Halo Wars is not only my favorite Halo game, but also my favorite XBox game ever. Saying that will probably get me ostracized from a number of Halo communities, but for the integrity of the this review I had to get that out in the open. I never played a real-time strategy game of any kind in my life until Halo Wars, and I hadn’t expected to enjoy the game at all. Instead, I ended up mesmerized by the game and its micromanagement of firebases, vehicles, and squad units. And of course, I loved the Spartan Red Team: Douglas, Alice, and Jerome. McFarlane Toys released a Red Leader (Jerome) action figure back in 2010, but I had given up hope on Douglas and Alice. I should have learned to never doubt McFarlane Toys, because along with a ton of other fan-favorite and hotly-requested figures, they’ve finally completed Red Team this year with a boxed set that I want to love more than I actually do…

The Right:

To keep up morale, Spartans killed in action are always reported as missing instead of deceased, but the Halo Wars Red Team Spartan-IIs are unique in the Halo universe as they are among the few Spartans who truly are MIA. The Red Team led by Jerome-092 and including Alice-130 and Douglas-042 was part of the UNSC forces that were the first to encounter the Flood and a Forerunner Shield World. Red Team went into cryo-sleep following escape from the Shield World, and no more information has been revealed regarding their fate.

Although it’s old-hat now, controlling Spartans other than the Master Chief was fresh and new in Halo Wars, and I really bonded with those Spartans. I love that Alice wore the same Mark IV armor as her teammates, and not some prissy, bright blue feminine armor like Kat does in Halo Reach. Alice is a woman, but she’s also a shotgun-touting, legitimate badass and looks the part. Meanwhile, Jerome is considered one of the four best leadership candidates among the Spartan-IIs, and Douglas, well–Douglas has a Jolly Roger on one of his shoulders.

The Red Team Spartans are all in the smaller scale of McFarlane’s old Halo 3 toy line from 2008-2010. I imagine some people are going to be irritated by this choice, but I once again think McFarlane Toys made the right decision by designing these figures to be released in the old scale. The Sgt. Forge and Halo Wars Arbiter figures we have are both in the smaller scale and are unlikely to ever be redone in the current scale, so it was essential to make these Spartans compatible with their predecessors or else have them look completely out of place with the other Halo Wars figures.

As all three Spartans have the same armor, they also share the same action figure mold. I don’t have the 2010 Red Team Leader figure presently for comparison, but I can tell that parts of this figure (if not all of it) has been retooled from that initial release. The sculpting on the Mark IV armor is exceptionally well-done and intricate, and there are plenty of minute details The dark paint wash on these is brilliant and really brings out all of the details of the sculpt.

McFarlane Toys has never been stingy with the articulation on their Halo Spartans, and they weren’t about to start now. Each of the Red Team Spartans feature 28 points of articulation, including: ball-jointed head, ball-jointed upper torso, double-jointed ball-joint shoulders, double-jointed ball-joint shoulders, double-jointed ball-joint wrists, double-jointed hips, double-jointed ball-joint knees, double-jointed ball-joint ankles, and swivel balls-of-the-feet. That’s a lot of ball joints! The ball-jointed upper torso works especially great, as it has a huge range of motion and flexibility.

The Spirit of Fire Red Team includes four weapons: the Spartan Laser, dual SMGs, and Shotgun. These are straight repacks utilizing the same molds and same deco as the weapons had when originally released in 2008-2010, so there are no surprises here. All of the weapons are as accurate and authentically decorated now as they were back then, and given their original high quality there was really no reason for McFarlane Toys to reinvent the wheel with these.

Finally, the price on this set is definitely right. Retailing for just $19.99 at most stores, you’re paying about $6.67 per Spartan. That’s an amazing value, considering Spartans run about $12 each these days individually.

The Wrong:

With all the articulation build into these Mark IV Spartans, you would think they’d be able to hold their weapons really well. But surprise–they can’t! The Shotgun fits into Alice’s hands fine, but the other weapons are more problematic. The upper body sculpt on Jerome gets in the way of posing the Spartan Laser naturally, although Jerome can at least hold it stably. The big loser of this set is poor Douglas, who can’t dual-wield his SMGs to save his life. The sculpt of his right hand allows you to hook the SMG into it, but it’s very difficult to get it posed into any kind of natural angle. Even more is a disaster is the left hand, which is sculpted much too widely to hold the SMG–period. You can gentle place it onto the hand, but as soon as you move the figure it’ll just fall off. You can hook a finger around the holster to force it in place temporarily, but it’s positioned incorrectly and looks wrong. I don’t see how this could have possibly gotten past McFarlane Toys testers, because it just doesn’t work.

And then we come to the bane of the McFarlane Toys Halo lines: quality control. The hinge joint is ugly, and it’s also incredibly wobbly. As far as I can tell the hips are part of an all-new mold, so I can’t even blame mold degradation here–the problem here is clearly poor quality-control. It’s not even one figure that has trouble with stability–it’s all three of them. It’s not just the hips, either–the knees and ankles shake uncontrollably at the slightest breath as well. It’s frustrating as Hell to get Jerome standing and then hear a crash from the shelf three minutes later as his leg joints were just too weak to support him and he collapsed. This has happened over and over since I got these figures out of the package, and I’m about ready to pull my hair out.

“Where Can I Buy It?!

The Halo Anniversary Spirit of Fire Red Team of Spartans is shipping in the same case as the Generator Defense from Halo Wars. Thus far I’ve only seen the set once at a Wal-Mart and at a number of stores online.

As far as online options go:

Amazon has the Halo Anniversary Series 2 Spirit of Fire Red Team Boxed Set in-stock from a variety of sellers at right around retail price (and some even below retail price!), and many of the sellers are offering free shipping.

BigBadToyStore still has Spirit of Fire Red Team available for just $22.99, as well as the pair of Generator Defense and Spirit of Fire Red Team boxed sets for $44.99, and they also have a TON of other Halo items available at the best prices of any online store.

CMDStore has the Spirit of Fire Red Team Three-Pack of Spartans for $24.95 in-stock now, as well as nearly every non-exclusive Halo figure from every McFarlane series available, as well as having the complete Halo Anniversary Series 2 available for just $59.95.

And if you want to try your luck, there’s always ebay, where you very likely can get a good deal on the Halo Anniversary Mickey action figure. You can check out the current listings for the Spirit of Fire Red Team Boxed Set on ebay by clicking here!

Overall: I applaud McFarlane Toys for taking a financial risk by going back and completing a team of Spartans from an old game, but I am just not as happy with this set as I would like to be. In the land of cheap-feeling Halo 3-style figures, these are some of the worst offenders. Every time I pick one of the Spartans up, their entire hips shake uncontrollably–they’re like Bobbleheads turned upside-down. In addition, it’s annoying how difficult it is to get the Spartans to hold their weapons properly, particularly the SMGs. The Mark IV Spartan sculpt is fantastic and the paint deco looks killer, but it’s tough enjoying a figure who keeps collapsing because it’s too cheaply made to support its own weight. I so badly wanted this set to be a masterpiece, but the terribly quality-control knocks it down to being merely average. If you’re like me and absolutely have to own the Halo Wars Spartans come Hell or high water, this set is for you. Otherwise, I can’t really give this set a recommendation with so many superior Spartan figures readily available on the market.