Review: Mega Bloks CNC84 Halo Infinite Series 4 Blind Bag

There was a discussion last week on the MFZ Discord about there being micro starship designs included in the Halo blind bag releases from Mega Bloks.  This was precipitated by me posting a picture of the new Halo starship from Mega Bloks but that's a discussion for another time.  It was said that the starships were easier to find by touch due to having actual pieces in the bags instead of just minifigs and accessories.  This turns out to be true.  It also turns out that they sound different when shaken.  The bags with regular pieces in them have a louder, higher pitched rattle when you shake them.  Which leads to today's review.

Bag.  MSRP is $3.19, for a $0.11 Price per Piece.  Oh, and while this is

Series 4 of Halo Infinite blind bags, it's the 16th series of Halo blind bags.

Instructions.

Parts.  Angled Plate, Triple Slope Wedge, Plates, Clip Panels, Slope w/Studs,

Cheese Slope, Hinge Plates, Tile, Grille Tile, Bracket, Translucent Round

Tile, Bars w/Bar, Bar w/Tail, Clips w/Bar, Bar Clips, Translucent Bar, Bricks

w/Studs on Side, Brick w/Stud on Side and Opening in Back, and Clip Plate.

Build.  Apparently this is called a Sentinel.  I'm willing to say it's a "Frame-

in-a-Bag".  You could mount a System on each arm, the eye/sensor could

be a System, and you could pop the Grille Tile off the back or the Tile off

the head and use those locations to mount another System.  Or you could

use the base to mount some sort of System.  According to certain websites

the bag code for this, if you can find it which I couldn't, is 130226TC.

Size Comparison.  It fits nicely in the size range.

 The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Above.  (-10)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  No.  (-5)
Score: -5 (B-).  Despite the score I think this is worth tracking down.

Purity: Mega Bloks GLB72 Halo Breacher Exosuit Review

I picked up this set a while back at Target.  When the first pictures were released a few people asked if this would work for MFZ: Rapid Attack.

Box.  MSRP is $9.99 for a $0.11 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Minifig.  You have to disassemble the minifig to
remove the armor before starting the main build.

Parts 1.  The two Dark Grey Arm
Sleeves have to be snapped into
the Dark Red Torso Cover.  This is
not very clear in the instructions.

Parts 2.  Plates, Slopes, Ball Joints, Brackets, Slope w/Cutout, Double Sided Stud, Round Brick w/Bar Hole, Connector, Bar, and Tail Tiles.

Parts 3.  "Exoskeleton".

Build.  Brawler.

Size Comparison 1.  The minifig
looks to be a decent size.

Size Comparison 2.

That's a big Frame.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Above.  (-10)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +5 (B+).  If you're okay with a slightly oversize Frame, this is good to go right out of the package.

Purity: Mega Bloks DXF01 Halo Banished Ghost Rush Review

I feel like doing another Mega Bloks week.

Box.  MSRP is $9.99 which is a Price per Piece of $0.11.  Looks like they reduced the parts count from the two previous versions of this set.

Instructions.

Minifig.

Parts 1.  Just one of those odd
shaped Plates MB like so much.

Parts 2.  We have some translucent
parts and the MB Bar Claw pieces.

Parts 3.  Some Bar Plates
and some SNOT bricks.

Parts 4.  Some nice Dark Red pieces, Minifig pieces, and other bits.

Build.  I was really hoping for a Dark Red version of my
"Mega Beetle" frame but I had to settle for something else.

The Questions:
Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Above.  (-10)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +5 (B+).  I had high hopes for this set.

Purity: Mega Bloks CNH23 Halo Covenant Commander Review

I reviewed a similar set a couple of years ago.  I've been curious about this one ever since I first saw it on the shelves.  As you can see, I picked this up for half price on Target clearance.

Box.  MSRP is $9.99 for a $0.09 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Minifig.  That is a lot of parts for a minifig.

Parts 1.  Those angled pieces on the left have an anti-stud on the bottom.

Parts 2.  The Axle Plates in the top right of the picture are not friction pins.  The bars on the Bar Plates in the middle of the picture are tiny.

Parts 3.  Nothing really new here.

