Halo – Poe Ghostal's Points of Articulation

Master Chief (Halo, Play Arts KAI, Square Enix)

On December 5, 2012

I’ve now played through and beaten every Halo game except ODST (which I’m sure I’ll get around to someday). Halo 4 came out just last month, and represents something of a new direction for the franchise as it begins to explore the “Ancient Aliens” origin of the Halo megastructures. It also begins to (finally!) develop the characters of the franchise’s hero, the Master Chief, and his artificial intelligence-based guide and love interest, Cortana.

I’m not going to pretend that the Master Chief is some sort of deep, memorable character. He’s basically just the most prominent iteration of the Doomguy, only less expressive since you can never see his face. But nonetheless I’ve had an affinity for the Chief since playing through the first Halo.

Pic of the Day > Brute Chieftains by ross9741

By Poe

On November 30, 2011

In Photos

Quickie Odds ‘n Ends > 6″ Thundercats, Master Chief deal

By Poe

On November 15, 2011

In Odds 'n Ends

PGPoA Power Pal Lemonjuice McGee has the scoop on the new 2012 6″ ThunderCats figures, including the classic Mumm-Ra and Lion-O. There are pics and an interview with Bandai’s Brehan Maul. While I like the 8″ figures, it’s cool to think I’ll be able to put Lion-O alongside Batman and Wolverine. It sounds like we might get an 8″ Cheetara, however, perhaps as an exclusive.
In one of the best Thwipster toy deals I’ve seen yet, they’ve got the Play Arts Kai Master Chief from the original Halo for 45% off. This is one deal I’m taking advantage of (sort of–I asked Dr. Mrs. Ghostal to get it for me for Xmas).

Pic of the Day > DSC05866 by ross9741

By Poe

On August 11, 2011

In Photos

Toys R Us Announces SDCC Exclusives

By Poe

On July 1, 2011

In News

Toys R Us has announced their SDCC exclusives for this year, and they’re kind of awesome.

Did I say kind of? I meant totally.

Exclusive 8″ Classics Thundercasts Lion-O with metallic finish
Bizarro vs. Faker MOTUC 2-pack
Jazwares 6″ Mortal Kombat Dark Raiden
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Minimates
And more that I care a bit less about, but you can see for yourself below.

Best of all, these figures will be available on TRU’s website as well as SDCC. Check out all the pics after the jump!

Odds n’ Ends > June 7, 2011

By Poe

On June 7, 2011

In Odds 'n Ends

The big website redesign I’ve been mentioning for months now is tentatively scheduled to go live this Monday. That could easily be pushed back, but for now that’s the plan. OB1 and Mecha-Shiva have been working their butts off for this project.
To get you all psyched up for the redesign, I’ve pledged to write a review a day this week (since evidently it’s my most popular feature).
DC revealed a bunch of Bat-titles for its upcoming “Brand New DC” (my term) in December. Pros: Dick Grayson back as Nightwing, only one Batman. Cons: Damian Wayne still Robin. Not sure how to feel about: Barbara Gordon getting her legs back and returning as Batgirl. I recommend you read this op-ed by Jill Pantozzi. And finally, Rather worried about: While Catwoman, Batgirl, Batwoman, Nightwing, Batwing and even frickin’ Jason Todd get their own books, there was no sign of Tim Drake yesterday. I have a bad feeling Tim may be getting killed off/”disappeared” by Didio & friends.
There seem to be a lot of mixed feelings on this, but I’m psyched about all the Halo news out of E3 so far. First off, I’ve never loved any Halo game as much as I loved Combat Evolved, so the news about the updated version was welcome–it’s something I’ve talked about for years. As for Halo 4, while I generally do think certain companies do the best job with certain properties, I also think Bungie had some idiosyncrasies in its game development and storytelling that I wouldn’t necessarily miss (Gravemind anyone?). So long story short, I’m willing to give both games the benefit of the doubt. The one thing out of E3 I’m not liking? All the discussion of the Kinect and Move, especially them being used in games like Mass Effect 3. No thank you, game developers.

Pic of the Day

By Poe

On September 23, 2010

In Photos

McFarlane Halo Reach – Spartan HAZOP Custom [Steel] by Ed Speir IV

SDCC > Rustin Parr’s Report, Day 5

By Poe

On July 26, 2010

In News

Sunday 7/26

140,000 people, 4.5 days, 1 convention – it all comes down to this.

The morning was spent re-orchestrating all of the previous buys into a somewhat manageable series of bags, you see typically we bring down large boxes to fill up but all of box army fell in battle against Recycle-Or several months hence. Once in order we checked out of the hotel, loaded up the car, then headed back down to the Hall for the final hurrah.

SDCC > Rustin Parr’s Report, Day 4

By Poe

On July 25, 2010

In News

Saturday 7/25

A very long day. Began with us futile-y trying to get in to Hall H for the Warner Bros panel. After realizing how pointless that was it was back to the dealer floor. Panels, especially big name panels or panels otherwise in one of the big room, are really hard to get into with the line at any given time being about 50% people for the next panel and 50% people for one later in the day, which just exacerbates the whole situation and makes it s far harder to get into panels to begin (this is why I came very close to missing the Mattypalooza panel, the line was massive and mostly people for the Marvel/Capcom panel the following the hour). Essentially, one must pick a large room and not leave in order to see the large panels. This has been a problem for several years (this is Movie Con, after all) so I’ve long since made peace with the fact that I’m not getting in to panels and that I will be able to read the news immediately online and see the movie/s themselves in a couple months. Still would have been neat to see the Avengers assemble, though.

Doc Thomas Probes > Action Features (Part II)

By Doc Thomas

On July 10, 2010

In Doc Thomas Probes

In Part I of our feature, Doc Thomas examined “Simulated Attack” action features. And now…the exciting conclusion!

Type 2: Pure Deco

The next most prominent type of action feature is that which focuses on the look of the toy, and attempts to add more life-like or just more interesting dynamic look via an internal mechanism. A good example of this is Cortana from McFarlane “Last Hurrah” Toys’ Halo line, which in addition to being awesomely scaled to be about life size included several blue leds inside which made it light up, giving it that same luminescence that lightened our lives across the galaxy’s hardship in the excellent series of games.

A different approach to a similar end is the aforementioned Metalhead from TMNT, whose eyes glowed red when light was shined above his head to nifty effect. These kind of action features are comparable to other creative approaches to action figures to make them closer to a real life representation, like the awesome SOTA Blanka sculpted entirely in glow-in-the-dark plastic, representing Blanka in his signature electrified state, or nearly every feature in the Masterpiece Optimus Prime toy, including light-up Matrix inside his chest, and the button-operated “talking” mouth.

Tag: Halo Page 1 of 3

Type 2: Pure Deco