The 2009 Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Hornet was one of the very first Halo Mega Bloks sets that I ever built, so getting to build and hold an all-new Hornet as part of the Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Hornet vs. Covenant Vampire set makes me go all warm and nostalgic inside. Of course, then I think back to the 2009 version and how it would explode in my hands just from being touched slightly too hard, and my blood runs cold. The original UNSC Hornet from way back when was ultimately a major disappointment to me–can the new version avoid the same fate?

The Right:

In case it wasn’t clear from my lead-in, the original Mega Bloks Halo UNSC Hornet toy from 2009 had some real issues. It was one of the first Halo Mega Bloks sets ever released, MEGA Brands hadn’t hit their stride yet, and like most of the first sets, the Hornet was prone to just randomly falling apart for no particular reason. It wasn’t MEGA Brands’ best set.

But that’s okay, because MEGA has swooped in to the rescue and are revisiting the UNSC Hornet as part of Fall 2013 Halo Mega Bloks wave, intent on correcting their mistakes of the past. I just received my order for the remainder of the Halo Mega Bloks 2013 sets from BA Toys, and I decided to dig in to the UNSC Hornet first and see how much MEGA has improved.

The new Hornet makes up one half of the new 97123 Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Hornet versus Covenant Vampire set. It took me a couple hours to build the UNSC Hornet portion of the set, but that was largely because I had a difficult time sorting through the enormous pile of 684 pieces I had from the two vehicle combined. The build itself is fairly straight-forward, as long as you’re careful and keep the green and grey pieces separated. I made a couple really stupid errors and it ended up greatly increasing my build time, as I had to disassembled portions of the Hornet and then reassemble it.

Unlike the old Hornet, the new Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Hornet 2013 edition is as sturdy as you can possibly imagine. How sturdy is it? I tripped and sent it crashing to the ground while walking around outside and it didn’t break–at all. The original Hornet would have been in dozens of pieces after a fall like that, so it’s a huge accomplishment that this one is so durable and well-designed.

The much talked-about lights and sound gimmick of the UNSC Hornet isn’t bad at all–it’s not the kind of thing that I’m going to activate very often, but the nonegun on the Hornet looks good enough that I forget it’s got a “kiddie” gimmick integrated into it.

The sliding cockpit hatch on the 2013 Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Hornet is simple, elegant, and effectively implemented. It’s so rare that vehicles from LEGO or MEGA Brands come with hatches that work as smoothly as this one instead of just flipping upwards to open. It’s really a joy to open and close the cockpit hatch on this new Mega Bloks Hornet (I can’t believe I just said that).

The wings and the turbines of the new UNSC Hornet vehicle have a wide range of poseability, and the stickers included with the set add a ton of color and detail to the UNSC Hornet Halo Mega Bloks remake. This is another green UNSC vehicle, but thanks to the wide variety of decals included with the set, it appears very well-decorated and doesn’t look plain or drab at all.

The Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Hornet vs. Covenant Vampire 97123 set includes six total Halo figures, but today I’ll be focusing on the three Mega Bloks Spartan figures included. I’ll discuss the Covenant figures in Part 2 of this review, alongside the Covenant Vampire. Of the three Spartan Mega Bloks figure we get in this set, two are brand-new Spartan armor permutations and absolute must-haves.

The Halo 4 Spartan Engineer design looked sort of silly to me in-game and a little bit too “horror movie” for my tastes, but the Halo Mega Bloks Engineer Spartan has changed my mind completely on the Spartan Engineer armor. The green Spartan Engineer Mega Bloks figure looks both cool and intimidating.

The other new Spartan figure included with Halo Mega Bloks 97123 is the red (maroon) Spartan Recruit figure. It’s a good-looking armor, but not all that unique looking compared to some of the more wacky Halo 4 armor permutations. I’m surprised MEGA Brands opted for a red Recruit Spartan instead of green, as now the Halo 4 Spartan Recruit is one of the only Halo 4 Mega Bloks Spartans that isn’t available in green. I would assume we’ll get a green Spartan Recruit from the Halo Mega Bloks 2014 sets, but who knows?

The Wrong:

The third figure included in the Halo Mega Bloks 97123 UNSC Hornet vs. Covenant Vampire set is a Green Spartan Soldier figure. Uh, wait a minute. Didn’t we just get this figure at the start of the year with the Halo Mega Bloks Cauldron Clash set I reviewed during the winter…?

Yes. Yes, we did. The new green Spartan Soldier Mega Bloks figure has slightly lighter green paint, but it’s such a minor change that it doesn’t really feel warranted. I would have much rather gotten an orange or violet Spartan Soldier, so I’m pretty disappointed to get stuck with another Spartan Soldier that’s almost (but not quite) a total repeat. It’s a good thing that MEGA chose to include a Spartan Soldier figure with this set, though, because…

As ridiculous and unbelievable as this is going to sound, the Spartan Recruit and Spartan Engineer figures are too fat to fit in the UNSC Hornet’s cockpit. No, really–I’m not kidding. Their bulky armor on their legs makes their lower bodies barely too wide, and as a result, they absolutely cannot in any way fit in the seat of the UNSC Hornet. The Spartan Soldier fits perfect, thankfully, but the decision to include two-thirds of the figures in this vehicle set that don’t fit in the vehicle is a really bizarre one.

Also, I really wish a flight stand was included with this set. I stole the one out from my Covenant Seraph to take photos with and it works great, but I really wish MEGA Brands could have found a way to budget in a few more pieces of clear plastic for this set so the Hornet and/or Vampire would have some way of being displayed in flight.

Overall: The 2013 Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Hornet is quite literally superior to the 2009 Hornet Mega Bloks vehicle in every conceivable way. More and better features, vastly improved stability, far more advanced engineering, better included figures–the works. It’s a bit annoying that two of the three Spartan figures included with this set don’t fit in the cockpit, and I would have liked a flight stand, but otherwise this is a magnificent (half of a) set. If you’re a fan of Halo Wars or just like the look of the UNSC Hornet, you will absolutely not be disappointed in the one included in the Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Hornet versus Covenant Vampire 97123 set.

GRADE: A-