Parts 4.  Kinda bummed that there wasn't a printed Round Tile in this set.

Parts 5.  The Clip Bars in the bottom row are the most interesting piece in this picture to me.

Build.  I had to cheat a bit with the hips and not fully insert them to make sure it could stand up without falling over.  I'm thinking 2Rd+d8/1B/1Y/2W for stats.

The Questions:
Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +20 (A+).  Look out Lego, Mega Bloks has a licensed set with the top score.

Purity: 97170 Mega Bloks Halo Forerunner Terminal Review

These went on clearance at both Target and Toy'R'Us a few months ago so I decided to get the set of three.

Box.  MSRP is $9.99 which gives us a price per piece of $0.15.

Instructions.  These look more like a fold-out map than instructions.

Minifig.  This guy is quite rubbery and unlike Lego minifigs.  It also has a fair amount of articulation.










Parts 1.  The double Sided 1x2 Plates in the middle are interesting, as are the T Bar Plates at the top.  Down in the bottom right corner is the reason I grabbed this set, a textured 2x2 Round Plate.  It'll look great as a starship engine.  You could probably stack up those pieces that look like bars of Silver and make a Station out of them.



Parts 2.  The clear bits are part of the stand for the final model




The Questions:
Can you build a frame, or frames, right away?  Maybe.  You can probably pull a Station out of this.  (+0)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Above.  (-10) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  No.  (-5)
Score: C+ (-10).  The pricing on these just kills the score.  The mold cost on that minifig must have be pretty high.  They are going for ~$5 or $6 on Clearance so it does drop the PpP down to a reasonable level.

Purity: Mega Bloks 97116 Halo UNSC Siege Bike

I bought this one at K-Mart on a Clearance sale as opposed to Marshall's like the last one.

Box.  MSRP is $11.99.  Price per piece is $0.17.

Instructions, Promo Material, and Data Card.

Minifigs.  The clear one is a hard plastic different from the regular one.  It only has eight points of articulation as opposed to 12 for the normal one.

Parts 1.  Those 1x2 wedge plates are neat, as are the 1x2

studded Cheese Slopes.  That "T" Bar is longer than the Lego

Pneuma-T.  I like the Trans-Blue Cone.  And that 1x2 double 

female connector on the left hand side is really interesting.

Parts 2.  Those Jumpers actually have a hole all the way through.  The tiny pieces of tubing for holding 3mm shafting, Pneuma-Ts, etc. are pretty interesting.  I like the different Cheese Slopes too.

Parts 3.  Okay, this is a smorgasbord of parts.  Just look at them all!

Parts 4.  Here we get to the reason the PpP is so high.  Complex pieces like this will drive up cost.





The Questions:
Can you build a frame, or frames, right away?  Yes.  The minifigs are good for 4P scale.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Above.  (-10) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  No.  (-5)
Score: B- (-5).  This is another one that's a parts set.  It's got some good accent pieces but, beyond that, there really isn't any heft to this set.  The minifigs could make a couple 4P figures and there are instructions to build a structure that could make a decent station but, beyond that there's not much.

Purity: 96993 Halo Brute Chieftain Charge Review

I found a few Halo sets at Marshall's recently.  So I figured I would review them.

Box.  MSRP of $11.99 for 72 pieces.  Price per piece of $0.17

Instructions & Promotional Material.

Minifig.  This guy has 11 points of articulation, and look at that club!

Here he is in comparison to a Classic.

Parts 1.  Those 1x1-1x1 brackets are interesting.  As are those studded slope pieces.

Parts 2.  I see a bunch of accent pieces here.

The "I-Beam" plates are always interesting.

Parts 3.  Here we figure out why there's such a bad parts to cost ratio.  Four, large, fairly complex parts that must have had high molding costs.  The printed 2x2 roundel and the 1x1 sloped pieces look good though








The Questions:
Can you build a frame, or frames, right away?  Yes.  The minifig is good for 4P scale.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Above.  (-10) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  No.  (-5)
Score: B- (-5).  This one is really a parts set.  It's got some good SNOT and accent pieces but, beyond that, there really isn't any mass to this set.  The minifig could make a really good looking 4P figure but there's only one in the set.