Halo 3 - A Complete Look (McFarlane Toys)

We continue our happy holiday gifts to you with another complete look at some of our older posts which original were broken down by series.  This time we look at the McFarlane Toys series, Halo 3!

Halo 3
McFarlane Toys
2008 - 2010

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Halo 3: Series 4 - 6 (McFarlane Toys)

It's been a long time since our original post documenting the first three series of Halo 3 toys. Back when we wrote that, the series was relatively new. Series three had just come out, and series four had already been announced. Halo fans were chomping at the bit to get their hands on each new figure, despite the various repaints and exclusives.

To be a fan of Halo figures, it is essential that one have the following;

1) A seemingly endless influx of cash
2) A lot of gas for their vehicle
3) A love for the secondary market

Let's talk about number one on that list. McFarlane Toys are expensive fresh from the factory. Each figure can set you back anywhere from fifteen to twenty dollars. These prices quickly skyrocket on secondary markets for certain figures (see number 3 below).

As far as number two is concerned, they're also incredibly difficult to find in one specific location, and that's not even including all those exclusives. To walk into just one store and find an entire assortment of figures from any given wave is next to impossible due to the limited amount of any one particular figure packed in cases. Supply often times fails to meet demand.

That's where number three comes in. Unfortunately a fair amount of collectors have had to turn to secondary markets to fulfill their action figure collecting needs. Sure it could be argued that on occasion the amount of money saved in gas from searching for said figures equals out to the price of a secondary market value, but who can be sure? Then you throw in all those difficult to obtain exclusives, which may or may not have a store location in your area, and throwing the fuel factor back into the mix may not be plausible to venture out for.

While these three factors are common these days for practically any line of action figures, it seems more so a counterpart to McFarlane toys. So what makes it worth it? We feel the toys speak for themselves on that regard. Great sculpts of characters, incredibly detailed accessories, and amazing packaging make it easy to fall into an OCD habit of tracking down figures.

Unlike the prior series which included a set for campaign characters and multiplayer characters, the forth series simplified by making a series known as "Equipment Edition" figures. We haven't honestly figured out what makes these characters such an edition as they don't appear to come with any more accessories than the prior figures. In fact, some come with considerably less. Regardless, fans were so eager to collect them that pegs were soon empty from store to store.

The Equipment Edition line consisted of nine figures, four of which were exclusive to specific stores.

The Griftball Spartan which was produced for and sold strictly at San Diego Comic Con was a nod at the fans who followed the Red Vs. Blue series.

One deluxe figure and three deluxe sets were also incorporated into series 4 (the deluxe sets were released towards the tail end of the series). Worth mentioning is that the deluxe sets (not including the single packed deluxe figure) were also the first toys released under the new title for the series - Halo: The Halo 3 Collection.

The armor pack sets are among fan favorites for their interchangeable armor, and vast assortment of weapons. Each pack had the ability to transform your figure into four different Spartan types.

By the end of the line, the series was titled simply as "Halo", and continued as such throughout the remaining line (series eight).


Series five launched with two of the most popular packs to date - Sgt. Avery Johnson, and the Halo Wars Weapon Pack. Not only is Johnson a fan favorite character, but in a series that for the majority consisted of various repaints, the figure was a welcome addition - something new.

The weapons pack gave collectors the opportunity to bolster their arms, and offered an incredible variety of detailed weapons. Some would argue that in the world of Halo the guns themselves are so unique that they stand out as their own "characters" in the story.

Series five, which was also considered to be part of the Equipment Edition, consisted of twelve characters - five of which were store exclusives at various locations.

Series six pushed the Equipment Edition aside, and instead went with the all new series, the Medal Edition. Each figure came packed with a unique medal, and an impressive variety of weapons.

With the release of the new game, Halo 3: ODST, fans were eager to get their hands on the newly introduced Rookie figure. Despite the popularity of the figure, it seemed to be manufactured in abundance, and became one of the more common figures to see on pegs long after series six was replaced with series 7 despite the amount of sales.

