Aerial Ambush

Review by JoshB

I have a confession to make: I've never played Halo. Does that tarnish my geek cred? I know what Halo is, I've seen videos of it and trailers and such, but I just don't own an Xbox 360. But I have always appreciated the designs of the characters, whether it be the militaristic USNC or the alien Covenant.

Halo Wars is a slightly different game from the rest of the Halo franchise. Unlike the other games which are first person shooters, Halo Wars is a Real Time Strategy Game (RTS) in which you control the two sides on the battlefield.

Take a look at the game trailer:

Mega Bloks got the right to produce toys from the video game, and that is what I am reviewing today.

The box is beautiful, and huge. The box designers did a great job with this with bright clean graphics.

Inside, all the parts are in baggies. The parts are all mixed up, so you have to open them all to get started.

The green blocks are molded out of a multi-colored camouflage green.

That's a lot of parts. 376 parts to be exact.

When this is all said and done, you will make one UNSC Hawk combat vehicle, one Covenant Banshee combat vehicle, gun station and four figures.

The build was pretty simple, but still a bit too advanced for my 7 year old. He could probably do it but it would take him a while. The boys helped me pick parts instead.

The first thing you build up is the Hawk vehicle.

It's nice but doesn't do much of anything.

Noticeably absent is any kind of landing gear. Does it have any?

During the build the two front lasers continually fall off, so I left the off 'till the end. The under-wing sections pivot a little, and the guns can rotate side to side.

When building these under wing sections, some parts did NOT want to go together. you push one side down and the other pops up.

The cockpit can open, but there is no detailing inside. One figure can fit inside, but there is no way to secure it.

Next up is the Covenant Banshee. The Banshee is a purple fighter made out of primary shapes and a folding cockpit that runs the length of the vehicle. Build of this vehicle is very simple.

I'm not sure which figure drives, but this is the cockpit.

I was kind of disappointed that the back was just... hollow.

A small Covenant turret is included as well. It rotates and tilts, but unfortunately, does not shoot anything.

Still there? Good. If you couldn't tell, I found these vehicles lackluster. But what makes this (and other Halo Wars sets) awesome are the mini-figures.

The set comes with five figures.

UNSC Spartan

This little guy is the one everyone knows from Halo and here he is just under 2 inches tall and fully articulated. He comes with a gun and just really is a lot of fun to play with.

UNSC Flame Marine

This is my favorite guy of the bunch. The figure comes with a backpack, flamethrower, and a flexible cord that connects the two. Still fully articulated, and an alltogether different design than the spartan. If they made just these guys on a card, I would buy them all day long.

Covenant Elite

The set only lists one, but you get two Covenant Elite figures and one gun.

Covenant Grunt

This tiny guy is about half the size of the elite, but still articulated.

All together, they make a great litte army.

Wraith Pheyden thrown in for scale.

Aerial Ambush is not a complicated set, nor is it anything revolutionary. The mini Halo figures are very cool and I will admit it was fun to build and didn't take a ton of time. For the casual fan it is a good diversion. Hard-core brick heads may have issues with some of the fit and finish, but Halo fans will get a kick out of it.