The Halo Flame Warthog skin was a DLC bonus only available to Halo fans who pre-ordered the Halo Wars video game way back in 2009. Half a decade later, the Flame Warthog DLC codes are extremely scarce and regularly sell for $30+ on the aftermarket. But as cool as the in-game Halo Wars Flame Warthog is, thanks to MEGA Brands, now you can own something even better for less than the cost of the Flame Warthog DLC code: the Summer/Fall 2014 Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Flame Warthog 97449!

The Right:

It seems like just yesterday, but it was actually almost two years ago that I wrote my review of the Halo Mega Bloks Warthog Resistance set (one of my best reviews ever, if I do say so myself). In that review I basically raved about how spectacular the new Halo Mega Bloks Halo 4 Warthog vehicle was.

And you know what? It still is. That Warthog holds up today, and after being retooled for last year’s great UNSC Night Ops Gausshog, it’s back again–this time reincarnated as the Halo Wars Mega Bloks Flame Warthog!

As Halo Wars is beyond a doubt my favorite Halo video game, this and the new UNSC Elephant (which is a Halo Wars-like style) were the Summer 2014 Halo Wars sets I was anticipating the most. And to my eternal gratitude, MEGA Brands sent me an early copy of the Mega Bloks Halo UNSC Flame Warthog 97449 set to review. Thanks, MEGA!

To manage expectations, this Halo Mega Bloks Flame Warthog 97449 is almost completely a recolor of the UNSC Warthog first introduced in 2012. But in the interest of accuracy, MEGA Brands has made some changes to the Warthog so that it’s not just a repaint.

The working tailgate has been removed from the Flame Warthog completely, there are no fuel canisters included whatsoever, and the shield surrounding the machine gun turret is completely different from that of the Halo 4 Warthog.

One thing that could have really ruined this Mega Bloks Halo Flame Warthog for me would have been if MEGA Brands had chosen to have the flames on the vehicle be cheap decals. It would have likely been impossible to get them aligned properly, and I have had a few problems with decal stickers on Mega Bloks sets over the years.

Thankfully, that is not an issue here. The Flame Warthog Halo Mega Bloks 97449 set’s flame deco is actually printed directly onto the pieces, that make up the front of the Flaming Warthog, and the deco looks fantastic. Rather than looking unnatural and pristine, MEGA Brands made sure that the flame design has little spots of wear and tear on it to show that this is a battle-used vehicle. As far as the flame deco goes, this Halo Mega Bloks Flame Warthog is a rousing success.

Pretty much everything else about this Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Flame Warthog is the same as the original Mega Bloks Halo 4 Warthog–same working suspension, same 360 degrees rotating turret platform (though the turret itself has been slightly modified)–just in different, more Halo Wars-appropriate colors. The Halo 4 Mega Bloks Warthog vehicle was already essentially perfect, so there’s no reason to mess much with the recipe here. Good work, MEGA Brands.

I know some people will complain that we’re due for a Missile/Rocket Launcher Warthog, but that simply wasn’t a possibility this time out: in order to be authentic to the Warthogs in Halo Wars, Rockethogs were not an option, as they didn’t appear in the game. Hopefully we’ll see an Arctic Rockethog in 2015 (*hint hint*, MEGA!).

MEGA Brands must have been feeling generous when they put together this set, because you get three weapons to go with the two included Spartan figures! The Tactical Shotgun and SAW Machine Gun are always welcome additions, but the big winner here is the Target Locator. McFarlane Toys only released the Halo Target Locator weapon with one figure ever, and the Target Locator has only appeared twice before in Halo Mega Bloks form. Nothing like a rare weapon to get your blood pumping!

And of course, I need to talk about the two Halo Mega Bloks 2014 Spartans included with this set–the much talked-about super-articulated, removable armor Spartan figures. The set includes a Gold Spartan Grenadier figure and a Crimson Spartan Grenadier figure.

MEGA Brands already made 2″ action figures superior to every other action figure company in existence, and these just up the ante further. The new articulation on the figures gives them new ball-jointed hinge shoulder joints, which allows for a vastly-increased range of motion.

I never expected to see the day when a line of 2″ Halo figures would surpass my 1980’s G.I. Joe figures in articulation, but that day has come! Once you play with the improved articulation Halo Spartans, you’ll never be able to go back to the old ones. Time to Spartan army-build again!

The removable armor allows you to customize the Spartans to look however you want (although you may not necessarily want to mix these Spartans–more on that later), a feature long coveted by fans. McFarlane did a fun job with this in their McFarlane Halo Reach line, but I never thought I’d see MEGA Brands take that concept and do it even better.

Once we start to accumulate a whole army of Spartans to customize with, Halo collectors are going to have a blast making their own custom Spartans in Halo Mega Bloks figure form.

The Wrong:

My only real disappointment with this set is that the Gold GUNGNIR Spartan figure shown on the packaging is actually a different color altogether from the one included. Instead of being yellow, it’s actually a yellowish-orange Gold GUNGNIR Spartan.

I went back and looked at my Toy Fair 2014 Flame Warthog Mega Bloks set photos, and sure enough, the Spartan GUNGNIR was gold at the show too. It’s actually just a mistake on the box photos for the set, but I’m surprised it wasn’t corrected before this set hit mass production.

Ordinarily I wouldn’t mind getting a Gold Spartan instead of a Yellow Spartan, but in this specific case, it means the two Halo Mega Bloks GUNGNIR Spartan figures that come with the set look really ugly when you mix their armor together. Maroon and yellow Spartans would have looked way, way better with their armor mixed up than the maroon and gold Spartan figures do.

I’m also going to gripe a little–just a little–about the price on this set. As the UNSC Flame Warthog itself is almost completely a recolor of an old item, and this set only includes 207 pieces total, I think the $24.99 price-tag is a couple bucks too high.

I stand by 10 cents per piece as my “sweet spot” for these sets, and at 12 cents per piece, the Halo Mega Bloks 97449 set falls just a bit over the limit of what I would consider to be a strong value.

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

I haven’t heard of the UNSC Flame Warthog being spotted in any physical retail stores yet, but if you can’t wait for it, the Halo Mega Bloks Flame Warthog is now available for order online (along with most of the other Summer/Fall 2014 Halo Mega Bloks sets)!

Overall: The Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Flame Warthog 97449 is a fun and worthy recolor of the Halo 4 Mega Bloks Warthog. If you already own the 2012 or 2013 UNSC Warthog sets, you know exactly what you’re getting here. That’s not at all a bad thing, though: the Halo Mega Bloks Halo 4
-style Warthog is an all-around excellent Warthog model that’s as good today as it was two years ago.

For Halo Wars fans, this is an amazing collector’s item and a version of the Warthog that I don’t think any of us ever expected to see realized in toy form. The new super-articulated Spartan figures are excellent (though I could do without the ugly Gold GUNGNIR Spartan), and I’m psyched to finally have another Halo Mega Bloks Target Locator. This is a solid set that I absolutely recommend to anyone who has the slightest bit of attachment to or nostalgia for the Halo Wars Flame Warthog. Recommended.

GRADE: A-