It’s been literally years since McFarlane Toys released an entire series of new Halo figures containing more than three new figures, but the drought is at an end and the long-awaited Halo 5: Guardians figures have arrived! And what better character to begin the reviews with than the new protagonist of Halo 5–Agent Locke! The new McFarlane Spartan Locke figure is now available online and in some stores–but is he everything I hoped he would be? Well… not exactly…

The Right:

There was an era when I considered McFarlane Toys figures to be overpriced compared to collector figures from mass-market companies such as Mattel and Hasbro. Those days are gone–and then some!

Whereas typical Mattel and Hasbro figures retail for $20 each now, McFarlane has drawn their line in the sand at $12-$14, and for that, I applaud them. Not everyone can afford to drop $120 for six action figures, and I’m glad you can still get a half-dozen McFarlane figures for around 80 bucks.

And hey, McFarlane has finally given in and is now giving us two guns per Spartan: it’s a miracle! Not only does the Spartan Locke McFarlane figure include a rifle (with some nice paint deco on it), but he comes with a Magnum pistol as well. Hallelujah!

Of course, I haven’t really talked about the Spartan Locke figure itself yet. From a sculpting perspective, he is absolutely everything you would expect from a McFarlane Halo figure: namely, immensely detailed with tons of textures all over the body.

No matter what angle you’re looking at this Locke action figure from–front, back, side, overhead view, whatever–there are a multitude of sculpting details that jump out at you.

Considering that these Halo 5 Guardians figures cost less than what many stores are charging for vastly less-detailed Star Wars 3 3/4″ figures, these Halo action figures are a tremendous value in this day and age.

The Wrong:

While the price on Halo figures hasn’t really gone up much since the days of the epic Halo Reach figures, the articulation sure hasn’t gone up either. In fact, it’s gone down.  You’ll notice that in my photos, Locke isn’t doing much besides standing around. That’s because he physically can’t do much besides stand around.

The McFarlane Toys Halo 5: Guardians Spartan Locke figure’s upper-body articulation is halfway-decent, but far from perfect. He badly needs some sort of waist joint, and his shoulder joints simply don’t have a large enough range of motion to take on most fun firing poses.

The lower-body articulation on the Spartan Locke figure is appallingly bad, with Locke’s hips and knees having absurdly slight ranges of motion. Other than being posed slowly walking or just standing straight up, there’s basically no way to pose the McFarlane Locke. Hugely disappointing.

In addition, I’m not at all sold on the colors that McFarlane Toys chose for Locke. He looks far too greenish blue to me and not nearly enough silver or grey. Maybe this color scheme will be spot-on in-game, but from the promotional artwork and trailers I’ve seen, I’m not convinced.

The Ridiculous:

Weak plastic and brittle weapons have been an issue with the McFarlane Halo figures since day one, and after all these years they still are. I broke Fred’s rifle just trying to gently place it into his hands, and I’ve heard numerous reports of others having rifles break because of cheap plastic. I was able to glue the rifle back together, but you can still see the faint breakage lines. And that’s besides the point–by now, the quality on these guns should have been improved. Shame, McFarlane!

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that none of the Spartans’ hands have a trigger finger, making it impossible to get the figures to hold their rifles properly without customizing them the old-fashioned way (with a sharp blade).

Overall: It breaks my heart to start off my Halo 5 McFarlane figure review series with a negative review, but this Agent Locke figure is just not very good. The sculpting on Locke is incredibly detailed–and the price is definitely right–but his ludicrously poor articulation scheme, cheap accessories and questionable colors drain all the life out of this “toy”.

As much as I want to love this Spartan Locke action figure, it’s a major disappointment: I’ll be waiting with great anticipation for the Play Arts Kai Halo 5 Spartan Locke figure next year to replace this one.

GRADE: D+