Yesterday I posted my first Halo figure review in a long, long time–the McFarlane Toys Jul ‘Mdama figure. But while Jul is the only character in the set never released as a toy before, he’s not the only new Halo 4 figure I ordered online! After being spoiled by the Play Arts Kai Sarah Palmer figure two years ago, how does the McFarlane Sarah Palmer figure stack up…?
The Right:
McFarlane must have thought so, too, because they’ve righted the injustice with the Halo 4 Sarah Palmer action figure in the final series of the line! Thanks, Todd!
If you got the Halo 4 Series 2 Spartan Scout figure with orange armor last year, then you know exactly what to expect from Sarah Palmer. This figure is a 100% repaint, which makes you wonder why McFarlane ever opted for a generic Scout Spartan action figure to be released before Palmer in the first place!
The Commander Sarah Palmer figure is covered in exquisite sculpting detail, with panel lines and bumps and crevices all over every millimeter of her armor.
For the paint deco, there’s an incredible paint wash that brings out every detail of Palmer’s armor. The sheer amount of paint passes on this figure goes well beyond what you’d get on a $15 action figure from any other toy manufacturer these days. I’ll be complaining about the color chosen shortly, but the actual paintwork is masterfully done (as always).
McFarlane Toys has been ludicrously cheap when it comes to weapons in the Halo 4 action figure line, as basically every figure comes with one (or no) weapons, no matter how small the weapon may be.
Thankfully, the McFarlane Toys Commander Sarah Palmer figure breaks that trend. Palmer comes with dual Magnums–her signature weapon–and both are molded in an appropriate silver paint. Good job!
The Wrong:
It looks more like Sarah Palmer has covered herself in clay than in metal armor, honestly. Square-Enix definitely got it right with the Play Arts Kai Sarah Palmer when it comes to Palmer’s armor color–this is a rare instance where the McFarlane paint choice just doesn’t hold up.
And speaking of not holding up, that’s exactly how I feel about the antiquated articulation that Sarah Palmer has. While she has 27 points of articulation built in, the terrible hip range of motion severely limits the poses you can get Palmer into.
Limited lower-body flexibility may have been passable when this figure’s body was developed three years ago, but it doesn’t make the cut today. Again–I hope to see serious improvements for the McFarlane Halo 5 Guardians figures.
Also, be careful with the Magnums–Palmer’s hands are made of such a stiff plastic that they can warp or ruin the guns easily. The handle on one of my Magnums broke the second time I tried to gently wrestle it into her right hand.
Overall: Thousands of Halo collectors are going to be very, very happy to get a super-detailed Spartan Sarah Palmer action figure that doesn’t cost them over $100, and the figure itself is decent enough.
The Palmer figure features a ton of sculpting and paint detailing and the two Magnums are a great inclusion, but I just can’t get past the off-putting light grey armor and outdated articulation scheme. The McFarlane Toys Halo 4 Sarah Palmer figure is worth the $15 it costs online right now, but it falls far short of being one of my favorite Halo toys.
GRADE: C+
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I had a few gripes with the figure, myself:
1. The biggest one for me was the paint job. Your figure seems to have an okay paint job, judging by your remarks and pictures. Mine, on the other hand, features pretty much a clean, white paint job that’s been just globbed over by this kind of silvery metallic wash that’s been applied VERY unevenly. It’s so bad that there are spots on the armor where this metallic paint is applied so thickly that it obscures the red decos on Palmer’s armor, and yet there are other spots where there is such little of this metallic paint that the white layer underneath shows through. I’ve never seen such an uneven paint job on a McFarlane Halo figure before. I should also mentioned that there are a few parts of this metallic paint on my figure that actually noticeably spill over onto the figure’s undersuit. It just looks horrid. I was REALLY upset about the paint job on this one, myself. But it looks like I simply had a different experience than you.
2. Being simply a repaint of an older figure, they haven’t improved the sculpt at all. This means that Palmer – a woman – has a bunch of boyish features on this figure. While she isn’t the pinnacle of a womanly figure in-game, she did at least look like a woman in-armor, thanks to some shaped hips and bigger “assets” in certain places than male Spartans. This figure does the character’s body shape a disservice, in my opinion, and so it’s a really inferior sculpt.
3. The Pistols on mine don’t even seem to be painted. And, in fact, they are such cheap and brittle plastic that, when I place the figure next to even a faint light source, I can pretty much see right through her weapons.
4. I also really hate the poor hip articulation, but my figure also featured that old knee problem the Scout figure previously had. For shame.
5. Additionally, one of my figure’s knee joints is broken – so loose that the leg is literally floppy. And, to make it worse, one of my figure’s wrist joints popped right off when I was trying to put the Pistol in her hand. Not sure what caused that, but now I have a handless poorly-painted boy-looking Palmer figure that can’t stand up properly.
Yeah, I was pretty disappointed with my figure. Some of it reminded me of the poor quality of the old Halo 3 figures.
I seriously cannot agree more. The figure is clearly a male Spartan and that’s just disappointing. The best thing they’ve ever done was make a unique sculpting for Kat on Noble Team and I was desperately crossing my fingers for the same treatment here. What irks me the most is that she’s going to be taller than Master Chief since for some reason these Halo 4 Spartan 4 figures are huge.
Mcfarlane you gotta step it up, I understand the money problems, but right now this figure falls short in comparison to the SpruKits version. I bought that for it’s super pose able body, detail, and proper proportions! The paint on this figure though is good, I can understand why they chose a flat paint, I think the Play Arts Kai figure is more inaccurate since her armor wasn’t gleaming silver. This figure could use more silver dry brush though.
When is the review of Thorne coming up? I’m assuming you really did buy all three in the pack right?? I need to know!! And I really need to know if the color matches “Paul Demarco’s” Figure from Series 1 🙂
I know I’m several months late, but in addition to what everyone has already said: You have to bend the Magnum triggers for her to hold them properly. Additionally, her visor is just a solid light blue, so it does not have any chromatic range like the ingame lighting would have it. That’s odd since even the Master Chief figure has some reflection and gradient to it.