Halo 4 Spartan Sarah Palmer Action Figure Play Arts Kai Square Enix

Review: Play Arts Kai Halo four Spartan Warrior

Play Arts Kai is a rather polarizing toyline. Mostly known for their figures based on video game characters, the toyline seems to be very much dear-it-or-hate-it, with the one-time crowd praising the line's overall dandy paint apps, sculpt, and big size, the latter crowd criticizes the lines often shoddy quality, atrocious pigment apps on human faces (poor Commander Shepard), questionable articulation choices, and the unusual calibration. My offset PAK figure was their initial release of Principal Chief, a mostly-original design somewhat based on John's armor equally seen in Halo Legends. I had my issues with it, simply overall I thought it was a pretty cool toy, peculiarly for the $35 I paid. After hearing that the new Halo 4 figures are generally of higher quality, I decided to have the run a risk and selection upward the Spartan Warrior. How much of an improvement is he, though?

Appearance

The first impression I got from this figure echoed my first thoughts when opening up the Primary Chief: "Wow, this a really pretty toy." While Chief was a shiny metal dark-green, the Spartan Warrior here is a gorgeous metallic royal blueish with some silvery accents. All the paint apps appear to be clean and well-applied, so absolutely no complaints in that location. As far as the sculpt goes, it's a pretty faithful representation of the Halo 4 Spartan design, for ameliorate or worse. It reproduces all the cool armor detail from the game models, but likewise has the "bodysuit with big chunks of armor randomly stuck on" look that I really dislike about the Halo iv Spartans. Regardless, I can't mistake the toy for that, and it does brand the design work well. The Warrior still very much has the Play Arts anime-esque aesthetic of "long legs, big thighs, skinny arms," but information technology'due south not nearly as bad as on Master Chief, and his skinny areas aren't toothpick-level similar Sarah Palmer. My only nitpick most the sculpt would be that the Warrior helmet doesn't look quite correct compared to the in-game model; information technology should be a bit squatter and more than foursquare, while the toy'due south caput is alpine and somewhat rounded.

Articulation

The Spartan Warrior has your standard Play Arts Kai articulation, and I'one thousand starting to call up that very few of the line'due south releases characteristic much variation on the formula. The joints are essentially Revoltech joints mixed with other types, like swivels and the like. The Warrior's head is balljointed, simply can't do much in the style of looking up or down due to the sculpt of the armor. He also has two balljoints in the trunk; one in the chest and ane at the waist. His shoulders are comprised of a soft ratcheting universal joint mounted on a hinged function that tin can swing outwards, and his elbows and wrists are single-jointed ratchets with swivels built in. His hips are very heavy ratchet joints, about to the point of existence scary. His knees are double-jointed ratchets, and for the virtually part avoid the "Play Arts knees" cheers to the sculpt. Finally, his ankles are on universal ratchet/swivel joints, and the forepart parts of his feet can rotate. The only things I feel are missing from his jointage are some other neck articulation and a toe bend, but I don't remember their absence hurts the toy.

Accessories

Ol' Sparty comes with a fairly basic pick of accessories. His primary weapon is the BR85 Heavy Barrel Service Burglarize (thanks, Halo Wiki!), otherwise known as the battle rifle from Halo 4. It's a very nice sculpt with very nice paint, fits well into his hands, and overall looks like a plumbing fixtures weapon for a space soldier such as this guy. The battle rifle tin be happily mounted via a (sadly permanent) peg that plugs into a hole on the Spartan'south back. With that out of the way, the Warrior tin can wield his sidearm, the M6H Personal Defense Weapon System, or magnum. Like the rifle, it has a not-removable peg that allows it to be plugged into the Spartan's thigh for storage, simply also looks a scrap ugly. The magnum's thicker handle too makes it a bit difficult to fit into the Warrior's stiff fingers. It takes some working and plastic-bending, just I oasis't felt similar I'm in any danger of breaking the toy notwithstanding. In addition to the two guns, he besides comes with two sets of hands: ane pair for holding weapons and i pair for… reaching/grasping/groping/whatever. I would've liked some fists for some old-fashioned punching, merely I judge Spartans never really do that in the games, anyway. The Spartan Warrior likewise has one more accessory that was a total surprise to me…

A stand! It is a rather nice stand up, too. You do have to damage the inner packaging a bit to become to information technology, merely the result is well worth it. It'southward a sturdy, well-designed assembly of translucent plastic that you construct not different your average Gundam Action Base, past clipping the parts out of a sprue and fastening the major bits together with screws. The stand comes with a large claw and a smaller claw, and both work quite fine. This stand did not come with any of my previous PAKs, and then information technology must be a recent add-on. I approve of this practice!

Overall

This is a very absurd action effigy. It faithfully reproduces the Spartan Warrior from Halo 4 and manages to look downright sexy with the gorgeous paint apps and fairly good proportions. Out of the four Halo iv PAK figures released (the others beingness Sarah Palmer, Primary Chief, and a ruby Spartan Soldier), I think this guy looks the absolute best. Play Arts figures carry a chip of a hefty price tag at $l-$60, but the size of this figure (near ix inches tall), the overall item, and especially the inclusion of a functional stand makes the Spartan Warrior well worth the cost. If y'all can get him for around that price range, do not hesitate. The merely problem yous might have is finding other toys to display him with… or just purchase more PAKs to make him fit in.

Where to Buy

• Amazon
• BBTS

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Source: https://brownboxreviews.wordpress.com/2014/09/07/review-play-arts-kai-halo-4-spartan-warrior/

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