After a lukewarm review of Captain Keyes and highly positive reviews of “The Package” Master Chief and the Halo 2 Spartan Mark VI, I’m back with the fourth of the five figures in Halo Anniversary Series 2: Mickey from Halo: ODST. Considering that the ODST Dutch figure from Halo Anniversary Series 1 literally broke within 30 seconds of me taking it out of the package when I reviewed it last week, I was feeling more than a little wary when I got my ODST Mickey figure in the mail a few days ago. If I wasn’t hellbent on completing my team of Helljumpers, I probably would have passed on Mickey altogether, but with Romeo coming in the fall there’s no way I could do that. The Halo Toy Gods were on my side, as Mickey survived not only being removed from the package, but being posed for photos. In fact, he’s still intact right now! So Mickey passes the crucial test of “not being defective”. Besides the fact that he’s of a passable quality, does Mickey have anything else to offer?

The Right:

Mickey is the pilot and demolitions expert of the team of ODSTs featured in the Halo: ODST video game. Of the six ODSTs in Halo: ODST, Mickey is the one I could give a shit about. He’s not part of the fun duo of Dutch and Romeo that was developed in the fantastic Peter David “Helljumper” comic series, he’s not the player’s main character (The Rookie), and he’s not one of the characters involved in the star-crossed romance (Buck and Veronica Dare). Mickey is just sort of… there. If I wasn’t an obsessive collector, I probably would have skipped Mickey. But, well–I am. And though he’ll never be one of my favorite Halo figures, there are a lot of good aspects of the ODST Mickey action figure.

The best thing about the Mickey figure is that McFarlane didn’t cheap out and invested a multitude of new tooling into doing Mickey the right way. Other companies might have been content to skip out on the little details like the extra ammo wrapped on Mickey’s right leg or even just paint it on rather than sculpting it (it sounds ridiculous, but I’ve really seen companies do things like that). Instead, McFarlane Toys went all the way with Mickey and tooled up a bunch of new pieces to make this figure as authentic as possible, and that attention to accuracy and detail is part of what sets McFarlane Toys apart from lesser toy companies.

Although Mickey may look to be similar to the other ODST figures released like Dutch at first glance, there are newly-molded pieces all over Mickey. I’m not certain if he’s a 100% new tool or not (as some of the pieces of Mickey are pretty similar to those of the other ODSTs), but I can say that the majority of this figure is all-new. Some of he highlights of this figure’s sculpt include the aforementioned ammo wrapped around his right calf, the new armor on his shoulders and legs, and the new helmet he’s sporting with a mounted HESA-E (external sensory array) on it. The HESA-E is an armor upgrade for the Spartan MP Armor in Reach, but apparently ODSTs get some of the good stuff too sometimes. In addition, Mickey has yet another all-new backpack, this time with a radio built into it.

As I mentioned in my review of Dutch, all of the ODSTs being released in the Halo Anniversary Series of action figures are in the old, Halo 3-scale. If we hadn’t already gotten half of the ODSTs in the old style (Dare, Buck, and The Rookie), this would have never been my preference. But what is, is. It was a choice between having half the ODSTs in a totally different scale or having them all be in the old size, so I think McFarlane Toys made the unquestionable right decision here. With Romeo’s release in the fall the team will be complete, and we will hopefully never have to see any figures in the old size again.

Mickey has all of the same articulation positives and negatives of the other figures engineered for the Halo 3 line. He has 26 points of articulation including a ball-jointed head, (heavily restricted) ball-jointed upper torso, double-jointed ball-joint shoulders, swivel biceps, hinge elbows, double-jointed wrists, swivel thighs, double-jointed ball-joint knees, and (heavily restricted) double-jointed ankles. That’s a lot of points to cram into a figure that’s less than 6 inches tall, and I applaud McFarlane Toys on their intentions with Mickey’s flexibility (though we’ll discuss the execution later).

Mickey comes with a Rocket Launcher and a Frag Grenade. The Rocket Launcher is the one from the Halo 3 line (obviously), but that’s only logical since that’s the line Mickey has been designed to be compatible with. Not only is the Rocket Launcher one of the more rare and desirable accessories, but it’s highly-detailed and has five colors on it, making it one of the best-looking weapons from the line. There’s nowhere to attach the grenade on Mickey, so I gave it to my Halo Legends “The Package” Master Chief.

The eagle body piece of the Build-A-UNSC-Logo emblem comes with Mickey. Mickey is the least-interesting ODST and he comes with the least interesting-looking piece of the Logo, so it all makes sense to me. Again, the Build-A-UNSC-Logo is no something I’d ever pay for, but I like that McFarlane Toys is giving us a little something extra for our dollars.

The Wrong:

Just because Mickey didn’t break immediately doesn’t mean I’m letting him off the hook for quality control. Mickey has the same problem many (if not most) of the Halo 3-style figures have–he feels cheap. The plastic on Mickey feels brittle, and his joints are incredibly loose straight out of the package. Nothing’s broken on Mickey yet, but I feel like it’s only a matter of time before something snaps (and I’ve a hunch it’s going to be the super-fragile wrists). I find myself not wanting to touch or pose Mickey because I’m dreading the moment that he breaks. And that’s just not acceptable.

Additionally, even when I get up the courage to try to pose Mickey, it’s quite a chore. You’d think with over two dozen points of articulation you could do a lot with Mickey, but that’s just not so. The swivel thighs are terrible, and with his limited lower-body flexibility he can’t naturally kneel down, sit, or do much more than stand around stoically. Going from reviewing the wonderfully-articulated Halo Legends Master Chief and Halo 2 Spartan Mark VI then going back to Mickey is the difference between night and day. I won’t be sad to see this scale of figure retired after we get Romeo. At all.

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

Mickey is part of the Halo Anniversary Series 2 case assortment that is shipping this spring to all major retailers. I haven’t seen the set at retail yet myself, but I assume it will hit Toys R Us and Target first.

As far as online options go:

Amazon has the Halo Anniversary Series 2 Mickey ODST in-stock from a variety of sellers at right around retail price (and some even below retail price!), many of which are offering free shipping.

BigBadToyStore still has Mickey available for just $11.99, as well as the Halo Anniversary Set of 5 for $58.99, and they also have a TON of other Halo items available at the best prices of any online store.

CMDStore has Mickey for $12.95 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 ODST Mickey on ebay by clicking here!

Overall: Mickey is another Halo figure that I was going to buy regardless of any outside factors because I desperately want to complete my ODST squad. Thankfully, he’s not all that bad, but he’s also not all that good. McFarlane Toys spent a lot of money trying to make this figure look the best he could be by tooling up a bunch of new parts and giving the figure super-detailed paint deco. Unfortunately, looking good is about all this figure does well. The quality of the plastic and articulation is still abominable–his joints are loose and floppy and it feels like the plastic is getting ready to shatter at any time every time I hold him. And when you do risk posing Mickey, the articulation is a total disappointment compared to more modern figures like the Halo 2 Mark VI. I appreciate McFarlane completing the ODST squad–I really, really do–but I can’t wait to get away from this 2008-2010 style of antiquated Halo figures. If you want to complete your ODST squad like me or if you just want a cool ODST to look at (not “play with”), you’ll want to add Mickey to your collection. But if you’re worried about high quality and having a lot of fun posing your figures, Mickey is definitely not for you.

GRADE: C