Cortana (Halo 4)

Back when McFarlane Toys announced they would be producing a new, articulated version of Cortana, the A.I. companion of Halo’s Master Chief, everybody hoped for a full-fledged action figure, but what we got was not quite it. In fact, it turned out to be something of a letdown.

First off, the sculpture is rather bland and lacks the allure of the digital model used for the game. The face in particular seems to have been sculpted devoid of any hint of expression, which is actually very unlike how the character is portrayed in any of the Halo games.

Also, the articulation is rather poorly concealed into the design, which would not be much of an issue if the figure had been designed better. This version of Cortana is essentially a statue with very little articulation in the form of:

• Swivel neck.

• Swivel shoulders.

• Swivel biceps

• Hinged elbows.

• Swivel wrists.

• Swivel upper torso.

• V-cut hip joints.

 
Even though these joints do allow for some variation, it is really nothing to be excited about.

Sadly, the paintjob does nothing to improve her appearance. Cortana is molded out of translucent blue plastic, but some areas like her face and head were painted in rather opaque colors with just a hint of a pearl-like shine to them. And in the end Cortana’s face still looks as plain as paper.

Cortana displays some darker blue lines applied onto her body, but then again, these also limit the number of poses she can adopt since the patterns break up if you don’t align her pieces in a certain way.

The only aspect where McFarlane Toys seemed to put some effort was the number of accessories included with Cortana. The largest one is a nicely decorated display base that simulates a holographic projection device. This piece has a couple of foot pegs to attach the figure on top and is decorated in metallic shades of gray and green with a clear upper plate.

Cortana also comes with an alternate right hand attached to a schematic display of the re-vamped Master Chief’s armor. The images on the schematics are nicely printed, although the text is actually way to small to be read.
And lastly, this version of Cortana also includes a bonus mini-figure of the Master Chief, done in the Micro Ops scale (1:100 scale). The mini-figure is reasonably well detailed and decorated, but including it is hardly a reason to pick up this version of Cortana over the one released in the Halo 3 line or even the X Anniversary reissue of that same sculpt.

Errex Score: 60/100

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Tags: Cortana, Halo, Halo 4, Master Chief, Micro Ops, UNSC

Category: Featured, HALO, Toy Reviews, Video Games