Halo 4 fans had to wait a full year for it to happen, but the first Halo 4 Kig-Yar figure finally started to arrive in stores recently! I received my first pair of Halo 4 Storm Jackals in the mail from my Halo 4 Series 2 Amazon order last week, and I finally had a chance to free them from their plastic prisons today. The Jackal figures that McFarlane Toys has produced over the years have been of varying levels of quality–but how does this one fare? Read on for the full Halo 4 Series 2 Jackal Storm review…

The Right:

Of all the Covenant species in the Halo 4 video game, the Kig-Yar (Jackals) received the most drastic overhaul visually. I wasn’t at all a fan of the new Halo 4 Jackals at first, but over time I mellowed on the new look for the Jackals–now I actually sort of prefer it over their original look.

McFarlane Toys has done a magnificent job of capturing the new Halo 4 Storm Jackals in plastic form. The sculpting on this figure is a 100% new sculpt, and looks outstanding all around. The grooves and contours on the Jackal’s armor and the scaliness of his skin are standout features, and I particularly love the variety of different textures along with Jackal Storm’s head.

I’m sure the tooling bill for this Halo 4 action figure wasn’t cheap, but McFarlane Toys went all-out with a super-detailed and unique sculpt regardless–and it really shows in the quality of the sculpt.

A recurring problem with McFarlane Toys’ forays into making Halo Jackals and Skirmishers has been the perpetual inability of these figures to stand up stably. Well, McFarlane has addressed this issue two-fold with the release of the Halo 4 Storm Jackal figure.

First, this Halo Storm Jackal figure has been engineered such that he can stand better than any McFarlane Jackal Halo figure I’ve had before. I wouldn’t say he’s “stable” by a longshot, but I had more success getting this Jackal Storm action figure to stand than any previous Halo Jackal action figure.

Secondly (and more importantly), McFarlane Toys packed a small, circular figure stand with the Jackal Storm action figure. It’s black and very unobtrusive, and best of all–it really works! Utilizing the figure stand, the Halo 4 Series 2 Jackal Storm figure can stand up a hundred times better than he can without it.

The 2013 Halo 4 Storm Jackal figure includes one weapon: the Halo 4 Covenant Carbine. The Carbine has been authentically replicated with ample sculpting detail, and has a suitable amount of blue and shiny purple paint deco over the black mold. Very nice work by McFarlane Toys on one of the staple weapons of the Covenant army.

I haven’t talked much about the Halo 4 DLC codes included with the McFarlane Toys Halo 4 Series 2 action figures much yet in the reviews of the series, but the Storm Jackal Halo 4 Series 2 figure is a perfect example of why these codes are a terrific idea.

Traditionally Jackals have been a tough sell in the various Halo figures assortments they’ve appeared in, which has made it a bit harder for McFarlane Toys to make more Jackals. But if Halo 4 fans want to unlock the very cool Halo 4 Engage Carbine skin, they’re going to have to buy the Jackal Storm action figure (like it or not). Will the DLC Halo 4 codes make the McFarlane Storm Jackal a fast-seller? We’ll have to wait and see–but the codes certainly can’t hurt.

The Wrong:

As nice as the sculpt and most of the deco on the Storm Jackal figure are, the figure still suffers from some very awkward design choices. For one, the Halo 4 Jackal Storm figure only has head articulation at the base of his neck, meaning that you have to move his entire huge head sharply to make the Jackal look around. This looks alright when the Jackal is looking to its left, but when you try to have him look right the restrictive articulation really hiders the aesthetic of the figure.

The Halo Storm Jackal’s head honestly looks better turned upside-down in a full 360 than it does looking “naturally” to his right, and that’s just sad.

While the Series 2 Halo 4 Jackal Storm action figure can stand up better than his predecessors, he still doesn’t do so very well at all. His lower-body articulation still feels “off” and overly clumsy, and it results in the figure still only standing up in very limited poses when not utilizing his stand. I can feel his leg joints getting looser each time I pose the Jackal, and I’m already getting concerned that he won’t be able to stand unassisted without his figure stand very soon.

Perhaps most annoying about the Halo 4 Series 2 Storm Jackal action figure, however, is the fact that his ability to hold his brand-new Covenant Carbine is pretty pathetic. I’m not saying it’s impossible to get the Storm Jackal holding the Carbine, but his grip is always tenuous at best, and getting a pose you like with the weapon is a real pain in the neck. McFarlane Toys had close to an extra year
To perfect the articulation on this figure and his ability to grasp his weapon–I think they could have done a little better than the result.

The Ridiculous:

This has no bearing on the grade for this figure, but this is the first time in my 30 years of collecting action figures that I’ve ever seen a toy company tie hard plastic twist ties around a figure itself instead of tying the figure to the packaging. I don’t know what McFarlane Toys is trying to accomplish by tying the Storm Jackal figure’s legs together, but it’s annoying, a waste of plastic, and a procedure that could possibly damage the figure itself. Ridiculous.

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

I got my Halo 4 Series 2 action figures from Amazon for $14.99 each plus no tax and free shipping. Regular stores like Target and Walmart aren’t expected to carry any of Halo 4 Series 2 at this time, but Toys R Us and (maybe) Gamestop may have the figures in-stock at some point soon.

Overall: In some ways the long-awaited Halo 4 Series 2 Jackal Storm figure by McFarlane Toys is downright amazing, and in some ways he is irritatingly aggravating. The sculpting on the Storm Jackal Halo 4 action figure is excellent, the paint deco makes the quality of the sculpt really stand out, the new Covenant Carbine looks great, and the free Halo 4 DLC codes should keep the Jackal from warming the shelves at the few stores that carry Halo 4 Wave 2. On the obnoxious side, the McFarlane Storm Jackal figure does a poor job of handling his Carbine and has some awkward and uninspired articulation built-in. This is likely the only Halo 4 Jackal figure that will ever be put out in the scale, so I’m glad that I bought several, but this figure falls just short of being as outstanding as it had the groundwork to be.