Of the four electronic lights and sounds Halo Mega Bloks sets that MEGA Brands unveiled at the 2013 New York Toy Fair, the 97134 Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Night Ops Gausshog was easily the one I was least interested in. Compared to the Mega Bloks Halo Wars vehicles sets (UNSC Cobra, UNSC Hornet and Covenant Vampire) and a new UNSC Pelican, a new Halo 4 Mega Bloks Warthog didn’t seem all that compelling. Well, I received my Night Ops Gausshog Mega Bloks set from BA Toys last week, and not only do I find the completed set compelling, but I can give it a wholehearted recommendation…

The Right:

The Halo Mega Bloks 97134 Night Ops Gausshog is largely a redeco of last year’s Halo Mega Bloks Warthog Resistance 97011 set. That’s not a bad thing at all, though–the Halo 4 Warthog Mega Bloks vehicle from that set was easily the best-designed Halo Mega Bloks Warthog ever. I’ve been waiting for MEGA Brands to modify that Warthog into Desert Warthog and Arctic Warthog variants, and now the first has finally arrived! (Note to MEGA Brands: Arctic Warthog using this build for January 2014, please.)

This desert variation of the Gauss Warthog came out looking very slick. The “camouflage” Mega Bloks bricks always lend themselves well to doing desert vehicles, as the black deco on the tan bricks can easily pass for dirt or battle damage. The Night Ops Gausshog vehicle looks a bit drab while you’re building it, but the decals, silver rails and red fuel canisters really break up the tan/brown color of the vehicle nicely. Visually-speaking, I think this particular Warthog variation is a lot more aesthetically-pleasing than the standard Warthog from last year’s Halo 4 Warthog Resistance set.

Before I got my Mega Bloks Halo UNSC Night Ops Gausshog 97134 in the mail, I had heard a couple people comment that they thought the mounted Gauss Cannon was too big. I was prepared for the worst–which probably caused me to be doubly impressed when I actually built the new Halo 4 Mega Bloks Gausshog and discovered that the Gauss Cannon design is absolutely perfect. MEGA Brands has completely nailed the design of the Gausshog–the turret, the Gauss cannon itself–it all looks exactly like a render from the game.

Of all the sets utilizing the controversial electronic lights and sounds features, I think that that the UNSC Night Ops Gausshog does so the best. Why? Because having lights and sounds on a Night Ops Warthog logically makes sense. The Spartans are out cruising around at night and they need to be able to see where to drive and shoot, so they turn on their headlights. It seems like a no-brainer, but it actually makes a lot more sense than the light-up nose-mounted auto-cannon on the UNSC Hornet. The lights work well and the sounds are short and sound authentic–I couldn’t ask for more from these electronic features.

In addition to the electronics, all of the standard features of this model of Mega Bloks Halo Warthog return, and work as well as always: the turret rotates a full 360 degrees, the rear bumper can be raised and lowered, the working suspension works terrific, and the fuel canisters can be removed from the back of the Warthog.

The Mega Bloks Halo 4 UNSC Night Ops Gausshog includes three figures, and two of them are all-new ones. On the UNSC side, we get two new Halo 4 green Spartans: a green Spartan Warrior figure and a green Spartan Pathfinder figure. We’ve had Mega Bloks Spartan Warrior figures before, but the Pathfinder Spartan is all-new. The Spartan Pathfinder armor permutation isn’t one of my favorites, but MEGA Brands is the only company making a Pathfinder Spartan action figure at this time, so I’m happy to have the armor represented in Mega Bloks form.

Owning the jaw-dropping, amazing Halo 4 Play Arts Kai Spartan Warrior figure has ruined me a bit for the Mega Bloks versions of that armor, but it’s nice to have a green Warrior to match the rest of the green Halo 4 Spartans corps (I mean, besides the wacky bright green SDCC 2013 exclusive Funko Green Spartan Warrior POP! Vinyl figure, which is a little “different”).

The last figure in the set is the brand-new Promethean Knight Lancer figure! MEGA Brands had an extra half a year to develop this Halo 4 Promethean Knight Lancer Mega Bloks figure, so you would expect it to be an improvement over the plain Promethean Knight figure MEGA released in January 2013–and it is.

MEGA Brands has chosen a much more fitting silver/grey as the primary color for the Knight Lancer, whereas the Halo Mega Bloks Promethean Knight from the Cauldron Clash set was cast in a more blue-grey plastic. The new silver-grey plastic looks much more authentic. The Knight mold has been retooled to accurately recreate the Knight Lancer’s spiky carapace, as well as including an all-new curved blade arm. The hard light blade arm on the Mega Bloks Knight Lancer figure is cast in the usual translucent orange plastic and looks excellent.

The Wrong:

The main feature of this set is, of course, the Gauss Cannon. And it doesn’t fit properly on the peg that attaches it to the turret. No, seriously–the hole in the plastic for the Gauss Cannon is simply too big and easily slides off the straight peg meant to hold it in place.

I managed to secure the Gauss Cannon using a space grey piece as a “cap”, but it’s ugly and falls out of place sometimes (followed by the Gauss Cannon itself falling off shortly thereafter). I don’t know if all the Halo Mega Bloks Night Ops Gausshog sets have this problem, but I’ve had several people tell me that theirs do, which really isn’t acceptable.

The Halo 4 Mega Bloks UNSC Night Ops Gausshog is $32.99 for a 239 piece set. That’s almost 14 cents per piece, which is really high for your typical Mega Bloks set. Considering that the Mega Bloks Mantis is 443 pieces–almost double–for the exact same price, and this set really doesn’t feel like the best deal. The electronic lights and sounds and the Promethean Knight Lancer help make up for the higher cost-per-piece a bit, but I still feel like this set is priced about 10% too high and should have been a maximum of $29.99.

Overall: The Halo Mega Bloks Night Ops Gausshog 97134 is a really strong set that is easily the definitive model of the Gausshog in Mega Bloks form. I felt a little burned by the higher than expected price of the set and having to slightly mod the Gauss Cannon to lock it in place, but otherwise this set is near-perfect. The electronic light-up feature makes sense, the Gauss Cannon is remarkably on-model, the Spartan Pathfinder figure adds another armor permutation to the UNSC Spartan ranks, and the Promethean Knight Lancer is a vast improvement on the first Mega Bloks Knight figure. If this set was a couple dollars cheaper it would earn an ‘A’, but as it is, the Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Night Ops Gausshog comes with a high recommendation and a ‘B+’.

GRADE: B+