Just when I think there’s nothing left that MEGA Brands can really, really surprise me with their Halo Mega Bloks line, they hit me with something utterly unexpected. This time, it’s yet another Halo Wars unit I never thought would see the light of day in toy form… the UNSC Cyclops!

In a recent E-Mail sent out by MEGA Brands to the Halo Bloks Brigade, MEGA Brands shocked the Halo collecting world with a prototype no one imagined was in the works: the UNSC Cyclops. The Cyclops has only made one appearance before this–2009’s Halo Wars video game. Even so, it gained quite a following as the very first exo-suit to exist in the Halo Universe (you didn’t really think the UNSC’s first attempt at an exoskeleton mech was the UNSC Mantis, did you?).

The UNSC Cyclops is a support unit primarily used to repair other units–not a full-on attack mech like the Mantis is in Halo 4. The Cyclops was designed for mining–not combat. It’ll look great in dioramas repairing Halo Mega Bloks Rhinos and Warthogs, but don’t expect the Cyclops to annihilate the Covenant forces on the battlefield in the way that the Mantis does–it’s just not built for that.

The photos above are of prototypes of the Cyclops in a very early development stage. Don’t fret–the Halo Mega Bloks Cyclops is absolutely not getting to hit store shelves in fluorescent orange plastic (though I do love orange). Ignore the colors on the prototypes completely–the actual production Cyclops will unquestionably be in the proper UNSC green color and not anything crazy.

Halo Wars is my personal favorite Halo game ever, so I was both stunned and ecstatic to see that MEGA Brands didn’t decide to end Halo Wars’ contributions to the Halo Mega Bloks line with this year’s UNSC Rhino 97016 set. While the UNSC Cobra is still my holy grail of unreleased Halo Mega Bloks vehicles, I’m definitely excited to see the UNSC Cyclops rolling (or rather, walking) out next year.

MEGA Brands is starting to run out of fresh ideas for the small $10-$12 assortment of Halo Mega Bloks sets, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see the UNSC Cyclops as a solo ~$12 release instead of being part of a larger set.

As the photos released are still early in the developmental process and we already know the full early 2013 Halo Mega Bloks assortment, it’s not a stretch to conclude that the Halo Wars Cyclops Mega Bloks set will be part of the Halo Mega Bloks 2013 summer series of sets arriving in July or August of next year.