Out of the twelve figures produced for series six, half were store exclusives at various stores.

To round off series six, McFarlane Toys produced a vehicle - three times over. While it can be said that this was technically not the first vehicles for the series (series one had three - Brute Chopper, Ghost and Warthog), unlike the prior vehicles these were designed to interact with the figures. The prior released vehicles were scaled down, and there was no possible way to interact your figures with them.

The sixth series Mongoose came packed with one of three different Spartan figures depending on which version you bought. McFarlane Toys was well up to its patented tricks of repainted rinse and repeat toys.

Though despite it all, Halo fans love the series, and continue to support it today. Halo toys have become one of if not THE top seller for the company, and we so no reason why they will stop producing them any time soon.

Join us next time when we take a look at Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone!

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Halo 3: Series 1 - 3 (McFarlane Toys)

Halo
McFarlane Toys
2007 - 2008

McFarlane Toys, a subsidiary of Todd McFarlane Productions, Inc., is a company started by Todd McFarlane that makes highly detailed models of characters from movies, comics, musicians, video games, and sport figures. Founded in 1994, the company was originally dubbed "Todd Toys," but the name was changed in 1995 following pressure from Mattel (who feared the new company's name would be confused with that of Barbie's younger brother).

Exquisite attention to detail is the most defining feature in a McFarlane Toy. However, it is almost always at the expense of articulation, making them more akin to semi-poseable statues than action figures. Still, the line proves popular especially among young adults, and is arguably the most commercially successful toy line at the moment. It has also influenced many other toy lines to try and imitate McFarlane Toys' style.

As production begins on the upcoming series five and six toys, I thought we'd take a look at the first three series which burst on the scene in 2008.

Each set is broken up into two categories. The first being "Campaign", which focuses on characters that the player of the game used in the campaign version, and "Multiplayer", which as I'm sure you can guess at this point is based on characters one can use in multiplayer mode. Because the multiplayer characters vary in color and design, this left McFarlane toys quite a bit of artistic freedom to make a wide variety of characters.

The first series comprised of five campaign figures (six if you include the variant Grunt figure), and six multiplayer figures, three of which were exclusive to specific vendors (two at Walmart, one at GameStop). The silver Gamestop Spartan is by far the hardest to come by from series 1.

There were also three variants produced for the series. These figures were not a part of the Capaign or Multiplayer line, but rather stand alone figures. Each one was available via a different store or means. Most notable is the "Spawn Faced" Spartan which was limited to only 3000 pieces.


By series two, Halo 3 mania had caught on big time. Not only was it the top selling game at most retail outlets, but fans couldn't get enough of the toys that McFarlane Toys were busy pumping out in mass quantity.

Series two featured five figures from the campaign line, and ten for the multiplayer line. However, by this time in the series, the majority of the multiplayer figures were made to be exclusives for various retail and online stores. Places like Transworld (online store only), Toys R' Us, Walmart, D&R Line-Ups (online store only) and GameStop all had an exclusive figure (with the exception of Walmart, which had two) to keep fans running around from store to store to track them down.

An additional figure was also produced as a San Diego Comic Con exclusive for the year.




With each series came more figures, and more exclusives, and series three was far from exempt, being the largest series to date.

A total of six campaign figures and eighteen multiplayer figures were produced. This of course meant even more exclusive figures to chase down.

At this point in the toy line, I can personally attest to it getting out of control. People I know who are die hard fans of the series began to take a step back and frown at all the various exclusive figures. This in turn caused them to take a little more cautioned approach to collecting the toy line, and even abandon it completely.



But, despite the very few people I know who were no longer contributing their twelve to twenty bucks per figure, the series plowed through the market, selling out in most retail and exclusive online chains. With series four already out on store shelves, and selling like hotcakes, and series five and six gearing up for release, it's a safe bet to make that McFarlane's Halo 3 toys are going to be around for a while.

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