It has been literally years since I reviewed a Halo action figure, and I really didn’t anticipate that I would ever be interested enough to review one again. But Wicked Cool Toys (now owned by Jazwares) had a surprise showing of Halo action figures at New York Toy Fair 2020 that caught my eye, and when I heard about the new figures hitting stores, the fever overcame me and I ended up scooping up most of the first wave. Here’s my review of the 6” Halo The Spartan Collection Kat figure from Halo: Reach…

The Right:

After spending years voraciously consuming whatever Halo action figures were plopped in front of me by McFarlane Toys and then Mattel, my Halo collecting light just about burnt out when a combination of things happened: 1) Halo 5 came out and the story was unforgivably atrocious; 2) Mattel’s Halo line was a complete disaster with awful distribution and a customizable armor gimmick that totally sucked; and 3) Halo Mega Bloks stopped innovating and started stagnating, rehashing the same half dozen UNSC vehicles over and over.

In short, I didn’t expect I’d be able to garner enough enthusiasm to ever write another review—but here we are. Win for Jazwares. Let’s take a look at Kat and see how she turned out…

Thumbs up to WickedCoolToys/Jazwares on the box packaging. This is what fans expect to see for successful 6” figure lines at this price-point such as Star Wars The Black Series and Marvel Legends, and this is what the Halo Spartan Collection delivers. Packaging type-wise, this is a win.

The back of the box details what’s included and shows off the other figures in the range. A character bio might be nice, but this is fine as-is.

Once you loose Kat-B320 from her plastic prison, you can see her full load out, which includes both helmeted and unhelmeted heads, an M6V Spartan Laser, an M6G Magnum and six interchangeable hands. This is an impressive amount of extras compared to what you generally get with a $20 MSRP six inch figure.

I had heard some complaints from Halo collectors who found the new figures before me that these Spartan Collection figures looked too plain, so I was fearing a calamity of fully-unpainted plastic armor like what we got from Mattel. Thankfully, this is not the case (although I will admit that the unhelmeted head for Catherine is more than a little terror-inducing).

There’s subtle silver weathering throughout Kat’s Spartan armor that I think looks great. It’s not overwhelming, and it’s enough to show that she’s also not squeaky clean. Vast improvement from Mattel’s offerings, and really not that far from being on-par from some of the McFarlane Halo Spartans.

The proportions of Spartan Kat seem dead-on perfect to me, including the cybernetic right arm. I’m pleased Jazwares was willing to invest in tooling up a unique robot arm in this first wave, and the Air Assault helmet looks likewise great. Praise-worthy sculpting effort to be sure. It’s also worth mentioning you can scratch off the paint on Kat’s visor to reveal a chrome visor underneath, although I actually prefer the silver painted look myself.

Perhaps the best thing about this figure is the articulation scheme. Simply put, Catherine-B320 is the most fun to pose mass release Halo action figure I’ve ever bought. While McFarlane Toys’ Halo figures were gorgeous, they were close to bricks as far as posing potential went. And Mattel’s Spartans could barely move without chunks of armor falling off. But finally, WCT/Jazwares gives Halo fans the super-poseable Spartans they’ve been waiting for.

The complete articulation scheme includes:

Ball-Jointed Head and Upper Torso
Ball-Hinge Shoulder
Swivel Left Bicep
Swivel-Hinge Wrists
Ball-Jointed Hips
Swivel Thighs
Double-Hinged Knees and Elbows
Hinged Feet with Ankle Rockers
Hinged Toes

There’s a huge range of motion on the hip joints, which is a total game-changer for posing when combined with the essential ankle rockers. In fact, the range of motion is excellent everywhere. You would almost thing this is a perfect figure, if not for…

The Wrong:

I’ve gushed about this Spartan Kat action figure quite a bit so far, but here’s where my enjoyment smashes into a brick wall: quality control. As good as this figure is, there are serious QC issues that really take a lot of wind out of my sails.

I had heard the quality might not be the greatest on these figures prior to buying them, and when I took Kat out of the package and her whole left arm immediately fell off, that definitely did not bode well. Luckily, that arm can easily be plugged back into the socket (although it still falls off regularly), but the problems don’t stop there.

The most damning issue has to do with the upper body, where there are many loose and weak joints. The ball-jointed upper torso rattles around like a bobble head when I move Kat, and the arm joints are so weak that her arms are near-constantly falling down at the shoulders and elbows.

The bad arm joint quality made it literally impossible for me to get Kat into a position where she could hold the Spartan Laser properly without it drooping down or falling out of her hands, so I just gave up. Even holding her pistol up proves to be too much for Kat’s robot arm, which gravity pushes down in a minute or so even when I do get her properly posed.

Complicating matters further is the fact that the plastic used for the hands is seemingly too rubbery and weak to stably hold the guns, with the handles of either coming loose or falling out altogether on their own. For Halo toys designed to aim and hold guns, this kind of defect is a real problem.

Overall: Kat is a difficult figure to assign a “grade” to, as there’s a lot of things I love like hell about this figure—and a couple that really, really irritate me.

The figure itself is just the size I want it to be, and Kat’s proportions are dead-on. Perhaps there could be slightly more paint weathering, but the deco is so far superior to Mattel’s that it feels almost silly to complain. Ratchet joints on the legs are excellent, and the overall sculpt is a win. The articulation is also tops for a mass release Halo action figure.

But the big, irreconcilable black mark against this Spartan Collection Kat 6” figure is the quality control. No $20 figure should have its arm fall off if you just go to turn it, and no $20 figure should have shoulder and elbow joints that they flop out of place endlessly, ruining poses (and fun). Hands made of plastic too flimsy to hold guns stably is another issue it’s hard to get past.

Overall, I think this Jazwares Halo line has tremendous potential—but I’m not sure how many more figures after Wave 1 I’ll be back for unless I hear that the QC has drastically improved.