In late winter 2013, intel leaked that MEGA Brands was working on a newly themed series of Halo Mega Bloks sets featuring original designs not seen in the Halo video games. Dubbed Halo Mega Bloks ONI REAP-X, the line features vehicles reverse-engineered from Covenant technology. This sounded like a superb, innovative idea to me, and I’ve been looking forward to seeing the fruits of this idea. Finally, the first of these original vehicles has been released: the Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Siege Bike 97116!

The Right:

The biggest achievement of this little Hall Mega Bloks set is that it is literally filled with new stuff. The UNSC Siege Bike itself is all new, and both figures included with the set are brand new releases. For a value-priced set, MEGA Brands had packed it chock full of stuff that Mega Bloks Halo fans will want.

The UNSC Siege Bike vehicle isn’t much a build–it can easily be completed in about 10 minutes or less with no problems. I was careless and didn’t follow the instructions carefully, and as a result I broke a peg inside the body of the Siege Bike Mega Bloks vehicle, but that’s due to my own hubris and not any flaw in the set instructions (which are clear as can be–I’m just overconfident).

The bike itself is wildly fun, and reminds me of something you might have seen during the glory days of G.I. Joe in the 1980’s. Whatever shortcomings this bike may have (and there are some), it is most definitely stylish and cool. I really like the colors on the bike, and the printed “REAP-X” on the side of the bike was a welcome surprise–my OCD self loathes applying decals.

The Siege Bike’s sole weapon is a side-mounted machine gun, which is a more interesting build than I expected and which looks pretty deadly. The Mega Bloks Siege Bike also has a kickstand that supports it perfectly when resting.

The two figures included with the 97116 Halo Mega Bloks Siege Bike are a Cobalt Spartan CIO and an Active Camo Grunt Storm. The CIO Spartan armor permutation is one of my most-wanted new armors from Halo 4, and I’m psyched to finally own a Spartan CIO figure (what with the McFarlane CIO Spartan figure being delayed for close to a year now).

Both sculpts are very detailed and well-done, though the darker paints on the CIO Spartan make it harder to see all of the fine sculpting on the Spartan CIO Mega Bloks figure than on the set box.

The set also includes a small Forerunner beacon. It’s a very small and inconsequential build, but it makes for a nice little piece of terrain for the Halo Mega Bloks Active Camo Covenant Storm Grunt to hide behind when sneaking up on the UNSC Spartan CIO figure.

The Wrong:

I had the unique experience over the weekend of building two singular tread vehicles: the Halo Mega Bloks UNSC Siege Bike 97116 and the LEGO Corporate Alliance Tank Droid. The Tank Droid’s tread construction was shockingly fun, as you assemble it via attaching five dozen individual pieces of tread track. Afterward, the tread can roll freely very well on the floor.

Meanwhile, the UNSC Siege Bike ONI REAP-X tread is one solid piece of bendy rubber. You can sort of make it rotate, but it doesn’t really work well (and I’m not sure it’s designed to do so at all). There’s about a $10 price difference between the two, but the Siege Bike is a bit of a downer after the huge fun factor of the new 2013 LEGO Tank Droid.

Moreover, the logistics of how the Halo Mega Bloks Siege Bike can function at all are absolutely baffling to me. The way that the UNSC Siege Bike is constructed, the physics just don’t make any sense–the bike simply should not be able to turn or change direction in any way. I was hoping the box text would shine some light on this mystery, but no such luck.

And while I’m always giddy to get a new type of Mega Bloks Grunt, I’d be lying if I sad I was happy about getting a non-canon clear Active Camo Covenant Grunt Storm figure. Maybe MEGA Brands has some research group data saying that people want a billion Active Camo figures–even ones that don’t make sense–but I’m sure sick of them being thrown into set after set this year.

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

I just received my ONI Reap-X Siege Bike Mega Bloks set over the weekend from BA Toys. They previously thought the set would be delayed until August 2013, but MEGA Brands speed-delivered them a special shipment. I expect it’ll be a few weeks before the UNSC Siege Bike is available in other stores.

Overall: Given my laundry list of complaints, you might think I hate the UNSC Siege Bike Halo Mega Bloks set. That’s not the case. I love that MEGA Brands is working toward original designs, and the Siege Bike is a very cool design (despite the irreconcilable physics issues with it). While the colors picked for the two figures aren’t to my liking, I’m thrilled that MEGA now has Storm Grunt and Spartan CIO molds to fall back on, and I’m sure we’ll get versions painted to my liking soon enough. Overall, the Halo Mega Bloks 97116 ONI REAP-X Siege Bike is a fun, creative set that I find clever and enjoyable despite its drawbacks. If you’re not a stickler for all your Halo toys being canonical to the games, it’s definitely worth adding to your collection.

GRADE: B