The long-awaited Halo Mega Bloks Series 7 figures began to reach stores last month, and I got my Halo Mega Bloks Series 7 case from BA Toys on the very first day anyone received the figures. I’ve finally got the time this week to dig in to the figures with a full review and some photos of what I consider to be the very best series of Halo Mega Bloks Mystery Packs figures ever released. As there’s 16 figures in this set (not counting the intergalactic gummy bear-colored figures), I’ll be dividing my discussion of the figures into two parts. On with the Halo Mega Bloks 96978 figures review Part I…

The Right:

Before we get started–If you’re looking for the blind bag Halo Mega Bloks Series 7 codes, you’re in the wrong place. You can find the complete list of Halo Mega Bloks Series 7 96978 codes right here. Now then–ordinarily my reviews are sectioned into “The Right” and “The Wrong” (and on particularly bad items, “The Ridiculous”). That’s not going to be the case here, as there is no “Wrong” about the Halo Mega Bloks Series 7 blind-bagged figures. Quite frankly, this set is absolutely awesome.

We’ll start with the figure that is easily in the upper-echelon of the best Halo Mega Bloks blind bags ever released: the purple Halo 4 Elite Zealot figure.

I loved the heck out of this figure when it was first released (in red) as part of the Halo 4 Mega Bloks Warthog Resistance 97011 set back in late 2012, but the dark red paint on the figure made it hard to see all of its details.

Luckily, the new purple paint job on the Halo 4 Zealot Elite figure really brings out all of the details on this Halo Mega Bloks figure, making it look simply exquisite. Armed with a Covenant Carbine, the Halo Mega Bloks Series 7 Elite Zealot (purple) figure is a top contender for my favorite figure of the series.

Next up we’ve got two highly-anticipated Halo Mega Bloks figures that the internet was buzzing about as soon as they were revealed at the 2013 New York Toy Fair–the Halo Mega Bloks Human Flood and grey Spartan Mark V[B] (Noble-6) figures. The Human Flood isn’t a new mold, but this is the first time we’ve seen the Human Flood figures released via blind bag mystery packs, and it’s a nice switch from the poor Elite Flood figure that’s been released over and over for the past year. The Human Flood figure comes with an Assault Rifle, but his true weapon is obviously his tendril arm.

The grey Halo Mega Bloks Spartan Mark V [B] would be a very dull figure that I would recommend passing on if it wasn’t for one thing–the fact that this particular Spartan looks almost (but not quite) exactly like the default Noble-6 player character from the “Halo Reach” video game. The red Plasma Rifle he comes with is a nice bonus, and this figure will be a great addition to the collection of “almost” specific video game characters that MEGA Brands has released.

Next is a pair of Halo 3 Spartans: a yellow EOD Spartan and a black CQB Spartan. We don’t get either of these colors very often in the Halo Mega Bloks line, so both are very welcome inclusions in this set. Sometimes yellow Halo Mega Bloks figures can look absolutely terrible (such as last year’s Covenant Armory Pack II 96997 set), but the extra paint wash and detailing on the yellow Spartan EOD allows it to be a very nice, good-looking figure. The black Spartan CQB looks slick and deadly, just as you’d expect.

Both these Spartans come with a rare Halo Mega Bloks weapon–the Sentinel Beam! The Yellow EOD figure includes a dark grey Sentinel Beam, while the black CQB figure comes with a light grey Sentinel Beam. This is meant to represent the two different types of Sentinel Beams that can be acquired in the “Halo 2” video game, as in all other Halo video games there’s only one type of Sentinel Beam that you can arm yourself with. Fantastic choice of weapon by MEGA Brands, and well worth buying these figures for, even if you don’t need more Halo 3 Spartans (but who doesn’t?!).

It wouldn’t be a Halo Mega Bloks mystery packs series of blind bags without a generic UNSC Marine figure, right? Right…? Yeah, I wasn’t all that excited about this either. But this figure definitely fills its role as a generic army-builder well–there’s absolutely nothing about this Marine that feels especially unique–he just looks generic, like any random Assault Rifle-carrying Marine you’d let drive the Warthog for you in Halo 3. With plenty of precise paint deco applications, as an army-builder UNSC Marine, this figure is pretty much perfect.

Finally, we’ve got a pair of figures that I heard quite a few groans about having in the 96978 Mega Bloks Halo Series blind bags–the green and yellow Covenant Grunts. These aren’t Grunt Ultras or Spec Ops Grunts or anything like that–they’re your plain old garden-variety Covenant Grunts. And that’s fine, because if there’s one thing everyone needs millions of, it’s mobs of grunts for Spartans to blow away. Between these two Grunts I favor the green one, but either is well-painted and will make a good army-builder. Both figures include the Halo 4 Covenant Needler, which is almost always the best choice for a weapon to arm Grunts with.

Overall: I’m more critical than your average Halo Mega Bloks collector, but I really can’t find any flaws to moan about in this first half of the Halo Mega Bloks Series 7 Mystery Packs. Every figure has value as an army-builder, looks great, and comes with a worthwhile weapon (particularly the Sentinel Beams). It’s nice to finally have a Halo Mega Bloks Noble-6 lookalike, and the purple Halo 4 Elite Zealot looks killer. I’ll review the other eight regular figures that make up Halo Mega Bloks Series 7 later this week. And remember–you can ‘Like’ Halo Toy News on Facebook to have Halo news, reviews and photos sent instantly to your Facebook Newsfeed!

GRADE: A