Before I can review the Halo Mega Bloks Booster Frame next week (spoilers: I like it more than the individual sets you get the parts for it from), I need to cover the last of the three sets needed to build the Booster Frame: the UNSC Hangar Deck. Though I’m sure I haven’t won any love from MEGA Brands with the lukewarm reception I’ve given the Halo Mega Bloks Forerunner Terminal 97170 and UNSC C&C Console 97131 in my reviews, I actually don’t have ill will toward the UNSC Hangar Deck to the extent that I expected I might…

The Right:

As with all three of these Booster Frame Halo Mega Bloks sets, my favorite part of the UNSC Hangar Deck 97133 set is the included figure. I’ve heard a little bit of hate against this particular Halo Mega Bloks Spartan on various forums (and my wife says he’s grotesque and looks like an iridescent beetle), but I really like him.

The figure included in this set is a shiny cyan EVA Spartan. I can sort of understand why some people find this type of paint deco distracting, but I think it works perfectly for the source material. The sheen of the shiny paint on the Spartan EVA figure helps it emulate the style of the CGI Spartans in the Halo Legends anime, which is the source material for the Booster Frame that is the main attraction of these Halo Mega Bloks sets. So as far as I’m concerned, the cyan Spartan Eva figure gets a thumbs up.

To my utmost shock, I also don’t totally hate the main portion of this set–the Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Hangar Deck itself. Now, I’m not saying I’m in love with it or anything, but I also don’t have the utter contempt for it that I do for the UNSC C&C Console. The Hangar Bay is nowhere near “great”, but it also isn’t godawful like the UNSC Console was.

Now, obviously this doesn’t look like a UNSC Hangar Deck, but I can accept that this little diorama piece is something you might find on a Hangar Deck. The colors are a little strange (as necessitated by the aesthetic needs of the Booster Frame), but the cylindrical gas storage drums are passable as background items you’d find in the Hangar Deck environment.

The Wrong:

First and foremost, I hate the translucent grey weapons: a Shotgun, a Socom and an SMG. I’m not going to go into a long-winded rant about why I loathe these weird intangible looking weapons–I did plenty of groaning about them in my review of the Halo Mega Bloks UNSC C&C Console 97131 last week. Suffice it to say, I dislike these smokey translucent weapons. A lot. Let’s hope they were some sort of factory mishap and we don’t have to see them in any sets going forward.

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

I got my entire Halo Mega Bloks Booster Pack Assortment from BA Toys, including the UNSC Hangar Deck. They have the Hangar Deck in-stock now for $11.99. I’ve heard some people say that this series has shown up at Target, but as of writing I haven’t seen any of the Booster Frame sets in any local retail stores yet myself.

Overall: The Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Hangar Deck 97133 falls somewhere in the middle of the scale for me as being an entirely average set. The buildable Hangar Deck diorama is easily the best of the three small environments in the Booster Frame sets, but that’s not saying much. On the flipside, while I do like the shiny EVA Spartan included in this set, it’s certainly not as compelling as the UNSC Marine Medic or the Promethean Alpha Crawler figures from the other two sets. And once again, I abhor the illogically translucent weapons included in Halo Mega Bloks 97133. If this set was being released in a vacuum I would likely have skipped it, but as it’s necessary to build the very cool Halo Mega Bloks Booster Frame, it turned into a must-buy for me for that reason alone. Overall, this set is squarely average and probably one you’re only going to want to pick up if you plan on building the UNSC Booster Frame.

GRADE: C