know what it was we were looking at.

The Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Light Assault VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) craft looks a little bit too far-fetched to me. The idea of this hatch-less VTOL floating around with no protection for the pilot whatsoever… I just don’t know. It seems pretty crazy to me. However, the twin autocannons and rocket pods this vehicle is equipped with definitely make this vehicle far from something to laugh at.

The Halo Mega Bloks REAP-X UNSC Light Assault VTOL set will include two figures: a Spartan Mark VII in blue armor, and the all-new Storm Jackal. The Covenant Storm Jackal Mega Bloks figure is a thing of beauty–hideous, hideous beauty. The Storm Jackal figure comes equipped with a yellow shield and the first release of the Halo 4 Beam Rifle weapon.

While the orange visor on the blue Mark VII Spartan looks terrific in the promotional photos, it looked a little bit funky on display at the New York Toy Fair. Hopefully the final Spartan figure included with this production set will look as good as the official photography.

The other Halo Mega Bloks REAP-X set that we know about is the Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Siege Bike. At first glance I was a little put off by the appearance of the Siege Bike, but the more I look at it the more I like it. The side-mounted heavy machine gun makes the Siege Bike look a lot more threatening than the poor ol’ UNSC Mongoose ever was. The huge single-tread Siege Bike feels like a Halo vehicle to me a lot more than the Light-Assault VTOL, and it’s the type of vehicle I would love to see appear in Halo 5.

The Halo Mega Bloks ONI REAP-X Siege Bike include two brand-new figures: a blue Spartan CIO and an Active Camo Grunt Storm. I’m a big fan of the CIO Spartan Armor permutation, as it appears on the cover of Karen Traviss’ terrific “Halo: The Thursday War” novel (one of my favorite books of 2012). The Storm Grunt figure looks fantastic as well, though I really wish it was fully-painted and not in clear plastic. I just don’t have a big need in my collection for Active Grunts, personally.

These first two Halo Mega Bloks REAP-X vehicle sets are scheduled to arrive as part of the July/August 2013 wave of Halo Mega Bloks sets. No information on price is available yet, but I’d guess these will somewhere around $14.99 each.