If there’s one vehicle I’ve whined, griped, and complained about being left out of the Halo Mega Bloks line ever since the line’s inception in 2009, it’s the UNSC Cobra. Once considered my “holy grail” Halo Mega Bloks vehicle, it’s not going to be a dream for much longer. At the 2013 Toy Fair in New York City (and then via the official Halo Mega Bloks Facebook page), MEGA Brands finally showed off the early prototype of a Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Cobra from the Halo Wars video game…

If you’ve read this blog for long, then you know that my favorite Halo video game–bar none–is Halo Wars. The real-time strategy game Halo Wars, by the now-defunct Ensemble Studos, is the video game that spawned the entire Halo Mega Bloks toy line (which began as “Halo Wars Mega Bloks”).

MEGA Brands granted us many of the unique Halo Wars units like the UNSC Hawk, UNSC Gremlin, and Covenant Locust within the first year of the line, and has been gradually releasing other Halo Wars-exclusive vehicles over the years, like last year’s UNSC Rhino 97016 and the upcoming UNSC Cyclops sets.

Even so, the vehicle that I’ve been crying for the absolute most is one of the most forgotten (and probably one of the most difficult to execute) units, the UNSC Cobra. The Special Purpose-42 Main Battle Tank (AKA Cobra) is both a mobile anti-vehicle tank armed with light rail guns as well as a devastating stationary artillery piece. When in its immobile lockdown mode, the Cobra can fire an explosive artillery shell that will instantly obliterate almost any enemy vehicle.

I was honestly feeling pretty pessimistic about MEGA Brands ever releasing a Halo Mega Bloks Cobra, but they’ve come through for Halo Wars collectors yet again. The prototype on display at the New York Toy Fair 2013 is extremely early and has room for lots of improvement (it seems a tad too small and I don’t understand how the stationary turret is going to be implemented from the prototype), but for the moment, I’m just ecstatic to see that my most-wanted unmade Halo vehicle will finally be making its way to toy store shelves later in 2013.