The Master Chief has had about as many action figures as any video game character, but no company has ever produced the perfect Chief. Mattel is no exception, but their first 6-inch Master Chief is a solid attempt.
Early this year, it was announced that Mattel would take the Halo master license from McFarlane. This Master Chief represents Mattel’s first crack at the character in the 1:12 scale. While this is just a $20 toy marketed at big box retailers, Master Chief is the face of one of the biggest video game brands around, and Mattel needed to prove to fans that they were capable of managing the iconic property. All in all, I’m pleased to say that I think Mattel will provide more quality and stability to the Halo franchise than McFarlane ever did.
The figure faces many of the same problems as Mattel’s Elite Officer did, suffering from little paint work and some removable armor issues. Master Chief’s lone paint variance comes from his orange helmet visor and some red markings on the side of his booster pack and on the top of his hips. Mattel’s figure is sculpted about as well as any Master Chief that we’ve seen in the past, but the paint is not there to bring the sculpt out. Silver scuffs throughout his armor and a paint wash or dry brush would do this figure a world of good, but, sadly, I’m not sure if paint detailing costs out on big box retail toys anymore.
In fact, it’s entirely possible that Mattel produced this first wave of figures at a loss when you consider the new molds, armor pieces, fresh packaging, and an advertising budget. That said, Mattel knows that they have to spend money to make money, and focusing on Halo as a long-term priority will involve some investment with no guarantee of a return. McFarlane nearly stopped creating Halo figures altogether over the last few years, and there’s no way of knowing whether they did that because the brand wasn’t bringing in money, or because they knew they were losing the license and didn’t want to commit additional resources to it. Halo is one of the best-selling video game brands in the world, so I’m confident that it can produce a successful toy line with the right company behind it. All initial indications point to the fact that Mattel can claim that role.
Meanwhile, the figure includes two weapons, pegs to secure the weapons to the figure, an extra hand, and the torso to the Alpha Crawler build-a-figure. When these were unveiled at Toy Fair in February, there was some concern about the weapon scale. Halo has also recently shifted from an M (Mature) rated title to a T (Teen) rated title. Game developer 343 Industries did this so Halo 5 could become an e-sport title and to increase commercial appeal. Of the two weapons, the Assault Rifle is scaled appropriately, more or less, but the Energy Sword is closer to 1/6 scale than 1/12 scale. I think this was a move to persuade parents that the game is kid-friendly on Mattel’s part. I’m not here to argue whether or not the games are kid-friendly, but I can say that the Energy Sword is so absurdly scaled that I will never use it.
The figure’s biggest downfall is the removable armor gimmick. Mattel may this roll this back in a year or two, or it could be the singular reason that the line is successful. Either way, I think they have some work to do in the quality assurance department. Armor pieces are less likely to fall off of the Chief than they were on the Elite Officer, but the butt armor and shoulder pieces still fall off unprovoked. Superglue can quickly and easily take care of this problem, but it shouldn’t happen in the first place. An unexpected benefit to the removable armor is that it can be shifted to accommodate articulation. That wouldn’t be the case if the armor pieces were sculpted on.
The articulation itself is almost on par with Hasbro’s Marvel Legends. Master Chief has a ball-jointed head, ball-jointed shoulders, bicep swivels, non-traditional (and somewhat limited) double-jointed elbows, hinge-and-swivel wrists, a diaphragm joint (limited by the torso armor), T-jointed hips, thigh swivels, double-jointed knees, hinged ankles, and ankle rockers. The limited double-jointed elbows are a common frustration for gun-wielding characters, but at least he has double-jointed elbows and not single-jointed elbows. The figure’s only other articulation-related concern is loose knee joints, which seem to be a prevalent issue. You almost never see loose joints on modern figures, but here we have it. Luckily, if this line is successful, this will not be the last Master Chief figure Mattel produces. Hopefully, they’re able to improve on my minor gripes in later renditions.
Overall, if you’re a Halo fan or video game collector, I highly recommend this Master Chief. He’s short for most 6-inch figures, but would probably fit in well with Figma’s Nintendo line and other imports. This line also scales much better than McFarlane’s odd 5-inch line, which meshed with itself and not much else. Mattel offers a solid figure at the $20 price point, and customizers can transform this figure into something special with extra paint detailing.
