UNSC Night Ops Gausshog

Review by Dkun

I'm not the biggest fan of Halo in the world. As someone who never owned an Xbox, I only ever played the games by going over to a friend's house and playing it there, and by the time games like ODST and Reach came out, I just personally stopped caring all that much. However I always did think that the Halo Mega Bloks sets were pretty cool, but just not in my direct line of interest. Thanks to the people over at Mega Bloks though, I have the opportunity to check out the UNSC Night Ops Gausshog set.

Now it's been a while since I've looked at some Mega Bloks sets. In fact it was one of my earliest reviews on the site! And although I did enjoy the set, it was one of the smaller ones and wasn't quite perfect. How does this set fare in comparison? Let's see as we go through the building process.

Out of the box, you have your standard set of baggies and instructions that most building sets would come with. The bags aren't numbered or anything like that so I proceeded to empty all of the bags into a giant pile of parts and began the build.

One thing I was really pleased with was how solid the actual building process was. Every piece locks together very solidly and the process feels very well thoughout.

I especially like that the build has a set of yellow 2x2 bricks that are used only to hold the base of the vehicle up while you are building it. It's a super nice touch that left me feeling quite impressed despite its simplicity.

The front end of the vehicle is a giant chunk of electronics that pegs into the rest of the set pretty well. Be sure to remove the wire that is attached to it, as that is only there for the sake of using the “Try Me!” feature attached to the box. There is also a sticker sheet included to help detail up the vehicle, but I opted to keep them off because I like how clean the Gausshog looks without them.

Once you're done with a pretty quick and fun build, you have the Gausshog fully assembled and it looks beefy. It's a large and chunky vehicle that looks like it belongs along on an alien mountain range

Everything seems to hold in pretty well and there's no loose bits or pieces on the set that are problematic or fiddly. It's a nice solid vehicle that I can shake violently and not worry about having pieces falling off everywhere.

There are even some extra axle pieces that help simulate shocks. It makes it much easier for the Gausshog to get over a variety of obstacles and terrain.

The seats look pretty comfy and there's even a radio in the deck!

One of the most notable features of this vehicle is the giant gauss cannon on the back, which was always the best gun on a vehicle in the Halo games. It has an incredibly wide range of motion due to the various points of articulation on the arm, so it can point just about anywhere you want.

The back section also is on a hinge so you can open the bed and have a figure get up to the main cannon.

The front end's electronics can be activated by pressing the front hooks upwards. It makes various noises, most of which are the vehicle crashing, and also turns on the headlights. A cool feature that works very well.

I love the canisters on the back as well. I'd like to think that they are filled with Red Bull, since this is a Halo set.

Of course as a Halo Mega Bloks set, this set comes with the awesome and noteworthy Halo minifigures. Included in this set is the Spartan Warrior and the Spartan Pathfinder. While one looks like a more standard Spartan, one has a very unique and avian looking helmet. Both figures feature almost entirely different bodys and are super articulated. They can even do a jig and pull off the Iron Man pose!

They both each come with firearms as well. One shotgun and one suppressor.

More of note for this set is that a Promethean Knight Lancer is included. Now since I haven't played Halo 4, I know nothing about this guy but man is he freaking huge and cool looking. He has a lot of the same articulation the smaller minifigures have with the addition of being way bigger and having an extra set of smaller arms for eating snacks and strangling people.

The back opens up for some reason as well, which is apparently for a Promethean Watcher figure, which is not included in this set. But you can just kind of shove other guys in there too if you really want.

The Gausshog fits the minifigures pretty well, but I am a bit annoyed how the figures don't actually sit in the seats. You just kind of wedge them in there and they stay. Although it works well enough, I would prefer something a bit more solid with a building toy.

Despite that, the Gausshog looks very awesome with a driver in one seat, another guy in shotgun, and with some other guy manning the cannon.

Overall I am very impressed by the fun I had with building this set, and the finished build quality as well. It is an incredibly sturdy vehicle that is very fun to roll around. Between that and having a Knight Lancer, you can have some pretty fun battles and what not between your various figures. One of Halo's most defining aspects to me were the vehicles, and this is a great representation of the Gausshog from that game. Especially since most of the electronics noises are it crashing. Highly recommended for Mega Bloks and Halo fans, and even if you just like neat vehicles with giant sword and gun armed alien monsters.