the opposite of good news

i’m still irked, but grudgingly accepting the news. partly due to, you know, inevitability, but also because i remembered the nitro riders. five inches tall, 15 points of articulation. and those were great little figures.

if the plastic quality holds up, then a fully posable line of 5″ halo figures could be pretty sweet, especially since they’ll almost definately put out deluxe sets of an elite with ghost and a spartan on a mongoose, and maybe also a hog, although that’d be gigantic.

on the other hand, the price point is going to be sticky. full size mcfarlane figures with detailed bases run $12-15. they’re paying for the halo license, which means even with the smaller scale, could be the same. the nitro riders retailed for i think $18, and they all came with giant motorcycles.

a five inch spartan with a couple of guns and full articulation should cost $7, the star wars standard. $8-10 is more likely, and acceptable if they’re good figures. if they toss in a base, i wouldn’t be suprised to see that creep up to $12.

at least they’re not all in two-packs for $15 each. whoever decided that was a brilliant marketing strategy needs to be stopped.

my main fear is that the master chief will be the only figure with any articulation. i could care less about the jackals, and the grunts don’t need much anyways, but if the elites aren’t just as posable as the chief, i will be quietly enraged.

joyride focused on the spartan bodies, and clearly didn’t put as much thought or effort into the covenant. and it’s not like they were really trying all that hard on the spartan.

seriously, i’m being generous when i say that this is a bad idea. and not simply because the first wave of halo 3 toys are going to hit store shelves in spring of 2008, which means, given a september 25th release for the game and an official start of spring on march 20th, that the first batch of figures will hit no earlier than exactly six months late.

kotobukiya japan already got the halo 3 pvc statue license, and NOTHING mcfarlane has ever done will ever come close to koto quality. i don’t understand the appeal of $15 crap statuary based on the biggest action game of the year, when we’re already getting 12″ scale, equisitely sculpted and perfectly painted stuff from master japanese craftsman. sure, those will be $50-100 each, but they cost more because they’re worth it. mcfarlane’s stuff looks pretty good compared to your kids toys, but compared to a real pvc figure company, they’re extremely rough.

and i had this problem licked months ago! give the license to hasbro, specifically the gijoe team. fully posable 3 3/4″ spartans and marines and covenant troops, full spread of in-scale vehicles and turrets and equipment, and a not-quite-to-scale pelican and phantom, which can each carry four troops and a smaller vehicle.

done. nothing else is needed.

thanks, bungie! good to know that you still need someone in charge of licensing who knows what the fuck they’re doing. seriously, most hollywood movies fare better than this, and i think halo 3 is going to stay popular for a wee bit longer than most blockbusters. so why not try a little harder? farming out your valuable ip to the lowest bidder is just crap marketing.

the worst part is that all the frat-jerks who’ve hijacked the specialty market and made mcfarlane the blithering success that it is today are going to LOVE this and these toys are going to sell ridiculously well. bungie doesn’t seem to realize there are better options, and nobody else is going to care. because it’s halo 3 toys. they’ll be popular whether they’re good or not, and i’m tired of my favorite licenses getting handed off to people who don’t care.

i hate this hobby sometimes.